Today I called Safaricom Customer Care,,, to report a problem with voice calls in eldoret area a little distance from town. Since they put a new BTS a few weeks back, the calls have degenerated to a very bad level and sometimes no voice completely comes through... The first thing I did was to ask for the name of the customer care representative - the lady gives me only one name,, "Patricia" I insist that i want both names,,, "why do you want both names, how will that help you?" she asks. I tell her that I need to know so that I can be able to follow up, because we have been reporting but no one seems concerned.. After telling me her full names,, I report the problem - and that is where the problem starts. The lady was so freaked out cause after giving both her names that she refused to take responsibility for the problem I was reporting. A long 3 minute pause passes while I hear shuffling in the background. Meanwhile, I am not using the toll free line to call customer care. She gave an excuse that the "system was down" and she couldnt log in the problem I was reporting. I told her that if the system was down, i am sure before the computers, there was something called "paper and pen" - so she could take the details on a paper and pen and then key in when the system is up... She stuck to her story of the "system is down" ,,, I said that i understood the system is down and since i was using my credit to call the landline [everyone knows that the 100 free toll doesnt really go through after 50 tries] then at least my airtime should not go for nothing,,, the paper and pen are still working, right ??? She told me to call later when the system was up. I reminded her that with a paper and pen, i dont have to reload credit to report the same problem - and since she is the problem receiver, the message is received- right ? That is when she flipped out and hang up --- [am sure she will say that my credit ran out on the phone if they ever review that call like they claim :-) ] -So when I look at the joke posted at the beginning of this thread - I would say, it closely captures what service to customers has degenerated to --- They dont need us ,, we need them !!! :-) [?] =====
