This was an article in the Arusha Times regarding possible fraud
against AIRTEL prepaid internet users:
Dear Editor,
I decided to write the Arusha Times today because after months of
working with Airtel to fix a serious issue that affects prepaid
internet users, I was finally told the truth today. That truth? "NO.
Now go away"
I am a very experienced network engineer & security auditor from the
US with 26 years of IT work under my belt. After moving here to do
volunteer flight medical work, I bought an Airtel modem and subscribed
to the 3GB/Week plan. Being a computer geek, I use A LOT of bandwidth.
So I finish 3GB quickly, and then recharge and do it again. I quickly
realized however, that it was cutting out before using the full 3GB I
paid for. Having the access, I installed professional grade network
monitoring software to see what was happening. I did this on several
computers, with several SIM cards. What I found was that the service
would cut off after only 1.5GB of usage, or 2.3GB, or only 1GB.. etc,
randomly. I would check my account balance and Airtel would respond
that I had used 3GB of data.
I brought this to the representatives at the Clock tower office. It
didn't take them long to get a response from their technical staff
that yes, they could see this happening, and that I wasn't the only
one to report it recently. By the time of writing this article, I have
lost (pro-rated) 130,000 TSH from this. All the while being assured
that I would be refunded and that this issue would be fixed. For FOUR
months I was strung along, always being told it would happen soon.
Finally today, I demanded that the refund be issued, and that I be
given contact information for someone up the corporate ladder to speak
to. I was told that they aren't authorized to give this information.
That was it. Not only were months after months of my time wasted, but
even worse, who knows how many other customers are being defrauded
because they aren't as technically proficient as I am? Now, I want to
take a second and mention that while Airtel has failed miserably in
both honesty and customer service, the representatives I worked with
here in Arusha, despite being unable to accomplish anything for me,
were very friendly and understanding. I hold no animosity in their
direction.
So in the end, the fact remains that Airtel is taking money for a
service and giving less than what is being advertised. They have
decided to acknowledge this while at the same time refusing to do
anything about it. Why should they? They are getting free money from
us! Beyond that however, is the blind greedy arrogance to deny us the
ability to resolve our issues with them civilly. Support emails go
unanswered, repeated trips to town are necessary to follow up, and
when finally given a flat denial.. access to those who have the power
to do WHAT'S RIGHT is blocked.
So here I am. Thank you Airtel for giving me incentive to be proactive
and fight back.
against AIRTEL prepaid internet users:
Dear Editor,
I decided to write the Arusha Times today because after months of
working with Airtel to fix a serious issue that affects prepaid
internet users, I was finally told the truth today. That truth? "NO.
Now go away"
I am a very experienced network engineer & security auditor from the
US with 26 years of IT work under my belt. After moving here to do
volunteer flight medical work, I bought an Airtel modem and subscribed
to the 3GB/Week plan. Being a computer geek, I use A LOT of bandwidth.
So I finish 3GB quickly, and then recharge and do it again. I quickly
realized however, that it was cutting out before using the full 3GB I
paid for. Having the access, I installed professional grade network
monitoring software to see what was happening. I did this on several
computers, with several SIM cards. What I found was that the service
would cut off after only 1.5GB of usage, or 2.3GB, or only 1GB.. etc,
randomly. I would check my account balance and Airtel would respond
that I had used 3GB of data.
I brought this to the representatives at the Clock tower office. It
didn't take them long to get a response from their technical staff
that yes, they could see this happening, and that I wasn't the only
one to report it recently. By the time of writing this article, I have
lost (pro-rated) 130,000 TSH from this. All the while being assured
that I would be refunded and that this issue would be fixed. For FOUR
months I was strung along, always being told it would happen soon.
Finally today, I demanded that the refund be issued, and that I be
given contact information for someone up the corporate ladder to speak
to. I was told that they aren't authorized to give this information.
That was it. Not only were months after months of my time wasted, but
even worse, who knows how many other customers are being defrauded
because they aren't as technically proficient as I am? Now, I want to
take a second and mention that while Airtel has failed miserably in
both honesty and customer service, the representatives I worked with
here in Arusha, despite being unable to accomplish anything for me,
were very friendly and understanding. I hold no animosity in their
direction.
So in the end, the fact remains that Airtel is taking money for a
service and giving less than what is being advertised. They have
decided to acknowledge this while at the same time refusing to do
anything about it. Why should they? They are getting free money from
us! Beyond that however, is the blind greedy arrogance to deny us the
ability to resolve our issues with them civilly. Support emails go
unanswered, repeated trips to town are necessary to follow up, and
when finally given a flat denial.. access to those who have the power
to do WHAT'S RIGHT is blocked.
So here I am. Thank you Airtel for giving me incentive to be proactive
and fight back.
