The customer is right, no rights and not treated right

The Phrase "the customer is always right" has become popular saying around here especially when there is conflict between business owner/user. This is usually an attempt to pacify an aggrieved business user or a shot at conflict resolution. Recently an event happened that got me reflecting on the kind of customer service we experience in this country how deplorable the state of services are.

Question: Will things ever be right for the customer when things are just not done right? What is the use of the customer being always right when s(he) have no rights?

These were amongst the few questions I soliloquiesed on. Back to some of the events that provoked such thoughts….

It was the early hours of August the 16th, a day of a very important appointment. I quickly got ready since I was not driving. I was joining a neighbour and we had to leave early to beat the ever-present Lagos traffic.

Because I was looking forward to the meeting, I had woken up, polished my shoes, got my newest suit out, showered and dressed only to realise it was just 4am. It was then I recalled I had some work to do on the internet. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria lived up to their name by holding the power so I could not use my home wifi. I will return to the issue of PHCN in a bit. So like the average Nigerian I quickly turned to my Blackberry.

I could not access the internet. At first I thought it was my phone that had the problem so I started hard resetting my phone ( removing my battery while the phone is still on ) and repeated this about 10 times at intervals before I concluded there was an issue. I attempted calling the online customer care and was placed on a queue for like forever.

It was much later when I got to the venue of the appointment, I realised there was a problem with the mobile network carrier. I also use my phone as a mobile hotspot (on a separate data subscription) especially when I am in transit. I attempted to connect with my Ipad and could not. So here I was, at the venue of my appointment 3 whole hours before time in my attempt to beat traffic yet unable to fulfill my duties because the network decided to go on vacation without prior or after notice!

My Pains:
1. Why did the network not send a notification that there was a problem?
This would have saved people like me some stress and time. It would also have saved the network’s resources as am sure 90 percent of calls they received within that period would bother on this problem. Where is the right of the subscribers?

2. The network could also have sent an apology.
I would like to state that one of the networks I use for my 3G services have so apologised for their frequent poor services that it has become an irritation.

3. The network should compensate.
No they will never compensate you! The will never extend your validity period. Pro rate the downtime and compensate or extend? Never! In this relationship the subscribers always suffer. They don't care if you loose money because of their poor services. You pay for the pains to their gain. Please, where is the subscribers’ right in all these?

Would they have done things differently if the watchdog were ‘pro-consumer’ or if they are bombarded with law suits? In the same vein, the PHCN are abusing the rights of Nigerians.

I use the new prepaid meter which is supposed to be pay-as-you-go. On the average of 168 hours in a week, a lot of people get power for less than 68 hours i.e. less than 3 days of combined hours and yet we are forced to pay NGN750 monthly as service charge plus other charges like VAT etc. This means PHCN will get their billions monthly whether they serve us properly or not.

I desire a service where the charges are broken into units and payments made based on the number of hours they provide electricity or number of hours used. That way they will sit up, give better services and increase their ROI.

Another issue decimating subscribers’ rights is Pay TV. The average Nigerian family only watches about 10 percent of the stations as the average busy person is hardly home yet subscribers are made to pay whether they watch it or not. Bouquets are brought together with a muddled combination of stations that are seen as non-premium stations.

What would we have been right?
1. Convert it to pay-as-you-go service.
Pay TV services should be on pay as you go basis not on bouquet or monthly basis as it is now. Since it is the same principle of data usage this cannot be a problem.

2. For concerns over choking of supposed premium stations or the less subscribed stations they should make those stations cheaper and make the difference up with adverts. Just like it is done with apps.

These are my candid options to begin to make things right. I had to write this with my phone as I sat in my taxi in an ever present Friday traffic.

I am home now and I need to rest.

Austine Bones

P.S: Got a belated apology text after 24 hours that read “*** sincerely apologizes for any service disruption you may be experiencing now. We are working hard to restore normal service as soon as possible. Thank you.” Nothing was said about compensations. That’s an issue for another day. I have birthday to celebrate.

I share ur pains OP.

That "pay as you go" would have been the best....even on DSTV....we pay for every second, but we don't get it even for 24hrs sometimes...I experienced same yesterday!

We know our rights, but negligence has been our problem.

Thanks we have to add our voice.

@Op
the saying '[b]nothing ventured nothing gaine[/b]d ' stands true to core
The customer is always right,especially when it comes to services that have already been paid for. no matter how a company tries to explain a negligence away, the situation remains true, someone has paid for a service and a company has taken the money and not provided the service. tantamount to stealing. i would say
so what can you do?
you can call the customer service and make a complaint they have to listen to you
you could threaten to leave their company, they will listen to you
but until you do take action, most companies will try to sweep such error under the carpet praying that no one complains.

Good luck

They take us for a ride cos they believe we won't do anything. Make good your grieviances by complaining to them directly and ask for compensation like I have done and campaign against the treatment through all available fora. In case they choose not bulge , port like I will soon.
As for dstv I have called and told them to stop using my airtime to dispence unsolicited adverts when I call customer care. I did not fail to let them know ill dump Their decoder if another service provider came along with better customer care. Speak up. Be heard.

I don't know if its general or specific.....I just got a 3 day extention for my bb due to the recent down time. I complained and asked to be compensated.

kolokolobi: I don't know if its general or specific.....I just got a 3 day extention for my bb due to the recent down time. I complained and asked to be compensated.

All customers have rights just like you...the problem is do they use it?...like you did? No...most will complain and lament to each other and condemn the company and condemn the FG and make noise about what the company should do...they be barking up the wrong tree. Paying for a pre paid service that is not provided is basically the violation of a contract and if not compensated then the customer should be running to court. Would they? No..because they assume they would lose and that's why customers would continue to be mistreated and exploited. Whose fault?

Actually I called customer care complained that the downtime made me get mail notifications late which affected my ability to respond as fast as I needed to. The customer service girl told me she won't be able to confirm if I'd get compensated when I asked but I told her to tell her supervisor to tell the supervisor that will tell tellthe supervisor that will take action and insisted on a responce. Minuites later I got a text that my complaint had Been logged and that ill get a responce. 2 hours later I was notified of a three day extention on my bb as compensation.