I may get banned for this - bcause i intend to post this in computers, technology market, phones-

the story begins in feburary this year when oga decides he wants a personal starcomms internet connection. its supposed to as simple as buying a cdma card from starcomms paying for access and you're good to go.

wrong

i paid for the card - was assured it would be activated in 12 hours.24 hours later - still giving error messages. i was directed from their adetokunbo ademola office - where i bought it to their office around amodu ojikutu. spent 2 hours there left the card there.

came back the enxt day - they were saying something abou the firmware ( as if thats my business) when i paid i didn't blow any grammer about not having enough money. spent another 3 hours there .
next day same thing. they finally resolved the problem

one motn later the card is not working. so i have to go back. again'i'm directed to their service office. more techie grammer.then back to their adetokunbo ademola office. by a stroke of luck, the guy i'm direcetd to is an old friend - who promises to solve the problem. apparently the card was previouly for some one else/set for a one month account - long story.
after another 2days of back and forthing - in which my work schedule is shot top hell - they resolve the problem

fast forward to last week. the card was bought on feb 26tgh. with 6 mths 24 hrs airtime. its supposed to expire in august. instead access expires in june. my bos doesn't even hala about that. he says i shld go and pay for another month. i vist the office, pay for a month(n10,000). again - i do the back and foth thing. i eventually end with a total asshole in their adetokunbo ademola office named emmanuel. who says the card will be ready in 12 hours. i ask if hes sure. he says yes.

this is tuesday last week. wednesday , my boss calls me, says the card hasn't worked one day. he's pissed like i've been all this while.

back to the office. i am directed to emmanuel who says he does not remember entering the cards data. he refuses to attend to me. he does this with the attitude of someone i'm begging a favor from. he directs me to the person who originally sold me the card.

it turns out i did not put some info in he tekller when i paid. (i wonder how the three people who the teller passed through - failed to notice this. i'm told the usual 24 hours.

24 hours later, i'm back there ready to blow a gasket.

now i'm told its the EPRM number they don't have. once again back to emmnuel - who i'm practically shouting at. the person who sells me the card intervenes.

the card will be active tomorrow(same old story)

starcomms does speak our language - poor service and salespeople who are better suited for mamnging police checkpoints.
i cn only imagine i i had bought the card - would i have been able to waste so many working hours chasing activation

you have been warned - use starcomms at your own risk!!!

Sorry oooo my brother! I have similer prob like this, but with another network. My own answer from the help desk is always, "We're working on it"
They're working on it my feet! I wonder why they hadn't finish the work b4 they launched it! Naija is poor in I.T!

starcomms tech crew are a bunch of empty crackheads. had too many experiences with them and if i start relating any i might end up getting pissed this morning. i dont think i want tht.

We still need to work on our I.T here in niaja, i mean upgrading how conectivity

Though we use visafone in the office, but I use Starcomms at home. All you said about starcomms are true, I've never paid and get it activated same day. sometimes I have to visit the office like 3 times before they activate it, if not they will abandon you and your subscription. They are only intreasted on collecting money. It is part of them or their policy.
Most of the times, their thing cannot open common yahoo.com, I even had problem opening google. you may not believe it, but it is true; though it could open other sites.
I always conplain to them. If they should trace the Ip and connection am using to post this, they should understand.

I don't even care if they are going to block my line permanently, because I've made up my mind to stop subscribing to them. My subscription is going to end next tommorrow and that is the end, They may have good side, but its sad

This story belongs to the pages of vanguard,

more on starcomms:
16 dec, oga asked me to buy him starcomms 3g usb dongle. we paid 36k for it. as usual - it will activate within 24 hrs

yesterday, i bought one for myself. same price, same story

its not yet activated. oga now called me to tell me that his was not working either. i went to their office with both dongles. the person on duty kept asking for my receipt - and who i paid to. i didn't have my receipt with me but this is what i eventually saw -

they fished out my receipt and ogas receipts - bothe were in diff names - in company names

as in an individual pays 36k for a dongle w 24 hour service, a corporation pays 31k.both our receipts were in corporations' names. any guesses as to where the 5k went? which accounts for the demands for the receipts

this fraud has far ranging implications minus the fact that the staff are ripping off the company at n5000 per personal customer listed as corporate customer - the personal customers are probably inheriting the corporate customers payment issues.

eg starcomms has cutoff my employer's service for none payment. so, if they had registered my card using my employer's name, i would probably get service denial.

yep starcooms speaking the nigerian language of fraud and sharp practices. i only wonder how widespread the rot is. . .