Written by Olushegun Olapojoye
Thursday, 11 March 2010 16:48

On the 24th of February 2010, I went into Bodlinks Ltd, an MTN dealer located at Ring Road in Ibadan, purchased the MTN monthly internet bundle and paid the sum of N10,000 for the service. The reference number for the transaction is 0180930475. However, to my surprise the service became erratic after two days and stopped working on the fourth day. I was on a business-related to Lagos, as such, I could not immediately report this apparent anomally personally to Bodlinks MTN.

On the 3rd of March, I went to the Bodlinks MTN Office to report the situation. I must confess that the reception I received was purely abysmal. The Office Manager, Bode Obube was not in, but one of the staff in the office, named Patience put me on the phone with him. Bode basically blamed for what happened. He said I was required to activate the service, and since I did not activate the service, I basically burned N10,000 in four days! And that there is absolutely nothing he can do about it. I now asked him a very simple question. Why would a service that requires activation work without it being activated? Another question I asked him is why I wasn’t prompted to activate the service.

I also asked him if he would pay N10,000 for four days of internet use. As usual, he could not answer these questions. All he could do was to basically blame me for what happened. What Bode Obube obviously thought is because I can afford to pay N10,000 for internet service, I could afford to forget about what happened and pay another N10,000. But, he got it wrong, I will not let anyone, not even MTN take away my hard earned money. After I got off the phone, an office staff named Patience took my name and contact phone and promised to get back to me the following day for a possible resolution. It is now over a week, and I have not heard from Bodlinks MTN. This goes a long way to show the culture at MTN.

I am going to ask MTN the same question I asked Bode Obube. Why would a service that requires activation work without being activated? Would anyone at MTN, even your Executives pay N10,000 for four days of internet use? And why would the system not prompt a customer to activate the service? The simple reason is MTN thinks Nigerians are fools. These are the Nigerians that bailed MTN out. MTN, prior to its entry into Nigeria was an unknown telecoms company. Is this how you repay Nigerians? By scamming us because MTN believes Nigerians won’t complain or we just basically don’t know our rights? I believe the NCC should take note of this, and require that for all services requiring activation, telecoms operators must insert commands into their products that would prompt customers to activate such. Anything short of this, is a scam. It is very instructive to note that I took an informal survey of close relatives and acquaintances that are or were MTN customers, and what I heard confirmed that MTN is all about noise, but very little or no customer service. Cases of customers who are still receiving bills from MTN for services they’ve discontinued, shoddy and non-responsive customer service, etc. I believe a class action law suit should be filed against MTN for all their excesses, and the process should and will start very soon.

I am by this note asking MTN to refund the N10,000 I paid for the purported monthly internet bundle that turned out to be a scam. I have being an MTN customer since 2008, and at this point no longer interested in anything MTN. The only reason I will keep my MTN phone is because it has been my only number in Nigeria since 2008.

In ending, I will want to state that I took every step possible to resolve this issue through Bodlinks MTN, but after waiting two weeks, and being denied the use of convenient internet service I paid for, I had to other option than to expose it to the whole world

My brother i am really sorry for u ,the fault is not of MTN but from ur dealer who should have told u that after loading ur phone u are to activate with a code its simple my brother its something u can do on your own cos ,all MTN sims are 3g enable so anyone who told u that there is a special sim for browsing is a fraud .



101 to 131 is the package u wanted to be on u would have done enough research on this .
102 to 131 this is for night package #2500
103 to 131 this is #500 package for 24hrs

my brother there is nothing that can be done just take heart

There's nothing they cn do abt it just take it so.

I kan imagne what u r goin thru.In Feb 18, 2007 I rechrd my postpaid line with N3000 and d ntwrk msg said it ws successful bt whn abt 20mts later I tried to make a call,it said i didnt hv d facility 2make a call.I was furious and 4abt 3hrz or so kpt tryin until I decided to call d customer kia line and it was confirmd dat I rchrd N3000 and hadnt made any call afta.The goats told me it was a ntwrk prblem and I shd exercise patience. 2days latr I rchrd wt N1500 bcz I kdnt stand makin calls always frm pay phones and frm then til Aug.22,I took time evryday to call customer kia and evryday they assured me that d cards whr stil hangn and they'l work on it.I evn reportd at their centre physically yet lai lai nothn happnd.On 22nd Aug,I kalld them like was my habit and i was told the cards kant be traced 2my line,I tld them dat jst d previous day,it was hangn and 2day its nt thr anymre,d guy tld me he kudnt do anythn.Oh well I felt angry and told my eldr brother who's a lawyer and he wrote officially 2dem.Quite a lot of thnz happnd then bt whn d leta got 2d PRO,he calld me and we talkd and u wnt believe it,I was crdtd wt N5k and as soon as d money finishd,i droppd dat SIM and hvnt usd it again.
Instigate legal action,they'l pay

nah not in this case, there is wats called terms of service, its just that we dont read the small print

they have exclusion clauses on that thing which gives them cover, barring clear negligence on their part, nada. the person who may be laible is the dealer who spoke to u, he had a duty to inform u of what comes with the package. for example at mtn and other phone coys, the very moment u mention internet, they give u a hand bill or flyer with information. it then behoves upon u to read it.

GRAB THAT BODLINKS GUYS BALLS.

but then see, do what others do, get revenge on mtn. they dont understand that some of this things is karma. get revenge bo via FBT

MTN did not scam you. MTN only charged you its normal rate for browsing per kb because there was no active bundle. MTN is not a human that will see 10k in your account and before charging it will be like. . . "bros you sure sey you want make i use this 10k browse, you suppose use am activate bundle first naw". Garbage In Garbage Out.

Don't take this to MTN because you have no case to make with them, seriously. You will waste your time. They only charged you for service rendered.

I do not know the Terms of Service of the BODLINKS thingy so I cannot put the blame on them or you. The blame certainly isn't anywhere near MTN.

In my humble opinion the BODLINKS guys are very stuupid if they load lines with 10k and give to the end user expecting them to activate the package themselves without even telling them.

4llerbuntu:

GRAB THAT BODLINKS GUYS BALLS.

Gayllerbuntu

That Bodlinks coy is to be blamed for this little misunderstanding.
They loaded =N=10,000 worth of credit and should have informed you on how to activate the internet service.
If however,you just went there and told them to load your phone without informin' them of your intent,you lost one,big tyme.
From your post,its very clear you've not made use of this service before else you don't need anybody to dish out the activation codes.
Leave my darlin' MTN out of this,ok.

I think MTN is at fault, same with GLO, when you buy the Glo USB it takes you at least 3 trips to Glo office on Adeola Odeku as the custome rep does not give you all the information you need in one visit.
After third visit (Transportation, Frustration and Time and Money) it starts working, only you have already lost at least a week going back and forth.

Here is the stinker, you decide you want to take a break from Browsing and at the end of the month, you are de-activated, you go to pay and they tell you that you have some cash balance but you must still pay the full sum before you can be re-activated, Bloody Scammers.

In the end, you will have enough cash balance that you will never use with glo. then when you decide you are tired of taking their shyte. they still send you a bill at the end of the month, How did they get your browsing details when you have stopped using their service?/

They are just criminals in Nigeria, I dare MTN to perform as they just did in South Africa,

My brother the fact remains that if MTN really want to investigate and give you the true state of the tranzaction, they will.
Its computer, they can go through your internet account and see if you used KB equivalent to the 10k.

MTN customer service manager who will at least listen to you can sort this out.

What I realise is that half information can be deadly, most of these service providers do not give you full info about clauses about there products, please never be in a hurry to leave prepare all the questions and be convinced before taking the service.

Take care!

i don't think there's anymore to be said, dualcore abi na shoyuuken don talk am finish.

Sometimes we need to read about something we don't know or at least ask questions.

No-one's to be blamed for this except 'ignorance'

and poster, let me clear one misconception i saw u post in your treatise, THERE IS NOTHING LIKE CLASS ACTION IN NIGERIAN LAW(ESPECIALLY IN THE AMERICAN LAW SENSE OF IT)

what is a bit close to that is called representative actions here and u need to satisfy certain conditions, needless to say, u will probably end up with a case with a thousand people on the cause list.

examples include u need to have suffered the same injuries, (so to speak)
the injuries must have arisen from the same transaction
must involve the same antagonist
you must be looking for the same reliefs
the reliefs when granted must be beneficial to all equally

amongst other things. for one there is NO WAY YOUR GRIEVANCES CAME OUT OF THE SAME TRANSACTION, NOR WILL U HAVE SUFFERED THE SAME GRIEVANCES (its not just the monetary loss which will even vary sef!!!!)

etc etc etc

beebee2000:

My brother i am really sorry for u ,the fault is not of MTN but from your dealer who should have told u that after loading your phone u are to activate with a code its simple my brother its something u can do on your own cos ,all MTN sims are 3g enable so anyone who told u that there is a special sim for browsing is a fraud .


[b]
101 to 131 is the package u wanted to be on u would have done enough research on this .
102 to 131 this is for night package #2500
103 to 131 this is #500 package for 24hrs[/b]
my brother there is nothing that can be done just take heart

My brother, you are right in every sense;although the supposed dealer ought to have informed the guy of the terms of service before selling the product to the customer.

Dual Core:

MTN did not scam you. MTN only charged you its normal rate for browsing per kb because there was no active bundle. MTN is not a human that will see 10k in your account and before charging it will be like. . . "bros you sure sey you want make i use this 10k browse, you suppose use am activate bundle first naw". Garbage In Garbage Out.

Don't take this to MTN because you have no case to make with them, seriously. You will waste your time. They only charged you for service rendered.

I do not know the Terms of Service of the BODLINKS thingy so I cannot put the blame on them or you. The blame certainly isn't anywhere near MTN.

In my humble opinion the BODLINKS guys are very stuupid if they load lines with 10k and give to the end user expecting them to activate the package themselves without even telling them.
Gayllerbuntu

You think yu know wat yur saying?Well in my own case i dont think so, We dont even know our rights in this country,We dont know aw left from rite,because dey don scatter our brain and dont know aw priority, Both MTN and BODLINKS re @ fault, YOu need to have been instructed of what to do,and why in GODS name a big company like MTN not englinthen ppl on its product? Guy take it or leave it man,even in oda African countries Ghana,SA,Egypt etc,they cant try it there,cos they will fucking rip their baallz off,when they see that we have no leaders,no rulz and body to protect it citizens,So they treat us like crap

Sorry bro, but if you are taking any action it should be on the Bodlink coy cos they are a legal representative of MTN and should pay for any of there action,

I just came across this thread, and I think this is a good opportunity to address some of the people who have responded. With the kind of posts from some of you, it is very evident that you don't know anything about consumer protection. Some of you have lived so long in a messed up environment that you just take whatever any multinational throws at you. All of you have sacrificed your rights because a lot of you are so ignorant, that it blows my mind. Someone actually said the guy that wrote the piece is ignorant. You know the ignorant one is actually YOU!

The guy involved is my very good friend and he told me that MTN called him less than 20 minutes after his article was posted. MTN also asked the dealer to suspend the guy that was involved pending their investigation. Not to forget that the guy was handsomely compensated by MTN, though he did not give the details because MTN requested him not to divulge the information. So, guys if you exercise your rights, MTN or whichever multinational will listen to you.