Fraudulent Promos:Subscribers groan over continued exploitation by telcos, ISPs

· Blame NCC for not protecting consumers’ interest

As the economy struggles to get out of the woods, telecom network service providers have turn the heat on their customers, extorting them for services they pay for without delivering commensurate value. Subscribers are crying out over alleged exploitation via fraudulent promotions that do not deliver on promises made..

According to them, service providers run fraudulent promotions which promise subscribers a 100–300% top-up on amounts they recharge but they(consumers) end up getting less than the value they originally subscribed for.

Consumers also allege that beside phony promotions, their airtime and data subscriptions are depleted via auto renewals, unsolicited services and poor service quality among other gimmicks even as blame the regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC) for not reining-in erring service providers who have continued to fleece them despite their protestations.

Some of the aggrieved subscribers who spoke to BRANDAFRIC on the matter expressed their frustration at failure to get their challenges resolved by customer care officials of these service providers.

An angry Etisalat subscriber, Temitope Popoola, claimed that she bought N500 recharge and subscribed for Flexi , a product which was supposed to give her N1500(300% top-up) but it disappeared into thin air after two calls that lasted one minute each.

“Last Friday, I loaded N500 for Flexi on my 9mobile. They told me that I have N1500 in my account. I made a call to two people for a minute each. On Saturday, I didn’t make any call. Then on Sunday when I tried to make a call,, they said that I have no credit again,” volunteered Popoola who added that attempts to get across to the customer care officials of 9mobile failed as ‘nobody picked my calls.”

Another aggrieved 9 mobile subscriber, Sam Diala, alleged that the telco depleted his one- month data subscription in three days.

“I subscribed for 1.5 GB on 9Mobile on September 28 on my iPad. I did not use the device. Three days after, I was told, “Your Data is Depleted.”

In recent past, complaints of fraudulent deductions were peculiar to certain networks, leaving dissatisfied consumers the window of ‘Porting’ to more favourable networks/platforms. However, the latest onslaught cuts across most GSM networks and CMDAs, leaving consumers in a catch-22, with little or no alternatives. For instance, according to NCC statistics, between October 2016 and March 2017, MTN and 9mobile lost over 3 million and 2million of their data subscribers as their data users dropped from 33.4 million to 30.5 million and 14.69 million to 12.6 million, respectively, over poor service quality even as Glo and Airtel won over more users. T

oday, a subscriber who switch from one service provider to another is more likely than not to meet the same experience that informed his brand switch.

Popoola and Diala had after their unpleasant experiences switched to other service providers, but suffered the same negative experiences.

“Out of anger, I changed to Glo where I bought a SIM card and loaded 3.5 GB on October 3. I only used the device to check my mail, by October 10, I had no data left,” recounted Diala of his experience after he switched from 9mobile to Glo.

Popoola who switched from 9mobile to Airtel revealed, “I normally N1000 on Airtel for 1.5MB for surfing. Now, in less than a week, it is gone. It is annoying, ” she concluded.

A Glo subscriber, Andrew McEdward, subscribed for a 1 GB monthly data and for two weeks could not used it as the service was inaccessible. By the time the issue was resolved, he could only use the data for three days before expiration.

“I subscribed for one month 1 GB on my Injoo phone.. It didn’t work for two weeks. I called customercare for those two weeks but didn’t get through to them. So, I went to their office. They took my details and promised to work on it. It only came up three days to the date it was expected to expire. They did not apologize neither did they compensate me,” he lamented.

Fraudulent deductions are not peculiar to GSM networks as Popoola revealed she suffered same ugly experience with Spectranet, an internet service provider(ISP) company.

“I subscribe for monthly 40KB data for N12,500. But it would not come up. If you call them, they would say ‘shut it down and put it on again.’ You end up not using it until it expires. It has happened severally. I just subscribe for one on October 30 and it is still the same thing.”

Rose Moses, another subscriber, in a Facebook rant, alleged that her data subscription for 20GB data on Smile, another ISP company, was gone in less 12 days.

Some subscribers put the blame at the doorsteps of NCC, the regulatory body responsible for regulating the communications industry. “The people overseeing our communications ministry are conniving with the GSM network providers to dupe Nigerians, alleged Christopher Uba in a Facebook post.

When contacted on the myriads of complaints by subscribers, the Public Affairs Manager of NCC, Tony Ojobo, advised them to call the commission for complaints and they would be resolved.

“We have our help desk. Anyone who has a complaint should call NCC on 622 and it shall be resolved,” he said.

However, when one aggrieved subscriber, Popoola, tried the number in the presence of this writer, it rang for 7 minutes without anyone picking it.

Reactiing to the allegation of fraudulent promos, the spokesperson for 9mobile.com, Oluseyi Osunsedo, debunked the claims. According to him, promos by 9mobile are genuine and credible, adding that all their promos are approved by relevant regulators such as NCC, CPC and NLRC.

“Promos deployed by 9mobile are genuine and credible. We recently handed over cash and other fabulous prizes to our numerous customers. We do this in collaboration with relevant government agencies and regulators such as (NCC, CPC, NLRC). “

On frivolous data deductions, Osunsedo explained that data could be used up before the stipulated time due to various factors including background updates..

“Data can get used up quickly due to a number of factors. Generally, when subscribers connect their device/laptop to either their phone or their MiFi, background updates that run on the device is a major factor for unusual data depletion.

“Most updates are run by antivirus and an antivirus update could consume more than 1GB data in less than 1 hour. Even when the device e.g. an ipad is not being used, once it is on and connected, updates can keep running in the background and this uses data.”

He advised 9mobile subscriber experiencing data depletion issue to always check for pending OS update on the device and if any, connect the iPad to wifi to run the OS update.

On unsolicited messages, Osunsedo who noted that customers who they give out their phone numbers while shopping online are exposed to unsolicited messages beyond the control of service provider advocated the use of the DND (do not disturb) service to help manage cases of unsolicited messages, adding that customers can send “Help” to 2442 to get more information on how to stop unsolicited messages.”

When contacted, the spokespersons for MTN(Funso Aina), Glo(Arinze Anapugus),and Airtel(Femi Adediran) did not respond to media enquiry sent to the lines as at press time.