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Tamale, Ghana – There is general out-pooring of frustration and dissatisfaction among many customers of Ghana’s largest mobile telecom network, MTN Ghana – in many suburbs of the Tamale Metropolis in the Northern Region, over poor network quality.
According to the residents of Kukuo, Jakarayili, Russia bungalows, Koblimahagu, Sabonjida, Old Airport, Kaladan Park, Vitting Target and Gumani last stop among others, delay in call connection, internet connection and poor voice quality have taken a toll on their daily business and social life.
During what it called a “Customer Outreach Program” in the Central Business District of Tamale on Tuesday, about 95% (estimation ours) of the customers who spoke to the MTN team and journalists, openly criticized the telecom company for poor services in recent times.
The customers who appeared very frustrated in their interactions with the MTN staff and journalists, also complained about the failure of MTN to promptly inform their customers anytime they encounter technical challenges. “Anytime MTN has a technical problem which leads to network challenges, it will take a long time for you to find out that there’s a technical problem at MTN hence your inability to make a call. This is frustrating to many of us and MTN should find a way of communicating to all customers as soon as they encounter challenges with their network”, Awudu, a customer told Savannahnewsonline.com.
Some customers were also unhappy about the expensive voice and data charges by MTN compared to other service providers. Amjad, a customer does not understand why MTN has never rewarded him for his loyalty and high data consumption. He says apart from MTN, he also use another network and due to his high data consumption rate, every month the other network will call him and ask him what he wants, whether a shopping voucher or airtime. But MTN, he claims has never done anything like that for him yet every two or three days he spends about ten cedis on data.
Abdallah, another customer, also appealed to MTN to cease deductions from airtime anytime a customer’s data bundle runs out or is completely exhausted. “Alerting me of how much data I have consumed is a good thing but once my data completely runs out I don’t expect MTN to deduct from my airtime. That’s not right”, he pointed out.
In spite of the numerous complaints by many customers, some were however of immense praise to MTN Ghana for its Mashup service.
According to them, the service enable them to cross over to other networks through calls and text messages.
Multiple fibre cuts in parts of the country have seriously affected the operations of MTN Ghana in recent times. This is as a result of ongoing construction works by the central government and local authorities as well as thievery in some cases.
The Customer Outreach Program was therefore intended for MTN staff to go out into the streets to interact with existing and potential customers, find out challenges they are facing with regards to access to services rendered by the company, explain to them why they are experiencing such challenges and plans being put in place to address these challenges.
More than a hundred customers including shop operators, market women and food vendors were interacted with in a bid to find out what their challenges have been in accessing MTN services and also educate them of some new products the company has on offer particularly ayo which offer relatively cheaper health and life insurance policies.
Kwasi Osei Hyeaman, Head of Sales in charge of the Northern Sector, in an interview with journalists, admitted that the challenges pointed out by the customers were genuine and will be addressed.
He said some of the issues have already been dealt with whereas some will also be tackled latest by the end of May-June.
He urged the customers not to hesitate to contact the offices of MTN anytime they have any challenges since the company exist because of them and that the more challenges they encounter also affect the revenue generation drive of the company.
Mr. Hyeaman commended the customers for being open and frank with the challenges they are facing with the network.
By Savannahnewsonline.com/Philip Liebs
