Sylvia Mulinge has exported Safaricom’s thieving ways to MTN Uganda.
Ms Mulinge is the former Chief Customer Officer at Safaricom, a powerful position at the rogue Kenyan Telco.
“Dear @mtnug for some time I have been observing how you deduct 2 minutes of my talk minutes yet I use less than 1 minute. See the evidence: 58secs but 2 minutes deducted. Can you please explain why?”, a Twitter user William F. Blick (@WilliamFBlick) tweeted accompanying it with the screenshot below.
The simple revelations of outright theft immediately lit Uganda Twitter as a barrage of similar complaints followed.
MTN Uganda struggled to explain the discrepancy in cost as it flip-flopped on the replies.
“We appreciate having the opportunity to fully investigate this, Blick. The call was correctly charged for one minute(9:40PM) after a thorough assessment by our technical team; however, the notification contained an error which the appropriate team is currently working to fix. Please always use the MyMTN app to regularly check your call history. Your minutes are utilized correctly,” MTN replied to Wiliam F Blick.
In subsequent replies, the telco was at pains to explain if a minute is 40 or 60 seconds.
It was soon clear that MTN had devised a way to sign up more Ugandans to the MyMTN app.
The tragedy of deceptive marketing, borne out of the fleecing pockets of millions.
In Kenya
In Kenya, a similar thing happened.
After the launch of the MySafaricom App, Kenyans who had smartphones but didn’t want that APP, noticed that the search function that was available in all MPESA, to prevent sending money to the wrong number, was removed to force everyone into a highly glitchy app. The App was accused of not updating sent money quickly enough leading to double sending.
Also, some users complained about being being forced to turn back to bundles when using MySafaricom app over a Wi-Fi, failure to which the MPESA payment stalled.
Back to airtime, Safaricom fraudulent staff forcefully subscribe people to premium services through carefully crafted popups that abruptly show up on one’s phone screen.
In 2020, a Twitter user MrMcCall (@MrMcCall7) revealed how Safaricom nearly forcefully subscribed him to its premium service.
Others, especially in the rural area/illiterate cadre, were not so lucky.
Safaricom sends a pop-up for a subscription to a premium service often costing the user between Sh10 and Sh30.
In the case of the Twitter user, according to his post, he was asleep when he woke up to find the below screen pop up telling him he is about to be subscribed to a service that charges Ksh10 per day.
“I had been asleep away from the phone. At what point did I click on or select options leading to such a pop up on my phone?,” he wondered.
READ:
- “No love in the connection’ as Safaricom’s con is exposed over revamped Home Fibre – Cyprian Is Nyakundi
- Cartel Networks: Safaricom Deteriorating Since Bob Collymore Died – Cyprian Is Nyakundi
Once a thief, always a thief.
This is a mantra that Safaricom staff and former staff live by anywhere they go.
We warned Ethiopia Youth and we shared the article with Ugandans too.
READ: About Safaricom, a warning to Ethiopian Youths – Cyprian Is Nyakundi
The truth is now open for all to see.
