I know I didn’t wake up from the wrong side of the bed. It was the usual side, on the left side with the morning sun streaming down my rumpled body. So however the day managed to get mangled by my experience at Vodafone Ghana just beats me. Well the day is still young, so there’s still hope.

So starts my dastardly experience. I decided to change my Vodafone Broadband Wifi password and had no clue of how to go about it.  I had used up all my data after two weeks which made me decide to change the easy password I had initially used.

After its installation in my house, I wasn’t taken through how to manage it neither was I informed on how to top-up and all. Me too I didn’t ask. Mistake. But thank God for the internet and Google and of course Twitter.

So I send a tweet to @AskVodafoneGh for help on how to change my Wifi password and also for help on what my Broadband user ID  was as this was a field to complete. This became a long-winded exchange on my timeline and DM. I was finally asked to go to the retail shop for a resolution. Chai!

 

So here I was in the Vodafone Retail shop in Osu and I was directed to a customer service personnel. I winced when I saw who it was. This was the same guy who when I decided to port from MTN to Vodafone; told me I that I had to have credit on my phone to do that which made me buy 2 cedis worth of MTN credit(I found out some days later at the Vodafone retail shop at the Accra Mall that it wasn’t true).

I sat down and explained why I was there. My first problem wasn’t solved (I will come back to that later). My second problem was to be able to access my self care account so I could change my Wifi password. A simple need. So Richard, the customer service personnel asks for my Broadband number which I supplied and then he peruses his screen and scribbles my username and password which looked strange to me and I definitely didn’t understand. He explains it to say that its my Broadband username ID and password on the system. I got confused.

‘Is this what I should use to log into my self-care?’

‘Yes.’ came the curt reply.

I was confused because I had created a self-care account which wasn’t even allowing me to login (giving me an incorrect username and password) which was odd and I also decided not to reset my password.

So I open the Vodafone Ghana website and I spy a login to my account field at the top of the page. I went there and typed in the supplied details, Bra Richard had given me. All this whilst he sat by me to watch what I was doing. The page refreshed and an error message showed on the login field. Incorrect username and password. Someone comes to call Richard and he gets up, leaving me alone. So I send a message to my boyfriend to send me the link to the self-care page which he did. That’s weird, a different looking page opened up. So I log in with the details given me and I got an error again. I looked up at a poster by my side to and saw the self-care link written on it. Same as what I had used.  I tried with my previous details to see if it would work again. Nothing.

Richard comes back and I tell him that the details that he supplied isn’t working.

 

‘But that’s what I have on the system. Ok, let me record it in the system that you are having problems.’

‘No, I was told on twitter to come here for my issue to be resolved. Can you please try and see if you can resolve it?’ Saying this, I handed him my Samsung tablet. He looks at the screen showing the sign-in screen and then starts to click the forgotten password link. I was startled!

 

‘I haven’t forgotten my password! Why are you using that feature? That’s going to be costing me more data because I have to go to my email and reset the password all over again!’ I said in my startled mode.

 

‘But you are unable to login into your account ,’he quipped.

 

Then he looks up at the same poster behind me and starts typing the same address. I pointed this out to him that it’s the same address currently showing on the displayed web page. He ignores me and enters the address which brings him to the homepage. He looks at the page for about a minute and then decides to click broadband. Then he swipes across the screen about three times before he sees the access self care at the bottom of the page (all this time, my data was running) which of course brings him back to the login page. INCREDIBLE!!

 

 

‘Ok, use this address to change the password.’ He scribbles 198.something etc and tells me to connect my router and login. The router has the password written at the back of it. I don’t have light at home I remarked.

‘ You have to go home and bring the router,’

‘Eh? Why should I do that?’

‘Because your WiFi password is written at the back of it.

My voice had escalated beyond my usual tone of voice. To top it all, he starts lying about how he told me to use my initial password for my self-care account. I just couldn’t believe my ears.

‘Please get up for the next customer to be seen to.’ He said as he moved into his seat.

Oh yes he did! Literally sacked me!

‘I am not getting up until my problem is resolved’ I responded with a firm determination.

‘ Its not going to be resolved! Then move to the other seat behind you.’ I declined to his request. They would have to use bulldozers to move me today. I was just sick and tired of poor wretched customer service in this country. A service I pay hundreds of cedis for, which some time ago was two million cedis, and I get treated like I was irrelevant.

Another customer service personnel, Felicia comes over to ask what the problem is. As they tete a tete , I heard her ask if he asked me to use *900# , I didn’t get his response.

There I am sitting in small red seat, telling my boy my experience. Thanks to his skills in software development, he realizes that the details I had been given was the wrong information and he figures out the problem.  As I pack my things to go, Auntie Felicia asks me to come to her desk as she was done with her customer and I decline saying I would address it with headquarters.

I get home, exhausted and hungry only to find out my lights had gone out. Three days in a row! No light! Is it time to migrate from Ghana or what???

I get a call from Vodafone after sharing my frustration on Facebook and I am told this would be resolved. Don’t know what will be resolved though as it already had been.

 Remember my first problem? My previous corporate line had to be moved from post-paid to pre-paid and I had lost service for 48 hours. So not knowing I have to buy a new SIM card for the pre-paid service even though it was for the same number, and this I got to know after I  got a call making enquiries about it. This too I coudnt be told about at the retail shop.

Dear Vodafone Ghana, if you are reading this, please and please again! #TurnUp your customer service delivery asap! Train your employees in how to teach customers how to access their self-care and create video tutorials on them. Please don’t just focus on beating the competition with all kinds of offers and free services. Building relationships with clients is very key and I know I don’t have to say this twice. Ghana is wrought with poor customer service even though the international market knows us to be hospitable; mediocrity is plaguing our service and product delivery. I doubt I would go to that retail shop again, if I even have to drive miles to the next nearest shop.

#LetsNotPretend these things aren’t happening.