Customers bay for MTC’s blood

MTC has explained its botched all-day ‘endless’ calling promotion, which was abruptly cut short on its debut on Thursday.

This came after frustrated cellphone users complained. Last Thursday, the mobile phone company introduced a new service that would allow prepaid users to make endless calls for N$10 all day – only to fellow MTC subscribers.The promotion was to run from November 29 to December 22.However, subscribers who applied for the ‘special’ service complained about the difficulties they experienced in getting through, and by the way it was abruptly called off.”I couldn’t get through the whole day.Most of the time the network was engaged and when I thought things were getting better after hours, I received a message from MTC just after seven [19h00] warning me that the service would be disconnected at 19h15.”Imagine that, I feel that my N$10 went for nothing.Think of the thousands of customers who lost their N$10,” said one disgruntled Tango user who gave her name as Angelina.Others who had not connected to the service still got a raw deal, as it proved cumbersome to make any calls on Thursday.The situation infuriated many who had urgent personal and business calls to make.The Namibian’s SMS service was flooded with messages from dissatisfied and angry MTC customers who felt ripped off by the country’s oldest mobile phone company.MTC’s General Manager of Corporate Affairs, Albertus Aochamub, yesterday blamed the situation on “unexpected congestion of the network and related technical challenges which are being attended to”.He said the system had been tested before implementation, but it had not been possible to foresee all eventualities.Aochamub dismissed claims that the company had deliberately ripped off customers “It was impossible for MTC to benefit more than our subscribers.How can we benefit from inconveniencing customers that have served us well over the past 12 years?” he said.”We regret the inconvenience caused to others who could not use the network, especially for business and critical emergency services.It has never been and never will be our intent to unduly collect money from clients.”MTC said it would reintroduce the promotion once technical problems had been sorted out, and this time all MTC subscribers would be able to take advantage of the service.”Generally, there were also some complaints from Connect customers that we ignore that segment of the market and only run promotions that benefit the prepaid segment,” said Aochamub.The company currently has a free SMS service for its prepaid customers every Friday.Last Thursday, the mobile phone company introduced a new service that would allow prepaid users to make endless calls for N$10 all day – only to fellow MTC subscribers.The promotion was to run from November 29 to December 22.However, subscribers who applied for the ‘special’ service complained about the difficulties they experienced in getting through, and by the way it was abruptly called off.”I couldn’t get through the whole day.Most of the time the network was engaged and when I thought things were getting better after hours, I received a message from MTC just after seven [19h00] warning me that the service would be disconnected at 19h15.”Imagine that, I feel that my N$10 went for nothing.Think of the thousands of customers who lost their N$10,” said one disgruntled Tango user who gave her name as Angelina.Others who had not connected to the service still got a raw deal, as it proved cumbersome to make any calls on Thursday.The situation infuriated many who had urgent personal and business calls to make.The Namibian’s SMS service was flooded with messages from dissatisfied and angry MTC customers who felt ripped off by the country’s oldest mobile phone company.MTC’s General Manager of Corporate Affairs, Albertus Aochamub, yesterday blamed the situation on “unexpected congestion of the network and related technical challenges which are being attended to”.He said the system had been tested before implementation, but it had not been possible to foresee all eventualities.Aochamub dismissed claims that the company had deliberately ripped off customers “It was impossible for MTC to benefit more than our subscribers.How can we benefit from inconveniencing customers that have served us well over the past 12 years?” he said.”We regret the inconvenience caused to others who could not use the network, especially for business and critical emergency services.It has never been and never will be our intent to unduly collect money from clients.”MTC said it would reintroduce the promotion once technical problems had been sorted out, and this time all MTC subscribers would be able to take advantage of the service.”Generally, there were also some complaints from Connect customers that we ignore that segment of the market and only run promotions that benefit the prepaid segment,” said Aochamub.The company currently has a free SMS service for its prepaid customers every Friday.