The fact that communication companies operating in Nigeria do continually rip us off compared to what is obtainable in other African countries they operate in, is quite glaring for all to see. But, I will leave that to the Nigerian Communications commission (NCC) as that is their major responsibility. What I am more interested in, is the respect for our fundamental human right.
I was opportune to work with a service provider in United Kingdom for two years as a 'Customer Service Officer' and you will marvel at how we respect our customers. We do not force our opinions on them and would always ask if they want to opt in or opt out on information about our new products, services or promotions.
I have been in Nigeria for some months for personal and business purposes and I wake up every morning to a long to-do-list and it's such a shame that I have to add deleting MTN and Etisalat numerous marketing text messages to my list. I have had to call their customer services on countless occasions; not only am I greeted with great rudeness but am also bored out of the conversation because they are not willing or ready to take responsibilities for their actions and inaction or proffer possible solution.
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| Angry Customer Reaction in Yoruba to MTN Message |
Why can't I as a Nigerian opt out from services of a telecommunication company? Why am I compelled to receive weird, annoying and baseless message from these companies? Even as a foreigner living in UK, my fundamental human rights were respected and I was given an option to either opt in or out. Why am I being forced to accept baseless promotional content from MTN and Etisalat?
I did carry out a minor survey on why our fundamental rights are being abused by these companies as they would not proffer solutions to our concerns and damned every possible consequences. From the survey, a larger percentage linked it to the level of corruption in the country and even added that suing a company like MTN or Etisalat would amount to wastage of my precious time as the legal system would sweep it under the carpet. Others opine that these communication companies normally pay (bribe) NCC and thus are given the right and go ahead to rip us off and abuse our intelligence at will.
I am specifically writing on MTN and Etisalat because I use both network. From my observation, Etisalat is a bit fair. I carried out a minor investigation and allowed the flooded messages from these communication companies to pile up. I didn't delete the messages as they came in. Within the space of two week, I received over 200 text messages from MTN and just a little above 50 messages from Etisalat. How on earth will a single service company send a customer over 200 text messages within the space of two weeks and worse still without my express permission, hence the reason am compelled to write.
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| 4 text messages from MTN in just 18mins |
As a young business executive , It is so annoying, when a text messages pop up on your phone, and you excitingly pick up your phone thinking it is a message from one of your client or business associate and your reaction will be like; oh no! Not again MTN. It is quite disgusting to say the least.
I would like to urge and appeal to telecommunication companies, operating in Nigeria to seek our express permission on opting in or out, of their promotional messages. We are humans with fundamental rights, we shouldn't be treated any less because we are Nigerians or better still, they should reduce their promotional messages to once or twice weekly.
Besides the world is evolving and telecommunication companies are engaging in 'continuous improvement' and development, sending promotional messages via text is gradually fading. Most promotional content are sent to customers who opt in, via email and not text message, as surveys carried out by top researchers showed that customers tend to accommodate emails more than text messages.
I hope MTN and Etisalat would consider this constructive criticism and make appropriate corrections and adjustment where necessary.
Article By: Joy Tammy (www.joytammy.blogspot.com)
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