Over the last few days, independent consumer watchdog CONSUMERIZIM has been reporting (tweeting and retweeting) complaints from people failing to purchase ZESA electricity tokens via EcoCash. The system, which went live just two weeks ago was meant to bring much needed convenience to EcoCash users as they could purchase electricity tokens anytime and from anywhere through their mobile device.
This compelled us to look into the issue and just by having a quick look at EcoCash’s social media pages it looks like the service may have some real issue going on. 
However, in light of the growing number of complaints lodged against EcoCash it seems as though the service was ill prepared for the high public uptake hightened by the current cash crisis.
Customers have voiced their discontent over EcoCash customer service and system service with complaints ranging from late token receipt, complete failure to receive tokens, and non-reversal of funds after failed transactions. Below are some of the complaints lodged by clients on EcoCash Facebook page. 
Based on the client feedback, its quite obvious something has gone wrong somwehere. The system may not have undergone enough stress testing to cater for such a high demand, they brought it in the height of the cash crisis so most EcoCash users have found it a welcome relief and resorted to use it as their primary ZESA source.
EcoCash has to resolve this issue as soon as possible as they could face serious backlash from the public. The ZESA-EcoCash intergration has so far been shrouded in secrecy, so far we have failed to gather basic tariff information despited numerous daily attempts.
We will try to gather more information on why this is happening and if Econet has put any measures in place to deal with the problem clients are having.
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18 comments
You started your stint well at Techzim, but your stories are now pre-emptive. The way your articles are written shows some lack in intelligence if ever you been to a school of journalism. A real story shd not be predictable and self-emptying. Try to make it objective. Also remember to bring views from both sides to balance and make a selling story.
thank you for your comment,
Some articles are what we consider “on-the-fly” and are not meant to be in-depth analysis of an issue.As developments occur it necessary to inform people as it happens otherwise we would have no reference point for when we do actually write something of substance. It’s building into something and we feel that process should be allowed, otherwise, we would write one article a day to satisfy your recommended approach.
and no, i have never been to journalism school, so i won’t take “lack in intelligence” as an insult:)
Thanks for clarifying, apologies for insulting you. You sound so professional ….
You are right bring it on hot, but make sure its almost fully baked. Thanks.
Get a life!!
LSK still the same LSK i know ?????
I would like to agree with Chipo (though not so much on the language). If everyone is posting on social media about their challenges accessing the ZESA tokens via EcoCash then i dont expect that kind of content here since it is public knowledge on the Fcbk page. What i expect when i come to TechZim is a response from EcoCash (im sure you have access to the top PR and technical guys there), Powertel (who i believe have the system that generates tokens) and ZESA (its their bloody power).
I was really expecting more than the obvious when i opened this article.
Noted with thanks
HALF-ASS implementation. But it may also not actually be Ecocash’s fault. I’ve had issues with this thing twice already. Whenever it fails I am forced to actually go to ZESA offices to buy, and all the people in the queue will be saying that ALL third party agents like supermarkets and salons are down as well. All the online sellers like magetsi.co.zw and telpay will also be down. So clearly its a Powertel problem. A few days ago when I found myself in another evening ZESA queue, there was a theory among the other customers that they deliberately shut it down so as to force people to bring hard cash since the after hours window has no swipe facility at all. A pretty wild claim – but then again this country has become a pretty wild place!
I have one question maybe Econet/ZESA/the article writer or anyone with technical know may assist me with an answer? Who originates the tokens? Is it EcoCash or Powertel. In my layman knowledge i though EcoCash is just a 3rd part platform (like other existing partner platforms) that has come in to enable myself further convenience to purchase tokens whilst i am in the blankets instead of physically visiting a my agent 3km away.
I once bought a Zesa token using Telpay and it failed, did I not go through hell to recover it. It was a nightmare and guess what? No Facebook page to write about it and complain.
Let’s set the record straight here, from a business perspective Ecocash is a mass market product being used by millions of Zimbos. If x % of its transactions fails, then hundreds of people will groan and moan, write on FB about it. When other start ups have the same % of failure, only a couple of will complain and not much noise about it. It’s a game of numbers here. This article does not do justice to the game of numbers ands is more of a persecution of Econet product like many other such articles.
This EcoCash Zesa thing is welcome dev, I for one tried a purchase at their $2 minimum limit and it worked, no problem at all.
……whilst i empathize with people facing challenges in getting their tokens and at the same time personally i am not a great fun of econet, your article is not fair in general for this progressive payment solution which is only 2 weeks old in the market ……maybe like what Yuri Boyka’s comments say, its a game of numbers but i can tell you that for my case i have been saved from going to the shops now…..i have bought the token twice so far without challenges, both for my parents in who have zesa at our rural Chegutu home
Absolutely nothing wrong with this article. Real time news as it happens, and sourced directly from the masses.This is not the 20th century, people. You can read the Herald if you want that sort of thing. Deal with it!
Am sure it’s all about click bait and get more traffic to RD.
Ecocash is the front and they shld have done their homework before intergrating with the ZESA platform. Whatever happens they have to explain to their customers
If people could use the view token option on the ecocash zesa purchase menu. I bet even Econet doesn’t know about that option. I have faced the problem a few times and when i access the “View Token” menu, my zesa token gets delivered.
I have gone to ZESA to buy zesa and told several times that network is down. ZESA systems are always down and you dont write about it.
Nayo nayo econet. I have said before , techzim ine personal ne econet.
SIyai ma fillings “feelings” kkkk
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