We tried to talk to her- Econet

Batsirai Chikadaya Avatar
Econet

Yesterday we were all surprised to find out that Econet, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile network operator, has been dragged to court by a disgruntled subscriber over what she claims to be the misrepresentation of the duration of its WhatsApp daily bundle product.

The plaintiff, Ms. Maxine Mabuda, is suing Econet for $50,000.

She claims that Econet misrepresented its daily bundle as a product that would last the duration of the day (24 hrs) where in fact it is capped at 20mb of usage.

Econet has since acknowledged that Ms. Mabuda has indeed filed a lawsuit against them but could not offer any further comment as the matter is now before the courts.

“Econet Wireless has noted the legal action taken by one of our customers.”

“Since the matter is now a legal issue, the company is unable to comment further pending its resolution.”

In Ms. Mabuda’s filing of the lawsuit, she mentioned how she went through a lengthy argument with Econet’s customer care. Econet has confirmed that they did, in fact, engage with Ms. Mabuda but failed to reach an amicable agreement on the issue:

“The company can confirm that it endeavoured to engage with the customer to ensure a mutually agreeable resolution to no avail.”

Not only has Ms. Mabuda filed a lawsuit against Econet, but more interestingly, at least to us, she has successfully applied to stage a peaceful demonstration next Friday  from Samora Machel to Econet’s HQ in Msasa.

The peaceful protest is the first of its kind in Zimbabwe and puts the countries leading MNO in the spotlight worldwide, something Econet’s PR department must be sweating over.

Ms. Mabuda also made an interesting statement in her filing of how Econet’s customer care openly admitted that POTRAZ, our regulatory authority, was fully aware of its product marketing strategy.

The Regulator has since confirmed that it will respond to this issue by providing their take on the issue but failed to provide a response by the time of publishing this article.

It will be interesting to hear from the Regulator as the issue raised by Ms. Mabuda is not only practiced by Econet but by all mobile operators in the marketing of its social media bundles. NetOne and Telecel are in the same boat and could see themselves also dragged to court if Ms. Mabuda’s case gains some significance and traction.

If anyone knows / has Ms. Mabuda’s contact details kindly drop them in our TIPS page of email on tips@techzim.co.zw 

 

13 comments

  1. Dennis

    She should know that those 30mb do not last a day. Apa akatombofona zvake. Aaahh

  2. Macd Chip

    Econet vs Zim gvt, Zim gvt lost

    Econet vs Nigeria gvt, Nigeria gvt lost

    A Ms Mabuda vs Econet, very interesting.

    Econet is not going to pay her legal bills from the begining, only if she wins the case with legal cost..

    All those who are making noise about supporting her, please do not be typical Zimbos who just opens their mouth and zero action. Fund her case through crowd funding or transfer money into her Ecocash account or bank.
    She will need very deep pockets and tones of time!

    1. Ms Mabudirira

      Crowd Funding by sending Mula to her via EcoCash so that she sues Econet for a further $50,000.00 for ecocash Charges!! LOL.. Good luck to her..

    2. Anonymous

      econet lost against potraz on tariff reduction

      1. Macd Chip

        keyboard support is not going to do her favour!!

  3. Braveheart

    All mobile network providers should be transparent.The only problem here is that Econet did not specify how much the bundles are worth in terms of data.The same problem is there at Telecel.

  4. eegghh

    speaking from experience the a amicable solution econet came with to me was to not listen to what I said and 1 year later still no contact so yes sue them.

    econet has really good people but sometimes some of your staff are arrogant.

  5. BRIGHTON “mister Bi” MLAMBO

    Is 50k lawsuit justifiable?
    Did d lady miss d English surrounding d 24hr validity?
    will d lady win the case or will econet win?

    If it were long back prophets wud have their answers 2 d abv questions by T.B Joshua’s miss on the Trump prophecy may be d doom of most “prophets”.
    Econet dnt use sweet tongue as if u are proposing love 2 customers.Taurai chokwadi kwete kuti PROTAZ knows watsoever.

  6. Anonymous

    Protaz haasiwo macustomer isu hatizive ah

  7. Andrew

    For your own info Techzim, NetOne bundles are not capped. Do some proper research first.

  8. Anonymous

    Why are we not turning this into a class action law suit? We all deserve a say.

  9. Anonymous

    I hope she is being funded by competition, otherwise she is legally misguided, chances of her ending up poorer are very very high. She should withdraw her and case before it’s too late

  10. Taf

    I am in 100% support of her decision to take them to court, we are tired of being bullied by Econet. Their customer care numbers do not even work most of the time and worse off they launch products that do not work like their ZESA purchasing via ecocash does not even work, wondering why they wasted money on billboards and adverts when they could have used that money to make sure they launch a working product. Minister Mandiwanzira its time you give access to companies like MTN and CELL C to give us real service, because econet is giving us a raw deal, they actually act like we are not paying for the service.

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