It is my hope that through this open letter we may begin to see a change in PowerTel’s approach to customer service and business as a whole. I bought a PowerTel line on the 28th of January 2013, this after I had summoned enough courage to retry their service after having a horrible experience with them in 2010. I will not go into what happened in 2010 as much off what used to happen back then is still very evident in the way they do business up to this day.
So after being lured by the promise of unlimited bandwidth for only $50 I decided to switch from Africom which sells its bandwidth at $25 per Gig. It was a “no brainer” figuring out which company was offering better value for money (at least that’s what I thought). I got home and configured my modem and much to my relief the signal bars were full. This was a complete opposite to my experience in 2010 where there was no reception at all, despite the PowerTel marketing officer reassuring me there was reception in my area. I have always wondered how she thought there would be reception yet she knew fully well they had not installed a base station within a 40Km radius from my area. But that’s for another day.
I proceeded to connect to the internet and that was the anti-climax. Although the modem had successfully authenticated, the speed was averaging 10Kbps and achieving a high of 30Kbps. Needleless to say, I could not even open my Gmail or do anything useful.
The next day I paid a visit to the customer services department to enquire if the connection was warming up or that was as good as it gets. I was informed that if it’s an issue of speed there is nothing that they can do as this was a shared link and more base stations would be required to improve the service. Hearing this was as good as someone telling me “wakanyura sha hapana yekutamba”.
What was most surprising to me was how this chap could say such a thing with a smile across his face and feel confident that he had absolved PowerTel of any wrong doing. At this point I could feel myself being driven to the edge so I quickly asked how I could process a refund. I was referred to another desk, where I was given a different explanation for the poor connection. Apparently some network maintenance had been going on in the past few days but the operation had since successfully finished. Taking her word for it I decided to try the service for a couple more days. This proved to be a blunder on my part and only served to prolong my agony at the hands of PowerTel.
The connection was even poorer than it was the first day I tried it. I know you may be thinking how bad things can go from an average of 10Kbps. The reality was (and still is) that the connection was unusable. I have since gone back to process my refund which I am told should be ready after a day. In the process of getting a refund I met more people trying to get their refunds, some for more than a week without success.
The reason I write this letter is to bring to light and awaken fellow Zimbabweans to the dishonesty and unethical business practice exhibited by PowerTel. I am sure this is not unique to PowerTel only, as other players in the Internet and telecommunications business may be complicit in this practice. Over subscribing a service is common theft, there is no better way of putting it. It is important that we have a vigilant watchdog in protecting the consumer from such unethical practices.
The advancement of technology has brought us to a point were some of the services we pay for are intangible and hence more difficult to detect if we have been short changed. POTRAZ as a regulatory authority should do more to protect the consumers from greedy merchants who expect to be paid for services they are not rendering. Misleading marketing statements such as saying you provide 4G when you are nowhere close to delivering 3G should be punishable offences which POTRAZ should effect to restore sanity in the field.
It is my hope that more people will bring to light any such dishonest practices by any player in the field. We cannot continue to suffer in silence.
The writer of this article chose to remain anonymous. PowerTel was contacted to respond to the article and have promised to get back to us with a response.
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33 comments
I totally agree with the disgruntled customer on poor customer service by Powertel employees. They act like we owe them something. They have indeed stolen from us by selling us what they do not have (capacity)
Powertel are delivering what they promise, $50 for unlimited broadand internet. You pay $50, you get broadband (official definition 256kbps), and its unlimited. I connect on day one, line up my downloads on FDM, and i download for a straight month no problem. I normally get 200kbps-600kbps, with bursts of up to 3 mbps when it streams 720p Youtube without buffering. Normally get about 2-3 gb volume per day downloads, so Im definitely paying less than $1 per GB per month. Econet is $50 per GB, UmAX is about $20 per GB but without mobility, or availability on most towns and cities, so you cant slip it into your pocket and use it in Masvingo, for instance.
Why do we always get people like you who sounds like being paid by powertel to post a very outrageous speed claims?
To prove your point, do us a favour, screen capture your download page, generate a dropbox link and post it here for us all to see your claim.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vne6yzmvg81vlhx/PRINTSCREEN-POWERTEL.doc
Hope that answers you, macdchip. Not everyone works for Powertel you know, and based on your claims, I doubt they could afford me…
Are you sure yu didnt do a photoshop? You are one luck guy.
Thanx by the way, that settles it.
Don’t worry friend. Powertel is going to give you 6 months more free.
yes 6 months free at 5Kbps…
Hmmm not sure about POTRAZ assisting dude, they have their hands full with blocking BBM services in Zimbabwe and investigating Makandiwa’s prayer airtime vouchers to have time to superintend our MNOs
lol, killer!
Actually many Service Provider are getting away with it. Their strategy is just to make sure the customer pays money and that’s it! Service? What for? They want your money and provide you the least they can! If it was possible they would be very much comfortable in establishing a business of just collecting money!!!!
WCDMA slow speeds wot do u expect needs an upgrade in equipment
Ummm for Africa wcdma is still an extremely fast platform considering most countries average speeds. HSPA can reach 7.1mbs which is a far cry from being slow.
P.s. Powertel actually uses EVDO and I guess CDMA1x
Econet etc uses GSM and WCDMA which you may know as 3G and their 3G is certainly not slow.
Downlink :3.1 Mbps, UpLink : 1.8Mbps CDMA EVDO DONGLE AT ITS BEST
My experience is that it is difficult (but possible) for a customer services department to stand in good light if it is backed by a crapy technical services department. The problem with PowerTel is that the tech department is crapy and the customer services department is also crapy. At the end of the day u have 2 (crap+crap) much crap.
well I am generally happy with powertel services. yes its slow especially during the day. I have resorted to late or early morning browsing. Luckily for me I stay less than 2km from powertel base station and my speeds are good after 7pm. I have managed to “move mountains” with powertel internet, something I failed to do with all other service providers. Before I was all over the other service providers, they were so expensive. Powertel perhaps needs to tone down their marketing language and clearly define what kind of service they are offering. I take them to be an old bus service operator who takes you from plumtree to harare in 12hours! But hey if u are a holiday maker like me you would neva mind the long rid. The terms and conditions of service should be clear and accurate right from the beginning. I do symphathise with the writer but hey this is third world some things are just not done here. But I say to the writer keep shouting u will be heard in some big offices somewhere somehow.
Sad zim story. Meanwhile, this is what is happening in more progressive parts of Africa… http://mybroadband.co.za/news/wireless/69452-free-stellenbosch-wifi-second-phase-now-live.html
Once attended a presentation at Afralti on the free Stellenbosch Wifi project, really nice to know they have reached this far. Free internet for all… Now if only Strive and crew can push forward such an initiative in Zim…
I totally feel your pain. I sent Powertel an email this morning and they were like you probably have a faulty modem…ummm this is modem #4 and it’s just as bad as the other 3 :p
Pitty we are in Zim and most people don’t notice bad service anymore hence you never see an angry mob of people at Powertel because we’re used to subpar service.
Dude they responded to your email, I envy you 🙂 . You must have a connection at Powertel 😀
hahaha I just sent it to fibre@powertel and got a quick response…but then again maybe my email was on some respond quick list because some months back I sent a very angry email that got me all the way to speaking with the Sales director…but clearly that didnt help.
We certainly do notice it, just that most organisations do not consider after-sales support,service quality and customer satisfaction that high a priority. So people dont bother anymore,unless it is really critical.
Articles like this one work very well as the companies(like Powertel) get exposed and are forced to investigate and respond.
“The pen is mightier than the sword”. Since TechZim has become respectable, name and shame them(truthfully and fairly)
Over subscription is a very common practice with our service providers. I remember getting an explanation during the Telone dialup days(early 2000) that the dialup platform had reached its limit. As in, the maximum achievable subscribers had been reached. Talk about milking your network(and users)! Even “respectable” ISPs have a history of “theft”, allocating less bandwidth than subscribed, sometimes blaming their engineers, other times being caught out. POTRAZ should do random verifications if they dont do them already
When something seems too good to be true it usually is. $50 for unlimited download may suit your pocket but you can’t have unlimited anything for a fixed price except maybe unlimited disappointment. If they’re charging you $50, paying VAT and making profit then you can be sure they’re not spending more than $30 to purchase the service and run the operation they are selling to you. In a landlocked country like Zim they can’t purchase much bandwidth, infrastructure or expertise for just $30 so you shouldn’t expect to receive much of those things. There has to be a limit somewhere.
I actually think Zim has plenty of bandwidth considering our very small country size and the amount of fibre laid. Its just greed corportations and managers ruining the the internet for all.
The problem is not about having less bandwidth or old slow equipment.
The problem is about the calibre of engineers at Powertel, Telone etc.
One of my friends who is working for a tech var once told me that all good engineers ar either at Econet or SA
it is to do with equipment and engineers
Definately engineers! Powertel dont have any engineer who knows the equipment from the back of their hand.
They are stuck because they dont pay good salaries, so they tend to have engineers who ar not good enough for high payers like econet.
Something of interest mentioned to me was that most of good engineers ar using powertel to build there cv and leave, more of springboard to better job.
I also heard from one of their biggest client that sometimes they have to send capable engineers to powertel to sort out problems bcoz most of the times they are clueless
I would try telone service before you comment. I now have three links, telone, econet and zol. And while i never thought i would say this, telone rocks. I can download iso’s for things like ubuntu in record time without a hickup. The ZOL link is heavily shaped and the econet is pay per mb wimax so it has its challenges on the pocket, but otherwise is reliable too.
I already have Telone broadband and know everyone of there technician from installation department to comone engineers.
They have been in and out of my house for the past year trying to fix my slow broadband bt nothing works.
Bt unlike powertel, l have to give those guys credit, they do try there best, sometimes in an overwhelming environment. I kno them personally.
Bt from another world, lm experiencing two 100Mb lines internet. Talk of fast internet!!!
I agree with macdchip. Since September I have been using TelOne ADSL and god I am one happy chap. Initially I was on the $30 plan but because of the great speed and reliability my needs went up and now I am on the platinum plan where I pay $240 for 2TB and that is as good as unlimited. Since I stay in flats I bought a wifi router and sell some of my bandwith, talk of a win-win. Pity for the writer
Why anonymous? This is what makes the service providers behave like they do. Anonymous comments promote such unethical behavior If people can complain about bad service without hiding, the service provider will know it’s a real and genuine complaint. Invoice numbers, reference numbers, serial numbers, etc help. Anonymous complaints usually don’t take precedence with complaints from “real” people but may just be noted, ie become a statistic. But then again bad service in Zimbabwe has become normal. Even I could not get through to 111 at Econet and when I did (after xtimes of trying), the help chap was eating. Yeah, you could here the muffled sounds of something being chewed. Anyway just look at SA’s helopeter for how they deal with such service from service providers.
The problem is obvious, all PowerTel subscribers have an uncapped access to the net, PowerTel do not, therefore their prepaid access to the net must be monitored and controlled, hence, good signal poor download, no rocket science here