EcoCashSave faces system problems: Users told ‘unavailable till further notice’ (Update)

So earlier today we received the following email from a reader:

I have an account with Ecocash Ecosave account, my money disappeared from account on the 9th of December 2013 and I have been wondering what happened to my money only to get a message from Ecocash yesterday saying “We are reversing all EcoCash$ave transactions that occurred between 6th and 9th December to correct your account balance” This really inconvenienced me because I had travelled out of time knowing very well that I had money in my EcoCash account but it turned I could not access my money. Do your investigations and find out and if possible publish it, because I was short changed.

First reaction was that this was isolated and that we would investigate it independently as an incident to see if there was anything going on. But then, at the launch of the EcoCash Payroll later today, a journalist from Zimbabwe Mail commented that he had been unable to access EcoCashSave these past few days and was wondering if Econet had plan B if this problem happens with the EcoCash Payroll service. The answer was of course that they didn’t only have plan B, but C, D and so forth. One workaround, EcoCash Service CEO Darlington Mandivenga said, was to send money directly to the EcoCash wallet. Instead of the Savings wallet that is. Anyway, got us wondering if there’s a big problem going on somewhere.

Then just now an SMS came through from Econet:

Dear Customer. We regret to advise that EcoCash$ave is currently unavailable due to systems challenges. We will advise once normal services are restored.

Essentially they are saying, sorry the bank is closed because of system issues till further notice. We’re guessing the 3 issues are related but we have no way of telling for sure. We have written to Econet to understand better what’s going on and will update as soon as we get a response. if you have been affected by these issues, we’d appreciate knowing more about your experience in the comments below.

Update: your money is safe
Econet just sent through another SMS to assure subscribers that their money is safe. Here:

We apologize for the current EcoCashSave unavailability. Kindly note that your money is safe and you will soon be able to transact and enjoy the convenience

 Update: And it’s back! The company just sent out an update this afternoon, letting customers know that EcoCashSave is now back online. They stil haven’t responded to our email, so we essential still have no idea what exactly was wrong.