Econet Blames Swipe Into EcoCash Errors On Server Congestion

Farai Mudzingwa Avatar
EcoCash Zimbabwe, Bill Manager, Automatic Bill Payments

According to the Herald, a survey conducted across some major supermarkets in Harare revealed that customers are having trouble with the ‘swipe into EcoCash’ service. An unnamed Pick n’ Pay official also said the Jason Moyo branch is missing out on almost $3000 on a daily basis because of Swipe into EcoCash.

Many people also seem to be confused about who they should contact for help in case of a failed transaction or double debits from a single transaction, especially if one is using a bank card not issued by Steward Bank.

What’s the cause of the problems?

Econet sited that as greater volumes adopt the service and transact on mobile, the risk of errors rises due to server congestion. The failures were also attributed to network connections and downtime due to the maintenance of infrastructure.

How to get support

Econet offered clarification in terms of how customers using the swipe into cash can get support:

“Procedure for follow up is to directly call the EcoCash Call Centre(114) which then liases with Steward Bank, the settlement banking partner for validation of payment reversals”

The maximum validation time for failed transactions is 24 hours.

‘Swipe Into EcoCash’ allows people banking with any Zimswitch compatible bank to transfer funds from their bank account into their EcoCash. Retailers also integrated the system in fear of risking loss of business.

I suspect with time the service will get better integration. Have you been struggling with swipe into EcoCash? Has the experience been faultless for you thus far? Let’s get talking in the comments

8 comments

  1. OWEN

    it took me 30 days to get my money back ,l was so disappointed with this service,l had to engage the RB Z guys after making frantic efforts from steward bank Bulawayo,but all to no avail.

  2. Anonymous

    lol can anyone let me know you are able to get through to 114? I have never been able to get through. I always have to send an email and then after frustration sets a rude note on the Ecocash Facebook page.

    1. Faiz

      Waited an hour with no response

  3. Petros

    Steward and Ecocash ‘help’/ response very very poor

  4. Garikai Dzoma

    Things to note here:
    1 Econet’s support has been poor in my experience and Ecocash is no exception. Most agents don’t bother with the whole swipe to cash in game because they say it doesn’t bring that much and so finding an actual agent to swipe in is hard where I live.
    2 Due poor support errors take ages to resolve
    3 Econet cannot unilaterally decide that they will not reverse transactions in 24 hours given their useless support moreso when it seems to be in this case that they are the ones at fault when it comes to errors

  5. Sagitarr

    I can add that the cash in application:-
    1. appears to have a poor design in terms of gracefully handling comms related errors e.g. time outs
    2. was not fully volume-tested, the congestion errors would have manifested themselves then.
    3. duplicate trxn processing can be avoided by using message sequence numbers with logic to initiate auto-reversals upon a comparison of current msn at client vs at server side.

  6. MaNdlo

    all they should say to the public is to apologize for the inconvenience caused and announce that the system is a failure use it at your own peril. Very simple!!!!

  7. Sim

    I have been chasing my money for close to a month now. Both my bank and Steward bank are playing the blame game with one bank claiming they haven’t received the claim form from my bank and the other claiming it has been sent. at the end of the day customers are losing out.

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