Buying Bundles On Econet Is Harder Than It Needs To Be Right Now…

So this is one of those rants that wouldn’t be getting written but I’m pretty frustrated. Last night I tried to buy WhatsApp bundles after 7 PM and it was a nightmare. I only managed to buy the bundle around 8:15 on my fifth or sixth attempt. At the time I thought the error lay with EcoCash since there seems to be a general consensus that EcoCash goes to sleep after working hours.

This morning, I went to work at a café because ZESA decided to be ZESA again. I got to the café, got a power source connected my device and decided to get some work done.

Initially, I tried to connect to the Econet WiFi Zone since I had some data I could use with that but alas that was messed (and I’m saying messed cause I would be in serious trouble if I used the word I want to use right now). What frustrates me is that it seems a significant number of these WiFi zones might not be working. We tried using one for a livestream we had in Bulawayo and that didn’t work as well… Now I’m in Harare and the result is pretty similar. It could be a coincidence but I’ll let you decide on that one for yourselves…

So the WiFi Zone is dead. What now? I decide to buy another bundle and just get done with my work but I get the same error that surfaced last night. “EcoCash is supposed to be awake”, I think to myself. So why am I getting the same “System busy, Please try later…” error message. I was using EcoCash initially and I thought maybe EcoCash is not working and I had to switch to airtime. Unfortunately, that didn’t solve the issue and the errors kept raining on me. [ I’m typing this without access to the internet and when you do get to see it:

1. The system would have become less “busy”
2. My luck with the WiFi zone would have changed
3. Or electricity will be back at home and I’ll be connected to ZOL who don’t give me any of these problems…]

The system was less busy…

I probably wouldn’t have written about this but because I had no access to the internet and I needed to be getting work done, here we are. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I’m not the only one facing these errors. When I finally had access to the World Wide Web, I browsed through Econet’s Twitter feed and it seems a number of other people are facing the same issue:

Hie @econet_support been trying to buy whatsapp data through ecocash since morning, it seems that option is no longer available. Others are saying buying data in general is challenge today

— Michael MJ The King 🇿🇼 👑 (@gwarisam) May 2, 2019

Purchased a 250mb bundle yesterday and up to now nothing. #EconetCustomerCare

— Terrence Chitehwe (@TChitehwe) May 3, 2019

Hey @econet_support I tried buying 2$ daily bundles twice yesterday using ecocash ichinditi external server what what and mukandidyira 4$ yangu. Ndipeiwo Mari uangu purizi

— RJ (@nyarie_m) April 28, 2019

I'm not the first to announce frustration. Probably not the last. Whatever it is, it needs fixing. It's been like this all day and most of yesterday. Will it work or Will it not work? @econetzimbabwe pic.twitter.com/5PDYCVd2Oa

— Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼 (@Wamagaisa) May 2, 2019

😢 they told me I'm already using it. But its not working, once my daily bundle expires. ….dololo. 😧 $3 is not a joke guys

— Mother of our hair (@sofiasaungweme) May 2, 2019

One would expect that since subscribers are paying more they’ll receive an improved service but so far it looks like the smart data bouquets are a new dispensation…

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