Posts tagged Achimota

How Many Times Can Vodafone Ghana Replace Stolen Cables?

I have been on Vodafone Fixed Broadband since April 30, 2010 and I have little complains about the uptime. The uptime is actually great (for me).

My problem with Vodafone Ghana is the number of times the broadband/fixed line cables get stolen and replaced. It seems nothing is being done aside replacing them, absolutely nothing! It just keeps recurring.

In the past 4 months, the cables in my neighbourhood have been stolen 5 times. All 5 times, Vodafone Ghana has replaced them within a week but done nothing to prevent them from getting stolen again. Someone is obviously not doing their job well. How on earth does replaced cables get stolen in a week or two and all you do is replace them? Does Vodafone Ghana have that much cables to replace stolen cables every week whilst some potential costumers can’t get on the service because there are ‘no cables’.

I live in New Achimota, not too far from the Korkdam Hotel. I woke up at dawn, Sunday, a little after 3am like I always do to finish some outstanding work. I wasn’t surprised to see my internet wasn’t working. I reached for the landline and there was no dial tone. Yes, the cables have been stolen again. Strike number 6 and all in the last 5 months.

Cables Hanging

Disappointed, I went to bed and phoned costumer service in the morning to report it. Madina? He asked. No, Achimota, I replied. He took my details and said “We will get back to you”. So, this is not an Achimota problem after all. Madina too? My friend Barima, who lives in East Legon has had similar complaints (and he has a tougher time getting them replaced. I am quite lucky Haruna from the Achimota exchange always answers my calls). So what is being done to stop this?

The cable thieves can’t win! Besides, I have paid for the service and as much as Vodafone Ghana expects me to pay my bill every 30 days, I don’t expect to be cut of the service haven paid for the service. As a matter of fact, when I went to pay my bill for November, the costumer service lady convinced me to upgrade to Browser Max (2mbps) and pay 2 months of bill for which Vodafone Ghana would give me an additional month for free. My account thus expires in February 2012 and I don’t expect to be disconnected from the service till then.

For weeks, I have been playing the neighbourhood vigilante, waking up at 2am (for the most times, the cables have been stolen on Sundays, between 2am and 3am) to check on the cables. I get scared sometimes and my friends have advised me it’s not the safest thing to do.

My After-2am Tweets

This is not funny. Whoever is in charge of broadband or fixed lines at Vodafone Ghana should get to work. Can’t they see the pattern; Weekends, After 2am? Isn’t Vodafone Ghana big enough to get the police on this or think of a brilliant way to beat these criminals? If this whole fixed broadband isn’t working, it shouldn’t be difficult for Vodafone Ghana to provide NLOS modems.

Now, I have to wait up to 5 working days for the cables to be replaced and my broadband internet to be restored and another week or two for the cables to be stolen again.

Power to you!


Vodafone Ghana; One Year On, The Same Old Crappy Service

Happy Anniversary Vodafone Ghana. It’s been a year since you launched and at least if Ghanaians can’t feel your ‘service quality’ like in other countries where you operate, we can see your many red cars and flashy billboards as evidence of your presence in Ghana. I heard on Joy 99.7FM that you made a loss last year because you invested heavily. If that’s true then my basic economics tells me you’re going to reap the benefits soon.

                                                                                               source: nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com

Oh yeah, you’ve started your own trademarked internet cafés. I love them and that’s the only thing I like about Vodafone Ghana now. I do all my legal and ‘illegal’ download there :) but I don’t think they’re 40mbs cafés unless you can prove beyond resonable doubt. I think it’s between the range of 8mbs to 16mbs. And whilst you are at it take a look at your café on the High Street, Accra. They wifi was down all of last week. I doubt it has been fixed.

It’s sad that after a year, you’re still living in the days of Ghana Telecom. Still the same old crappy service and your staff, I don’t know where you get some of them from. I work in the export development sector but I know the ins and outs than a lot of those you put at your info desks. Do you circulate press releases to them? Not of all of them are top of affairs.

Anyway, let me tell you about my experience at your headquarters today. Yeah, I mean the circle offices. That’s your headquarters, right?

So, I have been thinking about dumping Zipnet for Vodafone Broadband. Zipnet’s service is very crappy now. They came from behind and beat you to it. You know we don’t really have alternative in Ghana so I called 102 yesterday to enquire about the service and if I could get it fixed by May 1st. ‘Oh yes!’, the guy who identified himself as William said. ‘We’ve changed and you could have it fised in a week’ he added. I ust laughed. I bet he felt stupid. If you didn’t read my previous post on getting Vodafone Broadband in Sunyani, you should know it took me a month and two days to get it fixed. He asked for my location. New Achimota, I said and he asked me to drop the completed form at any Vodafone Shop or if I could drop it at the Circle office. The Circle office is on my way to work and it’s the headquarters so it will be processed quickly, I thought.

As usual, I downloaded the Vodafone Broadband Application form, and filled it out. I got to the Vodafone office this morning and asked the lady (She didn’t have her name tag on. I didn’t see anyone with the tage on) who attended to me if I could have the service installed by May 1st. ‘You can’t give us deadlines’ she said. ‘I am making an enquiry not giving you a deadline!, I hit back. She took my forms I had downloaded from the Vodafone Ghana website and taken my time to fill and asked where I got it from. I told her the Vodafone Ghana website. ‘This isn’t the form we use’ she said. What? She must be kidding me. She took me to another desk where this guy gave me the old Vodafone Broadband application form. I examined it and saw the details required were the same as the one I had downloaded and printed. I asked him what the difference was and he said ‘I’m here and this is what we use’. I declined to fill it and asked him to check from their website which he said he couldn’t do then. He said if I’m ok with it I should take it upstair for processing, which I did cursing in my head. Again, I ask you, where do you find the staff? Seriously, you should hire me to recruit for you.

Upstairs, I was asked where I got the form from again. Don’t put the form up if it’s of no use or tell your ignorant staff about it! The guy took the form to another guy who I overhead asking him where I got that form from. He came back and said ‘You have to take this to the Achimota exchange’. WTF is wrong with these people? I quietly left the office. 

You can imagine my fury as I jumped into a trotro. I was late for work for no reason. I got to the office, took a pen and paper and started writing this post since I don’t have a desk at work yet and I didn’t take my mac along today. Seriously Vodafone, you have to put your house in order. You can start by firing your ignorant and arrogant staff who don’t even know the value of a smile. Have you ever visited an MTN office? The staff there smile a lot and even if you’re mad at them, it calms you down. Maybe, you can take your staff on an excursion. 

I had to leave work early so I could take my application to the Achimota shop. Evelyn recieved me. She was alright. She asked a colleague if I had the right form. I bet she will copy iy out on the old form. She said it could take up to 3 day for a site survey. That’s a 5 minute job. I wonder when I will get my broadband fixed.

So, on the occassion of your first anniversary, stop spending so much on gigantic billboards, fancy adverts and the ballons you’ve decorated your offices with and spend it on staff training and improving your services and then we can celebrate with you. My people say ‘Adepa na etɔn ne ho’ meaning ‘Good things sell by themselves’. Don’t forget Glo is launching soon o! They have their own undersea cable. MainOne goes live in June and MTN has already laid fibre optics across Ghana. A word to the wise is enough!

Happy Anniversary Vodafone Ghana!! I hope you start making some profits soon so the sate can take it’s cut. 

NB: If you’re reading this and you know a top gun at Vodafone, please print this post out for him/her or send him a link. As usual, I’d appreciate if you drop a comment on the post of share your experience. The last post I did on Vodafone Ghana had over 12 comments. Sad thing is that they all disappeared and no new comment lasts more than 48 on the blog. I’m puzzled and have written to Disqus who said they they’re invetigating it. Nonetheless, I will put all your comments together as a blog post since I have copies in my email. 

PS: This post has been edited and all the cuss words taken out :)

PSS: If you know anyone I can talk to to get my broadband fixed asap, I will be grateful.