By Ezekiel Pajibo
This is the first in a series of articles I am going to write in the next following days about my experiences with service providers in Liberia including the Government of Liberia. I know this may not be the experiences of others but I am attempting to document my experiences, in the hope that service providers in Liberia will not continue to take consumer for a ride, something they are wont to do.
My first port of call is Cellcom. Cellcom, one of several mobile phone and internet provider in the country, has inundated the airwaves and almost every breathing space in Monrovia with its advertisement about a new product, 4G. Do not ask me what 4G is because I have no clue. However, I have been led to believe that it gives you faster internet browsing; amongst several other benefits. Because I work for an international organization, the internet is our mean tool for communication. In addition we work on two different continents: Africa and North America, with as many time zones and communications have to be responded to in a timely manner in order for productivity to be optimal. As a result, we have internet provider for our company. So I do have internet service at my place of work. However, if there is no electricity at the office the internet does not work. (My next article will be about generators providers and services in Liberia for the many of us who are not yet connected to the vaunted LEC power grid). I also got one of those USB stick that has a chip which can allow you to have internet services on your laptop within certain parameters in and around Monrovia. However, it is risky to take your laptop everywhere with you as it may get stolen. I had one stolen from my house only recently. There is no secure place for laptop in Monrovia.
I therefore decided to get an upgrade on my “smart phone”. I am not sure how smart my phone is in Monrovia because I have only used it for two purposes: to make and get phone calls and to send and receive text messages. That is it! I therefore thought that I should take advantage of the other features on the phone including internet access. I went to Cellcom offices located on Capital Bye-Pass in the Bassa Community area. I arrived there few minutes before 11:00 A.M on Friday, July 6 to upgrade my sim card to the much publicized “4G”. I was informed by the security at the entrance that I needed to take a number, which is issued to customers in order to establish their position in the queue. When my turn came, my number was indicated in neon and loudly called out by the security personnel on location. I was directed to a woman who took my phone and attempted to do the upgrade. She went through the drills: got the message icon on, sent a text message to a number and simply wrote “4G” and then got a text message back. I was told that my phone had the capacity to use the 4G product. I was provided with a number of options ranging from USD10-30 dollars for a period of time. I took the $30 package which, as I was told would run for a period of 30 days; after which time, I would have to top it up. I began to entertain some excitement, as I could be answering my email from anywhere I was; for example in a boring meeting or in a meeting with someone, whom I did not really want to see. My excitement was short-lived; I notice two furrows on the brow of the woman who was serving me. She could not get the internet to work. She went across the room to another employee, this time a guy; he apparently could not figure it out either. She then went to the second guy who took a look at it for a while and appeared to be struggling to establish why the phone would not get connected to the internet. All this while, the clock was ticking away, 11:00 and then 12:00 and now it was already 12:30. I had no idea getting an upgrade for a product that was being massively marketed would eat into my lunch schedule.
Once it was established that the second guy could not fix the problem, he left the business hall and went behind closed doors. It may have taken another fifteen minutes when he returned. He muttered something to the effect that they may have a “system breakdown” somewhere. I informed him that I had a 2:00 meeting at the Governance Commission and did not have time to keep waiting. He told me, rather enthusiastically, that I should go and check my phone within two hours and see if it would work. I did within the two hours but it did not work. I phoned him and he asked me if I could come back to the office or if I could send someone to bring the phone. I told him I could not come to see him as I was still in my meeting. In addition, since I was not at my office, I knew no one I could trust to bring the phone to Cellcom. In any case it was already after 4:00; it was rainy and rush-hour traffic was already in full gear. As you may know, access to the city between Congo Town and Cellcom office is by two main arteries which are almost always painfully slow during rush-hours and even non-rush hours especially when it is the dry season.
As this was Friday, I could not get the access to the internet that I had paid for during the weekend and the following Monday because I had work-related activities that prevented me from going to the Cellcom offices. On Tuesday, July 10, I went to the office again. I went thru the usual protocol; got a number and then instructed to move to the next available staff. Again, I was directed to another lady, who was seated at her desk, next to the lady who had served me the previous week. She attempted to get me connected but to no avail again. Then she asked me; who previously attended to my need. I informed her that the staff next to her was the one who did. Incidentally, the staff person affirmed that she did, duly narrated the problem and how she had asked another person to assist. She named the person. I asked; where is the person and I was told that the person in question had gone home because “he is sick”. The staff person who was assisting me decided to go behind the same closed doors that the guy went thru during my Friday visit. She came back to say that the “only person” in the entire Cellcom corporation that could help me with my problem had gone home “sick”.
To say I was dumbfounded is an understatement. I was perplexed, angry, and above all saddened. Cellcom had promoted this product so much that it is impossible to miss the message if you travel on any of the pliable roads in Monrovia; yet the product was not meeting up to the hullaballoo that preceded it. Newspapers carried center page pictures of the Vice President of Liberia and the Speaker of the National House of Representatives at the launch of the “4G”. And here I was a plebian, a regular consumer that had forked out his personal hard earned money for a service that was not available.
I then thought that I could seek some compromise with the Cellcom staff person. I politely requested for the service to be turned off. The woman said it cannot be done. I became exasperated. Since obtaining the service that was not a service at all because I could not access the internet, the life span of the battery between charges appeared to be fast diminishing. In the past, once my phone was charged in the morning, I would not have to charge it again until the following morning. Now, I have to keep my phone on charge continuously, else it would run flat within less than an hour. This was extremely inconvenient for me. I therefore, thought that by deactivating the service, I would be spared the problem. That was not to be. No service and a phone with an imperiled battery life. What have I done to deserve this? Next time you hear 4G or you see 4G, do not think your internet access problem has been solved. It might give you more problems than you bargained. Where is Ralph Nader? We have a job offer for him in Liber
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