Hi,

I think many of those promoting e-commerce and related solutions are doing the initiative a disservice by by being transparent and trustworthy actions that we keep us aware from fully exploiting the opportunities that keep presenting themselves.

I recently interacted with a site called Mocallity both as a vendor and consumer of the their deals (a product similar to groupon) unfortunately the experiences have left me with a sour taste in my mouth. 

If anyone our there knows how to get in touch with the managers/owners of Mocality please forward this on to them before the issue blows out of proportion and rubbishes the gains we have made so far in e-commerce.

Vendor - I used the service to promote a seminar I was ran about 2 months ago, the response was impressive as I got 11 registrations, unfortunately I am yet to receive the payments from Mocality even though they received payment from the participants on registration for the seminar.  Things have gotten so scary now that they are not even responding to my emails

Consumer issue 1 - I participated in one of the deals and bought tickets for ice skating, they send me confirmation by SMS but when I arrived at Panari to redeem the coupons they insisted that I bring printouts of the coupons. I wonder why send me the coupons details by SMS then still expect me to carry physical coupons.   It would be like safaricom sending you a SMS confirming receipt of funds then sending you a cheque to bank by post.  We need to either embrace technology wholly as Mama Mboga has or not at all.

Consumer issue 2 - More recently I again participated in a deal by Mocality, I must be the sucker for pain, where I bought some glass storage bowls.  After the deal closed it took them 3 days to finally deliver them to me but only after 5 phone calls, 10 emails and a post on their website otherwise it would have taken longer.

Let us get it clear that e-commerce is commerce and in both cases you need a reliable supply chain system even if what you are supplying is a service.  In addition you cannot maintain the brick on mortar mentality when dealing with an online business, in Mocalities case the customer service works from 8:30-4:30 Monday to Friday for both voice and email requests.

I am generally an advocate of an industries self regulation but when it fails I will not hesitate to pull out the "sirikali tusaidie" trump card.

Regards

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696