Dear colleagues I had a really bad experience with MPESA tonight. Not sure if the problem was the dealer, or Safaricom in general. I was at Fone Directs, at Yaya Center, on the ground floor. My goal was to register my phone with MPESA, and send 1000 shillings to my sister in Nyeri. Let me start with three big constructive suggestions, and then I will tell my story. 1) If a client stands patiently in line for over 30 minutes without making noise, and without complaining, please serve her first, and resolve her concern, before you deal with the people standing behind her. Safaricom/Fone Direct, please train your employees in customer service. 2) If you are in the customer service industry, your job is to resolve the problem, and complete the transaction, if at all possible. It is not helpful to tell the client that "I have finished my part of the transaction. The rest of it must be dealt with by customer care.": In my business, safaris, my job is to make the client happy, not to "finish my part of the transaction." Safaricom, please do a better job of training your employees. 3) Fone Direct, *please* get a second person to handle MPESA activity at your Yaya branch. I was trapped in your store for over an hour and the entire time, the line snaked out the door. It is a simple principle of qeueing theory and operations research that having more lines prevents traffic jams. Hence, Nakumatt has several lines for customer checkout. Unaelewa? FYI, the workers told me that they have asked several times for a second person, and that management has not acted. Not fair to customers, and not fair to workers. Okay, there you go on the constructive advice. Now, for the story. I arrived at Fone Directs at Yaya at 4:00 p.m today. I had a simple transaction in mind. Register my phone for MPESA, and send my sister 1000 shillings. Simple, right? I had my passport, and I had my phone. I have never had an MPESA account before. I stood in line quietly and patiently for 40 minutes. I did not complain, and I did not berate the girl at the counter. I just waited my turn in line. This is because I went to Kindergarten in the US. We take standing in line very seriously in the US. Cutting in line is a hanging offense. When I got to the head of the line, I asked the girl to set up an MPESA account for me. Her name was ANN. ANN at Fone Direct. *To her credit, she remained calm throughout*. She took my passport, and tried to set up my account, but when we attempted to enter the code that MPESA sent, the Safaricom system would not accept it. We tried a few times to no avail. At that point, Ann told me I had to call customer care. I told her "no, I am in a big Safaricom store. This is your job. Please do it. You call customer care." She did call customer care. At that point, she began handling the transactions of the people behind me. This got on my nerves, because I had waited patiently behind 5 people, and not tried to get my transaction handled ahead of people who are ahead of me. This is simply bad manners on the part of both the people in line, and the customer service agent. I complained, but I can see the situation from her perspective.She was in a bad situation, with a line snaking out the door. *Management, get this girl some help. * She did call customer care, and they tried to work on the situation. At that point, they said they would send me an MPESA menu. I waited for twenty minutes, while Ann continued to serve the people behind me. After twenty minutes, (It was 4:55 at this point) I asked her what was going on. She said that we were waiting for the menu. She then said, "I have completed my part of the transaction, I am only waiting on customer care. The rest of this is their job." I told her that her job is not to do her part of the transaction. Her job is to serve her customer, so why did she not call customer care? I also told her that I am in the industry, and that I suggest she serve me, since it was my turn. She did that, and lo and behold, they sent the menu right away!!! Amazing! After I complained three times, they did their job promptly! So at 5:15, after an hour and a quarter of waiting, and a lot of negotiating with the staff to get them to fulfil their duties, Ann was able to assist me to send my 1000 shillings. I told her I would ask for help for her. Hence, I am writing this email. Thoughts? Other than I am very kali? Yours, Rigia