Yawe,

Glad to hear that.

I think the major issue with Kenya corporates (and of course our beloved GOK) is that they are content with the status quo. There is not a single corporate in Kenya today that invests in proper customer service! Your KDN experience, unfortunately, is replicated with other service providers in their market segment (I am having one such issue as we speak). They sell you the service, and disappear. Try calling their toll free customer support lines, and pray to get the call through the first day, and when you are lucky enough to do so….in comes the unprofessional call handling! All the best non-the-less

Edwin

From: kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of robert yawe
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 10:00 AM
To: Edwin
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: [kictanet] Unavailable Safaricom offer

Hi,

Safaricom staff finally contacted me and I was able to sign-up, but a little late for me to qualify for the free PSP, the installers where sent out promptly which is more than I can say about some of the other providers such as KDN who 6 months after doing a site survey have never even sent me a quotation.  

The installers had a concern with the WiMax signal strength and decided not to commission which I believe was a positive sign as it is better to have a delay than get a service that is wanting.  They have promised to have the service up today.

Zaine aka Bharti where very quick to sell me modems under the pretext of being able to provide a workable VPN solution, it has been 3 months and they are unable to provide sufficient bandwidth through a private APN.  It is said once bitten twice shy, but I have got myself bitten twice by Zaine on the issue of VPN provision.  After Safaricom has installed my Wimax link I will then test their ability to deliver a working VPN link something they where not able to do 6 months ago.

As you might remember I finally got safaricom signal in the house after a new BTS was installed in the area, but from the issues that the installer is having with the Wimax it is clear that when the BTS was being put up Safaricom did not include Wimax capability, even thought it was clear that the mast was to serve a prime location with over 1,000 households.  

This is an indication that Safaricom, like GOK, is suffering from a silo condition where there is a lack of harmonisation across departments.  With over 15M customers and 4,200 employees it is bound to happen and is likely to be the new CEOs headache especially now that he will need to resolve the issue with reduced revenue.

All said and done, Safaricom still remains the better option, for now.

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

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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