Vodacom Thumb Down

So, what if they can produce beautiful professional commercials and flood the market with billboards and PR stuff drawing customers' attention if the reality of their deteriorating services speaks quite a different story? Vodacom may seem to float towards the buyout by Vodafone as they already have changed their logo to what is - in fact - Vodafone logo per se, but the quality of their services is going downhill day by day. I am not sure to what factor it should be attributed, but it looks like they draw lots of new customers, but the infrastructure of their system is lagging behind big time...


I've been their customer since the beginning, and always stick to them, but these days their services simply piss me off, internet broadband in particular. Just the other day I was registering sim cards for volunteers' modems and one of the sales representatives vented his frustration at the services of his own company, when he was unable to connect to their own network and I was sitting their for dunno how long, an hour or longer!

Is it about making as much money as possible for as little investment as possible? Is it an ugly face of capitalism exploiting leniency of African markets where people seem sometimes to just give in to the fate and the situation without taking action and forcing culprits by mass protests or boycotts to amend their services? I hope not.

I hope not!

I used to go to Musoma with my laptop to work in better broadband speed. It used to be up to 'astonishing' 300-400 kbs. These days sometimes I cannot even connect to the net, and sometimes it goes down to 20-40 kbs. And this is presumed 3G network!

Back here at home in Kiabakari, afternoon till late evenings are times when you can simply say goodbye to internet or get used to speeds in the range of 1-10 kbs with frequent interruptions and failures... Early mornings are the 'best', at least you don't have to wait for many minutes for a webpage to load... and to be able to upload a new post on my blog...

It is f... frustrating having internet and not having it.

Mare & Mare were working on their new post on their blog the whole afternoon and evening. They came frustrated for supper being unable to load pictures in their post. Then went back to try again. What I found this morning is their new post, but about their frustration with Vodacom service.

Yeah, 'mtandao unaoongoza Tanzania' (the leading network in Tanzania). Leading in what? Percentage of frustrated customers? Maybe this is what they mean giving us their new company motto - 'Kazi kwako' (it is up to you). Up to me to deal with my frustration? Up to me to be patient while it loads up? I'm confused. It is a real job to keep quiet and patient in this situation.

I am really disappointed with Vodacom. If they only care for people in Dar es Salaam and the 3G network there, they should say it out loud that we, in the regions, are lesser people, who do not deserve the same. Wake up, pals, no one forced me to choose you. And no one will force me to stay if things continue to be this bad! Problem is, which mobile provider here in Tanzania can give us reliable service on the level of decent European or American providers?

Over and out.