Tigo came to Ghana under the name ‘Buzz’ and most people were really impressed with their services so they were able to get much customers and later changed to Tigo.
Airtel also came as Zain and then changed later to Airtel which most people also fell in love with especially the smartphone users. Their internet bundles I can testify that were really cheap compared to all the other networks. Tigo on the other hand also had some quality call rates and internet bundles. Even though their data bundles were nowhere near Airtel’s their call rates were very awesome.
How do I know these?
Back then I used Airtel for browsing especially running my blogs. I also use Tigo for my calls and to top it all, I was Tigo Freelancer back then. So you can see I really know what I’m talking about.
November 2017 when the two Telecom companies merged into what they call; ‘One big family‘, we all thought we were going to enjoy a better service than before. Some of us who were using both networks were left in a state of confusion where we didn’t know which one of the simcards to use since we were using the two networks simultaneously.
I personally didn’t mind using both since my then times “Browse Chaw” bundles were still working perfectly and the call rates on my Tigo number were also cool still. I thought everything will be even more congenial compared to what I was already enjoying since merging means increased resources and workforce for one network.
One day, I took my Airtel simcard which is now AirtelTigo and decided to do my ‘Browse Chaw bundle‘ like always and to my surprise, the ‘Browse Chaw‘ was nowhere to be found. I was so angry since I have already loaded the credit on the simcard. I got really bored and used the credit for some unwanted things. Since then I dropped the Airtel branded simcard.
Some months back, there were some unnecessary deductions of airtime for services I have not activated on my Tigo simcard. I called the Tigo helpline and the customer service was like; “You have subscribed to Tigo insurance and that was what was deducting your airtime” something I perfectly know is not supposed to deduct more than Ghc3 per month. I had Ghc 0.75 deducted every single day provided there is airtime on the simcard. The call rates also dropped from good to worst.
I thought maybe I was the only one with that problem or maybe I probably subscribed to something I am unaware of until two friends complained of similar issues. Since then, I dropped my Tigo sim which means I have dropped AirtelTigo.
Ever since I dropped my AirtelTigo sims, I have seen and heard a lot of people complain about the AirtelTigo services and threatened to drop their simcards for good.
My Message
I can’t tell whether the managements, the devices or customer care service agents were changed during the merging but I can seriously tell that the customer care agents are not getting enough customer data or they probably don’t know their job.
Ever since the merging, there are customers complaining about unnecessary deduction of airtime. There are also situations where a customer purchases a service, the money is deducted but the service never gets activated. When a customer requests for refund, the customer care agents can’t see any transaction done by the customer.
While you can’t tell what really is wrong with the entire company, I can vividly tell the end of AirtelTigo few years from now should they continue like this.
One thing Tigo thought me when I was working as Freelancer at Tigo is; “The customer is king”. But why are we now at the juncture where the customer doesn’t matter? What is wrong with the management?
The “One Big Family” is definitely shrinking down to “One Small Family“. I am not holding any personal grudge with any of the brands mentioned in this article. I am just an unsatisfied customer using this platform as the means of communicating my pain since the customer service can’t understand what I have been complaining about.
I am not the only one having problems with this AirtelTigo thing. There are a lot of people out there who have problems with the services. check the screenshots below.
