Vodafone Ghana's Snail-Paced Resolution Of Customer Grievances

I had to fight an  exhausting battle,  to get my Blackberry service activation completed  by Vodafone Ghana, to enable me receive and send emails, as well as browse the internet on my phone again.


Having purchased a prepaid  broadband wireless data bundle on 24/7/2013 (well in time before the old one's expiry date, incidentally), but still unable to access the web,  as well as send and receive emails  almost a week  after renewing it, I wondered why,   as a  customer of what is  a leading  telecommunications company with a global footprint, I was not receiving  the same standard of service, which Vodafone provides its customers across the markets it competes in,  around the world.


In the end, to resolve the problem, after a pointless trip to the Dansoman Vodafone Ghana retail outlet, and  many   fruitless phone calls to the company's Blackberry service call-centre,  I had to top up my account yet again, to get me back online - although I had  hardly done any browsing before it became impossible to  access the internet,  and send and receive emails,  after selecting and paying for my Blackberry  data bundle on 24/7/2013.


Such is life for consumers  in Ghana - who are often taken for granted by sundry service providers: including those whose corporate marketing ethos elsewhere,  is underpinned by the reassuring phrase,   "the customer is always right".


The question is: do Vodafone's customers in Ghana,  not have a right to expect the same high standards its customers in the UK take for granted, for example,  when they sign up for  Vodafone's wireless broadband data and  voice services?


Vodafone Ghana's top-heavy structure,  is said to cost a small fortune,  in terms of the compensation packages its expatriate staff receive monthly.


The time has come for Vodafone Ghana to  justify the Arabian-oil-Sheik-lifestyles its expatriate staff  enjoy in Ghana - in an age of global austerity,  when even Arabian oil Sheiks are abandoning their previously  extravagant lifestyles in droves.


They must ensure  that Vodafone's  hapless Ghanaian customers don't have to experience the  frustration of being forced  offline for days - that I have had to endure  in the struggle  to get my Blackberry internet service activation completed to enable me receive and send emails as well as browse the internet again.


To paraphrase  another aggrieved Vodafone Ghana customer I met at the company's  Dansoman retail outlet:  apart from the  tasteful minimalist  decor one sees in Vodafone's smart  air-conditioned retail outlets, and the huge sums paid to its expatriate staff as monthly salaries and allowances, not much seems to have changed in the entity that Ghana Telecom morphed into after its fire-sale  - in terms of the quick and satisfactory resolution of customer grievances.


Perhaps that criticism might be said to be  a tad harsh, as in many respects the transformation wrought by Vodafone,  at the defunct Ghana Telecom it bought for a song, has been  world-class and cutting-edge.


However,  going by  my own personal experience of Vodafone Ghana's resolution of a particular  customer complaint - my incomplete Blackberry internet bundle activation procedure -  I can confirm that its complaint resolution process  really is snail-paced and incredibly frustrating.


Post Script:


Finally, my Blackberry internet connection was restored about 20 minutes ago.


It is now 15:00 hours GMT, and today is 2/8/2013.


A global telecommunications giant  like Vodafone can do better  -  and should. A word to the wise...


Tel: 027 745 3109.