By Kofi Thompson
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...
