Save the apologies

For too long now, South Africans have simply accepted poor service and sub-standard quality. Worse still are the customer-centric organisations that are confident to the point of arrogance of their ability to retain a profitable business despite their nonchalant service ethic.

Case in point is SA's cellular industry. For many of us it seemed refreshing when Cell C owned up to spotty coverage, dropped calls and overall lack of delivery.

We were even impressed that the company went a step further, not only apologising to its customers, but also outlining a turnaround strategy of sorts.

Despite the nice gesture - the bottom line is that SA's mobile operators charge their customers rates that are among the highest in the world, for products and services they know to be low-grade.

Now granted, I am no entrepreneurial whiz, but a basic premise to maintaining a sustainable business must be based on a working product or service, right?

The idea being that if the product is broken you can't sell it, and if the service is faulty you can't charge for it.

Lest that be the case in the cellular market; instead all three operators: Cell C, MTN and Vodacom, have customers complaining of faulty network coverage, or incorrect billing issues and bad customer care.

One only has to take a quick look at hellopeter.com to get a take of the extent of frustrated cellular customers in SA. But that is not the shocking part.

All that we ask is to make a phone call without having to utter the words: “Can you hear me now?”

Leigh-Ann Francis, journalist, ITWeb

The shocking part is having the boldness to acknowledge these problems in response to a comedy act instead of to your customers; spend in excess of R200 000 per advert to essentially say: “We know we are giving you a poor quality product and service, even though we have been at it for nine years. We are sorry, but it's still business as usual - you'll get your bill in the mail. Thanks.”

And even that was more of a response than either Vodacom or MTN could give, even though they too were criticised and are guilty of similar issues.

Vodacom said it engages social media on a daily basis to interact with customers and respond to complaints. Responding to complaints versus solving the problem and delivering a working service are two different things. I'm just saying...

Let's not even bother with MTN, which didn't respond at all. MTN might enjoy slightly better network coverage than Cell C, but its customers have been haunted by an erratic billing system, which at times has disconnected customers from the network without cause.

Perhaps all this would be palatable if it weren't for the fact that South African cellular users have been paying so heavily for such poor quality services.

Even after pressure from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) pushed mobile operators to voluntarily cut interconnect rates from R1.25 per minute to 89c, in March, customers have yet to see any change to their charges.

Now that the authority is proposing another interconnect rate cut to 65c this year, the mobile operators have the audacity to be outraged.

This, despite industry enjoying years of exorbitant interconnect rates and super profits for delivering flawed products and services.

Surely by now these operators have the experience and capital to implement the technology required to make a phone call?

It is reassuring to know that ICASA is fighting for the consumer, but the follow-through is lacking. Interconnect regulations are still in limbo and further rate cuts have been delayed. And regarding quality control, the authority has been pretty much absent.

All the while, mobiles are playing by their own rules, at the expense of the customer, because as it stands, there is no real consequence. They will not lose their spectrum, they will not lose customers and they will not lose too much profit.

It goes without saying that South African cellular users are beyond frustrated. All that we ask is to make a phone call without having to utter the words: “Can you hear me now?”

The reality is that there are only three mobile operators in the country - and while their services and products are shoddy, they are not going anywhere.

These operators offer a service that has become an integral part of our lives - as customers we can complain until we are blue in the face, but the onus is on the operators to not only recognise the poor service they deliver, but improve it.

So here is my call to the cellular industry: save the expensive apologies (can you hear me now?), deliver quality products and services (can you hear me now?) and don't rip off your customers (can you hear me now?).