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Opinions of Monday, 29 March 2021

Columnist: Docia Krampah

Black month experience with Vodafone Ghana

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Wednesday, 16th March 2021 begun just like any other day; full of glory and good expectations. Sincerely, maybe for the first time if a prophet had called to declare it as *black Wednesday*, I would have exhibited a sign of unbelieve. Because all seemed well in the early hours of the day.

Hours after, specifically around 10:45 am, the shades of sorrow began to set in. A friend had called me from Canada to send 3,000 cedis on her behalf to someone in Ghana. I did this transaction by online banking via *Vodafone cash* but instead of 3,000, I mistakenly sent 6,000 to the person. I realised this within seconds and tried severally calling the person with the hope of retrieving the balance but to no avail. Within 15 minutes I hurriedly got to the Vodafone office to report and hopefully block the number.

Admittedly, I was received with a warm reception from the customer service person that really calmed my nerves. In fact, at that moment I had a sigh of relief. I narrated my story to the gentleman ( customer service officer) who had given me all his attention and the looks in his eyes gave me no doubt at all, that everything will be fine. He then directed me to get to my bank and inform them to send an email to Vodafone while they initiate measures to *BLOCK THE NUMBER* .

Today, March 22nd, 2021, my bank called and they also directed me back to Vodafone. At this point, everything seemed to me like a jigsaw puzzle. I got back to Vodafone and had the privilege to talk to some senior officers who checked the balance and told me the person had further redrawn more and left with 1,000 cedis. At that moment, It seemed to me they were referring to someone else because the customer officer earlier clearly told me *They were going to block that number*.

The manager called the customer officer to enquire and he vehemently denied ever telling me he was going to block the number, threatened me and nearly attacked me in the presence of his boss. I just couldn't believe what I heard from the customer officer and his actions. Shocked, was understatement. The only offer the managers presented to me was that they were going to monitor the account up until it gets to 3,000 then they can transfer it to me.

My dear readers, have I been treated fairly? I'm in this open court because I have no evidence to take to the court of law that the customer officer told me they were going to block the number I sent the 6,000 to.

The month of March 2021 will ever remain a *BLACK MONTH EXPERIENCE WITH VODAFONE GHANA* for me.

Posterity awaits us all.