By Crispina Taylor
Member of Parliament for constituency 068 in Bo District, Southern Sierra Leone, Paran Tarawally, has accused Airtel, one of the country’s leading mobile phone operators, of treating consumers’ complaint with levity.
The lawmaker was making an observation in a matter of over-billing that was brought before the Parliamentary information committee against the operator by an aggrieved subscriber.
“As an MP myself, I will soon lead customers to take class actions against not only Airtel, but also against every other phone company that is providing bad service to us, their customers”, MP Tarawally said in parliament last week.
Abdulrahim Kamara, an Airtel subscriber of 10 years, brought a complaint of over-billing for cellular data, a service provided by the mobile company that allows its subscribers to browse the internet.
He complained of ill-treatment by the company between October 20 and the early hours of October 22. He explained that he had gone to Airtel’s headquarters at Hill Station to make his problems known to them but was unable to speak with any senior official at that time. He said he however spoke with a certain George Campbell, a staff of the company.
Kamara said he got an email from Campbell some time later, requesting him to forward “evidence” to aid the company’s investigations into his complaint. “I found this to be mindboggling and utterly ludicrous”, the aggrieved subscriber lamented in a letter to the telecoms regulator, NATCOM.
He went on to explain that he had made several efforts to use his cellular data and make an international call which didn’t go through, and added that his credit was nonetheless significantly deducted. That, he said, had made him go to the company’s headquarters on the morning of Wednesday, October 22.
Kamara said he was sent a break-down of his billing for the period under question, but that when he checked it, it was still below what the company deducted from his credit.
MP Tarawally observed that so many other Sierra Leoneans were going through a lot of challenges where Airtel was concerned but that only Kamara had had enough courage to stand up to the mobile company.
Airtel’s managing director failed to turn up for the hearing, but he was represented by the company’s Legal Adviser, Gerald Cole, who denied knowledge of the complaint made by Kamara.
He said the company loved its brand and customers and therefore always listened to the customers.
Cole said they always went to every length to make customer satisfaction a guaranty and assured that that would never change.
However, chairman of the information committee, MP Binneh Bangura, asked the Airtel representatives to go back and ask their managing director to be in parliament when next they would be summoned.
© Politico 20/01/15
