I have held off writing on these issues for a while now but I can’t
just take it anymore. I am thoroughly disappointed (not for the first
time) with MTN and it is a pity that there are no better options out
there. As such, I am stuck with them for now.

My problem with MTN’s voice servicce has more to do with billing than the quality of calls. A few weeks ago, I noticed that any airtime that was left on my line was being deducted sometime after 10pm on a daily basis. As I do not load much credit on the line, I overlooked it initially. But things came to a head when on a particular day I had loaded N750 and barely used N150, the N600 left on my line disappeared shortly after 10pm. I only discovered this when I wanted to make a call.

I was annoyed, to say the least. As I could not get through to Customer Care by voice, I got their (Customer Care) email address from their website and fired off an email. A few days later, I receiveed a reply that said there was nothing wrong with my line and that the credit had not been wrongly deducted.

At this same time, I noticed that while browsing pay-as-you-go my line was not being billed immediately.

For example, if I went online and downloaded 100kb at 11am, my airtime would remain the same, giving the false impression that I was browsing free. Much later in the day, I was eventually billed for the internet access. This prevented me from doing a proper reconciliation of data and voice costs.

Funny enough, a day after they sent me the mail, the whole billing issue stopped. But a week later, it started again. Since then, I have learnt to load the amount of airtime that I need/can use before 10pm. Anytime after that, there is the risk of my account balance reading N0.00.

The data issues are the same recurring ones and it is quite annoying
that they continue unabated. I am currently subscribed to the Night
plan (10pm – 5am) with a 3GB cap but I have barely used 1GB with
barely a week left before it expires. When the network is up, it is
superb most of the time but the sporadic nature of the downtimes are
quite annoying. Moreso it appears that it seems to happen when I have some urgent work to do or deadline to meet.

I believe the introduction of a dedicated data customer care number/email would help in bringing these issues to their notice and aid the quick resolution. I would understand downtimes of a couple of hours but when it runs into 8-10 hours as happened a couple of days ago, that’s unacceptable.

Sadly enough, I dont have a back up plan at the moment. Not that there are any appealing options anyway.

1. Etisalat EDGE is way too expensive
2. Zain 3G is non-existent
3. Glo is trouble laden, and
4. My experience with Starcomms is a story for another day

For now, I am not adventurous enough to spring for any other ISP at this point in time.

I am fed up – and that is putting it mildly.

Is anyone out there having the same problems?

This post was written by

Adebayo Oshin – who has written 7 posts on Mobility blog.

Adebayo Oshin is a medical doctor with a love for mobile devices and apps. An ardent reader and a game freak, he spends his spare time away from his patients trawling the WWW. Aside from regular clinical duties, he doubles as CEO of Crane Health Consulting, a start-up health consultancy firm.

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