It was a rude shock early this morning, as early as 6:25am when our correspondent got this message from telecommunication giants, Airtel. It read:
“Dear Customer, you have been barred for incomplete registration as directed by NCC. Kindly call 121 for reactivation.”
For our Correspondent who thought this was a prank, played by unscrupulous elements tried to access the internet via his smartphone. However, it failed to connect. He tried to call some numbers; but to no avail. Instead, he was ordered to re- register his sim with Airtel. This is after completing his first sim registration with the telecommunication network where the sim was working alright, enabling our correspondent access the internet before this early morning stunner.
This story doesn’t come without some background.
“Last month, our correspondent in need of a new network for internet subscription bought an Airtel sim for the price of 50 naira. This occurred on old Akesan road, not too far across from the Igando Police Station, Lagos State. In fact the registration was done in front of a shop called Sunfax Communication slightly adjacent the Igando Police Station where several rows of stalls are erected.”
There was a December Christmas bonaza and two Airtel operators who wore Airtel uniforms cajoled our correspondent to get a sim for 50 naira only. This came with free registration as a freebie for the Yuletide. This was where our correspondent bought the sim. The sim was promptly registered and our correspondent was told to recharge and make a call as soon as he got home.
On getting home, our correspondent did as he was told, not knowing that he would not be able to get the full functions of the sim registeration. He was unable to place calls but was actually able to receive an incoming call. He dialled the customer care with this complaint and after receiving an ID of complaint labelled ANG20171218132032145; he thought the issues will be promptly attended.
All he got in the end was a configuration message and permission to access the internet but was still not given the ability to place calls. His new sim gave him the ability to receive calls and browse the internet alone. No chance for outbound calls or text but he could recharge and after dialling the customer care for the second time with the same complaint, all he got was: “your compliant is currently treated.”
Since the essence of buying the sim was for internet subscription, our correspondent continued to enjoy the Airtel sim not until today that he got the heart wrenching message and was unable to access the internet all day.
This forced our correspondent to go down to the Airtel Office in Igando Market, very close to the BRT bus-stop. He was attended to by Abdulrasheed Faleye, an Airtel attendant who was willing to help.
On getting to the Airtel office, our correspondent was approached by Abdulrasheed, who assumed our correspondent wanted to either buy or register a sim. He was seated outside with a colleague wearing the Airtel branded uniform and immediately stood up as our correspondent entered. Our correspondent who described his coming to the Airtel office as a complaint; due to the fact that his line was barred was met by a persistent and confident Abdulrasheed who refused to be turned down or shrugged aside.
Abdulrasheed promptly agreed to help but our correspondent was initially bent on speaking to the head of the office. He was of the opinion that the matter will still be resolved by him. He ordered our correspondent to go in, saying: “She will still direct you back to me to help.”
Hearing this, our correspondent relayed the whole matter leading to the ban placed on his line in the early hours of the day.
Abdulrasheed who saw the instance as a scam,confided in our correspondent and stated that issues like these don’t seem new.
“There are several people that come to us with your request all day. It is mostly on issues like these which are closely related to sim registration scams.”
Our correspondent who wanted to know how these unscrupulous individuals could be identified questioned the Airtel attendant if they were loopholes in detecting sim fraudsters.
“There is no way in knowing them. They all wear the branded Airtel shirts. They also carry tabs like these and input all your information including fingerprints too. Did they tell you our office is here and they we work on weekends?”
Our correspondent responded in the affirmative and went further to tell Abdulrasheed that these fake airtel staff knew that the official Airtel branch in Igando close by 2pm on weekends. All of which Abdulrasheed agreed were true.
“How many fingers were registered and did they ask for your mother’s maiden name and full street address?”
Our correspondent answered in affirmative saying the fingers used for the registration were the thumb and index finger and supplied all necessary details involved.
However, Abdulrasheed made a case for some of Airtel staff engaged in registration.
“It might be a network problem. I spent a whole morning registering a particular sim,” he explained. “Those people have gone now,” he looked behind him.
“Sometimes even the NCC rejects these details, it is not Airtel that collects the information but the NCC and they can refuse to accept the details due to incomplete registration at times. Other times it could be owing to mistakes in name, maiden name and street address. Maybe you didn’t mention yours in full.”
In the end, Abdulrasheed offered to help our correspondent and demanded the sum of 200 naira for sim re-registration. This is not after taking our correspondent to meet other Airtel staff and asking him to fish out the bad fish. Some of his work colleagues who met with our correspondent acclaimed that it must have been a scam and the first sim registration was fraudulent.
However, Abdulrasheed felt our correspondent was gifted a free sim since it was sold for 50 naira. Abdulrasheed went ahead to activate the line and exchanged calls with our correspondent to ascertain the validity of the line and if it was indeed working.
For another Airtel customer whose experience isn’t quite different from our correspondent opined that the process was indeed a scam and thus fraudulent. Sadeeq Bukar, who spoke to our correspondent on the issue relayed his own experience.
“I bought the sim registered and after some months they be telling me that my sim is not registered.” This, according to him was after three to four months of using the sim card.
I visited Airtel registration centre and complained to them and they registered the sim again. I bought mine from those that sell sims in car and they told me it was registered.”
When asked how much he bought the first sim, he said: “I initially paid 150 naira for the first sim registration,” but after he went to re-register the sim, he paid the sum of 100 naira.
