VIOLATION OF CUSTOMER RIGHTS BY IPNX WIRELESS

I was not there that day, but I use IPNX, and the service lately has been either non existent, or worse that dial up. IPNX, like other ISPs I know do not compensate customers for services not rendered.

THIS HAS GOT TO STOP

The problem is global (the fabled break in landing cable leg of SAT III at Cotonou) but how you treat your customers should be with decency. We cannot adjudge IPNX guilty until they defend themselves, but the fact remains that if a customer feels this way, then something is very wrong with the customer service

Culled from Guardian

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VIOLATION OF CUSTOMER RIGHTS BY IPNX WIRELESS (ISP) AND GROSS CUSTOMER RELATIONS DESECRATION BY IFEANYI AMAH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, IPNX WIRELESS

The present difficulty associated with internet service provision to Nigerians due to "the cable cut"(NCC has denied that there is a cable cut http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=150273) on NITEL SAT 3 presents alot of challenges to Internet Service Provider companies in Nigeria and particularly for companies like IPNX who recently showed that their back up as well as their customer care as exemplified by one of their Executive Directors, Ifeanyi Amah, is not reliable.
There couldn’t have been a better place to witness the possibility of the dangers that confronts ISP companies and internet service subscribers in Nigeria than the very corporate office of IPNX. On Thursday 23rd, July 2009, most IPNX customers started to notice that though their modems were showing sign of internet connection but weren’t browsing as expected. Subscribers started to call IPNX in a view to knowing what the real issues were, only to be held on phone perpetually or in some cases blocked from reaching their customer care lines.

On Monday 27, July 2009, been one of the affected subscribers I left my office to the IPNX office in Ikeja GRA to try and understand what the issues are and alas I found out that a good number of subscribers were also waiting to hear from IPNX. It did not take long for IPNX customer care to start regurgitating the old SAT 3 fault laden cable and all that. Yours truly quickly mobilized some of the subscribers present there with a view to getting IPNX to answer some of the customer care lapses that has been a Siamese to their services.

For the avoidance of doubt, I have come to realize that IPNX (and most likely so for other ISPs) never compensate clients for the periods that they don’t supply internet. Why is this so?
IPNX also finds it very easy to disrespect their customers regardless of the fact that the average customer contributes about 189,000 Naira to the business annually.

Ifeanyi Amah failed to seize the opportunity that the crisis presented by displaying to his staff how to handle issues like this when he came out to talk down on his customers and in no time called the police to harass his own customers without making reasonable efforts to appeal to the angry customers. He also failed to acknowledge the fact that his company never compensates subscribers when service disruptions occur. Rather his focus was on misleading his subscribers by telling them that SAT3 cable cut was responsible. Though most of the clients understood that SAT3 could be possibly down, our request was more of compensation rather than the SAT3 lecture that he was focusing on.

Beyond that, the IPNX excuse was suspect because most of the banks they serve were working well with the internet service they get from IPNX. They only think that it is the SME’s and individual that should suffer when they have shortcomings. Why is one client been given preferential treatment and the other punished for patronizing same company? Is this not a direct violation of her core values “to treat others impartially and with dignity” as expressed on the website
On the corporate website of IPNX, the following were the corporate declaration:

Core Values
Customer Centric
Consistently exceeding customers´ expectation
Innovative: Continuously creating new possibilities through pioneering technology and processes and nurturing creative thinking.
Team Work: Sharing knowledge, skills, the joys of success and the pains of failure
Interactive collaboration
Integrity: Consistency in what we say and do Adhering to the firm\'s ethics
Respect for the Individual
Treating others impartially and with dignity * Listening and granting legitimacy to others´ point of view

Excellence: Going beyond the current standards *constantly striving for improvement
Creativity in everything we do: Finding better, faster, less expensive or more efficient ways of doing things.
Professionalism: Adhering to the norms and regulation of one\'s profession and conducting self in ways that portray the values and culture of the profession
It is obvious that companies don’t find it difficult to declare sweet ethical and core value text only to find them wanting on the D-Day!
We are no longer in doubt that IPNX has consistently violated the rights of her customers in respect of freedom of information, fair charges and due compensation when service disruptions occurs.

On behalf of her other subscribers of IPNX services, I want the consumer rights protection agency to investigate IPNX further and ensure that the rights of all consumers are appropriately protected and that due compensation is granted all subscribers.