tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13209818.post8554739012491557666..comments2024-02-15T09:53:01.271+01:00Comments on Up Naira : With calls now averaging just under 20kobo per second, should telecomm service be so damn poor?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05362291064620569539noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13209818.post-71894041550098342992013-10-03T09:50:52.752+01:002013-10-03T09:50:52.752+01:00Noticed that I haven't received a single text ...Noticed that I haven't received a single text on my Glo phone in 2.5 weeks (part of the reason I got problems with an ATM transaction that basically emptied my account without me noticing, and 'that' may take weeks for banks to fix. Oh well). <br /><br />So I phoned customer care (121) and told them I hadn't received a message in a long time. <br />First guy mumbled instructions to check the message settings (set message center number to +2348050001501 and set something to text not html, I couldn't find the something and the msg ctr number was already fine.) <br /><br />The next time I phoned, a girl mumbled with fake foneh what the something was, and then I should send a message to test. I still couldn't figure it out but I fiddled with text message settings and MMS settings. The test, from my phone to itself was negative: message was said to be delivered but I never received it. <br /><br />Next guy spoke clearly. I told him the story so far. He suggested I phone customer service in the morning after 8am to get benefit of network engineers' input. I commended him for speaking clearly. He was basically an experienced cust service rep, giving me the lines about how they apologize for inconveniences and it's all because they're upgrading their system to serve me better. Smile. <br /><br />I phoned back just now. 9am. Fourth rep was a girl, again clear-speaking and experienced. She first misunderstood thinking I couldn't SEND so I said the real matter is I haven't RECEIVED a message in ages. Who knows if I can't send too. She suggested a test so I quickly did that from another phone to my erring phone. (I asked her to hold - so I won't have to call back and wait through their ads.) Same result as before, says it's delivered but nowhere to be seen. <br /><br />Then she says, do a hard reset on your phone. It's not a blackberry, I protest. Yes, still, she asks me to take out the battery and the SIM, then put both back in and then switch phone back on. This is what they call a hard reset.<br /> <br />I did and like magic, my phone started ringing unending incoming message beeps...20messages...50messages...will it ever end?...100...200...hallelujah, alhamdulillah. All those lost messages (mostly junk I bet) have been found. <br /><br />MORAL OF THE STORY: if you've lost text messages on GLO, Airtel, MTN, Etisalat etc as many Nigerians recently have, try a hard reset. It worked for me.thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05362291064620569539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13209818.post-59523860057268659542013-09-22T03:50:25.859+01:002013-09-22T03:50:25.859+01:00On the technical side, there could very well be a ...On the technical side, there could very well be a bad procedure causing the degraded service e.g. some sort of new instruction bouncing packets around. <br />To illustrate, just now I checked my facebook APP (programmed to be lighter than web browser version) on BB (service is up now, it's 3:30am) . I wanted to see what was on my wall but the items were very stale, days old, so I hit refresh. <br />This stupid app proceeded to scroll/fastforward through everything I'd missed (thousands of posts, thousands of friends) instead of maybe jumping to the latest two posts or so. It was probably designed for users who kept continuously updated, not those who were constrained (by lack of interest and lack of internet service) to look rarely. <br />I clicked something else so the madness would stop. Now I know not to use refresh. I also noticed that there's a CLOSE function so I can just turn off the service when not using it.<br /><br />But anyway, imagine someone unleashed such an error in managing the phone network. You could see how it would eat up valuable resources doing useless errands. <br />- Just some inspiration that should help a network admin do his/her job. Call an expert. Use a network analyzer (whatever, I just made that up, but whatever you call your diagnostic tools.) And ask for help on whatever fora, look what solutions others have found before (and ask for a raise :)<br /><br /> And really, someone should make the phone company want to do its job. Make them pay for bad service.thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05362291064620569539noreply@blogger.com