Safaricom has ordered a premium rate service (PRS) provider Challa Communications to refund users their cash following customer complaints related to the 22252 short code used to deliver Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results.
Safaricom made the decision after it initiated a full investigation with a view to ensuring that all customers were able to use the service and were not over-charged for their use.
(TOP: Students check their exam results from a mobile phone).
“The 22252 short code is run by a third-party named Challa Communications Limited, who are licensed by the Communications Authority and were contracted by the Kenya National Examinations Council to provide the service. On Wednesday, Challa Communications informed us of a technical challenge that meant that customers who queried the system experienced delays in receiving results,” Joseph Ogutu, Director of Strategy, Safaricom, said in a statement issued by the telco.
“This prompted some customers to repeat their query and in the process, they were billed multiple times for each attempt. As a result, a total of 424,011 requests were affected.”
Due to the technical hitch, Safaricom has thereby instructed Challa Communications to refund all of the affected customers starting this afternoon – that is Thursday November 23, 2017 -, mainly those who queried the system more than once, as well as those who may have been billed without receiving any response.
“We regret any inconvenience caused to our customers and want to assure them that we are dedicated to ensuring that they continue to enjoy the best possible experience on our network… Our full attention remains focused on resolving this issue for the continued benefit of our subscribers and we shall extend our support to Challa Communications to help resolve any future technical issues that caused this incident,” adds the statement.
Be the first to comment