Airtel Rwanda should stop making fun of its customers

Nothing is more upsetting than a big corporation, making the assumption that a whole bunch of their customers are... : "Stupid".

In our countries, I mean Africa, it is very rare to find consumer protection associations that have a mission to protect the market from being cheated by corporations. But if there was, some of them would have probably taken to court the case of Airtel Rwanda.

Many people on the internet has been complaining to Airtel Rwanda to stop making a fool out of the public, without a single reaction from them.

Airtel Rwanda offers a "Daily" Internet subscription to their users. By daily it means that you have free unlimited internet from Midnight to Midnight. But what they don't tell you is that the "Daily" Internet package is actually a 2 GB Max usage package. The service costs RWF 500 per Day.

The implications of calling this package daily are enormous, since it is actually a 2GB package. Because, after midnight if you have only used 1GB airtel Rwanda will actually suspend you thus "stealing" 1 GB from you, just because they called their package "Daily" you are supposed to lose your 1 GB data.

If they had called it 2GB package, they would not have had the right to suspend you until you have fully consumed the 2 GB. This is a classic case of  "Stealing the words to change their meaning". And make millions every day on the back of the unsuspecting public.

Two solutions are open for Airtel, if the organization want to be a honnest and carring for its customer, let 2 GB be 2GB for all users, and if you are going to propose a Daily unlimited package, let it actually be a Daily Unlimited Package.

On the Rwanda Utilities And Regulation Authrority (RURA) I can read the moto, we protect users and operators interests, and in this specific case the interest of the public is being left behind at the profit of an operator who is not willing to be honest with their product to the public.

For you to understand how dangerous it is, imagine if the pharmaceutical industry will start playing with names on their medical products taking anti-biotics and calling them anti-depressants; Or maybe the Food industry wrongly claiming that a certain product is fat free, or lying about the chemicals contained in their products. The consequences on society would be tragic.

Airtel Rwanda should take their responsibility, by either letting the public use the full 2 GB that they purchase everyday or actually creating a daily pack that expires at midnight.