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The MultiChoice (DStv, GOtv) Customer Service Lesson

The MultiChoice (DStv, GOtv) Customer Service Lesson

On Thursday, MultiChoice (DStv, GOtv) informed its customers thus: “Please be informed that Multichoice offices are undergoing a system upgrade from 11 pm Saturday October 17 to 4pm Monday, October 19, 2020.” Then, from October 17, many started writing that the DStv system had been hacked because most channels became available to everyone. Interestingly, Multichoice made a decision as the upgrade process would prevent some subscribers to temporarily NOT have access to their paid channels. In order to avoid that, the company opened all the channels to mostly everyone.

I recall the day we were doing an upgrade in the Tekedia payment system. The database migration possibly could prevent subscribers from not having access to the premium contents. I asked our team to make everything open even though non subscribers could have access. The real goal was to make sure that paid subscribers were never affected during the process. When the migration was completed, we switched back the paywall.

For these two scenarios, would you have approached the issues differently?

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I think we need to learn from Telecom companies. I’m curious, how do they do it? Do they also open up their server so that everyone and anyone both subscribed and unsubscribed can have access to the pool of their data subscription and airtime?

I personally think if they go down this route, the debt they will accrue over that short space of time will be more than enough to set the company on a survival trajectory.

So, how do they get it done? Anyone with exact and factual details should help with that.

My Response: Actually, telcos do open up during some upgrades. There have been cases when people harvested bundles by luck. The key is making that call between annoying the paid users and t hoping the freebies will not break you. Yet, the real deal is to make sure you never have to make such calls. But some default to open especially when the risk is small over dealing with customer complaints on Twitter and Facebook.


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13 THOUGHTS ON The MultiChoice (DStv, GOtv) Customer Service Lesson

  1. The society suffers from trust deficit, so you rarely see either of the parties believing whatever the other puts out there. To those enjoying free subscription, the company has been hacked, so whatever the latter says is a cover-up.

    And since companies don’t have full backing of their customers, they become too afraid to inform them that there would be service disruptions or hitches, as a result of planned upgrade; so what do they do? They take a leap of faith, whatever happens, they hope to pick the pieces.

    If you ask me, none is necessary. You don’t need to inflict a wound that could leave you with a gaping hole on the balance sheet, all in the name of not wanting to annoy paying customers; it’s tactless. If you have been offering a superb customer experience, and you inform them ahead that there would be disruptions as a result of planned upgrade, in order to serve them more excellently. And you think the customers will revolt? When your output or service is atrocious, anything becomes an excuse on not to do the right thing.

    Banks don’t credit people’s accounts during upgrades, yet no one is carrying placards or burning down their branches.

    We need a more enhanced and polished excuses, these ones are too primitive.

  2. They are cheat and malignant act will chase them out of this our darling country. They ripp us off and cruel service and defauted system. It is high time we need to chase this aliens away before they finish us with their monopolise way and infringement service offer by them.
    I am of the opinion that Dstv have defaulted system and stylishly or pretend they open up inequality service. We are tired of them. Time is coming soonest that will leave with their horrible service they provided and suffer a great deal with respect to the havoc they have caused to their customers. We are vulnerable in the hands over years. Exploitation and harsh service. They need to keep quiet with their clumsy and flimsy excuses. My submission

  3. They are cheat and with their malignant act will chase them out of this our darling country. They ripp us off and with their cruel service and defauted system. It is high time we chase this aliens away before they finish us with their monopolise system and infringement service offer by them.
    I am of the opinion that Dstv have defaulted system and stylishly or pretended they open up inequality service. We are tired of them. Time is coming soonest that they will leave with their horrible service they provided and suffer a great deal with respect to the havoc they have caused to their faithful customers. We are vulnerable in their hands over years with exploitation and harsh service provided by them. They need to keep quiet with their clumsy and flimsy excuses. My submission

  4. They are cheat and their malignant act will chase them out of this our darling country. They ripp us off and with their cruel service and defauted system. It is high time we chase this aliens away before they finish us with their monopolise system and infringement service offer by them.
    I am of the opinion that Dstv have defaulted system and stylishly or pretended they open up their inequality service to their customers as if that is their character. We are tired of them. Time is coming soonest that they will leave with their horrible service they provided and suffer a great deal with respect to the havoc they have caused to their faithful customers. We are vulnerable in their hands over years with exploitation and harsh service provided by them. They need to keep quiet with their clumsy and flimsy excuses. My submission

  5. Before the service maintenance we paid through bank transferfor DSTV 7029041564 Friday October 16,2020 .As at the time of writing Oct 21, we have not been able to enjoy your service
    We have other challenges this multiChoice

  6. I reconnected on the 26 September and on the 20 October service is disconnected again and the say I must Pay the reconnection fee again. Imagine paying 2 reconnection fee within a month

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