I do not use MTN and I work for a competitor in the Telecoms industry but that is not the reason I am writing this piece. I am just being objective and putting voice to something that the NCC and the consumer parliament should address.
I sometimes buy MTN cards to send to people and the experience have not been a palatable one at all. The first time I noticed it; I was very surprised and wondered why the Consumer Protection Agency has not swamped on the company. I remember that the federal government banned the importation of overseas-made scratch card and that was a welcome decision to Nigerians considering the issue of foreign exchange. Other Telecoms companies started making their scratch card with good quality materials but a particular company wanted to prove that nothing good can come out of Nigeria, hence their decision to make very low quality cards.
MTN recharge cards when scratched are often useless because you would have scratched the pin number off and then have to call their customer care line to recover the pin. The last time I bought their card, the vendor offered to scratch it for me with a system he has discovered to be full-proof – He uses a cloth and kerosene to rub the coating 🙂
I also saw another person using chalk to rub the coating off and I could not help but laugh. Cards of other operators are still being scratched the same way without these problems; so what is MTN trying to prove to us?
I wonder if they ask for feedbacks from their subscribers and the general public.
This must stop and the NCC should take this as a violation of consumers’ rights.