Few days ago, I shared a post, stating how I visited one of the network providers here in my city, Airtel NG office for a sim card upgrade to a faster network. Dear brothers and sisters on Hive, I'm here to tell you that it was a futile attempt. My visit yielded nada. 😢
Recall I wrote that the customer care representative instructed me to remove my old SIM and insert the new one immediately network goes off from my phone, promising activation within 24 hours. Could you believe that my old SIM was still active and functioning perfectly till the evening, there was nothing like network glitch whatsoever, which made it impossible for me to follow her instructions. Looking at the situation, there was no way I could go swapping the sims, since my old sim card was still active. Moreover, I didn't want to make mistakes since I wasn't sure what could have gone wrong.
However, I still waited till night time, hoping to see a change, yet nothing. So the following day, after 24 hours had passed with of course no change, I contacted the online customer care and explained the situation. The representative surprisingly claimed my old SIM was already on 4G, which I doubted given its age. I told her that it was impossible for the sim to be on 4G because back then when I got it, over a decade ago, 4G network was not activated yet, and that I've not requested for any sim upgrade before, except for the one I went for which I believe wasn't successful, hence the call.
For loss of what to say next, she requested to transfer me to her supervisor, which I obliged. After being kept on hold for about 15 minutes, the supervisor responded, apologizing for keeping me on hold and asked to know what the issue was. After going over the situation again, he confirmed my line was 3G and, astonishingly, stated there was no record of my SIM upgrade request. He, however advised me to return to the office so it can be sorted out.
Hearing the supervisor say that there was no record of my SIM upgrade request came as a shock. Like, I couldn't believe that my visit to Airtel office was just a waste. And to think that I held Airtel in high esteem, and was even skeptical of the other customers' complaints about their services. Honestly, I didn't think issues like failed upgrade requests could happen. In fact, I felt mortified and disappointed at the same time.
The disappointment was even more since I'd planned around the upgrade. Weekend was the best time for such upgrades. The thought of revisiting the office and equally going through the process again was frustrating. Would I even have the time to go back there soon? Arrgghh!
However, it is said that "once you start a journey, you don't stop until you've arrived to your destination." So yesterday, I made out time and revisited the office. Fortunately, the same customer care representative attended to me. She explained that the reason for the unsuccessful or failed request was because of a network glitch they experienced that day. Network glitch even at the network provider's office. 😳 It sounded funny, but it is what it is.
After checking my request form, she transfered it to another person, this time, a guy, who was to handle the registration. We went over the process again to complete the upgrade, and within seconds, I received a successful request notification.
Happily, I made my way back to the office. Arriving the office, I noticed that the network has gone off. Immediately, I did as was previously instructed, and before I could know it, the network was restored and it showed 4G. Oh la la!
At long last, my sim is on 4G smart network.
So far, the network service has been pretty good and stable, for voice and data, and I'm glad I went for the upgrade. Now I have a reason to imagine.....! 😅
Thank you for reading.
Author's Photos
