When Tizeti Network Limited customer care representatives picked up the outdoor internet device belonging to Arab David (real name withheld), an Oyo State resident, for servicing on June 21, they told him he’d get it the following week.

Little did David know that Tizeti would fail to return the network device three months after they took it for servicing.

Checks by FIJ show that Tizeti is a solar-powered fixed internet service provider in Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. As seen on its website, Tizeti says it provides unlimited, affordable and superfast internet service.

However, David barely enjoyed the proclaimed benefits of his Tizeti internet device, as he experienced bouts of downtime in December 2022, when he had it installed in his house after payment.

READ ALSO: 7 Months After Picking Up Customer’s Wireless Device for Upgrade, Tizeti Hasn’t Returned It

He told FIJ that Tizeti’s sales representatives installed the device on December 12, but the network “did not work”. So, he did not enjoy Tizeti’s internet service in full.

“I was having downtime, which means the network was not working at all. It was down on December 13, 2022, for seven hours. The same thing happened on December 17 and 18, 2022. On December 19, 2022, it was down for almost a full day. It did not work for more than 20 hours. It wasn’t working on December 20 and 21 as well,” he told FIJ on Wednesday.

“During this period, I was only staying in Nigeria for a short period. I told their sales representative that I only needed the service while I was in the country and that, if the network were good, I would use it whenever I was in Nigeria. Then, the sales rep assured me that the network was good and fast.

“I subscribed for one month, starting from December 12, which meant the subscription would last until January 12. When I travelled around January 15 or 17, 2023, I didn’t bother to subscribe again, not even for the people at home, because there was no point paying N12,000 when I didn’t enjoy the service during my stay. For 10 out of the 30 days, I had no service. What was the point of continuing a subscription when I wasn’t around?”

READ ALSO: After FIJ’s Intervention, Tizeti Refunds Customer’s N73,500

He also told FIJ that Tizeti employees reached out to him via WhatsApp at different points in April 2023, telling him that his outdoor device had “dissociated itself from the base station” due to lack of use.

“I also received several emails for the retrieval of the outdoor device. I learnt they had a shortage of devices, so they were telling customers who hadn’t subscribed that they wanted to retrieve the device and that they would compensate the customers in exchange,” he disclosed.

FIJ gathered that, upon David’s return to the country in June, he reached out to Tizeti so he could subscribe.

“I spoke with one of their sales reps or engineers, who told me the device wouldn’t work because it had been inactive for over a year. They said they needed to survey the device to see if it would still function. I didn’t realise it was a trick to take back the outdoor device they had been trying to collect all this while,” he said.

“On June 21, 2024, they came to check the device. After spending a few minutes, they said the device wasn’t getting any signal and that they needed to go with it. I thought they were men of their word.”

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According to David, the sales representatives promised he would get the device the following week once it had been serviced.

To his surprise, he did not receive any update from Tizeti. David said he had to call them repeatedly until they told him they couldn’t service the device in Ibadan, so they sent it to Lagos.

“If they sent it to Lagos, I should have received an official email confirming this, but I didn’t get any email. I started emailing them to ask where my device was,” David told FIJ.

“They did not respond to my emails. After much persistence, I spoke with Vivian, one of their staff members, and she assured me I would receive it the following week, but that was over a month ago in August. I did not get the device.”

David said he kept calling Tizeti for an update on his device, but one of the technical team members, identified as Mayowa, would make a shocking statement: “He told me I needed to subscribe for three months in advance, and only after receiving the payment would they bring the device to Ibadan.

“It seems they are trying to extort customers by demanding upfront payments without addressing the downtime issues for which there is no compensation. I paid for the device; they didn’t give it to me for free. I paid for the subscription separately. This is the problem I’m currently facing.”

After confirming the details on Wednesday, Balikis, a customer representative at Tizeti, told FIJ that she would escalate the issue right away.

She said the team in charge would reach out to the customer.
The post Tizeti Holds On to Oyo Customer’s Internet Device 3 Months After Picking It for Servicing appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.