For years, Nigerian consumers have had to wade through bureaucratic process of making complaints to companies, especially service providers, the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), and others to get redress.
Most times, it takes months to get replies and, in some cases, the customers never get replies from the companies or the authorities.
But with social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram becoming hubs for advertisers and companies who want to get more customers, Nigerian consumers have found more effective ways of channeling their grievances.
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On Twitter and Instagram, big brands also hire influencers and celebrities to promote their products.
Aggrieved consumers now storm the comment section of these big influencers with thousands of followers to lay their complaints and tag the company involved.
Financial service providers and network service providers have the most reported cases, finding by THE WHISTLER reveals.
THE WHISTLER sampled three Twitter accounts belonging to two musicians and an influencer including Wizkid with 12 million followers; Davido with 13.8 million followers and Daniel Regha @DanielRegha who has 790,400 followers.
An instance is a post shared by Davido on July 10 announcing his tour in Europe, at least 4 of the replies were complaints.
@OCharles0974279 complained, “@MTNNG please what’s happening to my data… How can I subscribe 500# yesterday for 1.5g and it finished today?”
MTN Nigeria Support replied six hours later “Yello! Apologies for the data depletion complaint. Kindly be informed that customers are charged on their data bundle based on the internet activities on their lines. Please DM the affected phone number for further assistance.”
A picture tweeted by Wizkid on July 9, 2023 which had 218 quotes had two complaints tendered by MTN subscribers.
One of the customers @RadiantFeebee said, “@MTN180, Please I can’t send messages with my Sim. I keep getting error 21.”
MTN replied, “Apologies for the inability to send SMS on your line. Kindly provide the affected phone number, phone type, location, and error message encountered for checks and support.”
Another Twitter user @Kingfamous replying a post shared by Regha, complained, “@PolarisBankLtd you debited me and you didn’t send me the airtime not once or twice kindly do something about it Polaris Bank Ltd,” Polaris Bank replied 6 hours later.
The bank said, “@kingfamous77, we sincerely empathize with you for any inconvenience that this situation may have caused you. Kindly avail the amount and date of the unsuccessful airtime recharge via DM so we can escalate appropriately and attain a timely resolution.”
In that particular tweet, at least five comments were complaints laid by customers of financial service and network providers.