Caveat Emptor... InZaine

Any time you come across a good product/service that promises unusual benefits especially from our Telecoms bigboys... run for your money. Apparently, any of these products/services bear the label 'Terms and Conditions Apply'. They however don't mention which terms and conditions these are, at least expressly.

I just subscribed for an Uhuru-Net modem from Zain more than a month ago and it was all merry as I contemplated Unlimited surfing and downloads for just 3,000 bob a month. Little did I know of the raw deal that forebode. Just after a day of surfing, I couldn't believe the speeds that I was averaging. This was less than a tenth of what I was supposed to get according to the sales rep who lured me into the deal. 2Kbps... 5Kbps... 10Kbps... 2Kbps.... WTF???

For a modem that could cruise at 236Kbps and should have atleast sucked 100Kbps according to the Zain cartel, this is preposterous! When I went back to get 'technical' support, they tell me that the service does not work well with Vista since Vista 'clogs up the bandwidth' with unnecessary traffic (another INnZaine remark... ). Since I have been trying to ditch M$ (unsuccessfully) I tried setting the modem on Ubuntu which I did thanks to much appreciated support from the Skunkworks crew, but alas... 2Kbps... 5Kbps... 10Kbps... 2Kbps.... WTH???

They then go ahead to print me a bill after a month of Kshs. 4463. I thought the deal was a standing charge of 3k, regardless. I am told that the SMS ervice which they bundled with the firmware is not part of the Data service that I applied for! Again, why is SMS not Data? Who asked for SMS? After enjoying what I thought were free SMS's (routed through IP) for a month they present me with an apt printed report of the texts I sent with time and even the numbers to whom I'd sent, not forgetting the news alerts I'd subscribed for. BTW SMS's charged at 5/- whereas on Pamoja I'm charged 2/-. Are they even allowed to do that? I betcha the sim is probably voice enabled!

I think it will be a while before we could get a decent internet connection deal from either suffericon or the Inzaine atleast until EASSY delivers. Watch out though for Telkom/Orange this October and Econet in November. I would have loved to try out the livebox being sold by telkom but the size of the BOX wouldn't make it as mobile.

//End of rant.