Every Safaricom customer can certainly tell you that it has almost been a bed of roses for the past two months. From waivers on transaction charges to double internet speeds and more, it is clear that the mobile operator has been trying to make life a little bit easier for its subscribers during the coronavirus pandemic.

But at such a time when everything seems to be going wrong, there seems to be an unending supply of pricking thorns. For Safaricom, this has turned out to be its Customer Care department that has seen a degradation of service over the last couple of weeks.

It started with 400 Home Fibre customers calling  t0 report issues, only to have the calls unanswered on several occasions. Social media responses have also been reported to take hours, something that is not normal for such a company.

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Customers who have been lucky to have their calls picked have also reported that they’ve had to wait for too long. As expected, these issues have prompted a lot of complaints from customers across the country. And at a time when everyone depends on internet connectivity for interaction, work and school, it’s reasonable to see why this would irritate so many.

Coronavirus Side-Effect

Safaricom has responded to the issue, saying that the ongoing delays are owed to the COVID-19 crisis that has affected their customer care service. Nevertheless, they went further to assure Kenyans that the issue is currently being worked on.

Speaking to Gadgets Africa, Stephen Chege, Safaricom’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, went ahead to explain that the ongoing problem goes back to the huge demand on internet usage that has seen a surge over the last two months.

“We have seen a huge demand in Fibre To The Home. Because of this, we have had to reallocate resources to serve new customers,” Stephen Chege noted. He adds that coincidentally as the demand for Home Internet was on the rise, fibre cuts were happening on major lines thus degrading the service for current customers.

The strain on the internet bandwidth then gets to affect a number of clients who then have to call and submit their complaints. “We have lots of calls coming in which overwhelms the staff since there are a limited number of them at a particular time due to social distancing rules,” he added.