Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Back From the Starcomms Dungeon

Pretend as if you stumble, and observe to see if anyone would show concern. This is an apt Yoruba proverb, that portrayed my circumstances in the last 8 days when the ineptitude of my ISP (Internet Service Provider) Starcomms(dot)com ambushed my promises at the gate of this new year 2007.

The last time I had problem with their services was August to October 2005, some 17 months ago! I had no problem with their services throughout last year, 2006. I was advised on phone (Dialled *121) by their customer's service department (Which I now call Customer's deception department), on phone to pay through GTB bank for renewal of my monthly subscription, which I promptly did.

They went into deep slumber immediately afterwards. All my travails and efforts to get Starcomms to reconnect me proved abortive. I lost count of the official and contradictory lies given me by the many staff at the customer's (deception) desk.

I almost lost my account with Google AdSense because Starcomms forced me, out of desperation, to access both my Blogger and Adsense accounts at a public cybercafe. Google wrote me a warning letter, because of that inconsistent pattern triggered by starcomms ineptitude.

It is rare to receive a warning letter from Google, what she does is to ban any client that was suspected to be engaged in invalid clicks practice. My telenovela blog- The Gardener's Daughter (la Hija del Jardinero), is a very popular one in Nigeria. It is not impossible that some customers at the public cybercafe may be reading my snippets and episode summaries at the same time as I was accessing my accounts at the cybercafe.

Nigeria is notorious on the world wide web as the home of internet scammers and unethical web practices. That bad accolade, due to the few 'bad eggs' amongst us can cause incalculable damage to the honest web entrepreneurs among us. Starcomms did not help matters by her lack lustre services.

I was amazed about the unbelievable volume of mails and commentaries showing concern for my absence from the web for 8 days by my fans and supporters, not only from Nigeria, but also from all over the world. I appreciate your love and concern. I pray and hope we have gotten over this mental somersault by Starcomms for good. Cherish from Texas, Prof EAO, from B.U.K Kano, Nigeria, and all our numerous friends, too many to exhaust your names and individually reply your mails of concern. I thank you all.

I have started working towards changing ISP as I am already considering the offer of my dear friend and fellow 'gardener', Philip from Excite(dot)com. Multilinks(dot)com is no better because, our dear colleague Seun Osewa from Nairaland Forum did not spare them of his acidic tongue due to their poor services too.

I welcome all old and new members back on board and to the fulfilment of our 20-fold telenovela 'prophecy' for this year 2007. ...Let's begin the flight!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phil, It is a big relief that it was Starcomms doing the usual and not that anything serious happened to you, or that I'd been taken off the mailing list. I use Starcooms too and I understand your plight. My case is not that of disconnection, but of the phone "going out of service area" and "entering service area" almost at the same time. Of course, connection is lost and you have to start re-connecting and refreshing your page about five times per 30 mts!
Welcome back. EAO

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,
You are really doing a grate job here.u have concluded d Gardener's Daughter.l have finished d story even blf it is finihed on air.Why didn't u complete d story of Esmeralda?Am anxious 2 read 2 d end too.pls do me dat favour of completing it.l love u.keep d flag flying.vivien.