A LESCO bill wrongly stamped by EasyPaisa shopkeeper
Today, in the morning I was shocked to know through a local newspaper that LESCO has refused to acknowledge the payments of the LESCO customers that they have made to Telenor EasyPaisa Outlets.
Really upset, I called the LESCO (Lahore Electricity Supply Company) to know the truth and their representative from the Revenue department confirmed the status and said,” we are not getting any sort of payments from Telenor or Tameer Bank as there is no agreement between LESCO and Telenor/Tameer Bank so far”.
He further told that “If you have paid your amount already then you better get it back from the outlet you paid and pay it to the recognized bank the way you have been doing for years or otherwise you will have to pay the arrears next time you get the bill”.
I called the Tameer Bank to know how the bank is going to clear this issue or if they will be able to pay my amount back, a Lahore based senior officer of the bank confirmed me that there is no agreement between LESCO and Tameer bank so far and Tameer bank is currently using KASB Bank to pay the amounts to LESCO.
To my question that why Telenor and Tameer bank came forward to collect the money from the people of Pakistan without establishing a system and network, he was speechless first and then tried to clear the situation he said, “Tameer bank is going to have an agreement with LESCO in the coming week and if you get your next month’s bill with arrears, don’t worry and it will be ok, your money is safe”.
I am not satisfied because I never checked the stamp at first on my bill that the shopkeeper had put on my bill as I had a trust on the company but today I checked the stamp it was ridiculous, the stamp was telling that I had paid a bill of December 2009 whereas I paid the bill of October 2009.
I asked this to the guy representing Tameer Bank and he told, “You must go back and get the stamp changed”.
Well, it is pinching, that if Tameer Bank tries to clear my amount in the next month or they are able enter into an agreement with the LESCO; even then my bill will not be paid because a wrong stamp by shopkeeper had completely changed my transaction from the very instance I paid him.
I refer to the lines of my previous blog, Telenor says, its EasyPaisa service has revolutionized the country and thousands of people are transacting through their service, this was said by Mr. Usman Javed, Head of Marketing, Telenor Pakistan in a television show. On the very second day after the launch of the service, he claimed that the response is overwhelming and thousands of people are paying their utility bills through Telenor EasyPaisa. Click here for Telenor EasyPaisa Customer Feedback
I again say, the service is no doubt a good activity by why Telenor found it necessary to deceive people of Pakistan when they did not have the proper arrangements. Telenor people say that whenever a service is launched there are always glitches, but I say, why it always happens. The company was conducting test exercise for the last one month that means it was collecting money from their employees and the entire network of shopkeepers without any legal standing?
Lahore is a population of over 10 Million and if 5% of the population trusted Telenor and paid their electricity bills in the month of October, we can expect a huge amount of money that the company/bank collected on LESCOs’ behalf.
Why Telenor and Tameer Bank spent Millions of Ruppees on marketing and advertisement at a very immature stage when they knew it from the very first day that it is not going to work. I ask them, isn’t it a foul play or if I used a little technical language, it may be called a fraud or financial scam.
It is always the right of customer to know before what he pays and what for? State Bank, PTA and all the concerned authorities must take these kinds of things very seriously because it may please few people to see that how speedily Pakistan is forwarding towards Mobile Banking but there has to be a proper frame work and guidelines before any activity.
ALL THAT GLITTER IS NOT GOLD
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sORZbzU8dOE
Telenor EasyPaisa, Customer Feedback
it is working fine with me and i think em happy with it
@ ali Sikander
Ali please let me clarify one thing. KASB eUBS has aggregation rights for SNGPL SSGC, KESC, PTCL, GEPCO and IESCO and not repeat not for LESCO. The data for LESCO bills is updated by another company, which in turn has an agreement with LESCO, and with which KASB is in agreement too. This data is then used by KASB for customer’s bill payments and that too only via the mobile channel specifically Mobilink Genie.
The agreement as I know of it, does not give KASB the right to provide LESCO bills via any other channel and forwarding these rights to yet another party is totally out of the question.
What these companies have done is equivalent to a fraud. I am amazed at the level of negligence and immaturity shown by Tameer, Telenor and KASB.
Has anyone of the folks here paid the bills themselves? I have been paying for over 3 months with ’0′ arrears on LESCO. So, to state that “looted money” to be returned to customer may not be the right comparison since all the bills are paid.
i think Telenor should mark on the website that LESCO is paid via KASB’s UB service
Has anyone heard of 1-link? 1-link is also a bill aggregator which the banks use to pay over the ATM, Internet, POS, call centers etc.
They never mention that the bill is paid via 1-link.
What a blunder, which usually you don’t expect with this stature of a company.
With a big bang advertising and presssurising newspapers by using big advertising muscles to print ads on front page instead of news for which readers buy the newspaper. If Telenor would have paid even little attention to product instead of advertising, the situation would have been different.
I need to clear up a few things.
@Kashif Saleem – I am not sure whether you are challenging my comments or supporting them. From the get-go it appears you are challenging, but the latter part seems to be more supportive.
@ali Sikander – In addition to your point, if either Tameer or KASB (as a back up bill aggregator) are not facilitating payments on time (whether due to delayed payment report submissions to the utility companies or other reasons) are still grounds for penalizing the institution promoting the service because it is on the front-end and is offering it’s services to the people, regardless of the backend ops involved.
Customers don’t care how it works, as long as it works.
My point(s) point fingers at the likes of an institution such as Telenor.
For the BB policy –
http://www.sbp.org.pk/bprd/2007/Guidelines-Branchless-Banking.pdf
and
http://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2008/Regulations-01-Apr-08.pdf
The News article on SBP’s BB Policy – http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=104354
@Kashif Saleem – I am not sure whether you are challenging my comments or supporting them. From the get-go it appears you are challenging, but the latter part seems to be more supportive.
@ali Sikander – In addition to your point, if either Tameer or KASB (as a back up bill aggregator) are not facilitating payments on time (whether due to delayed payment report submissions to the utility companies or other reasons) are still grounds for penalizing the institution promoting the service because it is on the front-end and is offering it’s services to the people, regardless of the backend ops involved.
Customers don’t care how it works, as long as it works.
My point(s) point fingers at the likes of an institution such as Telenor.
For the BB policy –
http://www.sbp.org.pk/bprd/2007/Guidelines-Branchless-Banking.pdf
and
http://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2008/Regulations-01-Apr-08.pdf
The News article on SBP’s BB Policy – http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=104354
ali what you are saying may be right but why telenor did not mention the name of KASB on the very first day. Why all the credits for Tameer and Telenor just to show the supremacy and strength in front of competitors and what about those people in millions who were being told
compelled by celebrities to follow the procedure.
Don’t you think TRUTH has any value. Why do you forget the case of AT&T in US when it had to pay back the amount to its customers which the company looted from them no matter how good intentions were of management.
Let me clarify as I know the process well. KASB bank is a bill aggregator authorized by SBP, which even Mobilink Genie also uses and so does 5 other member banks including Tameer Bank, and have been doing this since 2007. It is completely interlinked with the utility companies via KASB UB service. All the bills are updated instantly after debiting Tameer account.
In Pakistan, only banks (barring government entities like NADRA) have the permission to be collecting banks. Tameer is a collecting bank and such companies which currently have no billing aggregation contract with Tameer, KASB is used as their member bank for bills. The same is true for Atlas Bank, Citibank, SAMBA Bank, Bank Al ISlami etc.
Pleas be rest assured that all the bills paid so far are completely updated and wait for the next bill.
Haider, what responsibility are you talking about. It has been more than 24 hours since the issue was made public, since then, no one from Telenor appeared on TV or published any sort of advertisement in the newspaper to clear the situation. I remember when a service goes out in any area the respective GSM company let the people know through the newspaper ad and shows its sentiments that they are sorry for inconvenience.
These were the direct financial transaction and no single statement from the company clearing its position. That means Telenor is guilty and they do not have the courage to appear in the public. They are doing business in Pakistan how can they just set this fact aside.
her koee Pakistan kee aisee taisee phairta ha. Hum baiwaqoof bananay kay liya paida huay hain.
Having been a central part of this emerging industry (i.e. mobile commerce), I’d like to say a few things:
1. Teething problems are identified as issues that only surface during transition from theory to practice. Not signing a deal with a supposed partner is not a teething problem, it’s a massive oversight and false advertising in all senses. Misleading consumers is unforgivable for an institution of such repute that possesses not only the financial, but also technical and literate resources who are expected to know better. (*supporting Mudassir’s point)
2.This platform was very clearly defined by SBP and PTA as a branchless banking mechanism intended to bring banking services to the unbanked of pakistan. I am not unbanked, neither are majority of the people who are apparently using this service. If the case is otherwise, I urge telenor to prove that. We are not the primary target market, at best we are secondary. The primary market are people in urban/peri-urban slums, outskirts of metros and lower-income groups throughout the country. (*supporting Aamir’s point)
3. Buying a bank was a smart move since that is the only way to bring the model to life, i.e. a telco, bank and TPSP in the middle to provide the platform for payments.
4. Genie made similar mistakes – it would be wise to learn from those mistakes and find the way forward according to regulations or suggest a revision to those regulations so that whatever commercial offering you propose to consumers is in line with what is allowed. Otherwise, you just ruin it for those who have not yet gone commercial because they want to do it right the first time.
5. Companies that are considered industry leaders are expected, i repeat – expected, to take responsibility. They are to ease customer pain points, not increase them. This is not the USA and Easy Paisa is NOT Paypal. This is Pakistan, where even international banks such as SCB do NOT recognize ‘email’ as a legitimate form of communicating with customers.
Thanks.
Any thing could be happened in our beloved country PAKISTAN requirement is just little sharp and cheat mentality. Poori dunya ko daawat hai agar public ko bewaqoof bana na hai tau hamara mulk PAKISTAN haazir hai yahan aapko saath dene waalay bohat mil jayengay.
this is shit i dont know why telenor is prompoting it if they dont they have such any contract.At one side they people are saying that this is our biggest project and we expext alot from this project and on the other side they are doing these sorts of things.I accept that there are some damm poor planners in the telenor which are making such kind of plans.
This is really bad
How much money telenor has looted so far..can anyone tell? thanks God i did not go to pay my bill. Kya koee Telenor ko pooch sakta ha..koee department ha?
@Zain very true, they should have excluded LESCO and they could have included it later after the agreement. Giants like Telenor must not compromise on their reputation. Look at the scenario they spent Millions on publicity and operations, and a single PR from LESCO ruined the whole thing.
People who are responsible for this must be pointed out….
these are teething problem the service will face. But you will see improvements and systems and processes mature within the organization. But I think the company should have excluded LESCO for the launch if the agreement was not in place. LESCO would eventually have followed as bill payments grew for other utilities.
I am speechless too – actually i couldn’t t expect such a blunder from Telenor. Going live without agreement, not something a multinational company like Telenor should have done…
At first i was astonished to see mobile banking introduced in Pakistan, although it was not a true kind of mobile banking but i wanted to see the results before subscribing to this services. And i am not pleased to see what an organization of great stature like Telenor can do to innocent people of Pakistan.