Safaricom has ordered refunds to customers who were affected by a technical challenge that led to the malfunctioning of the 22252 short code that was used to deliver results of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams, which were released on Tuesday.
In a statement, Safaricom Director of Strategy Joe Ogutu said investigations launched into the matter established that some users were forced to repeat their queries after failing to get responses, resulting in multiple billing. In total, 424,011 requests were affected.
“We have instructed Challa Communications to refund all of the affected customers starting this afternoon, targeting those who queried the system more that once, as well as those who may have been billed without getting any response,” he said in a statement.
“We regret any incovenience caused to our customers and want to assure them that we are dedicated to ensure that they continue to enjoy the best possible experience on our network. Our full attention remains focussed on resolving this issue for the continued benefit of our subscribers and we shall extend our support to Challa Communications to help resolve any future technical issues that caused this incident,” added Ogutu.
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Challa Communications had been contracted by the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) to operate the short code but due to the technical challenge, there was a delay in processing requests.
Some Safaricom customers had accused the telco of failing to clarify the issue and instead deleting queries raised on their social media customer care platfoms.
Ogutu, however, says they were notified of the issue by Challa Communications on Wednesday and immediately launched investigations.
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