I'm a phone call away, so keep dialling even when network claims I am 'mteja'

If you have unsuccessfully attempted to contact me in recent days and weeks, and you were notified “mteja hapatikani,” please note that I am very much around. At times I have very good network, at other times, the calls drop.

I am talking of the Safcom network, so I checked in at the Safcom outlet in Kitengela early in the week. I’d have waited longer, because I like procrastinating, but I decided not to cross into the New Year without a properly functioning phone.

The tiny Safcom shop was full to the brim. The purr of the air conditioner seemed overwhelmed by the demands to cool the space. I picked a ticket waited to be served. There were some 30 people ahead, I deduced by listening to the automated voice calling out next customers.

But since I am trying to set a good example—the young man of the house despaired at the queues when he visited the Safaricom outlet to change his Mpesa registration details—I waited. A technician made an initial assessment within the first few minutes. When did I change the SIM last, he asked. Was the SIM card 5G or 2/3G?

I said I had no way of knowing, but it must have been recorded in their systems. He checked and reported that the SIM was fine; maybe it was the phone setting that needed changing.  He ushered me back in the queue and said he’d call me soon.

This stretched to a whole 1.5 hours. When it was my turn, I was shoved from one technician to another, responding to inquiries SIM cards and what-not for the umpteenth time. One brash technician said I should have gone to Samsung, not Safcom, if it’s the handset that had a problem. Only that the handset worked well with SIM cards from other networks.

Anyhow, a new SIM was issued and the challenges in calling out or receiving calls evaporated, very temporarily. A few hours later, the phone resumed its old habits: inordinate delays in calling out, and dropping calls in progress.

So, once again, mteja hapatikani. So, it might be a good idea to check with Samsung, if only to avoid spending another two hours in that crammed Safcom shop in Kitengela.