Customers trying to access their M-Shwari accounts Wednesday reported delays and inconsistencies in their cash balances.
A number who contacted both Safaricom #ticker:SCOM and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), which runs the mobile accounts, were told they would have to wait for up to 72 hours before they could have “their issues resolved.”
M-Shwari has experienced system failures since the eve of Christmas, which CBA acknowledged in a statement released on Monday.
M-Shwari customers have raised queries on their mobile money account balances after a number were unable to access their cash following the system’s outage, which started over the weekend.
Customers trying to access their M-Shwari accounts Wednesday reported delays and inconsistencies in their cash balances. A number who contacted both Safaricom #ticker:SCOM and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), which runs the mobile accounts, were told they would have to wait for up to 72 hours before they could have “their issues resolved.”
A customer lodging a complaint on Safaricom’s Facebook page yesterday said she was unable to access her cash four days after making a withdrawal. Another disgruntled client who sought customer care help could not access the amount saved in her M-Shwari lock account by the end of yesterday.
Another customer seeking a refund was only able to access a fraction of the amount saved on M-Shwari, with customer care agents promising to reach out to him in 72 hours. Some claimed their account balances were inaccurate.
“Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience. We are working to resolve the issue and no cash shall be lost,” said a response sent to one of the M-Shwari customers.
CBA had in the statement issued on Monday said that the system outage had been resolved.
“We have since resolved the technical issues and the M-Shwari customers are now able to transact normally,” CBA chief executive Isaac Awuondo said in the Monday statement.
“As we worked to restore services, we worked closely with all our stakeholders who were informed of the remedial actions taken. We deeply regret the inconvenience to our customers during this festive season…”
When reached for comment yesterday regarding the fresh customer complaints, Mr Awuondo maintained that M-Shwari was working normally.
“The systems are working. Our customers with any issues know how to reach out to our customer care agents,” he said.
On Sunday at about 11:40am, an attempt to transact on the M-Shwari returned the message that the service was undergoing maintenance.
A day later, a message indicated that M-Shwari was under emergency maintenance and was working to restore the service by 6pm.
“M-Shwari is undergoing emergency maintenance and is unable to process your request at this time. We are working to restore the service by 6.00pm,” the message read at 3.52pm.
