For most people it all began when Ecocash announced their upgrade which was supposed to last a day back in mid-November last year. What was supposed to be a weekend thing turned into a nightmare that lasted for weeks with failed transactions and disappearing money.

Fast forward to today and we are still seeing people complaining about their failed transactions and things not working as they should. Below are just some few examples of queries that keep coming up on social media with irate users demanding recourse.

Hi Buddie, we apologize for the late response and experience. If the amount has not yet been reversed back to your bank or reached your wallet, kindly get in touch with EcoCash directly on Twitter Page: @CassavaSmartech or toll-free: 114 for assistance on the query.^EC
— Econet Customer Care (@econet_support) February 6, 2020

Hey Katz, we have taken note of your mobile number, and we are thoroughly investigating the issue. Kindly note that you will be advised through an SMS once the issue has been resolved. Any inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted. ^SC
— Econet Customer Care (@econet_support) February 6, 2020

What’s making it all worse is Ecocash’s method or lack thereof for dealing with failed transactions. Probably through no fault of their own it is harder to reverse a failed transaction. Making it too easy would probably create other problems as fraudsters take advantage, “buying goods” and demanding reversals.

Right now the biggest problem for me is the opaque way in which queries are being held. A ticketing system would be very useful as it allows for queries to be transparently both internally and externally. Something akin to what ZOL uses for its own customers with incident numbers.

Ecocash’s cousin Steward has shown that this works for banks as well. I also admire how banks like FBC handle queries with prompt chat responses and not asking people to wait for weeks to get their reversal requests approved.