Customers call for refunds as Ooredoo data disruption lasts throughout the weekend
Hundreds of customers have been left outraged over days of data service disruption by Ooredoo, which has since Thursday seen its connection and numbers undergo intermittent outage.
On Wednesday, a message sent by Ooredoo warned customers may experience disruption between midnight and 6am on Thursday.
“Dear customer: In order to enhance your service experience, we’ll be upgrading our systems on Wednesday 4 November (midnight) so you won’t be able to access our usual channels for service delivery. Rest assured we’ll be back up and running from 6am on Thursday 5 November, and better than ever!” said the message.
We’re sorry you’re experiencing some issues using mobile . Rest assured we’re working on fixing the problem, and we’ll have it back up and running as soon as possible.#Ooredoo
— Ooredoo Qatar (@OoredooQatar) November 7, 2020
However, several users complained they had no internet access hours later at around 9am on Thursday.
Ooredoo Qatar later said it has resolved the “issues with the network” that resulted in intermittent outages of its telecom services in the morning.
“Thanks for your patience while we’ve been experiencing issues with the network. We’re pleased to let you know everything’s back up and running smoothly! Apologies again for the inconvenience,” Ooredoo Qatar tweeted at around 11am, almost an hour after confirming the problem.
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However, the disruption continued until late on Saturday, where users took to Twitter to complain about the inconvenience.
Ooredoo responded on the popular social media platform explaining that they were working on fixing the issue.
“We’re sorry you’re experiencing some issues using mobile. Rest assured we’re working on fixing the problem, and we’ll have it back up and running as soon as possible.”
Customers have called on the company to refund payments made for this month while others have urged they not be charged at all for the service issues.
“Your apology is not accepted, the statement is very late. We’ve been having network issues since Thursday early morning. This is unprofessional, and it shows poor quality of service. We expect compensation,” one customer said on Twitter.
“If @OoredooQatar didn’t give us some sort of compensation for their screw up then we should start switching because apparently they think they are still Qtel with a monopoly on telecommunications,” a Twitter user said.
“Till when this will continue? and how about our subscriptions that will expire? Are you going to extend them? Fix your network please, or give us our money back,” another user said.
Doha News reached out to Ooredoo Qatar but has not received a response from the company.
Ooredoo and Vodafone are the only two telecommunications companies in Qatar and hold a monopoly in the Qatari market.
The former was previously censured by the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) of Qatar for engaging in anti-competitive behaviours.
In a statement published on Monday, CRA confirmed it was aware of the issues with Ooredoo.
“The majority of customers will notice that the issue has been solved, while a limited number of customers might face limitation to access some mobile services. The CRA always ensures to protect the rights of telecom consumers in Qatar,” it said in a statement posted on Twitter.
