ALKHOBAR: To much fanfare, Saudi Arabia’s third cellular operator, Zain launched in Saudi Arabia a week ago. Since Zain is a mobile operator in 22 countries across the Middle East and Africa, there were high hopes that the Kingdom’s consumers would finally receive the customer service that they deserve from a telecom operator.

In the spirit of investigative reporting, I set out like other Saudis to get my very own Zain SIM. The company has a huge advertising campaign under way, where the first 500,000 Zain subscribers pay one month and then have their calls offset by that amount the next month by Zain for life. As a high-end post-paid Saudi Telecom customer, this would only save me a few halalahs per minute on my calls — hardly worth it for the hassle of changing my number. But loads of other consumers think this is an amazing offer and people are lining up around the Kingdom to sign up with Zain.

Finding a long queue at the Zain outlet at Alrashid Mall on Wednesday night, I decided that I wasn’t that desperate for a Zain chip and I left it for another day. On Saturday I went out to try again. Even then it wasn’t the best experience. I couldn’t locate the first two Zain outlets closest to my home on Zain’s online map because the map doesn’t give exact locations. The company assumes everyone knows a location such as Iskan Al-Khobar and is willing to search for the Zain outlet there. At Farm 9 Supermarket I stood in line for half an hour before the Zain representative announced that they were out of SIMs and everyone still waiting should try the next closest location at the Venezia Shopping Mall.

At the mall I found the Zain stand, its floor covered with trash. Then the miserable customer service experience that we’ve come to expect in Saudi Arabia began. When I asked the customer service rep why he was so unpleasant he stated, “I’ve been standing for days and I’m not getting enough sleep. Everyone asks the same questions. I see no end to this.” When I asked if he was well paid, he said that he was, but he didn’t seem to get the point of that question and there was no improvement in his manner.

The cost of the SIM was SR100 which was to be credited to my account. Purchasing a recharge card or topping up the SIM was not possible from the Zain outlet. If you are going to purchase a Zain SIM make sure you have a hundred riyals in exact change and a copy of your national ID or iqama. Note that Zain is only offering pre-paid SIMs at the moment, although they claim that post paid will be available shortly.

In any case, SIM in hand, next I had to wait 24 hours for activation. Sunday night the SIM did go live, but I couldn’t make any calls. The phone kept advising me that all calls from my number were barred. I removed the barring feature as per the Zain User Manual that came with the SIM, but calls still couldn’t be made or received. With call barring in place I couldn’t dial 1717 to activate the SIM. I called Zain’s customer service number but it was overwhelmed and the line disconnected again and again.

Yesterday morning the SIM still wasn’t allowing calls so it was time to try more aggressive tactics. Thirteen calls and 95 minutes later I managed to reach a customer service agent through 059-0000-959. The agent politely informed me that Zain was barring all calls to my number until I called them to confirm my national ID number and that the directions in the Zain User Guide to dial 1717 were incorrect.

Note the following if you have purchased a Zain SIM and are trying to activate it. You must dial 059-0000-959. If you need to talk to an English-speaking operator, the call must be picked up by an automated answering service which gives you the option to press one for Arabic or two for English. Then press one, enter your Zain telephone number and finally press zero to reach an operator. If at the beginning of the call, the call goes directly to the holding queue and you need an English-speaking operator, disconnect and try again, or learn to speak Arabic quickly. Midday is the best time to reach Zain customer service. Online information is also a problem. It has been very difficult to load the English website for Zain (www.sa.zain.com/autoforms/portal/home?AF_language=en ) even with a high speed connection.

Such a poor level of customer service was disappointing. In the press release issued on the commencement of Zain’s services in the Kingdom, Zain Group CEO Dr. Saad Al-Barrak said, “We intend to fulfill our promise to offer the community world-class telecom services.” In that same press release, Dr. Marwan Alahmadi, CEO of Zain in Saudi Arabia commented, “From day one and onward, our focus is to provide the Saudi community the best services and value for money that mobile technology has to offer.”

It’s Day Eight and if Zain considers its performance thus far world class, then it’s time for Saudi Arabia’s consumers to get out the tissues and start weeping.

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