OPay arrived in Nigeria with a bang and positioned itself as a super app that offers key services that include but not limited to payment, bus and motorcycle ride-hailing, loan and food.
The company’s strategy coming off raising $50 million from Chinese investors; was to attract as many customers as possible regardless of whether they have the capacity or not; by making their services extremely affordable.
Expectedly, a significant number of Nigerians trooped to Opay to enjoy the massive discounts.
Bank transfer charges can be cheap, and we've made it so. Transfer money to any bank for just N10 from your OPay Wallet! #OPay #Hello10Naira #MobileMoney pic.twitter.com/WDWdMcYZdu
— OPay (@OPay_NG) July 5, 2019
Some of the massive discounts include:
1.) Reduced its transfer fee to any bank account from N32 to N10. Banks charge N52 per transaction.
2.) 3 to 5% off every airtime purchase.
3.) 20% discount everywhere for trips less than N1000 for ORide. It is way cheaper than the regular motorcycles popularly called Okada.
We have now reviewed our bank transfer fees and from 6 AM tomorrow, the fee for our bank transfers will be N45 for the first transaction of the day and 1% for subsequent ones.
Again, we apologise. Thank you for your understanding.
— OPay (@OPay_NG) November 5, 2019
Opay Pulls The Rug From Under The Feet of Their Customers-Honeymoon over!
Without informing customers, Opay unwholesomely increased its transfer fees from N10 to 2% and removed the 3 to 5% cashback on airtime.
Customers only realized the increase after they have funded their wallet.
For example, for a N25,000 transfer, the customer pays N500 fee.
This attracted so many backlashes from customers as they trooped to @Opay_NG to lodge their complaints about the fees.
This is unfair
You mean @OPay_NG charge has increased from 10 naira service charge on transfer to 418 naira this is stealing
Cc @cenbank
So unfair pic.twitter.com/otezTe5Law— 💞Edican💞 (@Mac_Vicky2) November 3, 2019
You can't even carry your customers along on latest developments.
You wait in corner until the use your service and 'pam' you deductes the exorbitant charge of 2% for any transfer.You are getting more irrelevant day by day!
Save journey!— Kolawole S. B. (@stephenbabs6) November 7, 2019
Goodbye to Opay niyen.make I dey manage my Access bank like that
— CHEN FU 🐼 🐻 (@hybrawhym) November 5, 2019
Bye bye to opay.
1 percent too much, let me move my money sharp sharp.
Bye until we see again
— Dekunle (@desmag1) November 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/byjerstyk/status/1191802403986784258?s=19
With what opay is now doing you people are going to loose customer. The way you are changing your service everytime. I tried sending #63000 to someone, OK was charged #1260,that was too much. Truth is that if this continue like this, people are going to abandon your service
— Im barber (@skd_ventures) November 4, 2019
Perhaps innundated by the unpopular fee increase and the fear of losing customers, Opay apologised for not informing its esteemed customers and announced a review of the fees.
For now, a customer’s Ist transfer is pegged at N45 while subsequent transfers will attract a 1% fee. Meanwhile, the fluctuating % off airtime has been restored.
Despite these, customers are still unhappy. Fortunately, other services like ORide and OFood were unaffected.
OPay Customer Service Team Not Helping
The OPay customer service team appears unprepared for their overflowing customers. Their in-app and social media response is beyond unsatisfactory.
For social media, it is a ‘copy and paste’ response with customer complaints going unresolved for weeks.
For calls, the customer service associate appears to be poorly trained with no helpful response to customer complaints or inquiries. Sometimes, the number is unavailable.
Below is the OPay social media signature ‘copy and paste’ response:
“We sincerely apologise for the delayed response. Please check your DM, a response has been given. Thank you.”
Hello, we apologize for the inconvenience caused and delayed response. Kindly check your DM, response has been provided. Thank you.
— OPay (@OPay_NG) November 10, 2019
@OPay_NG it will be helpful to the customers is you so far more in transparently disclosing allsswe fees and charges with sufficient clarity and understanding.
— Babatunde Irukera (@TundeIrukera) November 6, 2019
@OPay_NG your customer service agents are very slow in responding to customers. Since yesterday morning I have been trying to resolve an issue about my account, I sent them a message but no response till this morning and when I got the notification about the reply, I quickly /1
— 👑 οℓυωαƒємι ο∂υиαγο 👑 (@fmhottathanfire) November 9, 2019
@OPay_NG please this is so frustrating……A customer make a withdrawal on your opay android Pos and the transaction declined but customer was debited. pic.twitter.com/14VOIvxnoQ
— Yusful Data hub (@YusfulH) November 10, 2019
@OPay_NG I'm really pissed off right now. I requested for oride and one Mkpe Ernest accepted, only for him to start the ride without seeing me and I called him to cancel the ride as that's fraudulent. He left it for like 5 mins and I'm to pay 200 for a service I didn't enjoy..
— Disturbia (@Mayowa_20) November 5, 2019
No specific explanation for the increase from management
Iniabasi Akpan, OPay’s country manager did not offer a specific explanation for the increase.
He, however, said that the move is to improve financial inclusion through peer-to-peer transactions.
Akpan said: “Peer-to-peer transactions do not attract any fees within the OPay app. Evidently, with the new policy, users are encouraged to do more transfers and payments within the app.
“Our peer-to-peer activity alone has enabled us to provide thousands of agents with jobs while at the same time getting more people into the financial system. You’d agree with me that more people are excluded from the financial system than those accounted for in the system.”
My brother @TinggNigeria is the only boy platform that can help you.i am moving my money there immediately
— Loved princess 💕 (@habeeholar123) November 5, 2019
The Honeymoon appears to be over
OPay has so far distinguished itself since its debut in the country.
But, with its impromptu increase in transfer fees and its delayed response in resolving customer complaints, it will definitely lose customers.
Trust Nigerians, they are already looking for cheaper alternatives as the Opay honeymoon seems to be over.
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