Maduo Motshewa, data service support technician extraordinaire
I want to report on a case of outstanding customer service here in Botswana from Orange, the cell phone provider.
I purchased a mobile broadband dongle at an Orange kiosk three days ago at a mall in Phakalane, but it didn’t work with the SIM card that I had purchased earlier with a prepaid Internet data plan at the Riverwalk Orange store. Back at Linda’ and Jim’s home, I went online and downloaded an Apple driver for the dongle, but I still kept getting an “Invalid SIM” message when I tried to connect.
When I returned to the Riverwalk store, Tshepho Mompe, the sales rep who had sold me the SIM card, tried to figure out the problem but he couldn’t get it working. He then amazed me by offering to drive me to the Orange tech center himself, but when our appointed time for the 15-minute drive rolled around this morning, things were too busy at the store, so his boss said he couldn’t be spared. Mr. Mompe drew a clear map for Linda, and she dropped me off at the tech center.
There I met Maduo Motshewa, who checked the SIM card and found that it was not the problem. He then found a patch for the Orange’s Internet Everywhere OS X software that I had downloaded myself. Once the patch was loaded to my computer, the dreaded “invalid SIM” message did not appear, and I was magically connected to the Internet. This prompted a major gratitude attack, so I fished in my fanny pack for some pula for a tip. Mr. Motshewa shyly declined. He is 24 years old, and he has had his job at Orange for just four months. He’s very good at it.
Mr. Mompe is also very good at his job as a sales rep, so hats off to these two young Orange employees in Botswana.
Now I can post to the blog from anywhere in Botswana, even in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, Mr. Motshewa assured me. In fact, I’m working on this post in the back seat of Linda’s car right now as we head for lunch at the Courtyard Restaurant at Botswanacraft.
Thank you, Orange!
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Hello. Can you please tell me what the patch was you downloaded? I have the same problem!
Thank you
Anna, I can’t remember what the patch was. I believe I got it at the Orange store, so they might have it. I couldn’t find it on the Internet, I don’t think. It’s all in pleasantly fading memory at this point. Sorry I can’t be more help.