Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the wordpress-seo domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/bcm/src/dev/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121 Customer Service | Zikoko!
Citizen is a column that explains how the government’s policies fucks citizens and how we can unfuck ourselves.
On the 8th of February, Nigerian Twitter users got talking about some of their worst online purchases. While the topic might have been specific to clothing, this conversation continues to make the rounds and honestly, we are also tired of seeing people’s hearts get broken when they receive products they paid for. And while it is annoying when we unintentionally purchase a bad product, what is even more aggravating is when the retailers of that product refuse to take responsibility and we aren’t sure of the right governmental bodies to lay our complaints to. We have all been there at some point. From poor customer service experiences to chasing a vendor around for a much-deserved refund or vendors who harass customers for making complaints online.
That buying a dress that doesn’t fit and can’t complain has happened to me sha. Bought dress from everythingdenim, got sent a bigger size, spoke to vendor in the dm and she said I’ll pay for the pickup to get the dress adjusted and delivery back to me. Sis you made the mistake
The streets stay wild, so this is why we have decided to bring you five things you need to know about the options available to protect your rights as a consumer in Nigeria. This is so you are more informed about what laws cover your consumer rights and to know what to do when a vendor moves mad.
Let’s get into it!
The FCCPC Is The Agency Charged With Protecting Your Consumer Rights
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission describe itself as “the foremost competition and consumer protection authority in Nigeria.” Set up in 2018, the commission is responsible for developing and bolstering fair, efficient, and competitive markets in the Nigerian economy while ensuring all Nigerians have access to safe products and their rights as consumers are duly protected.
You Can Report Anything From A Bad Cake Order To A Ripped Dress To The Commission
If you pay for a service or product in Nigeria, the FCCPC is designed to attend to any violations you might experience as a consumer. If you have been sold fake or sub-par products or denied service, experienced an unexplained price hike, been misled by a product description, or received poor customer service, amongst other violations, you can report these cases to the FCCPC. According to the website, “a complaint must be made to the provider of products or services and then to FCCPC as soon as possible after the right has been breached, especially within the warranty period.”
You Can File A Complaint Online
We know right??
Thankfully (and unlike most processes in Nigeria) you can file a complaint on an issue via the FCCPC’s complaint form. You are required to click on the category your complaint falls under, enter your complaint title, write your complaint, select the company and location, write how much is involved, and attach any picture or video evidence you have.
You Can Easily Track The Progress Of Your Complaint
After you have submitted your complaint, you can certainly check to see if your case is being attended to. While some cases take a day to reach a resolution, some can take up to 45 days or more, depending on the nature of your complaint and whether or not other stakeholders might be involved in resolving your case. It is also vital that you provide accurate information concerning your complaint to make the process easier to process.
The Commission Currently Has Offices In Select Locations Across Nigeria
If for some reason, you do not have the chill to make a complaint online, the FCCPC has offices in Abuja, Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Awka, Osogbo, Minna, Bauchi, Katsina, and Kano. So if you ever need to go and cause trouble, we hope you know where to go now and whether or not they are in your city.
So yes, making a what I ordered vs what I received post or gathering your friends to subtweet a badly behaved vendor is nice, but we bet it would be nicer to report to a body that will actually do something about your bad purchase experience.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
Tell me about your oldest memory of money.
Hmm, I didn’t acknowledge the existence of money till I was in secondary school. Prior to that, whatever I needed was always provided. I’m not saying that this changed in secondary school, but there was a stark difference between what my mates had and what I had. When I got into secondary school, my mom started giving us money to spend during lunch break. ₦20. That could buy snacks, and that supplemented the food we took to school. I finished secondary in 2009, by the way.
What’s the first thing you ever did for money?
That’d be teaching at a JAMB lesson on Fridays and Saturdays. I was earning like ₦2k per class. I spent the rest of my weekdays interning at a Digital Agency. The agency didn’t pay though, but I needed the experience. I was in 300-level at the time. The only money I got there was when they gave me ₦20k after three months for being exceptional. I was so proud of the money, but what did I do with it? I gave everything to my mother, not that she needed it though.
NYSC was a gap year. I collected my ₦19,800, living stress-free. I graduated top of my class and garnered experience from internships, so I was just going with the flow.
Where I served, they paid us an accrued ₦5k/month allowance, which was paid at the end of the year. I also lived with a local politician who paid us ₦5k/month as an allowance. Ahhh, it was also election season. Come and see moneyyyy. ₦20k here, ₦25k there. NYSC also paid us to serve as polling officers.
Some corpers made up to ₦200k separate from the money NYSC paid them. Anyway, in 2016, about one month after my NYSC, I got a job.
Neat. How was it for the rest of your classmates?
Not many of us got jobs immediately. Very few, in fact. I would like to chalk it up to a good result, some work experience and being able to do some things to stand out, but it wasn’t that.
So, maybe it’s good fate. When I came back from NYSC, my mum was telling everyone that her daughter had finished NYSC. A family friend of ours said her office was hiring a customer service person, and I jumped on it. I remember calling my mum to ask if the offer was good. The money was about 70k/month. They were deducting 4k for pensions and tax that they never paid.
Ah, that.
Anyway, a year and a few months after — there was a promotion in between — I moved to another job. Towards the end of 2017. The new company was for a client support role in a startup.
How has your salary grown over the years?
My first salary was 230k, and I wanted to go crazy.
Hahaha.
After my probation, which lasted less than six months, it got increased to 260k — this was in 2018. By 2019, after a salary review, my net income became 330k. I’ve been on that since, plus other benefits. I get a transport allowance separate from my salary, about 30k, and airtime bonus. We should be getting hardship allowance though because the thing hard.
Tell me about the hardship part.
I don’t think I slept much in the first year. Anxiety attacks came whenever my phone started ringing or some particular numbers called. Kasala don burst be that! Also, a desk job leaves you sitting too much, add the fast pace, and you start to look for coping mechanisms. Mine was food.
Even though I had standard working hours, the work always went home with me. It got worse when we started working from home. Now, I’m trying to draw the line by not working outside my hours, resting, fighting off the guilt for resting. It’s working, and my health has improved. I need to be alive to eat my money, please.
Talking about eating your money, what eats yours?
Food. I might see things and give myself a reason not to buy them. But one food picture on Instagram, and kia kia, I’m ordering.
Okay, how about we break down your monthly expenses?
This is my most dreaded question because I’m not responsible with money at all. All I do is spend it. Is that not what money is for?
Hahaha. Let’s break it down.
I never finish the “rest” before the month ends sha, except those few months where I’m dashing people money or going out a lot.
What’s your largest expense?
Rent, ₦200k a year. The gag is that I still live like a student. Early 2017, I started my Masters, moved to a hostel, and I haven’t looked back since. I’ll move out in 2021 though. My current space is a self-con, but I want to move to a mini-flat or two-bedroom apartment.
Looking at where your career is, how much do you feel like you should be earning?
I don’t care much for the money. The money is great o, but I want to do something else. I’m extremely bored. It’s so routine now that I can do it in my sleep, although it does get interesting from time to time.
I want to do something that makes me giddy again. I’m that person. I need to derive joy from my work, and I don’t anymore. I’m ready to move.
Do you know what you want to do yet?
After you’ve lived a life where moves fall into your lap, it becomes hard to figure things out. So I don’t think of your question in those terms. But I know I want to tell stories.
What’s something you want right now but can’t afford?
A car for my mum. I can probably afford it, but it’d be extravagant.
Sounds like a decent savings chest.
Hmm, is it really large enough? I have only about ₦2 million saved, plus small change here and there. I want to learn how to invest money. Truth is, I don’t even know how to spend money. Every month I’ll say I start my excel sheet, but I never start it.
What’s something you paid for recently that significantly improved the quality of your life?
It’s definitely my meds. They come down to like ₦8k a month.
What’s your greatest financial regret?
That I don’t have shares in Paystack.
Hahahaha.
I need to learn about investing.
What’s the most annoying expense that you have to pay for?
Skincare products. Ahhhhh. I started in 2020 during the lockdown, and I’ve spent about 100k on skincare products alone. I’m not going to count these other things as petty, but I’ll just go on to mention them. Self-care for me is making my hair, waxing, acrylic, pedicures. Gosh, I need a glucose guardian. I’m tired of being my own glucose guardian.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?
6. I could be richer. I’m poor right now though I’m far from suffering. I need to be able to spend money without thinking about what else it could have gone to.
Is there something you wanted me to ask you but I didn’t? Something you’re itching to explore?
My attitude to money. I also want to tell you about how my mum beat my sisters and me for saving money when we were in secondary school.
Wait, what?
We just wanted to save. It was cool then, having kolo. We were putting money together till a later date when everyone could share it and do whatever they wanted with it. My aunt found the stash and reported us to our mum. She went berserk.
Ah.
I’ve repressed this memory so much. I don’t know why she went crazy. She encouraged my brothers to save when they were about our age though. There was a huge disparity between how we (girls) were raised and how the boys were raised in my house. It took my dad dying to shift perspectives.
Sorry about your loss. What did this disparity look like?
It’s evident in the way the youngest approaches stuff. He can ask for money without thinking twice about it. He actively saves for what he wants. I dunno if I can chalk it up to being Gen Z or the attitude of my mom towards money around him.
For the longest time after that, I didn’t know how to save. Money was meant for spending. The first time I actively saved was NYSC. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have pressing needs like that.
I’m realising that I’ve lived life so sheltered. How bad can things get? I don’t know. I’ve always had the basics and more.
Interesting.
I don’t have the best relationship with money. I shy away from discussing it. I give it out often and had to learn to start saying no. I feel guilty for having it. I feel bad for not having more of it sometimes.
What doesn’t a healthy relationship with money mean to you?
I don’t even want to be billionaire rich. I just want to be comfortable enough to take care of myself and the people around me. Just like I grew up. My parents were not the richest but they gave me everything I needed. My mum still does. Not the extras, just all I needed and some.
Quick one before we round up, how did your dad passing away affect finances?
First, his death was sudden. He was there, then he wasn’t. About insurance, I’m not sure she claimed it, if he had any. I’m not even sure she claimed the money in his bank account
We had to make a couple of changes. First, we renovated our house, and took on new tenants. We sold some things, and bought others. My mum had to cut off the extended family she was supporting to focus on the nuclear family. The burden rested solely on her. A lot of things changed sha, I know I wouldn’t still be in Nigeria if he didn’t pass away for example.
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.
What was the first thing you did for money?
Everytime my dad returned from work when I was a kid, he gave us coins. If you had saved, say X amount, he’d add another X. So you could say I saved for money. But the first proper thing that I did was work for my dad during school holidays – he worked abroad at the time, so I’d travel to go meet him. I was in JSS 1, so when it was summer holidays, I worked as his secretary at his law firm. I went in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. All I did was arrange files in the office, doing invoices, etc.
He used to pay me daily at the time.
Interesting.
Yes. I remember giving some of it to my mum because she wasn’t working – she was a housewife. It’s why I never want to not be working. I gave her £100 and I told her it was a gift. And she said no, that I should save it or buy stuff. I felt very bad and told her I was not taking no for an answer. So I kept the money in an envelope and I put it under her pillow when I was getting ready to travel. I left a note. So when I travelled, the following day she called and said she saw it and she couldn’t send it back.
She always says that I was the only person that actually gave her money. Like, I was the only person that came around and gifted her money. She lived Abroad too.
After that?
We used to get money for school, but I used to feel like it wasn’t enough. It actually was, but then, I was in a private secondary school, so compared to my peers, it was small. The latest cars came on visiting days, convoys and all that.
What year was this?
2004. We – my brother and I – thought about how to make money, My brother had school fathers, so he came up with an idea. Because we were day students, boarders were always begging us for food and cold water. So we decided to tell our house helps to help us freeze water so we could sell it. Sachet water was ₦5 then and we’d sell it for ₦20. My brother would distribute everything so quickly. We also started selling food. They used to make us choose between buying food in school and giving us food, but we would insist on taking food to school. So we’d take food to school and charge them about ₦250. I was in JSS2 and my brother was JSS1.
Oh okay. What came next?
I worked in SS3, that was when I knew I never wanted to work in radio. I followed my dad for a meeting, I was on holiday, he went to see somebody at a radio station and the person noticed my foreign accent. So they decided to bring me in for voice-overs, and they offered to pay, but my father never gave me the money.
How much were you paid?
I don’t know, my father never gave me the money. The job was very frustrating, I’d sit in a cold room, repeating the same lines over and over. My father gave me more allowance than usual, but still not my salary.
So basically, they hired you for your accent.
Yes, that was when I realised my accent could help me. Which was surprising to me at the time.
How much was your pocket money then?
₦1k. Sometimes he would give me like ₦3k for 6 weeks. That was when I learnt to budget. Budgeting is key to everything. The next time I worked was Uni.
What year was this?
This was 2011, that was when I graduated secondary. I entered University and saw the world.
What do you mean?
I was 17, and I discovered ushering and ‘thanks for coming.’
What’s that?
When there’s an event, they’d handpick babes to do the ushering. They’d pay like ₦10k per day for 2 days. They paid depending on the girl and the event. If there were stricter rules for selection, there would be more money. And they always picked me, from concerts to events. Guests would say and do inappropriate things and you couldn’t do anything. The rule is that you’re not allowed to complain, except you don’t want money. My father gave me 20k every month, but it was hardly enough
I’d want to treat myself and not want to bother my dad. I never asked for allowance, he just put it in my account at the beginning of the month.
It took a toll on me. I had to wear heels a lot, I had a lot of breakouts because of wearing makeup for long hours. But I’d just see the money and forget it all. And it felt good to have my own money.
My dad didn’t ask until my grades started to drop, and then he told me to stop working. It really was a trying time. I was depressed and it made everything worse, I was depressed and poor.
I started hanging out with a group of friends. There was this girl, she’d finished uni and wasn’t doing anything. She had her own driver, and that was when I started doing drugs. Prescription drugs, alcohol. One time, we were at the backseat of her car, and her driver wasn’t paying attention. She said she had codeine on her. I had tried tramadol on my own.
I got so dependent on tramadol. Like I would wake up in the morning and pop like 3 pills. I felt very ill, ended up in a hospital, and almost died. All my rich friends abandoned me and that was like a wake-up call. I couldn’t even call my dad.
I came home for the holidays and had to stop because I didn’t have access to drugs at home. My dad noticed I was bored. He was doing his PhD at the time, so he asked me to edit and proofread his projects and he’d pay me for it. He said 20 naira per page and I said no. So I said for every mistake I find, he’d pay ₦200 naira.
I made like ₦10k in the first reading. I used it to go out and that was like the last time I made money in a while, so I went back to school and had to focus on my final year.
After I graduated, I stayed home for a year and it was the most depressing time of my life. I was home with a woman that didn’t like me because my dad was away for work.
I went to meet my dad’s friend to see if he had an opening. He offered to pay me 15k, then I said I’d work part-time, only 2 times a week.
What did you choose?
I chose NYSC, and even though I finished school in 2015, NYSC came in November 2016. I decided to go to camp instead of convocation, so I started planning. I only had like 10k. I didn’t have anybody to brief me on what life was like in camp. I really wanted Lagos. I always wanted to move to Lagos, because the Southeast was too quiet where I was and there were limited opportunities.
What a wow.
Anyway, I got redeployed. People posted to the region I was posted actually got redeployed easily – security and all. I got redeployed to the Southwest.
At my first PPA, they said I had to live in the boarding school. I had to beg the Principal to reject me.
Is NYSC the one place that people beg for rejection?
Perhaps. She rejected me o. I eventually found another place, and a house to rent nearby.
How much did the house cost altogether?
The house cost 170k, then I also bought a wardrobe, mattress, and a gas cylinder. I lived off Nysc money and didn’t get any money from my dad. I made extra money writing research papers for undergrads, but it was seasonal.
So, after NYSC?
I got a job at a company where I worked in comms. They paid me ₦50k a month. So I went from ₦19,800 to ₦50k per month.
Where did you live?
I lived with a friend. I wasn’t paying house rent, but I was giving 5k a month to the house, in addition, to paying for laundry. The rest was for transport. I wasn’t eating much. I couldn’t really afford much, so I usually only ate dinner.
Then my mum sent me ₦90k for house rent –
I was going to ask about your mum.
Yeah, she was living abroad, and this was her trying to get back in my life. Anyway, that’s how I came up with ₦200k for house rent.
So, ₦200k for rent. What happened next?
I ended up spending that money and suddenly had nowhere to live. I moved in with another friend. I went from ₦50k to ₦90k on probation for three months. Then I went up to ₦110k. My role here is Customer Relations and Social Media Management.
When did you start earning ₦110k?
July 2018. As I was leaving, they gave us ₦30k in the middle of the month. I got to work and they said they were going to start giving us ₦30k for allowance every month, that month I earned ₦125k. I freelanced for a while, helping people write papers and all kinds of things.
Currently ₦115k, but that’s after my probation ended in January 2019. Before then, it was ₦90k. But for the next three months, I was earning ₦65k.
My income is quite weird.
Why?
My laptop spoilt, and I had to buy a new one and pay in instalments. But let’s use an ideal month here:
You save a huge chunk of your money.
I try to save but I also like food. My favorite thing is to chew.
LMAO! Are you me?
I’d have spent like ₦10k on snacks without knowing by now. But it’s mostly because I don’t have many responsibilities, so I don’t have much to do with money.
Financially, what’s something you wish you could be better at?
I think that would be saving, but sometimes I save money and realize it doesn’t make you richer, you just have more funds, and investments scare me.
We don’t have a lot of honest conversations about money. My dad did investments but never told me what exactly he did. He was always saving, spending, or earning more. Investments scare me, because I don’t know enough about them.
If you were going to live comfortably now, how much would you have to earn?
I’m very easy to maintain, it probably won’t take much, if I was earning ₦350k, but I can live comfortably on ₦250k, my baby brother asks me for money sometimes, but it’s not a burden so I don’t feel guilty.
At ₦350k, I’d put away like ₦200k for savings and some months even spend more without feeling guilty. I feel sad that my partner has to carry a lot of the burden because he earns like double my income and he has more responsibilities.
Yes, it’s kind of a weird balance, I would like to earn more money to help out sometimes, I wouldn’t do his responsibilities but at least support.
Is there anything you feel like I should have asked you, I didn’t ask you?
What I would be doing if I wasn’t doing this.
What would you be doing?
I’d probably be like a therapist or a psychologist.
Financial happiness, 1-10, where are you?
It’s a mixture of money and career, I feel like I could be doing a job where I’m not doing so much and earning ₦200k, I’d feel restless, so I feel like your money and career need to match up at some point, I guess I’m only like 3, I can’t do shit with my money.
What would give you a 10?
Flexibility, both money and career-wise, I want a job that’s flexible. Also, more money. If I was earning ₦200k, it’d go up to like a 6.
I get the sense that you have the opportunity to leave the country and possibly earn more. There’s your mum who lives there, for example.
Where I am right now generally just feels right. I might be leaving to go to school next year, I think here is just home to be honest. I’ll probably still gravitate back again. There’s way too much untapped potential here. It’s crazy to not acknowledge that.
What’s the future looking like from where you’re sitting?
I probably want to do psychology someday and end up doing something with my mum. Like a practice, working with women who have been victims of abuse, etc. I also have an interest in film making.
In the end, I actually don’t want a lot of money, I just want to be comfortable.
Every week, we ask anonymous people to give us a window into their relationship with the Naira.
In this story, a lady talks about her struggles and it’s not just with money, it’s at the workplace.
Age: 26
Occupation: Customer Support
What’s the first time you made money?
It was in secondary school. Mumsy bought a lot of Chin-chin for us, and I got tired of eating them. So I repackaged it in smaller plastic bags and started selling it to my classmates. What was I using the money for? To buy Rice or Ewa Aganyin.
Next was when I was on I.T., earning ₦15k working HR. It wasn’t even the salary that was sweet, it was the weekend money our boss used to give us on Fridays. Like ₦2k when he’s broke.
I went back to school after I.T., and then lecturers went on strike. I was like, “what am I doing at home like this? I mean, I’m a badass cook”, so I just started cooking for people.
What was I using the money for? To buy airtime for my mummy. Buy data. Buy Shawarma. Enjoy my life. It was an almost effortless ₦15k in profit every month.
The strike was called off in 2014, but I was still cooking, but sparingly.
Did you have an allowance in all this time?
Well, since the time I brought a man home, my dad just stopped giving me money. My mum was still giving me when I asked, but my dad? No. When I asked, he’d be like, go and ask your man. Keep in mind, I started dating this guy in 2012. It’s not like he was giving me money steady, but anything I needed, he got me.
Also, he’d just randomly send ₦10k every now and then.
What’s the highest money he ever sent?
₦50k. I think it was the end of the year, and they gave him a 13th-month salary at the office, so he spread the love.
When did you finish school?
2015. Then I went to serve somewhere in the North Central. But I enjoyed sha, because I lived off Mammy Market in camp. Never ate from the kitchen. Buying everything buyable. I had money, from my mum, from man. My dad though, same old.
NYSC allowance was ₦19,800, plus another ₦20k allowance from bae. Although it wasn’t consistent, it came. My house rent and everything I got in the house, he bought for me. My mum too. But my dad? Deadest. Shi-shi, I no see.
I finished serving in 2016.
And?
I was jobless. And then, I decided to take the food business seriously. I took on a partner too, but we struggled and struggled. Orders weren’t consistent, logistics were tough.
Throughout that time, we didn’t exactly make money from it. We were throwing everything back into the business; buying equipment and all that. It gets exhausting though.
So, how were you sustaining yourself?
I got a customer care gig.
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
That job showed me that sometimes, people don’t want you to grow. They really just want to use you. I was in desperate for a job, so I took it.
My salary was ₦15k and there was barely ₦7k at the end of the job. This was in 2018.
I think I lived like a pauper in 2016 and 2017. Also, I was going through shit with the man at the time. I became an introvert because I was broke, although I was getting handouts from my mum.
My dad didn’t give me a feeding allowance, so food came from when my mum cooked.
Broke. Depressed. Heartbroken.
Sorry you had to go through that.
It was in late 2017 I started looking for jobs. I was looking around HR, customer care, and general admin stuff. I even applied for teaching jobs but my mind wasn’t really there.
When I think about it, I probably didn’t hate the customer care job per se, but my mum was always on my case about it. She made me feel bad about it–the money and all. So imagine I was dealing with angry customers, and having to deal with my mum’s pressure at home.
So I quit.
Lucky for me, I got another gig as soon as I quit. The job description looked like it was going to be creatively stimulating. It was some tiny media company. I was going to be working with designers and doing social media work. Initially, I didn’t feel cut out for it because I didn’t have any background, but at the interview, my boss made me relax, telling me he believed I had potential.
I was glad that I got another job, until I wasn’t.
Trashy boss. The first thing that was off; he copy-pasted my job description from Google. Every single letter and full stop.
And then it appeared that they didn’t really have a sense of what role I was supposed to play. No defined structure. No procedures. They were all over the place.
There was also the part where he started saying he wanted to marry me. I think he just wanted to sleep with me, to be honest. Let’s not forget how he kept hammering on how religious he was.
And then at the end of the first month, I didn’t get paid.
How much?
I was supposed to be paid ₦50k. End of the second month, no pay. No explanation. By the end of the second month, I asked for an explanation for why I hadn’t been paid. My Oga said it was insubordination.
I quit a few days into the 3rd month. I just sat at home, told them I couldn’t afford to come. It took some shaming him, but he eventually paid me ₦70k. I think his method was to control people by holding on to their money.
After then, I was back to square one, jobless, except this time, there was a lot of debt. This was July.
Look at it this way:
You have ₦5, and you’re expecting ₦20. So you spend your ₦5, still expecting ₦20. Then somehow, you borrow here and there, and next thing you know, your debt climbs to ₦30. Then you pay back when your ₦20 comes, but you’re still in debt. So the cycle repeats itself. Your debt keeps accumulating and you keep living to pay off debt. That was my life.
I feel you.
I tried to get back to my own food hustle, and it seemed to be doing not so bad. Profit was like ₦40k. But then we started to remove ₦1k from the profit, then put ₦39k back into the business. Repeat. Currently, the money has climbed to about ₦120k. The goal is to build a base to have more capacity.
I didn’t get another fulltime job until November – a customer care job. At least that’s where I started. It has gotten a lot more challenging now though. I feel underpaid, maybe I am. The good thing is that the salary is paid consistently; ₦50k. It’s a food delivery business and I have to do a bunch of things. I also have to take everyone’s orders. I have to call up old customers to ask why they haven’t ordered. I keep up with everything across Social Media from Twitter to Whatsapp. I also send updates to partners of the business.
That’s four roles; Social Media Management, Logistics Manager, Customer Support/Retention, and perhaps some Business Development.
Chai. I’ve suffered. And I was thinking I’m working from home and enjoying. Enjoyment kill you there! 20 calls a day – and that’s on a Sunday.
You work Mondays to Sundays?
No days off. Except on public holidays. I have to reply to every message. I have to call back every missed call. I have to apologise to customers when riders mess up an order.
What are you thinking right now?
The only thing I need to do is to start looking for better opportunities. Initially, if I knew I was going to do this much, I won’t have accepted the offer. When the job got overwhelming, I complained to my boss. He told me to find someone else, then they’d have to reduce my salary to pay the other person.
Maybe all of this is because it’s still a small business. But still.
Wait, are there remote jobs that can pay me as much?
What is ‘much’?
At least ₦150k. I’m not even asking for too much. The only reason I want a remote job is that I really want to grow this business too. I need it to grow. But who will pay me that much to work from home?
Between 2012 and now, what has changed about your perspective on money?
I don’t want to have to be dependent on someone before I can spend money. I don’t want to have to think, “If I don’t see this person, I can’t have money.” I want to be able to say, “I earned this thing, and I can do with it as I like.”
When I was collecting money from my mum, I kept getting the “What did you use it for” question.
There’s the comfort that comes from having your own money. So now that I’m working, I really just want to have money and be free to do as I like with it.
There’s just this thing–I don’t know the word–this thing that comes from having your own money.
Let’s do the breakdown of your monthly income.
I don’t care what the problem is, but once my salary enters, I just go out and buy food, just to eat and feel alright. Sharwarma or Ice-cream, I must buy something for myself. I never take it home, I just sit down there and eat it. Last salary, I went to Coldstone, bought the buy-one-get-one-free.
I finished the two in one sitting.
Do you have a sense of direction for where you’re headed?
I do now. I want to be a community manager. I have a background in hospitality already. I have some experience in HR, customer relations, Social Media Management. I’m reading materials online, but mostly free stuff.
But it’s hard juggling courses with my current job. I’m constantly replying customer messages and requests pretty much every hour I’m awake.
Looking at where you are, how much do you think you’d be earning in 5 years?
I don’t think my income should be less than ₦500k. Then if my business actually gets off the ground, ah. Can you imagine how much The Place makes in a week? In 5 years, I want to be doing The Place’s volume for one of their restaurants. Food business is super lucrative. Once you have great food and sometimes, great connects, you’ll blow.
Even those that cook trash, people still dey chop.
Back to now, how much do you think you should earn in salary?
Doing all those things? Just gimme ₦200k. At least.
What’s something you want but you can’t afford?
I want to buy my parents a house. Obviously unaffordable. I hate where they currently live, with passion.
When I pay all my debts, my primary goal is to save a quarter of my salary till I can afford to buy land or something somewhere, so they can finally feel a sense of ownership. Everything else I want but can’t afford doesn’t feel super important. Like a car. Or a really good laptop. Or a great phone. Or a camera for taking good photos.
What’s the last thing you bought that required serious planning?
A Bluetooth headset. It wasn’t even funny at all. I think I prepped for like 2 months to buy it, and it cost ₦6k. I took that long because I just had a lot of things to do with money. And even though it was important because of work, it still wasn’t high on my priority list.
Do you have a pension plan or health plan?
Nope. Ah. I hate falling sick. When I start having symptoms, I’m always in denial, because I can’t even spend any rubbish money on hospital bills. I go rugged am, so I don’t have to go to the hospital, because feeling sick means I have to spend money.
There was a time my ear was paining me seriously, and I had to go to the hospital. I didn’t want to go, but the pain was too much.
But when I collected a card at the hospital, they charged my ₦5k. My chest. Then tests, they said I should pay ₦25k.
I dunno how the ear stopped paining me o, but I didn’t do that test.
How would you rate your happiness levels?
Over 10? 10.7. I feel really am content. I don’t have much, but I’m content, especially when I think about where I used to be.
But I feel the full weight of all the responsibilities now. I’m no longer a child.
Damn.
Check back every Monday at 9 am (WAT) for a peek into the Naira Life of everyday people.
But, if you want to get the next story before everyone else, with extra sauce and ‘deleted scenes’, just subscribe here. It only takes a minute.
Every story in this series that you’ve missed, find them here.
At some point, we’ve had to deal with customer service agents whether at banks or with telecom companies or regular stores. It seems a majority of Nigerian customer representatives react the same way, so we compiled what we think is their training manual. Take a look.
1. What is common sense?
Never apply logical reasoning to easy matters. When you should make on-the-spot decisions, make sure you consult the company CEO and handbook first to confirm what to do.
2. Always be angry
Never forget you are the incredible hulk. Always be angry, use terms like “I’m not in my best mood now”, “You are testing my patience”.
3. Always ask for bribes
Never forget; Your reward is not in heaven, it is here on earth and you must ask for it.
4. Always waste time
Take your time always. You are the last resort of the customer enjoy and prolong the attention as much as you want. Never do things as soon as you can.
5. No matter what, perfect your gaming skills
Its just the rules, no matter the length of the line, or the screams, remember if you have not finished your Spider Solitaire game you might just die. Remember to blame it on the network.
6. Always understand “urgent” means “do it next week”
What is an ‘urgent’? That word does not appear in your dictionary. It took a president over three months to present a ministerial list, who are you to do things quickly even if it’s a matter of life and death?
7. The customer is never king
Forget about what people think or the cliches. Never treat the customer specially. In fact, try to throw subtle jabs at the customer. All the other customers that don’t have problems do they have two heads?
8. Delete “thank you” from your dictionary
Thank you? What is that? Never appreciate the customer after-all it was you who solved his/her problem.
9. Don’t ever stress yourself
Your life, your sweat, your energy should be reserved. Nobody is worth the stress. If the product you bought is bad go and buy another one or go meet the owner of the company. But if you are “dropping something” you can be helped quickly.
10. Your break is more important than anybody
Long line? Angry customers? Urgent situations? Make sure at 1:00 PM you take your break no matter what. IF you don’t eat your lunch it will waste. Even Jesus slept during a storm. Always take your break.
