Painful scam played by Safaricom on Lipa Na MPESA commissions

Peter Ndegwa, CEO Safaricom Cnyakundi.com has seen correspondence between Goldmed Pharmacy Limited and Safaricom Plc. The pharmacy accuses the rogue Telco of ‘shamelessly sucking the blood of honest businesses’. “I am a bitter director of Goldmed Pharmacy Limited. We work honestly, we earn genuine commissions but Safaricom shamelessly sucks our blood in the name of arbitrage suspicions. You don't get a hearing. A software somewhere judges your transaction selectively and bang! You are skinned akin to slaughtering cattle in a drought-stricken area whereas Safaricom owns a vast ranch of modern pedigree cattle. They go for your drought-stricken specimen of a cattle’, the email addressed to Safaricom says in part. This is not the first time Safaricom is accused of such an injustice. In June 2021, nyakundireport.com exposed how Safaricom was scamming Lipa Na MPESA sub-agents through Till number suspension . “Hi Cyprian I’m Mpesa sub Agent it’s been tough doing this business. I have lost like Ten till claiming a fraud deposit. Every time I raise an issue with Safaricom PLC they refer me to the administrator. The administrators suspend till a few days before payday to reap where they didn’t sow. The issue is a rogue agency where a Mpesa Till is being operated by up to 3 sub-agents in a month and the administrator reposes the Till, 2 days to payday. Efforts to visit their Nairobi head office have never bore fruit since anybody going there is told to sweet talk the administrator to give you back your Till. When a Till is suspended commission is gone the float you have taken a lot of time to get or you lose for good ,” wrote the sub-agent The case of Goldmed Pharmacy Limited is the same. Safaricom plays deaf while robbing clients. “It happened to our July Commission and has happened again to our September commission. We wrote numerous appeal emails and were met with automated responses. No one cares there. Salaries are fat there so who is this fella making little noise? Billions versus cents mantra,” the director added. He further goes on to state, “You have TDR's and ASM's who can visit affected shops to find out their level of competitiveness and why they do big value transactions but then no, you are the behemoth Safaricom that preys on the honest sweat of others to keep reporting profits that burst at the seams at any cost. You keep doing big value transactions and you get penalized. We should then keep low amounts of float and make a pittance as commission to keep you guys belching with satisfaction”, READ: MPESA Agents cry foul as Safaricom hold funds, ‘steals’ some The email was addressed to Lucy Njeri Mwangi, Hinga; Safaricom officials in charge of the issue. “Your agents are your backbone. But you trash them. We undertake very many risks to get that commission. Theft, fraud and all works of criminals targeting cash. Agents die. Others are maimed. It doesn't affect you since you don’t record a loss but it scares our fraternity a lot. But we carry on. Behind every attendant you see is a family. If you cut commission, always know you are promoting destitution, not wealth creation. Be fair and give hearings before handing judgement. It's called justice. I should be able to defend myself”, he concluded. Some agents only do Mpesa as they don't have other support businesses. Be careful with your actions. Safaricom is behaving like the biblical King Ahab who wanted Naboth's vineyard. I honestly don't care if you close my tills as I have Pharmacies to run. I am ready to pay the price to let you know you are being unfair. So I will have to lay off people because of your actions. They pay the ultimate price. And meanwhile Safaricom the behemoth keeps huffing and puffing along due to skinning poor helpless agents! READ: Safaricom’s Till Number Fraud