Update: Zain Tanzania has now become Airtel Tanzania.
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I am an unhappy Zain Tanzania customer.
Why? Because, among other things, I rarely ever know how much I am paying for calls that I make or SMSes that I send through my Zain Tanzania mobile service.
Getting someone from Zain Tanzania to answer my questions satisfactorily can also prove to be a huge problem even when I happen to call customer care in the middle of the night at 3 a.m. (which is one of the only times I can actually get through to customer care) or when I visit a Zain center where I know I will probably have to talk to more than one agent before I get an adequate answer to whatever question I may have.
At other times, even after all this, I simply have to give up and make peace with the fact that I won’t be getting an answer to my question after all.
Oh well!
It’s how it is but, as I said, I’m not happy about it.
Are you a Zain Tanzania subscriber who feels the same way?
Before I get to the point of my post, allow me to share with you the story that inspired it.
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To the best of my knowledge, at the time of the occurrence, I was on Zain Tanzania’s Pamoja Plus tariff.
On this tariff, to the best of my understanding, I could make calls to 10 Zain numbers of my choice at a cost of 1 Tsh per second, while making calls to one other local, non-Zain number at a cost of 3 Tsh per second.
Although this was not what my experience told me I was actually paying for my calls, I noticed that calls to my registered numbers were cheaper than other calls I made, so it’s not something I worried about too much.
Then one day, as I was about to call a Zain number that I had begun to call rather frequently, I thought I’d add the new number to my list of registered Pamoja Plus numbers before going ahead and placing the call.
Without thinking too much about it, I sent an SMS with the word ‘ADD’ followed by the number I wanted to register to 101 and waited for an acknowledgment SMS.
I didn’t have to wait long.
I received an SMS from Zain almost instantly.
Shock on me, though, it wasn’t an SMS confirming my recent phone number addition. Rather, the message from Zain told me that I was no longer subscribed to Pamoja Plus but was instead operating under the Nipe Nikupe tariff.
What?! How did that happen? Racking my brain, I remembered enrolling for a service called Nipe Nikupe a couple of weeks before the incident in response to an SMS that Zain Tanzania had sent me.
With Nipe Nikupe, Zain promised to give me 200 Tsh free talk time for every 200 Tsh worth of calls that I made to any local network.
No one mentioned that this was a tariff in and of itself.
I simply thought that it was a promotion that could be used in conjunction with my regular tariff – sort of like Jirushe.
Without hesitation (frustrated beyond words!), I immediately reverted back to my chosen tariff, Pamoja Plus, and promised myself to do my best to gain more clarity about the service that Zain Tanzania offered me.
Since customer service was rarely of any use to me in this area, I chose instead to scour the Zain Tanzania website for as much information as I could.
Here are some of the questions I had in mind, along with the answers that I managed to dig up.
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Question 1: How many prepaid tariffs does Zain Tanzania offer? What are they? How much do calls and SMSes cost under each of these tariffs?
I wish I could tell you that I found a comprehensive answer to this question, but alas, I did not.
From what I can piece together, Zain Tanzania has four prepaid tariffs – Mambo Wikendi, Pamoja Plus, Bonga Tariff, and Nipe Nikupe.
Question 2: What is Jirushe and how can I subscribe to this service?
If you are anything like me, you never know how to subscribe to Jirushe when you most want to.
Get the definitive answer from the Zain Tanzania website itself.
Question 3: Does Zain Tanzania offer any extremely cheap SMS bundles?
Ok, I lie.
This is not a question that I really needed answered.
Rather, I wanted to take this opportunity to share my new favorite Zain Tanzania service, Jiachie, with you!
Jiachie is a service that allows Zain Tanzania subscribers to send up to 100 SMSes to any local network during the course of one calendar day for only 400 Tsh.
I love it!
That’s all from me today.
Are any of you, my readers, Zain Tanzania customers who are as frustrated with Zain as I am?
If so, let me know by leaving a comment below.
If not, answer this question: Are you happy with the service that your mobile provider offers you? Why or why not? (Please remember to include the name of your mobile service provider in your comment.)
Until the next time,
Biche
Zain Call Packages
If you are interested in call packages from Zain Saudi Arabia, click here.
Zain All Network Call Packages/Zain to All Network Call Packages
If you are specifically interested in Zain local calling bundles, browse them here.
Zain International Call Package
If you are specifically interested in the international call packages that Zain Saudi Arabia offers, click here.
Zain to Zain Call Packages
For Zain to Zain call packages, click here.
Zain South Sudan Data Bundles
If you would like to purchase a data bundle from Zain South Sudan, the code to dial is *102# for a regular data bundle and *100# for a voice data bundle, as shown in the flyer below.
Tanzania Quiz
Are you looking to test your knowledge about Tanzania? If so, here is a fun little quiz on the country by The New York Times (I scored 100% when I took it.)
Quickmart Buruburu
Quickmart Buruburu is located near the intersection of Mumias South Road and Bumbani Road. It opens 24 hours a day.
Airtel Shop Kariakoo & Other Airtel Shops in Dar es Salaam
There are several Airtel shops in Dar es Salaam. Here is information about them:
| Shop Name | Physical Location | Contact Person | Email Address | Mobile No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HQ | Airtel Morocco | Zuwena Hussein | Zuwena.Hussein@airtel.co.tz | 0786670646 |
| Jmall | Samora Avenue | Happy Valence | a_HappyValance.Kinyunyu@airtel.co.tz | 0784670212 |
| Kariakoo | Big Born Msimbazi | Nosim Mathew | a_Nosim.Mathew@airtel.co.tz | 0783264200 |
| Mbagala | Big Born Mbagala | Martha Mwakajila | a_Martha.Mwakajila@airtel.co.tz | 0782331535 |
| Mlimani City | Airtel Mlimani City | Edward Nsangizyo | Edward.Nsangizyo@tz.airtel.com | 0786670263 |
A Zain
A. Zain, or Abdelrahman Zain, is an Egyptian soccer player who plays for Misr El-Makasa. You can find out more about him here.
Airtel Shop/ Zain Shop Nairobi City
There are currently 19 Airtel shops in Nairobi. You can find them listed below.
| SHOP NAME | PHYSICAL LOCATION | BUSINESS HOURS-Weekdays | BUSINESS HOURS-Saturdays | BUSINESS HOURS-Sundays & Public holidays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PARKSIDE | Parkside Towers Ground Floor Mombasa Road | 8:00am – 6:00 pm | 9:00 am – 5:00 pm | Closed |
| KOINANGE | Uniafric House, Ground floor, Koinange Street | 8:00am – 6:00 pm | 9:00 am – 5:00 pm | Closed |
| SARIT CENTRE | Sarit center-Ground flr, Westlands | 8:00am – 7:00 pm | 9:00 am – 7:00 pm | 10:00am – 5.00pm |
| TRM | TRM-2nd floor next to NIC Bank, Thika Road | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00pm |
| GREENSPAN | Greenspan Mall-ground floor, Donholm | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00pm |
| OVAL | The Oval, Ground floor Westlands | 8:00am – 7:00 pm | 10.00am – 5:00pm | Closed |
| VILLAGE MARKET | Village Market ground floor below Carrefour | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00 pm |
| PRESTIGE PLAZA | Prestige Plaza Ground floor, Ngong Road | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00 pm |
| JUNCTION | Junction Mall 1st floor next to food court | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 8:30am – 7:00 pm | 10:00am – 5.00pm |
| THE HUB | Lower ground floor, The Hub, Karen Behind KFC/DOMINOS | 9:00am – 7:00 pm | 9:00am – 7.00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00pm |
| AIRTEL GILFILLAN | Ground floor, Pioneer house, next to I&M Building Kenyatta Avenue | 8:00am – 6:00 pm | 9:00am – 5:00 pm | Closed |
| Diamond Plaza | Ground floor next to Parking booth | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00 pm |
| Lavington | Ground flr on landing of lift | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00 pm |
| QUICKMART EMBAKASI | Inside Quickmart Embakasi Supermarket | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00pm |
| QUICKMART RONGAI | Inside Quickmart Rongai-Main Supermarket | 10:00am – 7:00 pm | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 10:00am – 5:00pm |
| MEGA MALL | Opposite Nyayo Stadium Mega Mall | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 11.00 pm – 6:00 pm |
| QUICKMART BURUBURU | Inside Quickmart Buruburu town Supermarket | 10:00am – 7:00 pm | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 10:00 am – 5:00pm |
| QUICKMART RUAI | Inside Quickmart RUAI Supermarket | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm |
| KIAMBU Road | Inside Quickmart Kiambu | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 9:00am – 6:00 pm | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm |
P.S. To all my new readers who found this blog through the recent blog review in the Daily Nation, I wish you a warm welcome!
Photo Credit: telecomafrica.blogspot.com,
I live in Kenya and Zain Kenya isn’t any better.
You commented on my blog and i followed the link. I’ll be back to read it your blog more thoroughly but i like what i see so far.
Hi Wamathai,
Welcome to ChickAboutTown! Yes, I commented on your blog – I love the poetry you post there (and I just checked it out again now, and I like the new redesign – very fresh!). Thank you for your kudos too.
Zain Kenya – yep, I’ve had my experience with them too. I remember walking into the Zain office on Koinange street soon after they had started advertising being One Network across East Africa. After spending many minutes there, I couldn’t get an answer to what I considered a simple enough question. I guess it’s just a Zain thing.
Thanks for your feedback.
Biche
On the zain website I have seen that at night you can make international calls for 5 tsh/sec, and I was wondering if you would know whether this tariff is compatible with all the tariffs that you have posted above?
And also, I am thinking of getting the zain 3g internet modem..I have heard zain have subscribed to the new fibre optic cable, and the speeds should be good..have you had any experience with this?
Thank you!
i just have to thank u,i swear i used to spend alot of my credits texting,dint no thers is someting as JIACHIE…wish new tht months bk…tnx
Hi Nishant and Adam,
To the both of you: welcome to ChickAboutTown!
@Nishant – Nishant, I am not sure about that late night international calling rate. Personally, I assume that it works across all tariffs because I haven’t seen it mentioned in relation to a specific tariff, but that’s just my assumption. Is anyone from Zain Tanzania reading? Can you shed any light?
As for Zain’s internet service, there too I can’t give you an answer. I once visited Zain’s headquarters to find out more, but after talking to 3 people including someone from tech, I still couldn’t get a definite answer about the speed of the service. Needless to say, I didn’t subscribe to that service! Again, can someone from Zain shed any light?
@Adam – Adam, that’s exactly how I felt after I found out about Jiachie. I wish I had known months earlier! Still, better late than never. Happy textng! 🙂
Biche
Thank you for your replies – I can reply with an update..
I did use zain’s service for international calling and it charged me at about 6 tsh/sec – so I guess that’s 5 + 20% VAT.
But then I switched to zantel, which is a great deal with the highlife package – 3 tsh/sec international all day. I’m also using zantel’s internet service – 10,000 for a 2gb package that lasts a week, as opposed to 90,000 for a 2gb package with zain. Much cheaper and worth it for me!
Hi Nishant,
Thanks for the update – that’s really great information to have. I have a Zantel SIM card that has been sitting on my desk for ages – I think I will now start using it to make International calls. Cool stuff!
Thanks for the info on Internet connections too! 🙂
B.