I take it you all know of the inferior devices sold by Safaricom going by the brand name Neon. If you don’t, you probably are among the wealthiest in the country. Anyway, last I checked, there was Neon Ray, Neon Nova, Neon Kicka and Neon Ray Pro - all cheap phones of poor build quality by virtually any standard and exorbitantly priced.
Not much is known about them as Safaricom tends to keep it’s skeleton closet under lock and key. Just take a look: https://deviceatlas.com/device-data/devices/safaricom/sp116e/59238627 . If you have information to further technical specs and details on the devices, feel free to share.
While I’ve never owned one, I know from what friends have told me that these phones are garbage. Safaricom has been knowingly selling them to poor uninformed folks upcountry and in the city slums.
Safaricom did a number on our people through the Neon phones scheme. I want to prove these phones are outright inferior and not worthy of the prices lots of people have paid. I’ll buy one if I have to. Do I have any legal recourse here?
PS: I am not a lawyer (clearly). Just someone who wants to help fellow struggling East Africans by protecting them against inferior, single-SIM, network-locked devices that keep breaking down and impoverishing their owners through frequent and unnecessary upgrades.
But a class action suit should be filed against safaricom on funds lost during mpesa transfers.
There is no mechanism to protect users who accidentally send funds to wrong numbers especially with fuliza besides report to dci.
Inferior to similarly-priced phones of the same specifications. Have you ever used one yourself?
This argument is dated. It’s time we raised the bar to EU standards as far as consumer protection is concerned.
Consumer fraud and withholding of important information. Little is made to the consumer as pertains the device platform, material etc. There’s clear discrepancy between what is expected of a phone purchased at certain prices and what ignorant consumers get.
Your start point is Art.46-consumer rights. Every other subsidiary legislation is just an enabler to Art.46. Anchor your points for determination there.
Neon Ray Pro Specifications
Display 5.5” FWVGA screen
Processor Quad-core MediaTek chip
Memory 1GB RAM; 16GB internal storage (expandable via microSD up to 32GB)
Camera 5MP rear with LED flash; 5MP front
Operating System Android 10 Go Edition
Battery 2500mAh
Network 4G LTE
Connectivity microUSB, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Other Dual SIM
Price KSh 5,699
No lawyer is gonna handle such a lawsuit. In law there’s a principle called “cost follows the event.” It means the losing party is gonna shoulder the adversary’s legal costs.
And since Safaricom is an extremely wealthy company, chances are they’ve got very crafty lawyers – the kind that’ll make the case drag on for ages. Which means more legal fees. Incase you lose, you’re gonna have to pay them millions.
Unless you’re extremely wealthy, you’re not gonna have many takers. If you’re wealthy, hit my inbox and I’ll draft the applications first thing Saturday morning.
A couple months ago I was handling a case which the lawfirm filed in 2014. The other party hired very slippery lawyers (some of the best in the country).
Even after judgement, they appealed and kept invoking some antique legal provisions which kept me up all night and ensured the case is gonna drag on for at least two more years. To be honest I wouldn’t mind working with some of those guys. Very slippery lawyers. Devious and extremely intelligent. Even more intelligent than me – and I’m fuckin’ intelligent.