I used to sell internet services. By then there was no WiFi, no mbundles and no mbuguas faimba.
What we used to sell was something called dial up service and dedicated leased lines.
This is where one had to use an existing telephone line or a leased telephone line (all analogue) to connect the internet.
When signing up to the ISP, the client had to sign a lengthy contract. You know the devil is in the details. The ISP had cleverly exonerated itself from any additional cost incurred as a result of customers’ browsing.
This cost was the ‘call cost’ especially for the dial up services. When connected to the net, you were billed by Telkom as if you were making a call…
Since Kenyans do not read the fine print, they would hastily sign the contract, we would connect them and leave them browsing away at agonisingly slow speeds (by today’s standards) of 56kbps.
One morning when were having our Monday morning meetings, we heard gunshots outside. Tukachomoka mbio kuangalia what was up. Two more gunshots rent the air.
We scattered in different directions. I went through a @Panyaste route and scattered into the gathering curious crowd.
By then the shooter, a mzungu from karen was outside our offices yelling:
Where the ferk is he? Where is mtuwa turedio? Where is this son of a bitch? I wanna shoot someone today!! He yelled.
When he was calmed down, he explained to my boss that I had signed him up with a dial up service, he had paid a quarterly figure of 10k, but he got a bill of ksh 100,000 from Telkom!
Kumbe the dude left his connection on for almost three months? He never bothered to disconnect the modem after browsing.
Well I had to take leave for a month to avoid the burger.