Zap

Did my first zap transaction. I'd been looking to use this service for some time but walking about, the only places I saw with the relevant signage were these exhibition stall type places. A box by the pavement that was just big enough for the person manning the place to turn around really slowly. Not really appealing to those of us blessed with healthy doses of paranoia.

So I decided to ask someone who works on the inside if there was a more reasonable place that a guy can do this business. Not once have I managed to get to talk to an actual live human after dialling the customer care number. Try the post office, came back the reply. I didn't believe that response at first, but figured I'd not laugh it off completely, given that this was coming from the horse's mouth. It was time for my posta run anyway. Didn't see any big signs at first but sure enough there were a couple of counters where in addition to paying whatever bill you could imagine [this must be their main business these days], you could zap. And when did you start offering this service, I ask the guy across the glass. Two months ago. Now, I don't read the papers everyday, and watch the circus that is local news even less frequently, but I had not heard that post offices had become zap agents. I was at the zain website last week and it certainly wasn't among the 100+ page list of agents. So you can't get info from customer care because you'll never get through, and you can't get info from the website because it's never updated. Never = Sufficiently infrequent, tending towards Never. If you don't know a guy who works for zap who you can email, you end up not using the service. Or perhaps that's just me.