Customer Care In India

Customer care, the word stands for all except its literal meaning. I own an Airtel prepaid mobile connection and sent an SMS to them for activating Free SMS Pack for me. Immediately I received an SMS on my cell that the pack you have asked for will be activated on your number in 48 hours. As time passes and deadline crossed I decided to register a complaint. But I did not know that I would have to travel in a sea of IVRS options.

For English Press 1, For Hindi press 2, for this press this, for that press that. Menu after menu and submenu after sub menu, the customer can very well forget what he actually called for. No customer care executive option comes. I was puzzled how to register my complaint. I felt like shouting, but to a computer, that would not have mattered. I have talked to several people about this and the response has always been the same. Private organizations display their toll free help line number, but actually when you dial it, you come to know the futility and how all your attempts to reach the concerned person go in vain.

Apart from this I am also frustrated from the continuous recorded calls for activating caller tune on my number. I once decided to store the number from which they call and stopped picking it. But the marketers are way ahead of us. They now call me from a new number every time.

Anyways this menace does not seem to end soon and Customer care quality in India will continue to be abysmally low.