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.

ITS A BAD IDEA

Well MBA is hectic and demanding. After two weeks in DMS IIT Delhi , I have realized that. From the last three days I have zero balance in my cell phone but I have not been able to go to the shop just in front of IIT main gate to buy a new sim. Why I need a new sim? Thats because I have brought a pathetic IDEA my gang connection. So lets me describe "what an idea :)". As I entered IIt Delhi campus I found a stall promoting Ideas MY GANG connections. They promised very cheap calling rates and nearly free messaging (@1p) within the gang. I couldn't resit the temptation and went for it. As a part of the promotion I was also given a parker Beta pen on which the cost price was mentioned to be 125. As I have used parker in the past I knew that the market cost of the pen was Rs. 50. As I turned the cover the reason wes evident. it was written in bold letters "Specially packed for IDEA". This is a case of cheating. Its only in a country like India that a brand of national level can blatently afford to flout laws.
If it was limited till here that was O.K The nighmare started when I started using the connection. The network of Idea is like Electricity in U.P. It goes and you dont know when it will come back. similarly network of Idea also disappears without any prior information and as the murphy law goes it happens when you need it the most. The call connecting rate is also really low. I sometimes had to pray to God to get calls connected. The gang rates are not applicable from 5 :00 p.m to 11:00p.m again a time when you have to make most of the calls. The free sms scheme is not available for Independence day, friendhip day, Rakhi, rose day, sari day and any other day which Archies and Hall mark have ever thought of. So all in all a request too all Delhi residents -->> "ITS A BAD IDEA".