Airtel Vs Idea Vs TaTa

2007-11-15T16:15:00.000-08:00

Why not Sachin and Why Shahrukh with Airtel?

This proves that Airtel only and only thinks of its profit and has no ethics about the Brand-Ambassador. This in-humane treatment depicts that when Sachin was struggling, Airtel smartly sidelined him. To give good impression to its customer-base, it has compromised with the Business Ethics. Perhaps, he did it right by joing hands with Reliance.

I have gone through multiple case-scenarios for the Hutch/Vodafone and it gives me the impression that it offers good features/options to the customers. The service is not good because hey have targeted the Rickshaw-wallas and shopkeepers, who have nothing to do but to blame hutch.

On other hand Idea's planning is focussed more on structured MRC (Monthly Recurring Charges for post-paid connections. this company seems to be more targeting these post-paid connections instead of Pre-Paid. And I do agree that pre-paids are headaches for the Company as well as smart customers.

In the last post/column, I had mentioned that I would be sharing my experience with Airtel and Idea. since, I'm yet t take any hutch connection, I'm unable to comment over it. However, no doubt that Tata's Indicomm connection is next to pathetic. They are largely dependent on local Dalal's.

My case is very interesting one for those who enjoy the sufferings of people. It would be painful to those you have gone through the same process/experience.

Airtel a company who outsources majority of its BU's to other domestic anxilliaries My company is one of the major vendor for the Technical and IT- related assistance.

This does not make any point for Airtel as I'm mere a customer and not Corporate customer. So, now the readers must have understood that I took the Corporate post-paid connection from Airtel. Hey!!! it does not mean that my Company would bear the cost, rather it had been my liability.

I paid in full for 1 year rental which is about 1100 to the Sales-executive. The Sales-Executive told me that he was not at all paid by his Boss. He also gave me excuses to hand-me over the Welcome Kit. When I got that, it had no telephone number activated for the Sim-Card. Alas, after 35 days the Customer care issues me a new connection, when I actually requested at least 70 times, in total.

Why 70 times?

1st call From my Personal connection (Ideas)
2nd Call From my Office as it also has the Airtel connection

So, 35/7= 5 weeks, and you must be wondering that I still have 2nd option out of the picture on the offdays. The answer is that I have a friend "Sitesh Jha", who has 2 STD PCOs with Airtel's telephone connections. I used to call from there.

Each time I phoned, I got response from some ill-trained staff of Vendors. They promised that they would do this and that and blah...blah...

After another 5 days, I got my number activated and I proudly made one local call and one STD call. To my horror, they deactivated my connection again. When contacted they told me that they are yet to verify my address.

After two days, I contacted them again and they told me that the address is wrong. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ...

"My address is wrong Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ...."

Just think of their lame excuse that my address is wrong, where on the same address they have permitted 6 STD PCOs, for which they had the same billing address.

So, I asked them to give me another excuse to activate the account. This time they promised that their Verification department is working over it an I would be contacted.

But I was never contacted.....provided that I had two active connections of other service providers.

I asked Airtel to provide another excuse as to why the service has not bee activated. They told me that they visited my place and did not find me there. I had the evening shift scheduled at 4:30 pm and to the complete day, I was available. I have my Offs on Mondays and Tuesdays and they told me that their executive visited my place and found my room locked.

Next time, I asked them strictly to contact me before coming at 1:00 pm. The executive contacted me shook hands and get his papers signed and went away. After 2 days, I confirmed the same as to what was the status of the action.

To my surprise, they told me that I had no sufficient papers.

- My Ideas Post Paid Connection has the same address
- My Credit Cards (HDFC) also has the same address
- My savings account (HDFC/AXIS bank) do follow the same
- My Company's appointment letter and my LPG GAS connection

Perhaps, they wanted the H. President of India to confirm that I live there.

I phoned them again for next 25 days continuously. I requested them to cancel and then they reverted that their Retention Dept, would call me.

The latter one seemed to poor in making calls. They simply told me that they still want us to continue with it. I still gave them another chance. For this bloody company I even took Offs from the office.

Their Email account is bouncing and I never got any response from their vigilance and grievance department. Perhaps, they should have "Grief" over their service, hence had no option but to bypass my requests.

This went on and on till next 10 days, and then I was recommended by the Customer Care to contact their Retail Outlet in Sahara Mall.

The retail-Outlet also confirms that the vendor is least sensitive about the issues of the customer. If the telephonic customer care was neutral and dull then the Retail-Outlet's Customer care was blood-sucking and threatening.

They simply told me that my money is lost and I can do whatsoever I can to get back my money. They bluntly declared that your cash amount has been sucked by the company and they would never give me back. The cost of my pair of Hush-puppie's Shoes is 4700 and the Blazer is 3000. So, the issue was not about the money but the inconveniences.

The Retail-Outlet proved that they can never be the face of the customer-care. I have still many things to add here, but due to time constraint I could not.

My apologies, for the readers who are eagerly waiting for the next thread. I would try my best to take time of my schedule to update my blog. Till then happy days for everyone!

Regards,

Satyendra

My experience with Telecom Majors: {{{ Undisclosed }}}

2007-11-12T04:49:00.000-08:00

Well this is a very good topic to discuss about non-sense things.

Why non-sense?

Perhaps, we greedy people simply hold these Telecom Companies responsible for out stupid decisions and activities on our part. We want everything for free and expect nothing to be given out of our pocket.

My experience is very interesting one and I wish to float my disclaimer as well. As a customer it is my very right to share my experience with the company as well as the customers. No one should take any learning-lesson from my experience.

It is solely and solely my experience and experience of other may vary. I am no where trying to mention that these companies are worst or best in their respective categories.

I'm a customer and I repeat that when I subscribed my service I was a customer of the concerned companies. I paid for their services and I have every right to complain about the nature of service I have received.

Even if I work for these companies, my stand would never change which I have observed. I have experienced this in some part of my life and hence would remain a fact for me in coming years. Though the data and facts vary from time-to-time, I still wish to manage the same stand.

I could have shared the chart-wise data but this would rather depict that I'm advertising any company. So, my focus is entirely over my observation, expectation and then result leading to the conclusion.

No company has rights to reverse my experience with their services to me. No company has any right to influence me for this time-stamp based experience as of December 2007.

So, I want to start my blog with this negative note and from a positive beginning : My Experience as I face things and hurdles in my life. I would make sure that all the negative things are collected with proper database to defend my observation.

Please bear with me as I would share my experience with Telecom Companies in later part of my entry.

Regards,

Satyendra

My Personal Blog

Airtel Vs Idea Vs TaTa

My experience with Telecom Majors: {{{ Undisclosed }}}