Tag Archive for 'Vodafone'

Some late night thoughts

Published on 26th Oct 2008 in General Thoughts. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I have been travelling over the weekend back to my native place which was untouched by the glitz and glamour of the metros. This Diwali seems to be muted; partially because of the economic recession and partly because of the widespread inflation.

I still cannot understand the “mobile story” and “fastest growth” crap. More and more people are migrating towards parallel connections instead of the trickle down effect as expected. Agreed that “lifetime incoming offers” have appealed to the segment of population who keep their mobiles only for incoming calls, the precentage is far and few inbetween. We have no break up of the demographic profile and if the trends are to be seen, much of the money and the effort is being poured in the metros where there is more of a spending power as compared to other cities.

I have three telephone connections; one for regular use, the other a landline for broadband access and the thrid for calling up other Reliance numbers. Overall, I fail to understand as to how they would account for the “churn” or the “fastest growing segment” because I have never been enamoured of using the VAS. The operators know that there bread and butter segment is the voice calls and I am sure that they would implement the VoIP solutions to cut down on their costs. Everything else is flotsam and media generated hype.

In the same vein, most of the other handset manufacturers are clearly not making any efforts to address the cost of the handsets. Barring the advertising costs, if they implement open source solutions for the newer PDA’s, it can reduce the cost of the handsets to a large extent. Google’s Android would effect this to a large extent; though, I would reserve my comments on it till the time I actually get to use it. It’s still in the nascent stage; I am sure it would mature with the next release as they learn from their mistakes.

Vodafone has not addressed the GPRS connection charges; I still have to come across a reliable operator who can ensure a seamless connectivity across the major highways. I would want to access the Internet on a long boring journey; it remains a pathetic experience to even open up the mailbox. I don’t favor the mobile net on the move partly because of my bais for broadband and partly because it’s assinine to peer in the small screen. Unless of course, one has an iPhone and Safari which makes it a pleasure to surf on the small screen. Brilliant conceptual implementation.

The elections are nearing and I am keeping my fingers crossed for some semblance of the maturity on the following government to provide a clear direction to the broadband access and policy. We can do a lot more once we have a reliable connectivity. We dont need fancy laptops for kids in rural India to demonstrate the “modern with rural” mating. Its assinine to pour in money for something which just remains a showcase and earns you f***ing brownie points for “corporate social responsibility”.

This is just a loose string of thoughts as I was travelling back down. Although, it is a fascinating experience to see the rural landscape change. We realise that there is a lot of untapped potential and there is a chance to “change”.

Reliance Wimax: Disappointing customer service

Published on 11th Aug 2008 in Indian Telecom. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

This is a guest post from a reader, Mr Naveen Roy. He had sent across an attachment and detailed his sad story in the email. Its hard to believe that the customer care can be so dumb. Many a times, it’s a lone dingbat sitting in some corner of their “headquarters” who is replying to the assinine mails clogging the inboxes. There is a wide disconnect between the “customer care” and the idiots who have to the do the real work. I can testify for this; I had a major hassle with Vodafone.

Here is the write up by Mr Naveen Roy. You are most welcome to send in your feedback as well and I shall be glad to carry out the same here.

All I wanted was relocation for my Reliance Wimax connection. So I called their Customer No Care. All the automatons tell you is that you have to pay! When I really started digging for more information did they tell me that I have to take the equipment with me! Damn, I nearly missed that and god knows what I would have ended paying up for! Then I had to call and ask what the next step was. They told me that I would have to raise a relocation request. This I did. And this was done 2 days before I moved.

So I took the equipment with me and carted it to the new place. Then I called Reliance Customer No Care to find out what the status of the relocation request was. They said that it will take a week! I said ok and waited 2 days. Then when I called for an update, I was told that I will also have to pay Rs.500. Then I asked how much for a new connection. I was told that its Rs.500. I asked how long that takes. I was told that it can be done in a day. Well, I asked why there is a difference in relocation and a new connection in terms of the days. Well, the automaton there replied that it is company policy. I pushed harder for a resolution. No go. Automaton says that he cannot understand. I ask to speak to the supervisor. I am FLATLY REFUSED access to any kind of help!

I call the next day asking for the supervisor again. Again, no go. The automaton this time even accuses me of calling in just to WASTE HIS TIME!! Damn, I was so damn pissed off that I cut the call cause I am worried that I might transform myself into some electrical noise and burst his goddamned brains!

The next day, I get a call from their Customer No Care asking for my email address! When asked why, I am told that there is a form that I will need to fill up for relocation. By now, I am thoroughly and totally fuming. I ask why they don’t have it in the system when they send me the bills to my email address! When Reliance needs my money, they have my email address so that they can send me the bill. When it is something concerning service, they conveniently forget my email address! And I also ask why this relocation form was not sent to me the day that I raised the relocation request! No reply. Automaton says something that makes me want to puke in disgust. He disconnects call. Remember, I swear like a sailor. But all these calls, I have not used bad language at all. Not even calling these automatons the word STUPID. Which they all are!

Damned automaton then disconnects the call. So I call Customer No Care again and I am told that I was at fault. I am told that “Customer did not respond properly”. I said ok, thats fine. I am done with you guys.

I call Airtel, who even though they provide good service, usually do not have feasibility in many areas. Well the service desk was like a breath of fresh air and assured me that there was feasibility. I did not even have to pay a deposit as I took the corporate connection. The connection was done in 3 days and on the 4th day, there was light. Err no, the internet was working!!

Now, the joke with Reliance does not end there. Some days back, I receive an email from Reliance Broadband with my bill attached. But by now, I am not surprised. I am really frustrated. So where was my email address when the relocation form needed to be filled up?? So damn pissed off again, I send a mail to their generic customer no care email address and hope that this atleast will not be monitored by automatons. Well, wonder of wonders, IT IS!!

Well, rather than lose my head and breaking my head banging against a brick wall, I decide to take it cool and not bother about Reliance anymore. I wonder if I ever will trust Reliance in any form again! And the tag line on their service emails is – Looking forward to build a lifetime relationship with you. Like hell I would want to have a relationship with a company as this.

Makes for a disappointing story indeed. I hope that this gets some mileage and enough warning for others before they put in their hard earned money.

Vodafone India: Won the battle

Published on 27th Jul 2008 in Vodafone India. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Woohoo. My persistence paid off. I have made the company credit the bill that they owed me. In addition to that, I have made them apologise for the whole fracas. I have realised that despite their claims of “happy to help”, they are among the most disorganised band of morons; just like the other operators.

Having a multiplicity of operators is not going to help unless they are brought in line by a regulator that has real powers. This is wishful thinking unfortunately.

I was thinking of the old times when I was dependent on BSNL’s largesse. I fought the shitheads on the phone, clogged their email servers and created a lot of brouhaha online for the same. I made them run around to give me a connection that actually worked. I made them correct the billing faults; I made them see through my point. It was a tough battle but it was only designed with one intention. We can achieve far more success in life if we are allowed to reach our full potential and not be constrained with the artificial barriers. People across the world are reaching out to new avenues; our development stops just short of South Extension in New Delhi. Thats the kind of “Gurgaon” model that we hold up to the world to signify our progress.

Making the company pay for their follies is an example that I wish to hold up here. It makes sense to be persistent; sniff out their potential weaknesses and hammer on whatever they respond to you. I emailed all the previous mails with this implicit knowledge that even though no one is going to read it, the company would be shamed to have a mess on their hands. The media likes to sniff out such incidents and I had plans to alert them to such “harrassment”. Elsewhere it would have been a PR disaster because one of the most important system of a mobile company is their billing system. I am told that it is a very expensive solution and needs to be robust. If people start having doubts on the billing system, they would desert it like rats on a sinking ship. It is perhaps for this reason, the telecom operators are loath to act on the complaints.

Further, a system should gurantee the fact that it not open to abuse. Mobile cloning is a persistent danger and there are many dudes in Palika Bazar who do it for a small fee. There is an whole underground system to clone the shit; mobile companies must be able to proactively anticipate these incidents and prevent them. Or else, it would be a disaster. An utter chaos.

I have made them pay. If anyone is reading this in official capacity, a middle finger up to you. If someone is reading this in personal capacity, dude, you are a personal failure to make a company worth it.

Vodafone India: Billing hassles

Published on 11th Jul 2008 in Other Frustrated Customers and Vodafone India. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Despite their brilliant advertising claims, Vodafone India has made a mess of it’s customer care. Why doesn’t it translate into effective delivery at the ground level?

I had made a payment for my mobile phone elsewhere; outside from the home circle. I was assured that the billing system would be updated. As luck would have it, the system didnot update the payment and I started getting messages and calls from female “recovery agents” to pay my dues. Surprisingly, they have a knack of calling in at such odd hours; they start off without even extending basic courtesies. I insisted that I had paid for the amount and I directed them to enquire from their Vodafone Store where I had paid the cash. They did not make any effort to trace the amount but instead chose to lay the entire blame on me.

All said and done, they barred my outgoing calls and I had to make the payments under duress. Although, the phone was working again after much cajoling; they took an entire day to get it “activated”.

My credit limit is more than sufficient and they made me run around like a scared rabbit. What is clear from the entire episode is that despite their claims, they did not bother to check their backend (literally and figuratively) and rectify the issue. It could have been very simple to call up the dud on the other line (through proper channel in their parlance) and find out the billing details as well as the payment made. Although, in the routine cases it sounds audacious because they have to take care of “millions of customers” but the fact is that they cannot afford to loose loyal ones. I have remained with Hutch for over 3 years now only because of their talk plans. So far, I have not had much of the issues with their billing per se but this one off incident has shaken my faith in the company. So much so, that its more of a hurt than anger that’s bothering me.

There are many other stories like these replicated day in day out across the country. With an ineffective regulator and lack of awareness, most of these nitwits are having a free run.

This is the problem with having oligopolies. The customer isnt the king any longer.

UPDATE: I have been updating on the forums as well. So far, no reply from the company.

Vodafone India: The “jesus” phone

Published on 18th May 2008 in Indian Telecom. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

iPhone (or the “jesus” phone) would be marketed here in India by Vodafone (and perhaps Bharti Airtel). By all accounts it would be the crappy 2G stuff while rest of the world would see 3G version being rolled out.

iPhone is seriously making a dent in Blackberry’s business model; although as a general user, it doesn’t impress me. Job’s reality distortion field has had it’s effects.

If it is priced beyond 20k, it would be of no use unless one really wants to blow up serious money. It means either you are a bank robber or have amassed hue amounts of money and don’t want Government of India to know about it. A much better option would be to get a smuggled handset from one of these “chor bazaars”, haggle over the price (minus any gurantees) and pray that it doesnt go kaput. Useless option. Vodafone India is being managed by a set of nuts who can at best scratch them without applying their minds to it.

Vodafone India: Fined for it’s VAS

Published on 18th May 2008 in Indian Telecom. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

It sounds too good to be true. Some “vigilant” NGO filed a case against Vodafone for it’s spurious campign to promote more usage of talktime. There were enough suckers to join the fun. The consumer court ruled that this is akin to using lottery/ gamble.

Now we all know that Indians make such a hue and cry about morals that its embarassing. Nevertheless, the court ruled in favour of the NGO which had filed a case and fined Vodafone India to the tune of 50 lakhs.

I am sure that lawyers are cheaper than paying up the fine. I would be surprised indeed if Vodafone pays up meekly. Although, it is nothing as compared to their projected earnings.

Opera Mini

Published on 18th May 2008 in Indian Telecom. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

The new version 4.1 has been released recently. I find this an excellent browser for mobile phones; although being stuck with Vodafone as my service provider means that I cannot use it on my Internet enabled Nokia.

Here is a list of the new features. You can download this application from here:

http://www.operamini.com/download/