The customer handling mechanism of BSNL throughout Ghaziabad(at least is more terrible than anything in the entire government enterprise) is abysmal. For one thing, their phone support is only there to give one word answer saying they can’t do anything about it and they can’t help it. Second, when any query is posted through the online grievance redressal system, it gets blindly closed without quoting any reason. Starting from getting a connection, to transfer of connection to cancellation of connection, the executives at BSNL office blindly say’it can’t be done, do whatever you want". This is the audacity of the employees there. Well is that why people take pains to raise a grievance so that the employees of BSNL can bestow the honour of closing it?
The issue that I am currently facing is this:
- Early in the moroning on the 22nd of October I had done a recharge of Rs 1099 through PayTM wallet app on my phone. Now given that it is a phone app and has this mechanism of fast forwarding the request, it rushed through before I could reconfirm the mobile number. As a result the transaction went ahead. Now BSNL’s recharges usually fail 9 out of 10 times. To add to it, the customer service numbers work only during day time and are seldom contactable. So I didn’t know that this error happened.
Later I observed that the last digit of the number I punched was wrong. I didn’t know that.
When I dialed their customer care, their only answer over and over was that I have to call up the other user and tell him to recharge my phone. Second time the person blindly and rudely said they can’t do anything.
First of all, this is blatant violation of consumer laws. If a customer is dissatisfied with the services or facility or product, the provider is obliged to give a full refund or return. BSNL CANNOT say that they can’t do anything. Second, the service has not been used – the other user told me that he doesn’t own a phone on which 3G can be used. Also I have told this well in advance and hence BSNL’s delay in attending to my issue is not my fault.
I had sent a mail to the Apellate officer as well as the CMD of BSNL and there was no answer in that regard.
The help I sought here was that I want the service to be cancelled on the wrong number and then either:
Transferred into MY number.
Or a credit of talk value equaling the recharged amount in my number.
Or a full refund into the source of payment.
I don’t see how or why BSNL cannot attend to this simple issue. A managerial level person can easily issue a transfer of the said services from one subscriber to another especially when I am proving that I have done the recharge.
Other telecom providers do assist. Add to it, this is not a small amount. This is a considerably big amount. If lets say someone has been the victim of fraud and a large amount gets recharged on some random number, is this how BSNL is qualified to handle it?
This is simply a tip of the iceberg. BSNL all over India is notorious for allowing criminal elements to send lottery or other obscene notification messages to customers. To add to it, various useless apps or ringtones or other things get autosubscribed without the customers knowledge and we all know what a nightmare it is to get the matter resolved or the money refunded. I have mostly been maintaining zero balance owing to these reasons.
Despite all struggles, attempts, absolutely nothing was done and finally some employee from the local office called up and said it wasn’t under their control. If not under their control, there ought to be someone in the technical division who should be in a position to do it can’t they?
Eventually I got tired of all the efforts and gave up on my attempts and decided never to use any of BSNL’s services again.
The best option would be for the government to decentralise BSNL. The enterprise is massive and has a huge infrastructure and can earn a phenomenal amount of revenue. In addition once their services are used by civilised people, then the taxes generated out of their services would be massive and can increase government revenue.
The staff at BSNL offices are all stupid and do not know the least about the technology or understand what one is trying to explain when it comes to issues of internet connectivity problems. To add to it, when one says they wish to discontinue the services, they have the audacity to simply say they can’t do it.
At present the company makes money by coming up with innovative plans and the sales agents are quick to come and set up connections. But post that it is simply luck if you continue to be able to utilize their services.
To add to everything in case of a billing error or even if you yourself make mistakes in online payments, selecting a specific plan wrongly or anything, they have absolutely no way of resolving the issue. The circle officers don’t know anything about how to solve it. They accuse you of having done it online instead of approaching a dealer. - Yes. I have faced this. They said that henceforth I have to approach a dealer so that if there is any error in the type of recharge or number recharged, they can rectify it.