BSNL 3G is indeed the widest and largest 3G network in India at present but not the best. I am here to share few things (in reality there are many) that need to be improved.
MNP
Let us start with Mobile Number Portability. If you are subscriber of any other service provider (other then BSNL) and you want to switch over to BSNL because you are interested in BSNL 3G, then you don’t need. BSNL doest not provide 3G services/ SIM cards to MNP customers. It’s very ironical.
2G to 3G
If you are existing customer of BSNL 2G and you want to switch over to 3G, you simply can’t do it. If you want BSNL 3G services then you have to take a new number (SIM). Just because I want 3G services, I have to change my mobile number. It seems very illogical. May be BSNL is doing so as to show more customer base on paper (by selling more SIMs).
FRC (First Recharge)
If you ever visit BSNL 3G website (https://bsnl.in/service/3G/3G_files/prepaid.htm), you can see that 6 options are displayed for FRC. But in reality it is not the case. I have bought a new SIM for Rs.59, and I thought of activating 49p call rate with FRC of Rs58. To my amazement, SIM did not accept that recharge.
I contacted customer care and they give the valuable information that I have to recharge with FRC of Rs120 and this is the only option. When I told them about other options that are being displayed on website, they simply said that they are not aware of those things J.
So, the initial cost of BSNL 3G SIM comes around 59+120+49, i.e., Rs.228. (last recharge was for activating 49p call rates as 120FRC has call rates of 70p).
Customer Care
Whenever a person will talk about negative points of BSNL, customer care will always be discussed. Whenever I tried to contact customer care, they will give vague responses as usual. Even though there is a dedicated customer support for BSNL 3G (1503), you have to wait for minimum half an hour to talk to CS. Interestingly they will not keep you on hold; simply the call will not connect J.
Grievance Handling
As per BSNL website there is a very systematic procedure for grievance handling. I faced a real situation and I found that no such procedure is in practice.
Once I registered a complaint and they gave me docket number (complaint registration number) mentioning that I will get message/ call on resolving the complaint. I waited for many days (more then a month) without any result. Again I contacted customer care and he responded that it is in process J. As per their grievance handling procedure, the complaint had to be resolved in maximum 3 days. Finally I wrote to their higher authorities and as expected they also didn’t respond. Amazing!!!
BSNL is spending hefty amount on its advertisements and campaigns. I request them that it would be better that before announcing new schemes/ offers, they first educate their department and customer care persons. BSNL is habitual of boasting lot of things on paper that is totally different in reality.
Note: I have discussed it in respect to West Bengal circle. Things may or may not differ in other circles.