BSNL has the best coverage in India. Even in the most remote rural areas, chances are that BSNL will work.Their 3G system is also good. Customer service from within the circle - very good. What is the problem then?
On a recent holiday in Tamil Nadu, we lost one of our phones, a dual sim. One was Vodafone, the other was BSNL - both post paid with international roaming etc etc.Blocking the Vodafone sim was no problem and accomplished in 5 minutes through their call centre.
Blocking the BSNL [Cellone] sim was a nightmare.1503 is supposed to be their All India helpline even for reporting lost sim. Guess what? When you dial 1503, your call is diverted to the local circle helpline.
The local circle if it is not your original circle, will refuse to block your sim and insist that you get it blocked only from your own circle. So what do you do when you are travelling? Bang your head on a stone wall with hundreds of calls and pleas to the person who answers 1503!
We must have made at least 200 calls with no result. What a nightmare.We were in a small town and even visited the local BSNL centre, but that was only for landline. They tried to be helpful by calling the nearest Mobile centre in the closest town, but again those people insisted that only our home circle in Maharashtra could block the sim. It was a Saturday.
On Monday we got in touch with our family member in Mumbai to go personally to CTO to get the sim blocked.This is not customer service at all.
Why give 1503 as an all India number if BSNL is not willing to perform a basic service like blocking a lost sim?Shame on BSNL!