Have been subjected to the worst ever treatment as a customer for the last 2 days. Worse, till now I have no clue how long it’s going to last. The honorable company here is Idea Cellular who claim to have changed the lives of many. Surely they are doing it to me- in ways I’ve never imagined. But since I was the one to err first I can’t blame anyone much. Yes- I disregarded the feedback from couple of friends and decided to take a post paid connection from Idea, lured by their attractive plan for STD calls.
As soon as I got a local ID proof in Delhi, went to an Idea shop near the place I stay and took the connection paying the initial deposit amount. As I have the "dirty" habit of keeping a check on my expenses, I’d calculated how many hours I can talk for my intended budget for a month and was using the phone accordingly. Then came a message from Idea saying my current usage is Rs.458 and since it’s nearing my credit limit of Rs.500, I’ve to pay. The same day I got a call explaining the same thing and asking me to pay Rs.200. That very evening I went to the Idea store and made the payment hoping not to be bothered about that again. God! Had I any Idea about what was to come.
After a few hours, I realized that my outgoing has already been blocked- what a prize for paying the bill! The only number I could call was that of their customer "service", ironically named Idea "Care". They enlightened that it takes some time for the payment to be updated and I’ll be able to make calls after 2 days. I was shocked to hear ’2 days’. Then the customer "care" representitive (CCR) told I can happen by next day morning also.
Most of my next day was spent in talking to various CCRs of Idea "care" over 3-4 calls, which they declare ’may be recorded for internal training purposes’. I wish they release it in public domain because they can be textbooks on ’How not to treat your customer’. I often suspected whether I was talking to the same person because they all resembled each other in their learned-by-rote yucky words they utter, their complete lack of sensitivity and concern towards the caller and their arrogant irresponsibility towards their work. (maybe it’s their brand ambassador who is attending the calls- with his 10 heads!) Same routine happened in all the 6 calls (the last one being 26 mins long).
Before anything they will make me recite my name, billing address and DOB (which I’ve by now practiced to do in one breath). I still don’t know who else on earth would be more concerned about reinstating my outgoing facility than ME! On the brighter side, verifying these details happens to be the only job the CCRs could do properly. Since what follows is a volley of replies in the negative each prefixed by a "Sorry, Sir". So, it turns out that,
1) Idea has no idea about the contact numbers of their shops.
2) Idea has no idea of the existence of a number 3892 that sends "Your Idea postpaid a/c bill for Rs.200.0 has been paid. Thank you" messages before the payment is actually received.
3) Idea has no idea about the details of my previous interactions with their CCRs, about their claims of raising complaints on my behalf or anything.
4) Idea has no idea of the value of their customers’ time. It assumes they have whole days to ’stay on line’ with them.
The first time I demanded to speak to someone higher up than these robotic CCRs, they put me on hold and made me listen to a ringtone that went on indefinitely until I remembered that the call is being metered and disconnected.
Yes! Idea is shamelessly charging its Idea "care" "service", when they apparently are careless and serving none. The latest update I got is from a person claiming he’s the supervisor (though I really doubt it- he didn’t have any satisfying solution to offer and he too mysteriously sounded exactly like the CCR robots) is that he has (finally!) raised a complaint and will let know of the status in 3 days time. Yep, 3 days! I told him whether I’ll get my deposit back if I terminate the connection now. Sheesh, why did I ask? I already knew the answer). "Sorry Sir, .....". I’ve had experiences from the public sector telecom companies which can be described "divine" when compared to this. This indifference in customer service matches well with the inefficiency of their systems.
Sirji, do you have any Idea of what is going on?