There have been several other travels with which I have faced issues . What ever I am saying here does not mean KPN might be bad. I am just here to share my experience with you.
Tuesday 18th May 2010, 9.30 - 9.45 pm. Bangalore, KPN office Bommanahalli.
I wanted to book tickets to Chidambaram over the weekend, to attend my friends marriage. The person sitting over at the counter has already running on back up power, I can understand because he was looking frustrated. As soon as I entered the power went and came back, so I had to wait for the system to boot up. The person asked me to wait till the system booted up. There was no one there at the counter, except me.
I asked him to give me tickets to Chidambaram on the 21 st and said that I wanted a return ticket on Sunday too for two people. Mean while some passengers who wanted to travel the same day arrived, the system also was ready. The counter person booked a ticket for me on the 21st and said, please wait sir I will book tickets for today’s bus guys and get back to you. I understood that other people had to travel the same day, so I was willing to wait. And I gave to others while settling the ticket amount in another counter.
10 pm Bomanahalli,
I was standing in the side, hoping that the counter guy will call. He never seemed to be caring of me. I went ahead and asked him. "Enna sir, you had said you will book tickets for me" he said "I said but never asked you to stand in the side". This guy should have been a lawyer, I thought. All the while the person in the counter was complaining about the server being down. I also joined the queue to keep hearing him say to all people the server is down the server is down.
10.30 Bommanhalli KPN counter:
I was still standing there because I had the ticket to go but not the ticket to come back. So I ended up being more optimistic and standing there. The server was dead by this time. The KPN staff were calling all KPN offices and verified that the server was down all over.
11.00 pm - The moment of success
There was one more person in the counter who was very kind, unlike the Mr. frustu in the booking counter. There was one other guy who was trying to trouble shoot the problem, he was also good. Some how the server got connected and I got my return Ticket at 11.00 pm.
I felt good and thanked the people who helped me get the ticket. But the real fun part was, Before coming to the Booking counter, I was wet with rain water. So I had been standing there for about 1.30 hours in my wet clothes. The situation here was bad, may be my bad luck, but I feel there should have alternate methods to solve this kind of server issues. Even the Railways have these type of issues Sill
Actual travel: May 21, Friday, 2010 - 9.15 PM.
I reached Bommanhalli KPN office and 9.15 PM and enquired about my bus. The person who was announcing about all buses , saw my ticket and said that it will be here by 9.45PM. The entire KPN office was flooded with people. So I went inside the seating area and found a seat near by a FAN. While it as 9.40, I heard an announcement that my bus was delayed by 30 mins.
10.15 PM. = Still waiting for Bus.
The bus had not arrived by this time, so I went back to the announcer and asked what happened, he said it will take 5-10 more mins. Besides him I saw the person who had helped me book the ticket, and asked for help. He asked some one to call and get the status. So I came to know that bus had started from Kalaispalayam.Through some other Bus driver I came to know that our orginal bus had got punctured. That is why the delay..
10.50 PM - Bus has arrived
As a sign of relief the bus arrived and I went in. The bus started it’s journey and stopped at hosur. It had stopped there to load some parcel, it took only 45 mins.
12.00 Mid night.
This where I got my Gyan of Bed bugs. There were many other fellow passengers who got the same gyan. It reminded me of mummy movie, where there were lot of bugs. The bedbugs were all around. They were biting and running all over. I even was able to catch one and throw it out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug, /href>
After this gyan we all, about 5-6 people, got down to tell the KPN office bearers in Hosur about our fate. One of the passenger got the phone number of the Salem head office. No one helped us to get out of our torture.
4.00 am 22nd .= More trouble on the way.
In spite of bed bugs eating my blood, I some how fell as sleep around 1.30 am. But by 4.00 I woke up by the sound of the broken Shocks in the bus. After some time the bus stopped. When I got down to see what was going on the driver was changing the punctured tyre. Oh my god... All problems on shot.
Finally I reached Chidambaram, at 9.30. am. At total delay of 3.30 hours. I dont know whom to blame, whether the KPN or my fate. I leave it to the readers to decide. But some thing is wrong some where ... :-) .
PS: I am returning today by KPN, to Bangalore. The adventure begins.