Orange Just Talk..this must be among the most publicized brands in the city of Mumbai. But frankly, when it comes to providing the service, they are pathetic.
I got my pre paid card from one of the ORANGE SHOPS, thats what they call it. Well, from moment one, my ordeal started. I walked into their ’’shop’’ at 6:50 pm, and asked the lady (pleasant looking...that’s what must have got her the job, huh!!), as to how before the ’’shop’’ closes.
She said, ’’about 15 - 20 minutes’’.
I asked ’’Is it possible to give me a pre paid card within that time?’’
She said ’’SURE!’’(musta been happy ki murga phas gaya!!)
She asked ’’why are you in a hurry?’’.
I said ’’cos if I’m late, I’ll miss my dinner tonight’’
She gave a wry smile. I never meant to be humorous...I was dead serious!! I had a dinner at my friend’s office canteen, and they don’t server after 7:30. They discourage if you walk into the canteen after 7:25.
Anyways, I sat down, chose a number and filled out the form, all in dot 6 minutes...time was 6:58 pm.
She took my driving license, to get a photocopy, and it took her 25 minutes to return that to me!! And tried my patience, with all the gossiping those girls and guys were indulging in, giggling and behaving as if I were invisible!! Rudeness personified I must say! Decency forgotten!
As a result, I had to
spend Rs 8 for an auto rickshaw I took to reach my friend’s office (which was just a 10 minute walk),
had to bear with the sneer of all the people for coming late,
because of me, the office bus was delayed by 15 minutes, as the cook was waiting for me to finish my dinner(which I didn’t consume much, so that left me hungry too).
A small negligence on part of these ’’Orange Shop’’ people, and it screwed up the lives of so many ppl, mostly mine!
Well, little was I aware that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Within a few months, Bharti launched Airtel and with loads of offers, Orange blindly introduced new schemes and features to remain at par with the new player. One of them was free sms.
I, like any Indian user, started using this FREE sms facility to the max. I also logged on to Yahoo! Messenger using my cellphone and used it. Things went fine..I was reachable thru sms, anytime, anywhere, that too for free..
Then after a few days, while I was talking to a friend of mine, on my cell, I got a message, ’’Your account is low’’..and after another 5 minutes or so, the call got disconnected. To my horror, I had just 35 paise in my account.
I called the orange hotline, and the ’’customer care executive’’ and he told me that they’d started charging for the sms sent to Yahoo! Messenger for the past 2 days..
I was furious!! What is the way you people operate? Aren’t u supposed to tell us before you start charging for something?
The reply was cool..he said, ’’Sir, we slashed the airtime rates, but never informed you. You benefitted from it, unaware of it’’
I replied...’’Sir, its another thing to charge less, and entirely another to charge for something which is free. Don’t tell me your logic is so absurd that you can even think of comparing these two things!’’
He said...’’Sorry sir’’.
Then, I always got complaints from my parents that my cell is engaged..my friends used to constantly pull my leg that I’m busy on my phone with my girl friends...little did those ppl know that I hardly received a call in 2 days, and that rarely did my outgoing call last for more than 3-5 minutes.
My average usage of the phone per day was around 20 minutes...and my cell used to be engaged almost all the time.
When I complained about this, the orange ’’customer care representative’’ took the numbers of ppl who tried my phone and found it engaged. Not once, but thrice. Ultimately I couldn’t stand it, and literally burst on the phone, telling those guys that they were inefficient, inept, uncaring and hopeless.
He said..’’Sir, I’m sorry’’.
And more recently, Orange has removed the 9 to 9 facility, when the airtime rate used to be half, and sms is now charged Rs 1.50 instead of Rs 1.0
What I dont understand is, how come these people operate at will? What makes them think they are the kings? That they can provide anything they like, and withdraw these services at will. Whenever they launch some service, they dont tire claiming how much they care about their customers, and for that they launch this particular feature. And when it is withdrawn, they dont even have the curtsey to atleast ’’inform’’ their ’’loving customers’’
Yet another thing is that now that I want to change my service to billing card, but I want the same number(something that BPL does most easily), Orange has no provision for that!
The way things are going, I am a very very dissatisfied and displeased customer of Orange Just Talk. And the moment I have a better option, I will change my service.
I strongly recommend against using ORANGE JUST TALK....go for BPL MOTS..U’ll be a much happier person. ’’No offences meant’’, but BPL has come a long way since the time our friend Amrita had a bad time using it. It is a much better option these days.