I bought the 3G e-stick(Model Huawei E367) in February 2011. When I bought the device(Rs. 4000) the staff at the Cox Town, Bangalore, Tata Docomo outlet did not mention that my residence is in an area where there is only 7.2 Mbps connectivity - no 21.6 Mbps connectivity, though I had opted for the 21.6Mbps plan.
The connection was activated early March 2011. The connection worked well until March 26, 2011. Since then the connection disconnects intermittently, at random.
Calls to Customer Support could not solve the problem. I tried calling the Nodal Officer Karnataka(Mr Suresh Kumar). His name, contact number and email address are listed in a document on the website. He never answers calls. I wrote an email to him. I receive a template reply. A service engineer visited by home in Fraser Town, Bangalore. He wrote an unintelligible report and left. The network problem remained. I wrote two more emails to Mr Suresh Kumar. The same template response, with a promise to rectify the problem in 3 working days. No solution.
I then called the Appellate Officer, a Ms Sunitha George. She is also listed in a document that is part of the company’s complaint escalation program. She, too, never answers her telephone. I wrote a mail to her. I receive the same response. Two days later a Ramkumar calls me from the Nodal Office, though the Appellate Office is meant to clear complaints that the Nodal Office cannot rectify. He promises to call me back later the same day. He has never called back. I then sent one more email to the Ms Sunitha George. No reply!
I came to the conclusion that Tata Docomo does not have such employees with the above designations.
I log on to https://facebook.com/tatadocomo. I have to click the "Like" button to post any content there! I wrote a post in the "Discussion Board" on the site entitled "Non-existent Nodal and Appellate Officers in Karnataka". The administrator replied with a query about my account details with a promise to pass this to the "concerned" department. I obliged. Then I continued to post my experiences in detail there. I have received no more replies from Tata Docomo. Two days later when I logged in to the Facebook page, I noticed that the "Discussion Board" page has been removed. I have the link to the "Discussions Board" page in activities list in my Facebook page. If I click that link, I only get my activities page.
I have since cancelled by account.
Then, I receive an email from the Appellate Officer’s email, stating that, as per my request in May 2011, my account is being cancelled, quoting a 9-digit number that does not even resemble my 10-digit number. This shows the efficiency with which the customer engagement program works!
Over the last 7 or so months, when my account was active, I used to get 2 calls a day and several text messages for a week before my bill due date, reminding me to pay my bill! This was so much more irritating given the fact that Tata Docomo could not respond properly to or rectify my complaint.
I think Tata Docomo customer service and its alleged escalation program is a hoax. It’s eyewash for people who happen to browse their site.
I’m surprised to know that Tata Teleservices has a panel of eminent people, including the famous IIT Professor Junjhunwala, to advice on Customer Engagement and Service. This is mentioned in one of Tata Teleservices web pages.
It’s all lot of eye wash. I suspect lofty ideals on customer engagement are in place, but execution is simply not happening. I guess big companies can get away with mediocrity. If 2% of the customer base is not happy with company, then the company thinks that their customer engagement score is 98%, and feel very happy about their service!