This is the latest update on 20/12/2004-
’’Well, we have yet to receive your cheque for the payment (sending the bill is not our custom.) ’You know that we are the royale!’ Anyway, we may not even look at your cheque. So we disconnect you.’’
I must be crazy and may be having day dreams of having posted a cheque and my phone is disconnected for 17 days. Then there is the new amount - OUCH Rs 965.00! OUCH! Phone was barred for 15 days. And even for the remaining 15 days, most of the time I was calling 121 to clarify the source so much bills in spite of the fact that I have asked everybody to call me so that I do not have to call via the TATA Indicom mobile. How can it be Rs 965 again?
I think I have become crazy and my senses are not working. Or maybe I need treatment in a Lunatic Asylum. See what else do you earn for in a developed India? Mobile companies. Simple. You must donate to them. Tumhare bachche bhookon mare. That is your fault. Paida kyon kiye? Tata Indicom ko paisa dena thaa.
Well at least I know how to run a mobile phone service.
1) Do not send bills regularly.
2) Overbill - at least three to four times.
3) From time to time ignore cheques and tell that they are not received.
4) Similarly, sometimes invalidate cheques without sending back or using them. Just ask for another cheque.
TATA INDICOM - CAN YOU HEAR!
A misguided citizen
Section 1: Come and fall - in trap. See freedom is not what you were looking for initially when you bought the Tata indicom at the first place. (for a proof, read my initial experiences in the next section 2 of this review.) Any way, in a great country with everyone trying to loot, why should tata indicom try to be a Dharmatma!
Suppose you have multiple disorders (god forbid. Pardon me I dont want it to happen to you but your tata indicom phone has it). Suppose you have a headache + nausea. You know what? You will feel the symptoms of only one disease. Now if you take the medicine for nausea, the nausea disappears and suddenly you start feeling the headache. And I wish to thank Tata Indicom for giving me such results as Tata Indicom helped me discover this. Oops! let me continue...
I had a temporary phase of relief when the bills started pouring in at the correct times and their executives started caring for customers with the human recorded answers that terminate into - thanks for calling tata indicom. At least there should be some courtesty when the looting is from Tata Indicom. Isnt it!
Well what is the use of your earning money until you are being overbilled by three times! Let me explain- You know that you use the indi for only a few minutes a day and it cannot be 150 minutes a month. The bill is - 450 minutes! Rs 750+handset = Rs 950. I must have got some injury on my head like some bollywood movies where they have dramatic amnesia. May be I have a chance in Mumbhai fillum industry. I waited for another month. Checked my calls carefully. And - the same story! Rs 950, Rs 1250 etc. I called the deptts. They say they will investigate. The tech staff calls back - things are fine.
Alas no chance in Mumbhai fillum industry. Please get serious now. Must close it. I called the staff and asked for the help to disconnect - this will cost you Rs 2000.00 fine if you close the connection before completion of the 2 years scheme. And you have to return the handset.
Now that is what I call a trap. A beautiful trap that tata can lay for you. After all they have a 100+ years of experience of laying trap in this country and they must utilize that expertise. What is the use of have a long experience if you cannot trap customers into paying money. And that is what they repeat again and again - we want to give you freedom from mobiles but then you must not utilize the freedon - come and fall - in trap.
SECTION II - My Original review on Sept 2003
I would have rather gone for a more expensive mobile that would rather WORK and not close only due to delays from TATA Indicom (Yes, the same legendary TATA group we are all so proud of!). Better get a more expensive service that will work is my advice.
If you still want it, this is what happens when you buy a so good TATA indicom mobile-
1) They will not send there first bill in time.
2) They will send it very late and you will find the last date that would have passed ages before. Even you are worried that the postmaster has hidden it and they are going to disconnect you.
3) You will pay it fast before it gets disconnected.
4) Oh! Oh! I forgot to mention that there (customer caring!) executive would have asked you politely twice before the arrival of the bill that you should have paid the bill this time. This would happen at step no 2 above.
5) Well you are happy that TATA Indicom is really into business and has not closed and you have paid the two months bill that had come much later after the second month.
6) Both you and TATA indicom have forgotten that there are bills to be generated and paid (they make you forget that you have to pay bills. Such a ROYAL company.
7) Suddenly there SMS service starts working (congratulations, your SMS works at last after all other operators had activated it).
8) The first SMS is a warning to avoid disconnection and pay the bill fast! Good greetings and a nice support.
9) You are in action. You ring everywhere to the customer carers and they entertain with long lasting music for upto an hour before anyone picks up the phone. Good care. You must soothe your nerves with music for a long before somebody talks from Indicom.
10) You are told that your bill is due and must pay as soon as it arrives.
11) FInally! The bill arrives in your mailbox. It is (was) due on 26th of last month. Today is 4th.
12) Next morning you send the bill.
13) Today is 14th. You ring a number and hear a beautiful voice in the morning -’’Your number is disconnected’’.
14) After all you must have some time away from the mobile and feel the freedom from. What is the use in having a piece that is stuck with you round the clock. Sick! You feel fresh.
15) But stupid subscribers. They do not know the value of freedom and want there mobiles active and ringing all the time. TATA is the company who is a legend of India and knows and teaches the value of freedom. Still you do not want the freedom from even your mobile! Shame on your loyalty to this free country.
16) Well we still give you hours of joyous music everytime before listening to you at our car desk.
17) You still wish to talk to TATA Indicom.
18) Well finally I activated your phone again after warning that another bill is due and must be paid (puzzled kid? wow, you must be kept busy with some food for thought or you may wander!) This is the amount to be paid. Now that you do not know the value of freedom, what else can be done.
19) The next bill never arrives. The next to next bill however does in which the two bills are clubbed together. You, the hater of freedom, finally pay it.
20) After a week, your are freed again from the outgoing calls. After you must not talk too much in this Gandhian country.Silence is golden.
21) Well the 121 finally works and the operator after a long drama - ’’Your cheque is invalidated’’. We will NOT present it to the bank. We will NOT give it back to you. We have disconnected your phone. You are free now.
Moral of this sad story -
1) Tata indicom values freedom from mobility.
2) You still want a mobile from them, buy two. One will be required to activate the other. However I am not fully confident. After all, they value freedom and may close both.
3) Keep one hour a day on average and get an extra bike with a few litres of Petrol to meet the frequent visits to their off