Aug 5, 2013

Why 'The Oatmeal' was correct about customer service?

Customer Service has never been kind to me. Back in late 2012, I published a post on how I was pissed off by the Etisalat customer service. Fast forward eight months and the situation is exactly the same- just this time, it's our very own Reliance rather than the Arabian Etisalat.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you must be familiar with my cribbing. On shifting to my new room at a new hostel, the only thing that bothered me was the non availability of internet, in spite of the many other things that were seriously wrong with this place. I had my Reliance Netconnect + shipped to my college as soon as I could because my laptop refused to pick up the Wifi signal in spite of the fact that the router was hardly five metres away from my room.

On receiving the dongle, I had an even greater problem. The speed seemed to be extremely slow. I wondered if it was the location of Roorkee and the lack of popularity of Reliance in this area. I thought of clearing it up with customer care. I was informed I had exceeded the 2 GB limit and my speed was throttled. What?

Just a day before leaving my home, I had checked the usage at 700 MB. My parents hadn't used it a bit after I left because there was no Reliance network in the area that they were going to. So, how on earth did the remaining 1.3 GB left in my account get used up? The DTDC guys must have taken it out of the package during shipping and used it, right?

Again, the fact that I had exceeded the limit isn't the reason I am writing this. I asked customer care to change my plan to the 5GB Unlimited one, figuring I would never be able to use the internet in this hostel ever again. They obliged and a support request was created. That was on 1st August. The new plan was to be activated from the new billing cycle starting 18th August.

Meanwhile, in two more days, some of my wing mates beat the system, got a few hubs and LAN wires, extracted the connection off the router and got us all a LAN connection- giving me speeds comparable to my old hostel. I was happy. There was no need of the dongle anymore!

I contacted customer care again.

Me: Please change my plan to MyPlan250 for the next billing cycle again.
Customer Care Representative: Please wait while I get your details.
After an excruciating five minutes.

CCR: Sir, I am sorry to say this is not possible.
Me (surprised): So you are saying I am stuck with the 5GB plan for the next month, and consequently, I have to pay the corresponding bill too?
CCR: I understand your concern, but the new plan has been activated, you can only apply for a new plan once this plan is activated.
What kind of a system is that?

Me: Perhaps you don't know about this. Please connect me to your superior.
CCR: I am sorry sir, this kind of a transfer is not possible.
Me: Please tell me the steps to terminate the service.
CCR: May I ask why you want to do so?
Me: Because you have bad customer service. I should rather shift to Tata Photon Plus. Maybe they will give me better service.
CCR: I am sorry we can't change your plan under any circumstances.
Me: I am sorry too, because I am not going to pay your bills anymore.

Firstly, the new billing cycle starts on 18th August, I am informing them well in advance. Secondly, what kind of a system doesn't allow such changes? Even if there are no automated processes for this, there must a manual override buried in there somewhere! Can't you utilize it?


Source- The Oatmeal

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