Troubled by impolite tele callers

I would like to humbly submit an issue I faced with HDFC bank today.

I received a call at 4.31PM today from +911409600159 from a person named Ranadheer, on my cell phone 784 249 6197. I was quite busy at work at that time today.

The caller told me that it was a service call for my credit card. Though I knew that it was a marketing call, wanted to listen to him and did not want to discourage him and also, with the intention that he might offer something of interest to me too.

Then after the first 10 sec he got into direct marketing.. saying that he has an investment plan linked to my credit card and started explaining right away without any regard for my time.

At this point, I asked him to send me a brochure so that I can tell him in case I am interested. So, he insisted on calling again instead of honouring my request.

Then I again asked him to send me the brochure so that I can decide, to which he asked “Sir, are you interested or not?” which irritated me and I said “No”, and he immediately said “why not say like that?” and put off the phone without even saying anything.

In the light of this instance, I would like to ask you

- Is this the way you treat people? Leave customers!!

- Why should someone call me for marketing in the name of service call?

- What is your policy for sharing customers phone numbers with 3rd party tele callers?

- Can you and will you take any action on this issue?

This isn't the case with HDFC Bank alone. People from many organizations do the same.
When asked, usually organizations shrug it off with a simple apology. I do not mean to say that you should not call customers for marketing. But, it should be a win-win proposition for both and in case the customer is not interested in continuing the call/doing business at that point of time, it does not mean that you should put off the phone so disgracefully. After all, every person needs to be treated with respect even if they do not give you immediate business. Rather, you may get referral business or future business!!

Hyderabad Traffic Police - Bringing a positive change!! - I'm loving it!!

Have you noticed the developments taking place around for the past couple of months? I did. And I am really happy the way one department in Hyderabad is moving in. That's none other than our very own Hyderabad Traffic Police department. I was living out of Hyderabad for some time in the recent past (though I used to visit Hyderabad frequently) and relocated to Hyderabad in the last September. Ever since then, I started noticing that the road traffic system is improving for better.

Firstly, traffic (most, if not all) started obeying traffic laws such as stopping on Red signal and waiting till it changes to Green. And for those who crawled past the Stop line, traffic policemen began counselling right away, calling and asking them to move behind the Stop line, instead of being indifferent as earlier / "challan"ing as usual

And most recently, Hyderabad Traffic Police implemented the "Free Left" rule, which is definitely another major step in the right direction.

The entire department has been putting in a lot of hard work in identifying problems, developing solutions, providing the required infrastructure and implementing the solutions. My hearty congratulations to everyone and believe that every section of the society will be happy with these reforms.

Similarly, there are other initiatives that need to be taken up in order for our city to be well developed and in doing so, the Govt and various departments should invite public participation. This will help people appreciate the value of the initiative and be more accountable towards the society.

For myself, I pledge to support the authorities in all ways possible and can definitely add value with my suggestions if needed.

Once again, congratulations to Hyderabad Traffic Police, on the way to create a positive change in the society!!

False Commitment + Faulty Service = Airtel?

I am writing this article, after getting frustrated by Airtel's fake claims of internet connectivity with USB device data card and with the hope that Airtel will listen to customers' voice instead of giving fake promises.

I happened to opt for an Airtel USB data card connection at the end of month (April 2012) from the outlet put up by Airtel's sales associate in Accenture, Hyderabad. While there were other service providers such as Reliance and Idea etc., I subscribed to Airtel as I thought Airtel will offer the best service and connectivity.

I selected the package of Rs.500/- for the USB device and a monthly charge of Rs.675/- (for 3 GB limit), delivering a 3G speed of 3.1 Mbps (though the executive brought his claim down to 1 Mbps) for 3 GB per month limit and extra charges as applicable, for the data beyond 3 GB limit

But the moment I got the connection, I experienced extremely bad download speed of hardly 128 kbps. I called up Airtel customer care service and got hopeless help from the customer care executive.

Then I called the marketing executive Madhu, who requested me for a day's time and assured that he will resolve the issues with my device, as it needs to be deactivated and reactivated to get better speeds. Though I was not convinced with his answer, I agreed to cooperate with him and said that I will return the device if he fails to deliver the level of service he promised when I took the connection.

I have been calling up Madhu for the last one week and his phone is either unanswered or busy. He doesn't even call back, as his sales target is met and he is happy!!

I would like to ask Airtel's authorities, is this the kind of service they provide? Also, please let me know what to do now. As far as I am concerned, I can do one of the following -

- File a complaint with the Consumer Forum - Make people aware of Airtel's faulty service - Complain to the corporate services at my company

Madhu's contact number is +91 995 944 2661, just in case anyone from Airtel wants to help me in this regard. In case Airtel is interested in resolving these service issues, they can always contact me on my cell phone # +91 784 249 6197

I will definitely update here, in case there is any progress on this complaint

Names of consumer protection organizations and related websites

http://consumer.org.in http://www.merishikayat.com http://icrpc.org   Gopinatha Rao Yareeda

Never use Yahoo for registering domains

I am posting this write up to help folks like me from being trapped by companies like Yahoo.

I registered a couple of domain names using Yahoo's domain name registration service. The attractive fact is that the interface is very simple with only a few screens to click on.

But the unfortunate facts are:

• THEY ARE NOT DOMAIN REGISTRARS BY THEMSELVES. The domain that you register through them goes through another company called MELBOURNE IT, LTD. Yahoo just acts as an interface in this entire business.



• DO NOT GET MISGUIDED by their claim that domains are cheap. This is only a trick to get business. You will be charged an exorbitant amount of around 35 USD from the next year onwards, which is almost 5 times the rate charged by others (even the smallest company in this business offers a much better rate).



• The account will be setup as "auto-renewal account" by default. There is no way for you to set it as "manual renewal". So, your credit card information is automatically stored on their site and they have every right to charge you any amount.



• Once your domain is automatically renewed, there is no way for you to get a refund in case you do not agree. If you ask the Customer Support Executive, they will humbly say "Sorry Sir/Madam. This charge cannot be refunded". They will also say that you have already signed their agreement while registering the domain and hence, YOU WILL HAVE TO ACCEPT THEIR CHARGES. However, I could get a refund once from Yahoo when they auto renewed my domains. But in my recent experience, they did not refund and gave an immediate reason that I already accepted their agreement while registering my domains with them.



• Their services are not as full fledged as the competition, such as GoDaddy. They just offer domain registration and other closely related services and not all required ones



• Limited Customer Service availability. If you want to speak to the Customer Service Executive to get your issues resolved, you will have to call only between their limited service timings on weekdays from morning to evening (I think they work from 9AM to 5PM Eastern Time in the US) and not on weekends or weekdays after 5PM EST. On the contrary, GoDaddy's executives are available 24X7 and can be reached within a couple of minutes. Folks are always helpful, professional and fast!! Yahoo's executives are helpful but cannot be reached



• Long wait time to talk to the Customer Support Executive - Be prepared to wait on the line for atleast 20 minutes before getting onto a Customer Service Executive. GoDaddy does this within 2/3 min and occassionally more than that.

In the light of all these factors, I would suggest -

In the US, go with GoDaddy, as

• This is one of the best companies for domain name registration that I have seen in the US. Their interface seems cumbersome and very confusing if you are new to them but over a period of time, becomes manageable once you get acquainted with their design. I would still suggest them to make the site more simpler.



• No issues as mentioned about Yahoo. Customer Support Executive can be reached within a couple of minutes



• Reasonable charges for domains and any other services



• Even if your account is renewed automatically, you can atleast reach the customer support to get your issue resolved. Otherwise also, the charges are very reasonable. I can go with them.


In India, go with Netlynx, as

• This is one of the best companies for domain name registration that I have seen in India. This is not as robust as GoDaddy, but their interface is good and the customer support teams can be reached, atleast on chat

I have had problems in service with many service providers including Yahoo and Rediff, and finally moving to GoDaddy and NetLynx.

I thought this would act as a helpful reference in case anyone plans to register domains and looking for the best service provider.

Names of consumer protection organizations and related websites

http://consumer.org.in http://www.merishikayat.com http://icrpc.org   Gopinatha Rao Yareeda

Share views on services of companies

Hi,

Welcome to Customer Pages!!

Introduction: I have started this blog with the objective of sharing my opinion with my fellow Indians who deal with various companies in India in their day to day life.

I have been observing that though we are registering a stupendous growth in terms of rising GDP, rising inflows and usage of lifestyle products, there is lack of an organized and widely known system where people can post their opinion and feedback on the services provided by these companies. All this gains importance, especially when the country is growing at such a rapid rate. It is high time the companies should concentrate on the quality of their services rather than just concentrate on increasing market penetration and customer base.

There are many well respected companies which promise to provide excellent services to their customers, but fail to do so when it comes to actual implementation. This creates frustration to the customers. Many of these companies take the customers for a ride regarding the quality of their services, the cost of their services and the overall experience. Though it is not abnormal for a company to run into operation issues/issues with client services, what frustrates the customer is the approach in which they deal with them. This happens mostly because of the “Chalta hai” attitude of the concerned companies (though this is not the only reason). In fact, this “Chalta hai” attitude has even been talked about by the Prime Minister Sri Manmohan Singh, in his Independence Day address to the nation this year (2007). Such is the importance of this issue!!

My idea: I would like to see this blog site as a barometer for companies to measure the quality of their services and convert this to a full fledged commercial web site in the long run (depends on various parameters, which are to be identified later). The underlying idea is to provide a medium that has a far reaching impact on the quality of services provided by companies and the customers are provided services equivalent to what they are promised and what they pay for. This site aims to become a mediator between customers and companies. At the end of the day, both the customer and the company get to benefit through this mediation. For the customer, his/her issues are resolved fast and for the company, it would be a good reputation, customer retention and possible addition of customers.

I'm confident that one day the corporates will notice us and appreciate the content on our blog.

Implementation: The scenario I would foresee is... We, as customers have every right to ask the companies for the quality of services as per the agreement, that match the charges. In the course of operations, the service providers may be successful or not, in adhering to their assured standards. The customer will then call the call center of the company, where the caller is frustrated in going through the IVRS options and later, a call center executive answers the call, who may not know the answer to our questions all the time. The caller ends up answering the security questions and providing verifications itself. Finally, the executive notes a complaint which may not be accurate. It might be too long before the problem is resolved. By then, the customer would have searched for a new service provider. And the whole chain of complaints continues again. So.... I sincerely feel the need for a better feedback system, where atleast the customers can form a group and keep alerting others against such companies and ask them to beware of what they have to be particular about, before signing up the contract and what aspects should you make clear with the service provider.

Once a feedback is posted on this blog site, this might attract the respective service provider to take actions to resolve the issue at the earliest after which, the company posts it's comments back. This acts as a mechanism for the company not to lose it's reputation in the market.

Not only complaints, I hope to publish constructive criticism, appreciations and the good experiences the customers have had with the companies.

What do the companies gain? Companies gain a lot by participating proactively in this effort. In fact, I believe that we are helping the companies by providing them with a feedback!! :)

Your contribution: If you find that this is something worth taking up, you may also introduce this blog site within your circle, so that this keeps on growing.

Hope that you will find this site useful to vent out your feelings of anger, frustration, satisfaction and appreciation!!

Looking forward to an active participation from you!!

Regards,
Gopinath.