Oops was that Happy to Help?
Substandard customer service is fast becoming the bane for consumers, say Pallavi Srivastava & Abhishek Kumar
Seventeen-year-old Prateek Saran, a first year B.Com student
of Delhi University, switched to a Vodafone prepaid connection some time back, cajoled by the telecom service providers’ consumer friendly and ready to help image created by their multi-million bucks campaign 'Happy to Help'. “They are just happy to harass,” is what Saran feels today in just less than two months of the use of the network. Saran bought a Rs.30 Bonus Card (on August 22, 2009), which offered reduced local and STD call rates and cheaper national SMS valid for one year. But when he tried to recharge his number with the card, it repeatedly displayed: Recharge not possible. When the troubled customer tried to call the heavily publicised ‘Happy to help’ customer care, hostility is what he got in return.
He was blatantly told by the first customer care executive that the benefits of that card is now available only for the new Vodafone connections and the company has revoked the scheme for the existing ones. The Bonus Card was first launched for all the customers on July 26, 2009 (Vodafone customer care is not sure about the launch date as some executives say that it was launched on July 24 while others say it was launched on July 26). However, by August 15 the benefits of the card were revoked for existing customers. When Saran inquired about why was there no mention on the card about the same or why was there no communication from the company’s end about the sudden change in the scheme, he got an unconcerned reply, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience sir… but we have launched a new Bonus Card for our existing customers… you can buy that…” and the executive started blabbering about the benefits of this new card. Saran further pressed on the fact that why was the promotion still there in the kiosks and dealer shops (without any mention that it is only for new customers now) or why the change in scheme was not communicated either through SMS or promotions, the customer care executive simply banged the phone on his face. And this was not the end of his woes. The next three calls made by Saran were also treated in exactly the same manner by executives Kumar Singh, Vir Singh and Shehanwaz. Interestingly, the feedback SMS that a customer receives after talking to a customer care executive, was also not sent to him for any of the four calls.
Saran was in no mood to bear such an ill-treatment so he called Vodafone customer care once again and threatened to lodge a complaint in the consumer court. The executive this time offered to connect the call to his senior and Saran was put on a hold for one hour and one minute (before his phone was disconnected), only to listen to Vodafone’s signature tune. Interestingly, none of the executives registered a formal complaint. This is totally against Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s regulation, which stipulates that a telecom service provider has to ensure that the call centres immediately on receipt of a complaint have to register such complaints by allotting a unique identification number.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
Substandard customer service is fast becoming the bane for consumers, say Pallavi Srivastava & Abhishek Kumar
Seventeen-year-old Prateek Saran, a first year B.Com student
of Delhi University, switched to a Vodafone prepaid connection some time back, cajoled by the telecom service providers’ consumer friendly and ready to help image created by their multi-million bucks campaign 'Happy to Help'. “They are just happy to harass,” is what Saran feels today in just less than two months of the use of the network. Saran bought a Rs.30 Bonus Card (on August 22, 2009), which offered reduced local and STD call rates and cheaper national SMS valid for one year. But when he tried to recharge his number with the card, it repeatedly displayed: Recharge not possible. When the troubled customer tried to call the heavily publicised ‘Happy to help’ customer care, hostility is what he got in return.He was blatantly told by the first customer care executive that the benefits of that card is now available only for the new Vodafone connections and the company has revoked the scheme for the existing ones. The Bonus Card was first launched for all the customers on July 26, 2009 (Vodafone customer care is not sure about the launch date as some executives say that it was launched on July 24 while others say it was launched on July 26). However, by August 15 the benefits of the card were revoked for existing customers. When Saran inquired about why was there no mention on the card about the same or why was there no communication from the company’s end about the sudden change in the scheme, he got an unconcerned reply, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience sir… but we have launched a new Bonus Card for our existing customers… you can buy that…” and the executive started blabbering about the benefits of this new card. Saran further pressed on the fact that why was the promotion still there in the kiosks and dealer shops (without any mention that it is only for new customers now) or why the change in scheme was not communicated either through SMS or promotions, the customer care executive simply banged the phone on his face. And this was not the end of his woes. The next three calls made by Saran were also treated in exactly the same manner by executives Kumar Singh, Vir Singh and Shehanwaz. Interestingly, the feedback SMS that a customer receives after talking to a customer care executive, was also not sent to him for any of the four calls.
Saran was in no mood to bear such an ill-treatment so he called Vodafone customer care once again and threatened to lodge a complaint in the consumer court. The executive this time offered to connect the call to his senior and Saran was put on a hold for one hour and one minute (before his phone was disconnected), only to listen to Vodafone’s signature tune. Interestingly, none of the executives registered a formal complaint. This is totally against Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s regulation, which stipulates that a telecom service provider has to ensure that the call centres immediately on receipt of a complaint have to register such complaints by allotting a unique identification number.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
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