When
the telecom minister spends months in Tihar Jail, you expect very little from
the same sector. India’s fastest rising Industry is seeing painful death. The
death is experienced by crores of Indian consumers and not only by few big
conglomerates. Before the sector reached its maturity, it saw its decline
defying the basics of product life cycle.
Telecom
is a service. The institutional mechanism is ensured by Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India. Surprisingly, we have seen very little intervention from
TRAI at any point of time. Only thing they could gift Indian consumers were
Mobile Number Portability. Within the same country, we need to pay for roaming
when we move to another circle. In spite of numerous assurances in the last few
years till we have not got free national roaming. If you change telecom circle
in India, you need to change your number or get penalised. We are given an
expected date of April, 2015 when national roaming will be free. But we have
earlier also read about similar dates. Luckily there is no concept of roaming
in case of data.
We
hear that telecom companies are unable to make much profit in voice calls but
there are huge opportunities in data. There are different types of data
services; 2G, 3G, 4 G. We may expect soon HaG and NaG too.
What
is appalling in this sector is the deterioration of Customer Relationship Management.
If you are unable to speak or understand Hindi, don’t expect call centre
service in Northern part of India. If you are in Bengal, you need to speak
Bengali to get customer support. If you send e-mail, they will revert on phone.
If you send some query which is difficult for them, they will send you Cut Copy
Past answers and within few minutes you will receive another mail that your
complaint have been closed and there will be some survey questions to check
your satisfaction level.
Let
me share one of my recent experiences. I was given 3G data service by Airtel.
The rate decided was Rs 100 for 250 MB. Once this data is exhausted
automatically same scheme used to be repeated. Suddenly they changed my data
plan and tried to extort Rs 1000 for 250 MB. The price jumps by 10 times
without even an intimation to me. I am sure the people who work in the Pricing
and Revenue department of these telecom companies are decently educated but
they should not consider all their customers illiterates to fall in their trap.
And I have been with this service provider for years. I was so sure that they were the most reliable telecom brand in India that I had even bought few shares of
the company with my hard earned money. I do not know who heads the customer
service in Airtel. I know customers are not allowed to enter Airtel office and
they maintain tight security, probably the reason being they have huge numbers
of unhappy customers. I don’t believe that other companies will be any better.
Basic of pricing technique teaches one to go for efficient pricing but not
adopting unethical means. This article with ‘Gyan’ will probably not help anyone.
India’s Telecom Minister sports a very strong personality on Television but it’s
not his cup of tea to bring out this sector from the present mess. TRAI will
never try to work on the plight of ordinary customers. But this write up
straight from the heart of an aggrieved customer will at least give the
satisfaction that web space could be used to vent the anger and express
dissatisfaction. If you have similar experience with any Telecom Service
Provides at any part of the world, please express your plight. Even if they do
not hear, let’s speak!!!!!!!!
