Yet again.

The first time we had tried the service was on 26May2011. The order (#56187) was placed and, during the call back they mentioned that:

• the kitchen will open later and they have no information about it
• the kitchen is out of gas and hence they have no idea about order fulfillment

We tried today (order #63133). The call back happened and, we were told:

• the selected dishes are available only on weekends
• the kitchen is out of gas and hence they can only open post 2000 hours and thus no idea about the order

This is disappointing at many levels. TastyKhana might just be responsible for delivery of the food/order, but since they are the interface via which the order is placed, it is their responsibility to provide information up-front. Such lackadaisical approach doesn't go well with the intended objective of getting orders raised and delivered.

I don't think we are going to try this again. Spoiling the scene both times is good enough reason to ditch a service.

Sometimes I wonder if the companies and brands really understand what it means when they don't seem to listen and just keep repeating the same thing over and over again. A recent example could be my interaction with these folks. Someone is surely not reading the content and just responding for politeness's sake.

An even recent example would be the conversation with the Airtel Digital TV folks I had yesterday. All I needed was to check up why it was taking more than 4 days to add a channel to my package inspite of using approved text messages and, while I was at it, I needed to add two more channels. It took me a sum total of 25 minutes with 15 of them "on hold" listening to either "your call is very important to us" or, the funky hold music. The problem that I see is that if you are telling for 10 minutes that "your call is very important to us" and yet not putting a human on the other end, then you have an issue with how important the call is. And, repeating that mantra time and time again without actually demonstrating to the customer (remember this is a phone - the customer has no way of knowing whether you've just put him/her on hold and decided to trim your moustache/file your nails) that there are events happening is a bad way of handling calls.

Providing the customer with an option to disconnect the call with an option for a charged call back might actually be something that is preferable than being on hold watching paint dry.

I've been using librarywala.com for a while now. They been good. Easy to search and add books, received and picked up on time (nearly always) etc. However, I am kind of done with them. And, I just asked them to cancel my existing membership and figure out if a pro-rated refund on the renewal is possible.

My account was due for renewal sometime around 19Jan2011. I used their online payment gateway to renew it a week before it expired. Sometime in the middle of February I received a call from them urging me to renew my membership. Upon being forwarded the email with the renewal details a somewhat lame, if acceptable excuse came forward ("the system wasn't showing this transaction" - ever wonder why it is always 'the system' ?). But what takes the cake is that yesterday I had a fairly belligerent chap call me up claiming to be an agent of the site and demanding that I either show him a proper receipt of payment of renewal charges or, pay cash. He wasn't interested in the print out of the email which had the renewal charge processing notification. Well, since I wasn't keen on doing that, I told him to check up with the site itself and then revert. I receive another call today urging me to pay cash.

In my book this is ridiculous way of treating customers. I'm done with these folks.

I have the funniest ISP. Instead of looking at mtr details provided via screenshots, they desire results from speedtest.net. Can anyone explain why they would want it that way ?

There are times when I feel that all I do is write about my sad and sometimes depressing experiences with various online retailers, service providers and so forth. But then these days I read so much around these themes on twitter and other blogs that I guess I've been fairly lucky in not having that amount of pain.

The recent situation with Airtel DTH is of course in that "too hilarious to pass up" domain.

Sometime around 19Nov2010 the reception at the house ended up being borked. I had a blank/black screen but could navigate through the Set Top Box options using the menu. The signal did return after half an hour but then again it went off for a while. I duly called in the customer care to ask for the reason and since they told that they'd look into it, I dropped a mail to the appropriate address. In a while I received a call from the Field/Service Engineer stating that the disruption was "due to a software upgrade required for the new Airtel logo and this would take around 4 days to get fixed" and, he "doesn't feel that it is required to visit the premises". The fun started from there.

The next day I received a call from the customer care stating that the engineer was unable to contact me. Since I had the number of the engineer stored, I called back and asked about this funny statement given that we did talk on the previous day. The gentleman was kind enough to listen to me and quickly disconnect. As this line of reasoning appeared funny to me, I wrote to the customer care again. This time I asked them to confirm the statement of the engineer and whether indeed it did not require a site visit. The response was via phone and was assured that they will get the engineer to visit.

As will be seen later, this resulted in a pattern - the engineer called up to say that such issues were being faced by random end-users and doesn't require a site visit to diagnose. In turn I receive a mail and phone saying the engineer wasn't unable to reach me. This strange thread of conversation continued for a couple of days till 22Nov2010. Thereafter the customer service mails stated that the engineer did visit the premises and found it locked. I am not surprised at that. With both of us having offices to attend, anyone planning to drop in on weekdays without a prior appointment might find the house locked. The fun was that this time a different engineer called up to suggest that if the problem continued I should feel free to demand a visit.

Guess what ? The customer care responds with the fact that the engineer was unable to contact me !

Having had enough of it, I copied the Nodal office on a mail. In turn I receive a call from a gentleman claiming to be Local Service Manager who said during the conversation that he "assumed that since I never had a problem I was not allowing the engineers to visit the premises". Since in my book this is more or less accusing the end customer of lying I wrote in a detail statement to the Nodal office. During the evening I receive a call from them saying that they would look into the matter and wanted to resolve the issue.

Sounds fair till now ?

I received an immediate follow up call from the customer care asking me to confirm that the issue was resolved since the on site engineer had updated "the internal system" with a sign-off from the customer.

As of today I am a bit puzzled:

• no one visit the premises
• the local service manager accuses me of lying
• the Nodal office promises a look
• the on site engineer updates the issue with a sign off from me citing satisfactory resolution

I find it definitely hilarious. Although I'd be grateful if anyone could point me out to an escalation path beyond the Nodal office for Airtel DTH. I'd like at least have someone tell me that they are sorry about creating this whole hierarchy of lies around an issue which might as well be something as trivial as a software upgrade.

I had posted about Scott Kelby's recent customer service experience. There is one part of the blog that I find very important.

Business is too hard to come by right now. Every customer matters. Just treat us like we do, and we’ll send you money. It’s as easy as that.

In light of my recent experiences with smartshoppers.in and MapMyIndia, I'd say that both these companies seem to have taken their positions for granted and don't think twice about not behaving well with their customers. By not behaving well I don't mean that they misbehave. I just think that they take their customers for granted. MapMyIndia is a truly horrible experience (I'm sure others may have had better experiences) primarily because they don't provide the simplest of information.

If you look at the photograph, you'd notice that it went out for delivery on the 10th of November (On PAFEX vehicle for delivery) and, again on the 11th of November. At this stage, neither MapMyIndia and nor Pafex were able to explain where the consignment was. Between these two agencies I ended up making 10 calls, 8 times out of which I was either put on hold or, disconnected without an explanation. Finally, the lady at the Pafex line hooked me up with the dispatcher who connected me with the person with the consignment and we figured out how long it would take to get delivered. In fact I am happy that Pafex went to all that trouble. And actually delivered on the time they committed. Unfortunately they haven't reverted on the mysterious previous out for delivery. And, their customercare email thereafter went into a limbo.

Here's what the MapMyIndia twitter handle had to say. And then read this comment. In my book this is one step short of being insouciant. At no time have they yet responded to the questions raised to their support address and, thereafter conclude that the mere delivery of the device (hell no one has actually called up to ask how I plan to get the device registered) as meeting their quality of service.

Shoddiness it isn't. It is just misguided arrogance and thinking that the customer has no where to go. By the way, don't use smartshoppers.in as well. They simply aren't geared to handle customer complaints by phone or email.

The trend about having to moan and piss venom on twitter to get things going is also counter-productive. Which is why I fail to understand the rationale for companies not having some sort of a RequestTracker system. If they don't want to host it themselves they could look at SaaS options isn't it ? And, get folks to respond to the issues ?