Fed Up Big Time with Idea Cellular - Part 3

Continued from part 2. This is about the status as of today, 6th March 2010; and further course of action to reduce my reliance on Idea.

After going through the harrowing times with the Idea fiasco, even though the services have resumed and are stable now, I have been feeling that I was over-loyal to Idea and was almost at their mercy due to this over-reliance. And then there is not a single written reply from Idea despite my 3 emails.

So I am thinking it's time I move on to a different service provider and then eventually discontinue this Idea number after forwarding my calls to the new number for a month or two.

So after a bit of star-gazing, I short-listed few options - Virgin, Tata Docomo and BSNL.
I liked Virgin's youth-friendly whacky style, but Virgin calls them Einstein-types who understand OS names and a little tech details. So it didnt look like they will understand what GPRS is ;) .
I liked Docomo's simplified 1p/s billing schemes and GPRS is also available. But was not sure about coverage, and there were way too many negative vibes about bad billing practices regarding GPRS. Holy cow! I dont want a Deja Vu!

I really like what BSNL is offering. And I had quite a few positive vibes about going with BSNL -

1. Govt company, so more or less nobody cares sooo much about profit that they would tweak the system to exploit customers. Good and bad both.
2. Have had very good prior experiences with BSNL, landline and broadband both. Have high regards for BSNL broadband.
3. Govt company, so RTI applies. If something seems fishy, you can ask questions and can be *assured by law* for a reply.
4. If you dont agree, take RTI info to consumer court, and make your case. A lot easier than dealing with a private company which can manipulate info.
5. Coverage - no matter whether you are on the Lakshmi road or on the top of Harishchandragad, chances are very high BSNL will cover you up there. In fact more chances in the later case where all cellphone networks will be dead ... except BSNL. ;)
6. Excellent 1p/s billing scheme -

• Plan Costs: Not more that Rs.150/-, yearly.
• Billing: 1p/s all over India for BSNL cell/landline and 1.2p/s for all other networks.
• Roaming: Same charges as normal!! Except only incoming calls are charged at 1p/s which is still a lot reasonable.
• GPRS: 1p/10KB!!!! That means Rs.1/MB which is AWESOME. Just what the doctor ordered for me.

This is just way too cost efficient as compared to my current Idea scheme, where my regular bills are to the tune of Rs.500/month. Here with the BSNL prepaid card Rs.500 will suffice me for a whole year for god's sake! I was unnecessorily blowing money just because I wanted to keep the number and the service was satisfactory till date. Didnt care enough to check what other service providers were offering! And that spells a very important lesson for any business - when you have a high-paying loyal customer, keep him happy all the time. Dont give him even the slightest of a reason to check out what others are offering. It's a recipe for losing him to your competitors.

Anyways, here are few links worth pondering over -

1. BSNL tariff charges
A little difficult to make out anything at the first glance, due to govt style presentation. But hang around and you will get a hang of it. ;)

2. National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
Official Indian govt site about consumer courts. Contains full text of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and other related rules and regulations.
This case of Idea Cellular denying me access to a service which I have already paid for, I believe, comes under unfair trade practices as defined under Chapter I, section 2.c.(i) and 2.c.(iii) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

3. Consumer Advocate
Success/failure stories for different parties who went to consumer court; and a short case analysis. Must read.

4. International Consumer Rights Protection Council (ICRPC)
Claims to be an NGO helping consumers in presenting their case without the need for a lawyer. Charges a token membership fees of Rs.250/- Havent gone into details of it. But worth checking it out while in need.


[UPDATE: 7th March, 2010]
For once, Idea did reply, yesterday late evening. But no prizes for guessing what it would be. Wothless business words. No acknowledgement of the problem, neither any assurance about non-recurrence.

==============================================================================================
"Dear Mr. Kulkarni,

Greetings of the Day.

With reference to your e-mail and telecon with Ms. XYZ, we wish to inform you that services to your mobile number have been restored.

Should you require any further assistance feel free to contact our Customer Care Helpline number 9822012345 or e-mail us at 9822012345@idea.adityabirla.com

Thanks & Regards,
ABC
Idea Cellular Ltd.
Maharashtra & Goa

“Idea offers Customer Care through SMS, get complete information on Billed/Unbilled amt, Bill plans details and many more details with an instant SMS on your mobile. Type " CARE " & send it to 50505 (toll free number ).”

Disclaimer

All the tariff plans/services are subject to regulatory body approval. Company reserves the rights to modify/change/discontinue services/plans based on guidelines received from time to time."
==============================================================================================

Fed Up Big Time with Idea Cellular - Part 2

Continuing with the part one. This is what happened on the next day (i.e. on the morning of 5th March 2010)

In the morning again I received an SMS saying my services are barred for lack of payment. And indeed my outgoing calls were barred. GPRS was already barred. That was too much for me. So here is the 2nd email that I sent to Idea Cellular, to the same addresses. This company doesnt reply to any mails you write, neither does it have a mechanism to escalate the issue to somebody at higher position, like a nodal officer. You are absolutely at their mercy.

=======================================================================================
"I was expecting to get an official reply on this. But I didnt.

Now my outgoing calls are again barred. Second time since yesterday. And this is it for me.
You will spend crores on advertisements but you wont care a dime about long term postpaid customers who are regularly paying you at a higher rates than normal. In fact you will go out of your way to trouble them like anything. Nice business strategy.

I am a hell of a disgruntled customer now who used to be immensely loyal just a week ago. And I am not coming back. But ofcourse you dont care.

Please discontinue my GPRS service. I will confirm about discontinuing this number altogether in next few days.
I hope to get back the deposit that I paid at the time of getting this lifetime connection.

Shreyas Kulkarni
Sr Software Engineer,
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX, Pune
Cell: +NN N NN NN NN NNN"
=======================================================================================

Then in an hour or two, I got a call from an XXX lady who worked at Idea's Sharada Centre office in Pune. She apologized literlly 100 times which was gross and unnecessory. When you have an irritated customer due to *your* fault, apologizing doesnt work. To cool him down, you should take corrective action and then convey the same. Apologies wouldnt bring my GPRS up again, nor would I be able to use those apologies to make calls.

She did tell me action is being take to correct the system and this problem wont occur in future. She also promised me a reply to the mail. I asked her to acknowledge the problem in the reply. And I guess that made her all nervous and I didnt get the reply! It's plain irresponsible and fraudulant to know that a customer has suffered from your own mistake and still not be open enough to accept the problem and commit root-cause resolution. I just dont trust these guys anymore.

My outgoing calls resumed in an hour but GPRS was still down by 4pm. So I wrote another mail clarifying the fact that mere apologizing and giving wordly promises wont work. I didnt mean to sound cocky but I wanted to send a message, loud and clear, that however sweet and sugary you talk, I wont take this sir-system-is-that-way BS again in future. I am paying hefty charges for the service and it's not wrong if I demand quality, reliability and some sense in return.

Here is the third mail -

=======================================================================================
"I did get a call in the afternoon from XXXX (Sharada Centre office). I was assured that the services will be restored and the system will changed to consider my GPRS prepayment.

My outgoing calls have resumed, but the GPRS is still down. And I was promised a reply to this mail, which is still missing. Please reply.

I am holding up my plans of switching the service provider on the precondition of immediate resumption of my services (both voice and data) and no reoccurance of this same issue in the future. And for that, I would like to have a written acknowledgement of the problem and a written assurance mentioning this issue wont occur in future. If the fix in the system is going tot take time, I would like to know how much. I have had (and still having) too much of an unnecessory trouble to trust any wordly assurances.

And please let me know by when I can expect my GPRS service to resume.

Shreyas Kulkarni
Sr Software Engineer,
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX, Pune
Cell: +NN N NN NN NN NNN"
=======================================================================================

Fed Up Big Time with Idea Cellular

After being a very satisfied customer with Idea Cellular for last few years, recently I have started getting highly frustrated and annoyed at the ways of Idea. Especially with their approach of going out of their way to trouble the most loyal of their customers.

Their advertising campaigns are totally un-cool and give away their sense of urgency in getting new business. Their so-called social-initiatives all look like a fraud to me. The facilities they provide look like a mask to fool the public, the complaint-registration dialogue on their website, which just doesnt allow you to register your complaint by throwing error while submitting - a case in point. And then their unstoppable tele-marketing calls! When I tried to register for Do-Not-Disturb on their website, like other services, it didnt just work. As I said, it's there just to fool the public. Then I called up their customer-service to register for DND, and to my astonishment, I was charged 50p/min for that call. 50 paise are no big deal, but business-ethics is what I am trying to get at. And then again, when I told the guy to add me to the Do-Not-Disturb registry, he told me it would take 45 days!!!! Can it get anymore scandalous than that? Take this - the frequency of tele-marketing calls increased after that.

And with this bit of history, now, to my disbelief, they have barred my GPRS service for all the wrong reasons. Rather than mincing words in telling what happened, I think I would rather share the actual mail I wrote to all their email addresses I could find and find relevant. A first for me to publically share my email, but I think in these cases of customer-apathy, it makes a big sense to make it all public. Jago grahak jago.

===========================================================================================
"Hi

I have been using Idea postpaid connection since last 4-5 years i.e. since I bought my first mobile. I have never been late on bill payment for one single bill till date.

Recently my frustration with Idea has been growing by leaps and bounds.

My GPRS is not working since yesterday, and if I understand it correctly, it's barred. Why? Because my 'usage' has gone beyond my credit-limit. I got hundred calls for paying my bill in advance as the credit limit was exhausted.

I activated GPRS service couple of years ago. I pay Rs.200 for an allocated usage-quota of 500MB per month. The strange thing is I am charged for GPRS usage throughout the month, and then at the end the bill is generated with a GPRS charge of Rs. 200. When I activated GPRS I was charged Rs.200 in advance, before I even started using it. So that means it's advance-billing as far as GPRS goes. So effectively, whenever I use GPRS, I have already paid for the usage. SO I fail to see what kind of sense it makes to again charge me for the usage throughout the month!! Another really annoying side-effect of this non-sense is I cannot know my true usage during any time of the month, as the figure is swollen up with false GPRS charges. At the time of GPRS activation itself, I had raised this concern, loud and clear and I was shamelessly told - this is how the system is. What kind of company are you if you cant have a logical system in place for that single most important aspect of any business - billing!? and cant make amends when you know the system is doind wrong? *You* own the system right? Who do you think you are kidding?

Now I have explained this numerous times to all the 'customer-care'(!) people calling me up for bill payment in advance. Everybody assures me that I wont be troubled again. But then in next few hours there is this yet-another-customer-care-guy asking me when I will pay up. And the next day I receive an SMS saying my services are barred.

All this headache and trouble without even a single fault from my side. Effectively, I am being denied a service even after paying in full for it, which makes a good case if I approach a consumer court.

Is this a punishment for being a long term customer with Idea? Dont you guys have even enough business-sense to provide at least normal service to such long-term post-paid cash-cows?

I would better see some quick action in this regard. I want my GPRS activated and working ASAP and I want the system corrected such as to take into account my pre-payment for GPRS. When I do a *147# I want to see my real usage; not some figure blown up by charges for a service that has already been paid for. I am a software engineer myself and have seen enough complex systems to know this is easily doable; so spare me that sir-the-system-is-that-way BS.

Believe me, if I dont see anything convicing done in this regard, I will take it as total apathy, and will not hesitate to jump the ship and switch to some other service provider. And I wont even wait for number-portability.

Shreyas Kulkarni
Sr Software Engineer,
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX, Pune
Cell: +NN N NN NN NN NNN"
===========================================================================================

[UPDATE: 4 Mar 2010, 11pm]
By 2pm I realised not only my GPRS, but now my outgoing calls were also barred. Lost my temper. Blasted that poor customer-care guy. Outgoing calls were resumed in an hour. GPRS was still barred.
Got a call from a girl from Sangli office. This call was in response to the mail. The mail had reached Sangli office. This time gave her a gyan session on all this in Marathi, and got the same reply - sir-i-agree-u-shouldnt-be-charged-but-this-is-as-per-the-system. BS! You know it's wrong and rather than correcting it you expect the customer to pay interim bill amount in thousands of rupees to increase his credit limit??
I told her to discontinue my GPRS from the next billing cycle. Now I am on the lookout for a service provider with 1p/s plan with good GPRS. Tata DOCOMO, BSNL, Vodaphone and maybe Virgin are what I am targetting. I am done with Idea Cellular now.
By the way, the girl said she would reply to my mail, but I am still awaiting that official reply.

अस्वस्थ

गुलाबी कविता करायला वयाची अट नसते. पण योग्य वयात केलेल्या गुलाबी कवितेची लाली देखिल काही औरच असते .... ती करणारय़ा 'कवी'साठी! तर अशीच योग्य वयात सुचलेली ही एक गुलाबी कविता. आवडली तर प्रतिभा समजा, नाही आवडली तर वयाचा दोष समजा -

ना कळे कधी, तुझिया प्रति
हे भाव मधुर मनी दाटले
अस्वस्थ मी, अस्वस्थ ग,
हे काय मजला जाहले

दिसतेस तू, चाफे-कळी
की तारका, नभीची कुणी
स्मित-हास्य ते कवितेपरी
नक्षत्र धरी जणू उतरले
अस्वस्थ मी, अस्वस्थ ग,
हे काय मजला जाहले

सहवास तुझा, ग मृण्मयी
मिळण्या हे मन आतूरले
पुसण्या परि, धीर ना तरी
भय-रूपी राक्षस मातले
अस्वस्थ मी, अस्वस्थ ग,
हे काय मजला जाहले

नि मग एकदा, कळले मला
हृदयी तुझ्या वसतो कुणी
नैराश्य ते गगनापरी
मन:पटल व्यापुनी राहिले
अस्वस्थ मी, अस्वस्थ ग,
हे काय मजला जाहले

समजेल का मजला कधी
काय ईश्वरा तुझिया मनी
भेटेल का रे मज कधी
ती मानसी हृदयातली?
उत्तरे जरी प्रश्नांची या
मी शोधितो सगळीकडे,
प्रेषित का शापित मी, परि
ना समजले, ना उमगले

अस्वस्थ मी, अस्वस्थ ...
अरे हे काय मजला जाहले

Movie Review - 3 Idiots

If you have seen Dil Chahta Hai and Rang De Basanti (which you should have, if you understand Hindi and appreciate even a bit of quality cinema), you are in for a dissapointment with this one.

When it comes to an Amir Khan movie, the expectations are always sky high. I guess, this weight of expectation might compare with what Sachin Tendulkar would have felt in the 90s when he would come in to bat. Due to Amir's past of Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, it's but natural to expect 3 Idiots to be of the same calibre. Unfortunately, in my frank opinion, 3 Idiots doesnt fit in that same league. In fact, in comparison, it's quite bad.

Throughout the movie, Amir Khan's body language doesnt seem that natural; he looks rather concious of his appearance or his acting, than he should have while carrying off that character of a 20-something. And contrary to what people are saying, I felt Amir, at ~45yrs, didn't look a 20-something at all. He looked a bit too mature and reserved for his age and character.

Worn Out Jokes

3 Idiots being a movie about engineering college students, being based on the amazing 5-Point-Someone book, obvious expectations were a laughter riot with quality jokes. But even on that front, the film doesnt deliver much. There was no novelty in most of the jokes, as they were heard/read/seen before. Like, for example, the space pen or the induction motor startup and many other.

Way too Much Masala

The thing that surprised me most was the amount of masala scenes that defy logic and sensibilities in order to appeal to the mass public. This movie is full of such blatantly masala scenes. Something that people hardly expect from an Amir Khan movie. Time and again, you are reminded that you are watching a Hindi movie; like when Amir Khan drives the moped right into the hospital, or when baby is delived using a vaccum cleaner running on an inverter which in turn is running on car batteries or when the delivered baby doesnt cry but kicks on 'hearing' "all is well"!! Even a Mithun Chakravarty movie would have made more sense. Another thing I remember in the last scene, when the newborn baby doesnt cry for a long time, everybody thinks the baby is dead on delivery and then, this guy tells the mother to keep her hands on her heart and say 'all is well'!! I mean, there lies this lady whose newborn baby is supposedly not alive. Imagine the trauma she would have been going through. And in such a situation, how insensitive it is to tell her to say 'all is well'...?? What nonsense!!

Brownie Points

Though the overall impression of the movie is pretty bad, there are few scenes which are really hillarious. First scene that comes to mind is the chamatkar-balatkar-dhan-stan scene, which though seemingly little manipulated, generates huge laughter. Another would be one when both Rancho and director Virus throw the keys to director's office for fetching some instruments. Boman Irani, as usual, creates a masterpiece of character as Director Viru Sahastrabuddhe aka Virus.

Conclusion

All in all, I would say the movie is definitely a one-time-watch, but at the same time, dont expect too much from it. To reiterate, it's not in the league of DCH or RDB, as one would like to expect. This time, surprisingly, Amir slips on the high standard that he has set for himself.

Rating?? If I were a film critic, I would have given it 3 stars out of 5.

Movie Review - James Cameron's Avatar

Actually it's quite a long time, almost couple of week, since I saw Avatar, but had quite a few opinions about it, which I very much felt like putting into a blog.

First things first. I saw Avatar in probably the best location in India - the IMAX Dome in Wadala, Mumbai. The screen there, was monstrous, in comparison with what I had seen till date - 3 to 4 times larger than normal screen I guess. We were almost in the first row. I dont know how it was from the back rows, but I actually felt myself in an advantageous position when the 3D promos of animation films started.

First time in my life, I experienced 3D. Before IMAX, I had a really horrendous experience in E-square Pune, with almost non-existent 3D for Ice Age 3. So this time, when I learnt that Avatar was being tipped as the best 3D film of the decade, I realised it was time to 'experience' 3D in the best location possible. IMAX dome has been touted as the biggest screen in Asia, and when you step in, you realise, that's not mere marketing. The screen is really huge.

The 3D promos themselves knocked us out, with the objects being thrown in our face, and we literally ducking under to avoid it hitting the face!! When you do that while watching a promo, with full knowledge of the virtualism involved, you know you are in for a treat with the main movie.

On that count, Avatar was mind-blowing. The experience was superb. The feel was awesome. The meeting places, the science labs they were all rendered 3D, and it felt like we were sitting right in the midst of it, and things were happening around us. We were blown away with respect to 3D and the highly detailed graphics. As has been said around the world, graphics in the film is amazing, with attention to tiniest of the details. It inspires awe. It was so good that, coupled with the 3D effects and the huge IMAX screen, we didnt realise that the film hardly had anything else to offer!!!

Poor storyline, bad acting, horrendous technial mistakes, all make the impressive graphics look excessive, in the hindsight. So much so, that you start wondering, if it's the same James Cameron who created Titanic. Also, few of the key concepts, are not novel either. The concept of donning an Avatar by connecting to the scientific cube, immediately reminds you of Matrix. The alien objects shown, bear so much resemblance with the humans and creatures on the earth that, you end up feeling like the Na'vi are living somewhere in the Amazons, untouched by humanity till date. The horses, the trees, the wild animals (resembling wolves and monkies), the social setup of the Na'vi all remind you of the similar things on Earth. So no novelty there either. Only the concepts of suspended mountains and Eiwa, with upload download of ages of knowledge, using their hair-connectors, seemed really cool and a very techie thing.

The abundant technical mistakes and logic defying, unbelievable scenes really dissapoint. Biggest one being - when Jack gets trapped in the jungle, alone, for the first time, what does he do to scare away wild animals? He uses a matchbox to light fire!! Now correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't pandora supposed to be an oxygen-deficient area? There are many such occasions, when you can't help but feel cheated(!).

Conclusion

Avatar is all about graphical effects and 3D. Don't expect too much from the storyline or try to apply logic. Hollywood class remains limited to graphics. It doesnt spill over into acting, story or even direction. To reiterate, given the poor storyline, bad acting, hasty screenplay and lack of conceptual novelty (which you come to expect with every movie dealing with aliens), the impressive graphical and 3D effects in the film, start looking excessive in the hindsight.

It's about 3D, so experience it in the best 3D location possible. I would definitely recommend IMAX Dome in Wadala, Mumbai.

If I were a film critic, I would not rate it more that 2 stars out of 5. And both stars exclusively for the graphics and 3D experience. Technorati Tags: avatar

माझा पहिला हिंदी शेर

ऑफिसमधल्या एका मित्राच लग्न ठरलं असं कळल्यानंतर त्याची खेचत असताना त्यानं एकदम विचारलं, "तुम्हारा क्या? कब कर रहे हो शादी-वादी? कोई गर्लफ्रेंड तो होगीही???"

त्यानं माझ्या मधे एवढा विश्वास(!) दाखविल्यावर सुचलेला हा शेर.

वाचण्याआधी चप्पल लांब बाजूला काढून ठेवलीत तर ती उचलून मारायची बुद्धी होणार नाही आणि तुमचाच मनस्ताप थोड़ा कमी होइल बाकी काही नाही. असो. नमनाला घडाभर तेल नको. मला सूचलेला तो शेर असा -


जालिम मुहोब्बत तो हमें सिर्फ सितारोंसे होती हैं
कंबख्त मुश्किलें भी देखो हमें कैसी कैसी आती हैं
सितारें जमीन पे कभी आ नहीं सकते
और जीतेजी हम आसमान में कभी जा नहीं सकते


वाह वाह वाह वाह ..... चप्पल बाजूला काढून ठेवल्याचा उपयोग झाला की नाही सांगा?


Updated (२ जानेवारी १०): शेर मधल्या शेवटच्या दोन ओळी बदलून शेर थोडा इफेक्टिव करायचा प्रयत्न केलाय.