I have been fighting a battle with one of the telecom biggies for more than a month now. While I have been successful at individual level, my interaction made me feel that these guys are not that customer friendly. They were trying to be legally correct, so I decided to take them on. But then somewhere in the middle I felt that to benefit all the customers like me, I must not first try to see if something can be done without making the issue public.
And I can now claim that I have been able to convince the telecom biggie about a practice of billing postpaid customers as wrong and made them change the practice. Considering that the financial impact is in the tune of 100+ crores, I consider this as a big achievement. As I have promised confidentiality, I will not be making the name of the company public. But I suggest that you check your postpaid bills (whichever company they are from) for the months of August, September and October to verify the following:
1. The monthly charges are for the previous period (which means a bill dated 10th August has monthly charges, say for the period 8th July to 9th August and not 11th August to 10th September, which is the next period - don't worry about the day but look at the month)
2. If the charges happen to be for the next period (as explained above), then make sure they are reversed in September or October bill (no monthly charges :))
3. If the charges are not reversed write to me to know about how to approach the company and get them reversed.
I know that Rs. 250 to 500 bucks may not be much but allowing charges for next period means you are negligent and amounts to giving away your right.
Hope I didn't bore you with this encrypted message but I hope you've been able to read between the lines and decrypted the message.
Congratulations on being able to convince your wireless carrier to do the right thing! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI wish more Indian consumers become like you, though it would be unrealistic to expect everyone to have your aptitude and abilities.
What a shame that Indian corporations by default seem to take customers for granted and treat them shabbily unless forced to do otherwise.
Off line and a great topic to mull on AIG and Lehman going Kaput...http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aoDmO_d0IJSU&refer=home
ReplyDeleteYou thoughts and please no cerebral analysis but a good thought provoking read
Thank you and sorry, if...
hi kiran
ReplyDeleteyou have named the company in a earlier post....( wassup an update)
I use the same service too and this is surely gonna benefit me!!
dont you think your education at ISB contributed to this?
Hmm, you're smart. I have achieved my objective. Would appreciate if you can update whenever it gets reflected in your bill.
ReplyDeleteISB education hasn't changed my attitude but it helped in getting in touch with an alum who could do the necessary. The change that I've noticed is that sometimes there are softer and simpler approaches to solve issues rather breaking heads. Nevertheless ISB surely enhanced my approach.
Thanks for your comments.