I have recently got a BSNL broadband connection installed and let me tell you, its not an experience for the fain hearted. Below is an email that I wrote as feedback to certain officials within BSNL, it captures what was essentially my experience of dealing with the glut within BSNL. I am sure BSNL may be one of the better service providers as far as downtime and consistency of connectivity are concerned but customers will start asking whether that is worth having to put up with the kind of $#!& they give out. I do hope that at some level my email makes a difference. I am sure some of you have experienced similar issues or even positive BSNL installation experiences, do share.
I have recently become a BSNL customer. This is the story of my experience of dealing with your technical staff, customer care, exchange and sales personnel and marketing department. I had applied for a connection under the Home unlimited 750+ plan, which entitled me to a landline and a broadband connection, I submitted the application and Rs. 11,123 as advance payment for the year at the BSNL exchange in South City 1, Gurgaon to one Mr. AK Singh. When asked how long it would take for the connection to be carried out Mr. Singh remarked that the ball was out of his court and that my interaction should now be with the Malibu Town exchange, a typical shirking of responsibility response which should have acted as an early warning sign of more of the same that I was to experience at the hands of BSNL.
On my pressing on and requesting Mr.Singh for a "typical" timeline for such a connection, after much coaxing and expression of wonder at the incredulity of him not being willing to commit a timeline, he said 5 to 7 days. I left in the hope that by the next weekend my connection would be installed, an expectation of your organisation meeting its own rather lax targets of installing the two connections in 7 days, as it turned out I had set myself up for disappointment.
The following week was spent dialling your customer care numbers, speaking with various telephone exchanges from South City 1 to the main Gurgaon exchange, apathetic officials, idiotic helpline executives and just a general motley crue of insolence and indifference. Something that I didn't believe about your organisation but had been told on several occasions "Government Company saab..they will make you run around" rang so true and left me so disappointed because I know for a fact that BSNL has the best infrastructure and internet provision service in the country today, it left me sad that your government entity where on one hand could have used its market penetration and internet reliability as tools to fashion themselves as the premiere telecom company in the country not just in terms of numbers but service delivery as well, had lost this opportunity due to the lack of anything that resembles either competence or efficiency of its customer service and technical staff.
I have virtually begged your linemen to come and fix the connection at my house and after many days of pleading and visiting various exchanges I finally got my broadband connection yesterday i.e. 20th of May 2009 - a full two weeks after I had applied and made the payment, and mind you it still requires a day to become functional as the user name and password need to be approved. I would suggest that you actually tell people how long a connection of this sort is going to take from your end as opposed to giving false timelines and then not living up to them.
A couple of very specific points about your service also come to mind:
1. Please conduct some basic customer care training programs with your call centre staff, neither do they have any knowledge about anything to do with broadband, they are also voluntarily unhelpful, rude and dismissive. Their solution to each problem is "visit the exchange" and when asked for the phone number or address of the exchange they flatly refuse to provide any such information, the numbers I eventually procured where through third-party messageboards and discussionboards where your customers had been kind enough to post such numbers. How does this strike anyone as logical or reasonable?
2. I don't know whether it is part of your standard installation practice, but your technician (one Mr.Yadav mobile number 9958757133) failed to provide equipment as basic as phone/broadband wires and splitters when installing the connections at my house. I had to purchase both from the open market, I am aware that no other service provider indulges in this sort of practice as its ridiculous to expect a customer to have such equipment lying around. It would be a better idea to start charging customers for such basic equipment (if you don't already do so) and ensuring that your technicians carry it when they install such connections.
3. None of the phone numbers on your website for the Gurgaon circle are functional, a recorded message - "this number does not exist" plays out every time any of the numbers is dialled. The number for the Malibu town exchange (i.e. 2219000) is faulty and does not function, once picked up from BSNL's end no sound can be heard. Please update these numbers and correct all such faults.
4. Please provide realistic timelines and improve your service parameters. Please train your staff to stop treating customers as an annoyance that disrupts their days. It is because of us that they have jobs, I think this should be made clear.
I have taken a chunk of my precious time to write this email to you because I care about how our government and government companies function and to make you aware that you are antagonising a large portion of your customer base. I care enough to provide you with relevant feedback so you may make your organisation better. Please treat this as professional feedback from a very unsatisfied new customer. I hope and pray that my experience with service usage will be far better than it was with the installation process.
I have recently become a BSNL customer. This is the story of my experience of dealing with your technical staff, customer care, exchange and sales personnel and marketing department. I had applied for a connection under the Home unlimited 750+ plan, which entitled me to a landline and a broadband connection, I submitted the application and Rs. 11,123 as advance payment for the year at the BSNL exchange in South City 1, Gurgaon to one Mr. AK Singh. When asked how long it would take for the connection to be carried out Mr. Singh remarked that the ball was out of his court and that my interaction should now be with the Malibu Town exchange, a typical shirking of responsibility response which should have acted as an early warning sign of more of the same that I was to experience at the hands of BSNL.
On my pressing on and requesting Mr.Singh for a "typical" timeline for such a connection, after much coaxing and expression of wonder at the incredulity of him not being willing to commit a timeline, he said 5 to 7 days. I left in the hope that by the next weekend my connection would be installed, an expectation of your organisation meeting its own rather lax targets of installing the two connections in 7 days, as it turned out I had set myself up for disappointment.
The following week was spent dialling your customer care numbers, speaking with various telephone exchanges from South City 1 to the main Gurgaon exchange, apathetic officials, idiotic helpline executives and just a general motley crue of insolence and indifference. Something that I didn't believe about your organisation but had been told on several occasions "Government Company saab..they will make you run around" rang so true and left me so disappointed because I know for a fact that BSNL has the best infrastructure and internet provision service in the country today, it left me sad that your government entity where on one hand could have used its market penetration and internet reliability as tools to fashion themselves as the premiere telecom company in the country not just in terms of numbers but service delivery as well, had lost this opportunity due to the lack of anything that resembles either competence or efficiency of its customer service and technical staff.
I have virtually begged your linemen to come and fix the connection at my house and after many days of pleading and visiting various exchanges I finally got my broadband connection yesterday i.e. 20th of May 2009 - a full two weeks after I had applied and made the payment, and mind you it still requires a day to become functional as the user name and password need to be approved. I would suggest that you actually tell people how long a connection of this sort is going to take from your end as opposed to giving false timelines and then not living up to them.
A couple of very specific points about your service also come to mind:
1. Please conduct some basic customer care training programs with your call centre staff, neither do they have any knowledge about anything to do with broadband, they are also voluntarily unhelpful, rude and dismissive. Their solution to each problem is "visit the exchange" and when asked for the phone number or address of the exchange they flatly refuse to provide any such information, the numbers I eventually procured where through third-party messageboards and discussionboards where your customers had been kind enough to post such numbers. How does this strike anyone as logical or reasonable?
2. I don't know whether it is part of your standard installation practice, but your technician (one Mr.Yadav mobile number 9958757133) failed to provide equipment as basic as phone/broadband wires and splitters when installing the connections at my house. I had to purchase both from the open market, I am aware that no other service provider indulges in this sort of practice as its ridiculous to expect a customer to have such equipment lying around. It would be a better idea to start charging customers for such basic equipment (if you don't already do so) and ensuring that your technicians carry it when they install such connections.
3. None of the phone numbers on your website for the Gurgaon circle are functional, a recorded message - "this number does not exist" plays out every time any of the numbers is dialled. The number for the Malibu town exchange (i.e. 2219000) is faulty and does not function, once picked up from BSNL's end no sound can be heard. Please update these numbers and correct all such faults.
4. Please provide realistic timelines and improve your service parameters. Please train your staff to stop treating customers as an annoyance that disrupts their days. It is because of us that they have jobs, I think this should be made clear.
I have taken a chunk of my precious time to write this email to you because I care about how our government and government companies function and to make you aware that you are antagonising a large portion of your customer base. I care enough to provide you with relevant feedback so you may make your organisation better. Please treat this as professional feedback from a very unsatisfied new customer. I hope and pray that my experience with service usage will be far better than it was with the installation process.
