Oh! Singtel, what the hell?

‘Sheer Incompetence’, ‘Utter Arrogance’ and ‘Complete disregard’ towards customer needs are the terms which I can think of right now to describe what Singtel is doing to me. As you might have probably guessed by now, this is yet another story of bad customer care and one more example which illustrates their arrogance and negligence towards the customers. I am thinking loud, “Is it just me or is it like this for everyone in Singapore?” I am not talking about some third world country where connectivity is a ‘not-so-heard’ term. I am talking about Singapore, one of the world’s most efficient countries.
It all started when I decided to relocate. I knew from my past experiences that transferring my internet connection will be one hell of a ride. So I decided to start a bit early. I called the Singtel customer care hotline (1688) three days before I was to move in.
Day 1 – 1 day. (Dec 16th, After waiting 5-10 minutes in the waiting queue which is there for all the calls)
Me: Hello, I am relocating house and I need you to relocate my internet and phone connection.
Reply: Sure sir, what is your address? And what is your postal code. We need the postal code, without that we cannot process a relocation request.
Me: I am sorry, I am not sure about the postal code as of now. I will give you a call after checking it out.
Day 2 – 3 days. (Dec 18th)
Me: Hello, I am relocating house and I need you to relocate my internet and phone connection. Here is my address and the postal code.
Reply: Thank you sir, we just need the address to check it.
Me: (Thinking: what the hell?)
Reply: Hi sir, as of now there is an existing connection in this address you gave us. We will have to do a rewiring for you and for that you need an appointment. As of now, you’ll have to wait atleast one month for a rewiring appointment.
Me: OMG! Please tell me whether there is any alternative.
Reply: First you have to terminate the connection and give us a call. I will put your name for an appointment now. After you terminate the connection let us know, we will activate the phone line and you have to do the self configuration.
Me: That’s ok, configuring the router is not a problem.
Reply: Also sir, you won’t be able to retain the present phone number. I will give you a call later with the probable numbers you can choose from.
Me: It’s ok, I don’t really care about the number, I only need the internet connection.
Later that day, she did give me a call and I choose a number. She said that she will log everything in the system so that after termination, I can call them again for activation.
Day 3 – 6 days. (Dec 21st, I communicated with the owner and he terminated the existing connection)
Me: Hello, I am relocating house and I need you to relocate my internet and phone connection. I hope all the details are already logged in the system. You can do the activation as soon as possible from there.
Reply: Hi, who am I talking to again? I am really sorry to tell you that nothing about you have been logged in the system. Could you please give me your info?
Me: Ok, here is my details…
Reply: What is your new address with postal code?
Me: (Thinking: Holy God! Is this really happening again?) Hey my dear fellow, I have already given all the details.
Reply: Is it so? Then do you have a telephone connection in your new place already?
Me: There is a socket there.
Reply: Do you know whether its active?
Me: How am I supposed to know that? You are the person to tell me right? I already talked to a customer care officer and the person I talked to, said that activation can be done from there.
Reply: Sorry sir, I don’t know what you are talking about, Click! (And the line went dead)
I dialed again.
Me: Hello, I am relocating house and I need you to relocate my internet and phone connection. Please someone tell me what is going on. I already have done everything and now someone is telling me nothing has been done. What is going on?
Reply: Hi sir, all your details are logged in the system. You have an appointment for rewiring one month from now.
Me: I don’t need rewiring, the existing connection is terminated. You can activate it from there, if possible today itself.
Reply: Sorry sir, we can activate it, but it will take 3 days. You can have the phone line up and running by Dec 24th 5 pm.
Me: If there is some problem, then I will be able to get after 26th right? (‘cos it is the holiday time)
Reply: I am afraid so sir.
Me: Ok, so I am expecting to get a dial tone in my phone by 24th 5pm and no one will be coming for my assistance right?
Reply: That’s right sir, you have to do it on your own. If there is any problem, you can call our technical help desk or take another appointment.
Me: Thank you very much.
Day 4 – 9 days: (24th noon, during lunch @ office, I got a call)
Caller: Hi sir, I have an appointment to rewire your apartment.
Me: Who? What? When?
Caller: I want to check when you will be available?
Me: Are you really calling from Singtel?
Caller: Yes, when do you want me to come?
Me: Ok, I’ll get out of office early today and you can come by 5pm.
I am waiting for the caller and I called the customer care to clarify.
Me: Hello, I have already given a relocation request and the deadline given to me was 5pm on 24th Dec. But there is still no dial tone in my phone.
Reply: Let me check sir. Hello sir, according to our system, your connection is already up and running. Have you tried configuring your router?
Me: There is not even a dial tone in my phone and how am I supposed to configure a router?
Reply: You can try that sir. But then again, this is the sales dept sir, and for configuration enquiries, you can call our technical help desk.
Me: ok thank you. (You guys sux)
After some time the rewiring guy came. He said that he is here is rewire my telephone line. He poked around with the telephone line and some boxes and he also made some calls to his office (at least that’s what he told me)
The guy: I am really sorry sir, they did the wrong wiring at the exchange. So we have to do the rewiring. It will be up tomorrow first thing in the morning
Me: I really need this before the holidays, and are you sure you’ll give me this tomorrow?
The guy: oh! Sorry sir, I forgot that tomorrow is a holiday. We will do it tomorrow first thing in the morning and give you a call in your mobile and landline.
‘Tomorrow-first-thing-in-the-morning’ is over, afternoon is over, evening is over and the next day is over and at noon, I got fed up. And I decided to call again.
Day 5 – 11 days: (26th morning, From this point onwards, I had to explain my whole story till now which takes around 20 minutes plus the waiting time which is around 5-10 mins)
Me: Hello, I am relocating house and I need you to relocate my internet and phone connection. The technician who came to my house told that he will fix the internal problem and didn’t call me back till now. I am still waiting and there is no dial tone in my phone.
Reply: I will put you for another appointment sir.
Me: Now way I am going for another appointment, get me someone who can help me right now.
Reply: I will transfer this call to the technical department sir.
Reply: (from technical department) Let me check this sir, (put on hold). Hello sir, I have checked with the telephone department and they say it will be working by today 5pm. You can start using you phone by then.
5pm is over, 6pm is over and I called again to the technical department.
Me: I am supposed to be using my phone by now, but I believe I can’t do that without a dial tone.
Reply: (After all the explanations and clarifications and holdings for around 30-40 mins) I am really sorry sir, right now, the sales is closed and all I can do is to escalate this issue to the sales department and tell them to contact you first thing on Monday morning.
Day 6 – 13 days: (28th morning, first thing in the morning, I am calling them)
Me: Are you planning to give me my phone connection any time this year?
Reply: Sir, this is the sales, as per our records, your connection is up and working fine from 24th evening, I will transfer this call to the technical department.
After 20 – 30 minutes of explaining my whole story
Reply: Let me put you on hold sir. (After 20 minutes on hold) I have updated this with the technical department sir.
Me: So am I not talking to the technical department?
Reply: You are talking to the technical department for the internet and TV, the telephone is another department sir.
Me: Ok, so what can you do about this now? May be if you can track down the technician who promised me the phone line ‘first-thing-tomorrow-morning’, you can know what happened actually.
Reply: The only thing I can do is to get you another appointment tomorrow between 11-1pm (for which I may have to take off tomorrow from work) and I have specifically told the operator not to leave your house with your giving you a working telephone line.
Me: Thank you very much. Hope this story will be ending once and for all tomorrow.
And the above sentence happened around 30 minutes before I write this. I am waiting for all this to end and to get a written statement from the technician or whoever it is, that my phone was not working for half a month after I raised my relocation request. Let me see whether they will reduce this month’s bill to half. If I delay the payment of my bill, they fine me. Then they should reduce my bill to half if there was no service for half the month because of their fault.
Is there anyone out there from Singtel - I don’t care – who it is, who can explain all these? This is only about my Singtel internet connection and my mobile phone carrier is also Singtel. Don’t get me started about it. So, now my readers may wonder why I am still sticking on with this connection. That is ‘cos I signed a two year contract with Singtel which ends only in 2011 and I have already given S$400 as advance. So I am stuck with this “fill-in-the-blank-as-you-wish” operator for one more year. Now I know, even in Singapore (which I thought is a flawless country) there can be flaws.
Once again, “Is it just me or is it like this for everyone in Singapore?”

CUSTOMER CARE: REALLY CARING ABOUT CUSTOMERS?

For a long time, I was thinking about coming back to blogosphere. For last couple of weeks, everyday, I include blogging as part of my daily agenda, and I never get to do it. I don’t know what kept me from coming back. Sometimes I was busy with some work, sometimes I didn’t feel like writing at all, some times, I didn’t find any subject to write about. Today morning also I decided I will write something for sure, but I was totally clueless about what until some thing happened.

I have a BSNL broadband connection (I hope most of you people know about my fights to be a BSNL broadband consumer) and it’s a 256Kbps plan. I have been thinking about changing to a 512Kbps plan. For that I needed information on how it has to be done. After a lot of thinking about whether to call the BSNL customer care, I decided to go for it. I dialed the number and here is what happened.

I was amazed that some one picked up in the first ring itself. But the worse was about to come.

Cust Care: Hello, My name is Bob, how may I assist you?
Me: Hi, My name is John Smith. I am a BSNL Broadband customer. My phone number is xxxxxx.
Cust Care: Where are you calling from?
Me: Bangalore.
Cust Care: Please hold on for a second sir. Click!

I don’t understand what they have to check when I said I am from Bangalore. Some music started playing in the background. It went on for around 3 minutes. I got angry and cut the call and tried again. After 3 tries, I got connected again.

Cust Care: Good Morning, my name is Alice. Sir your complaint is registered. Can you repeat the complaint number?
Me: What complaint? I have never registered a complaint.
Cust Care: Oh! You have not registered? Then please tell me the complaint sir, I will register it for you.
Me: I don’t have a complaint, I just need some information. I am an existing BSNL broadband customer.
Cust Care: Ok. Please tell me your name sir.
Me: John Smith
Cust Care: Where are you calling from?
Me: Bangalore, please don’t cut.
Cust Care: What is the model of your modem sir?
Me: See Miss, I don’t have a complaint; I need some information about tariffs.
Cust Care: Tell me sir, what do you want to know?
Me: My current plan is 256Kbps. I want to change it to 512Kbps plan. How can I do it?
Cust Care: You can give a written request at your exchange that you want to change it.
Me: Do I have to give it in the exchange or the customer service centre? ‘Cos that’s where I gave my initial application.
Cust Care: You can give it there also sir.
Me: How long will it take?
Cust Care: It will take one month sir, now that this month is over, if you give request, it will be changed by next month.
Me: But today is 31st only?
Cust Care: Ah, yes sir. So if you give it today, you’ll get it tomorrow, or else the next month.
Me: uh!?
Cust Care: No sir, now that the updations have been over and it may take another month.
Me: uh! Are you sure?
Cust Care: Thank you for calling us sir, have a nice day.
Me: Waaaaaaaaait! I am not finished.
Cust Care: Click!

And that’s it. The call was over. I wonder whether they are caring for the customer or some one else? I don’t know how I can explain my feeling at that time. I felt like being slapped on my face again and again besides being paying them every month and coping up with the lame replies from them when ever I call them for any support or the outages. I wonder what can be done about it. 

Steps to take a BSNL Broadband connection in Bangalore - Final Part - My Diwali Gift

...Assuming you have read the first and second part of this one which is available in my blog archive...

10 Oct 2007, Wednesday
After getting my phone activated, I called the JTO. He told me, the process for broadband will automatically be started after my landline gets activated. After that, it may take around 10-15 days to get the connection. I also asked whether there is any modem shortage or so, but he said, there is no shortage.

22 Oct 2007, Monday
It is exactly 2 weeks since I got my phone line and still no word of the broadband. I called the JTO. After trying till evening, I finally got the call connected. He checked with my phone number and told me, the broadband is now in the process of creating username. When I asked how much time it will take for that, he said may be 1 week or more, it is done in another section. [I wonder how complicated it is to make a username]. He also gave me the number of that ‘section’. I called, called and called. Nothing happened except the phone ringing, ringing and ringing.

23 Oct 2007, Tuesday
I went to the place where I gave the application. They directed me to the exchange. [They were very friendly to me] First they told me there is some software updates going on and it will take only 2-3 days. Then they checked with my landline number and said that I will get my connection with in November second week for sure. Once again I got assurance for another 2-3 weeks.

3 Nov 2007, Saturday
I was at this shopping mall and its then that I got this call. He introduced him as calling from BSNL and whether he can come on Monday to give me the connection. I couldn’t believe it at first. For me getting the BSNL connection was like attaining a long lost dream or something like that. I immediately agreed and told him to call me before he comes. He said he will come in the afternoon.

5 Nov 2007, Monday
I waited till 3pm. I thought again I missed it. Then I called the JTO in my area and asked about it. He gave me the number of another guy and told me that the one who called me was on leave that day. I called the new one and he said he will come soon. And by 4:30pm he called me saying he will come soon. I went home from office. And finally he came. He gave us the wireless router itself, the one we applied for. I asked him whether they had the stock and it seems like they’ve just got the new stock. He did all the configurations. But it was not yet the actual connection. He said it will take 2-3days more to activate it in the exchange. Atleast we got all the hardware and configured them and are fully ready for the net. He gave me the username, the password and the helpline number too.
I have to admit one thing. Even if the BSNL are slow, the people working there (from my experience) are all very friendly and are always there to help. I am talking about the people, a customer will come in contact with. On November 9th, I will celebrate 2nd month anniversary after giving the application.

8 Nov 2007, Wednesday [Diwali]
I got a Diwali gift, not from my friends or relatives, but from BSNL. Yeah! I got my broadband connection. I don’t know how they managed it, but they activated it precisely on the Diwali day and manage not to test my patience by extending it to a third month. They gave the connection precisely on the 2nd month itself. Even now, there are some more problems, but I hope they will be solved in due time. Nyway, thanks BSNL for the Diwali gift and for letting me complete this trilogy about the pursuit of me for the broadband connection.

Steps to take a BSNL Broadband connection in Bangalore - Part II

I have been waiting for one week after my last blog to continue my quest of acquiring a BSNL broadband connection. Below are the milestones which I covered during that.

19 Sept 2007, Wednesday
I tried many times to connect to the contact number given at the time of application. Finally I made it through. Some one at the other end answered. She said at least it will take 2 weeks, i.e. one more week from now. When I asked about the process and status of my connection, she tried to explain the process, my application has to undergo before finally [magically] turning in to the broadband connection. But, she preferred the language Kannada, which is alien to me. I only understood some words like, telephone exchange, connection point etc. Those too were heavily accented.

21 Sept 2007, Friday
My friend who went to another BSNL office got another form, though the contents are same ;) How many forms do they have? Now itself I have seen the one from Internet, the one I filled and the one my colleague got. I guess the BSNL people don’t even know what exactly to do. Also, they said to him ‘frankly’, “It will take one month for you to get the connection”.

29 Sept 2007, Saturday
I wanted to call them last Wednesday, but I was not well and also busy preparing to go to my home town. Today morning while I was on my way, I got a call from a guy. He started off with Kannada, but when I heard the terms ‘Internet, phone connection, BSNL, broadband’ etc, I understood what it is. I told him that I don’t know Kannada and we settled on Hindi, which neither of us knew perfectly. I told him I am in Kerala and gave my friend’s number to contact. But somehow he conveyed me the message that, phone connection is ready [couldn’t understand what he said about Internet] and he needed me personally [with my id proof] there to give the connection. He gave me his number and said to call him once I am back.

3 Oct 2007, Wednesday
I asked one of my friends, who knows Kannada to call him and ask what is the status. When she called he said he will come and ‘install’ this Saturday. I don’t know whether he will give only the land line or both broadband and land line.

5 Oct 2007, Friday
I wanted to confirm about him coming to my apartment tomorrow. So I told my friend to call him again. [Thanks to her] He said we will meet in front of a hotel near my apartment tomorrow at 11:30am and I should have the receipt and id proof then.
In the mean time, I talked to a colleague of mine who took BSNL connection. He actually applied for the Home UL900 plan, but he got the Home 500 plan with a download limit of 2GB per month. He applied for a plan change, but it took him one month. He told me that the Home 500 plan was having really good speeds as compared to UL900 plan. The 2GB download limit for the Home 500 plan is very tight to maintain, but that plan has got unlimited connectivity between 2am and 8am.

6 Oct 2007, Saturday
Again the magical moment got postponed. I guess the BSNL people made it their policy that you have to realize the value of the broadband before having it. I called the guy and gave the precise location of my apartment. He said he knows the place and he will be here with in 12noon. I waited till 11:30 and called him again. Then he said some problem about the telephone number and it will be finalized only by today evening and that he will draw the cable on Monday. [Last Saturday when he called, he said everything was ready] Also he gave me the number of another person to call on Monday. I will have to come back to my apartment from office when he comes.

8 Oct 2007, Monday
Finally!!!!!!!!! I didn’t get the Internet connection. It is not a typo, I didn’t get it. I contacted the new guy [from office] and found out that he doesn’t even know Hindi. He said something to me in Kannada and all I understood was a telephone number and a name with a suffix JTO. I managed to convey him that I applied for a new connection and didn’t get anything and asked him when he will come. He said he will come to my place at 12:30pm. Later I called again to confirm that I will get both the phone line and Internet connection. But communicating with this guy was completely impossible. All I understand was that guy saying “sub kuch milta hain aaj” [You will get everything today]. My mind jumped with joy. But I told my friend [who know Kannada] to talk to him by around 11:30pm. He said he will be there within 15 minutes. So my roommate and I rushed to the apartment. We waited and waited. Called him two times in between and he say “10 minutes sir, I will come in 10 minutes”. We waited for around 1 hour. Finally he came. Then only I realized the actual situation. He came to install the phone. After installing the phone and activation [which will take another 2 days] only, the broadband connection process will be initiated. The telephone connection is supposed to be installed & activated at least with in 10 days from the day of application. The line man said something about the entering data to computer, shortage of modem and all. But I called the JTO [Got his number from the line man] to confirm all these. He said to call him after the activation of the land line. It will then take around 10-15 days [so he told] to get the broadband. [I am expecting a delay of one more month]. So that’s the story till now. All I got till now is the land line. Once again I am in to a waiting state.
Above all of these, when I called a friend of mine, he said he bought the wireless gadget of BSNL directly from the customer care centre. It got activated within one day. But I am trying to convince myself, broadband is better, as it will give you 256Kbps of speed [exceptions are there] while the other will give a max speed of 146Kbps. The other details are it has unlimited wireless connectivity all over Bangalore and up to 5Kms outside the city limits and the equipment cost is Rs7000/- [either one time payment or Rs200/- per month] and a usage charge of ~450 per month.
There will be a final part of this. [Trilogy] But I can’t guarantee when. It depends on the BSNL people. I hope it will be soon.