Ginger & Cardamom

Its been close to two an a half decades that I have spent living in this country. I have grown up with a lot of things and have seen them changing and suddenly becoming irrelevant. This is a 3 series of advertisements which marks the an amazing transition which Indian society has gone through in the two wheeler market. From the old Bajaj Scooters which I am sure every kid of my age would have driven and would have a memory associated with it, to today's so called performance bikes which kid 10 years younger to us keep zip zapping on the road. I just share the transition from the eyes of a kid who always loved & related to advertisements.







To all the people who curse India for everything, We have come a lot forward, not because of you, but despite you and we will go still further

You know going to office is an ordeal for me. I have always loved a line from Rachel Green when she talked about her life when she comes to know about how Ross like her and she goes to get him at the airport. She says, “When I saw him get off that plane with her, I really thought I hit rock bottom. But today, it's like there's rock bottom, then 50 feet of crap, then me”

I surprisingly think that my office follows a similar way of appreciation, every time I think I have managed a situation came out of the pit, it dugs up a deeper one pushes me in and says now come up. When I joined my work I thought I really loved it, I love it now too but 5 horrible setbacks they did to me-

1- Changing cities- You know when I was a kid, I used to be so jealous of people whose dad have transferrable jobs because they go to see new cities, new places. They had so many stories to tell. I was always stuck with same set of people and same old stories. When I grew up I also outgrew these idiotic sentiments. But somehow my company was listening and listening pretty well. They thought the perfect way to keep me happy was transfer me across 5 time in two years across 3 different cities (yaar itna to Mayawati bhi UP ke DMs ka nahi karati)

2- Office Timings- Well the place I hear from the veterans used to be a fun land where everyone was only bothered about how sincerely you completed your work and nothing else. But now we have some things called policies & directives in place. The bottom line due to them if I stay is office for less than 9.25 hours I get a leave deducted and if I stay more than it, it is expected. (yeh bhi koi insaaf hai meri salary bhi unke pass aur meri leave bhi unke paas jab chahe tab kaat lete hai :-()

3- The internet- this is a major irritant at my work place. I really hate websense. I am thinking that I should call a meeting of all the people who have been tortured by this F**KING morons sitting in San Diego, lets contribute buy the shares of the company and simply close it down. This would be one gift from us to the entire humanity. Some inventions shouldn’t have been done this damn software is one of them. Well you can read abt this nuisance in my office here as well.

4- Car Parking & Campus - We have a multilevel car parking of 10 Floors with a capacity exceeding 2000 cars. Now this parking is actually built in the corner and any workplace building is around 1 Km from it at least that too uphill while coming back. My one question why, Why this idiotic car place right in the center? Why you expect us to slog our backsides off and then actually fight an uphill battle on feet or cycles to reach our car and then drive 15-40 Kms to reach home. No when you recruited us, we never pledged our life to you.

5- Security- Now this is the latest Icing in the cake, they have reduced a lot many number of guards may be with an idea to cut costs. So essentially what happened today was there was a 2 Kms long line of cars while the remaining guards were struggling to check every care to let it in. Generally there are 15 guards passing around 12 cars at one time. Now this has been reduced to 7 which actually resulted in a huge waiting and I actually waited for 45 minutes to actually get to the Car Park and then another 15 mins to walk to my building.

I hope this damn recession ends and some sanity is restored in the work place. Otherwise one of my most admired corporations would turn into a hell hole which people would despise and loath.

I got a chance to attend a wedding after a long time. The last wedding before this one was way back in 2000 of my cousin. So when Varun, one of my very good friends from my school days, got married. Many of our teachers who had taught us during our school days were invited.

I was present with many of my friends from school days. We were standing in a group all the schoolmates when our teachers (surprisingly even a prime minister becomes an ex prime minister, a boss becomes an ex boss, even a girlfriend or wife becomes an ex girlfriend or wife. But a teacher always remains a teacher he/she is never an ex teacher may be because you can always learn something from him/her no matter how much you grow)

They saw us came to meet us, and it felt so good. But I had my Eureka moment when our teachers were trying to recognize us. Of course they didn’t remember most of our names (it’s been 10 years since we passed out and they would have taught us like 12-15 years back). My teachers saw me and they were like “Prateek, You were the computer whiz kid”. It felt so good when people who teach 500 students in a year and they remember you after so many years associating you with something which you really cared about. It was such a pleasant surprise that all of them recognized me, not because I was a brilliant student which obviously I never was. But because I had a passion for something and everyone in school knew that. The passion was computers, programming, hardware, software, anything related to technology. I used to bunk the games periods to sit back in the computer room, I know how weird it sounds but that use to be my craze for computer if not till late then at least till class 10^th when I got my own personal computer.

I look 10 years down the line I was the whiz kid on the block, a computer champ, a solid programmer.  Suddenly I work for one of the most reputed IT companies in the word; I have become an engineer & MBA by qualification and a consultant by designation. But in this whole gamut the passion for the computers stands lost and defeated. The fun of writing a code and see it almost working and then spending nights to debug to finally see it working as it should has dwindled in the glow of corporate ladder and hierarchy.

This is a very incoherent and lost post. Just trying to tell myself how life has changed and things have gone haywire in a meaningless tryst. 

I have written this post after a long time and is in a state of grief, and shaken trust with what has happened with Satyam. I am not sue if the piece of text is coherent or it makes sense to anyone but the fact is the harder I try to dissociate the closer I find in believing the Joker.

"He is the hero Gotham deserves not the one it needs right now. So we will hunt him, because he can take it. Because he is not our hero, he is the silent guardian, a watchful protector, a Dark Knight.” This quote from the dark knight kept me thinking. Specially, in the light of the statement which Joker made earlier in the movie. “They need you right now, but when they don't they will cash you out like a leopard. Their morals, their code, it is a bad joke, are dropped at the first sight of the trouble they are only as good as world allows them to be. When the ships are down these civilized people will eat each other.”

I feel this statement from the Joker is so true about the real world. The people, their morals and code are just a farce put up to fake a social fabric. When a choice comes between the personal interests and moral codes it’s often the personal interests that survive. The people who actually stick to the moral and codes are the ones who do not have a choice to fulfill their personal interests. But more so they would like someone else to be the protagonist of the morals.

When Gordon says he is the hero Gotham deserves but what it needs right now. So we will hunt him, because he can take it.

And what happens when he cannot? Everyone has a breaking point, what happens when he reaches breaking point? They just disown him and move ahead seeing the other way.

How correct Joker was when he said that the people needed Batman right not, but when they won’t they will cash him out. Let him go down the drain.

When I see the world around me, everyone is pushing each other on the thin lines of morality. Think of what happened at Satyam, they would have been put so many controls and checks over the employee. They forced people to give up their personal life for the greater good of organization, all this because someone sitting at the top was preaching fake morality. I mean who is to be blamed the top honchos, the auditors, or the poor people who never did anything wrong but just got on the wrong side of a hypocrite.

I have a shaken belief on humanity, morality, ethics today. And I think I would believe in another line from Harvey Dent in the same movie-

“The world is cruel and the only morality in the cruel world is chance, unbiased, unprejudiced fair.”

These are four dialogues from the dark knight which made me think in the current age of recession, bankruptcies, frauds and falling moralities that may be morality isn’t the best way to live a life.

“They need you right now, but when they don't they will cash you out like a leopard. Their morals, their code, it is a bad joke, are dropped at the first sight of the trouble they are only as good as world allows them to be. When the ships are down these civilized people will eat each other.”

“He is the hero Gotham deserves not the one it needs right now. So we will hunt him, because he can take it. Because he is not our hero, he is the silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark knight. “

“Sometimes the truth is not good enough, sometimes people deserve more, and sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded. “

“The world is cruel and the only morality in the cruel world is chance, unbiased, unprejudiced fair.”

Google Ad(Non)Sense

This was the context sensitive add posted on my profile.
Yeah I know what you all are thinking Jeez U folks get a life. This is an ad link for some crappy movie site Yahoo-movies.net which apparently seems to have no connection with yahoo. How fair is to promote some site like this by Google which infringes someone else's brand name

BLOCKED

This post might sound like ranting but to me it seems what is actually bothering my thoughts since a long time. I seriously believe that a conversation could only lead to a thing like which happens so often in such renounced company.

Setting: The HR Guy, The Network Guy, The Employee in a deep discussion.

HR: I have joined this organization such a long time ago. I need something to show that I am useful or they will all know that I am just passing time.

NW: Ditto my case is still worse. At least employees are afraid of you. If they come to no I have no work I will be the first one packing my bags.

Emp: But why you are supposed to be pillars of organization. Why do we need to be afraid of you.

HR & NW: Shut Up!!!! You don’t know anything about organizations.

HR: We need to come up with some plan with which we can fake usefulness in the company.

Emp: But Why you need to fake you can actually work to increase the Productivity……….

HR: Productivity that is it. That’s what I will be doing.

Emp: yes, you can actually work to improve………

NW: Shut Up!!!! I have a brilliant idea which can address both of out concerns at once. We can block. Both will benefit

HR: Will do what?????

NW: We can block things it would hypothetically show that we have enhanced productivity.

HR: Sounds good not much effort eh is it ????

Emp: But….

NW (Excitedly): No just a little tweak in the firewall.

HR: Ok What all employees use Orkut

NW: Gtalk

Emp: No!!!!

HR: All other Chat clients.

NW: easy, flickr & blogs

Emp: No Way!!!!!

HR: lets block all.

Emp: What is the logic for doing it?

HR: Logic what is that?

Emp: But it won’t increase the productivity will it.

HR: I don’t want to increase it. I just want to show that I am doing it. Anyways they can’t measure it.

NW: HeeeeeeHowwwww (weird Laugh)

HR: Can’t we block the public email sites. The F***ing B*****Ds post resumes through them and also can we block job sites.

NW: Job sites is easy.

Emp: NO You can’t block Public Email Sites.

NW: But why you want to block it.

HR: If they won’t post resume it would reduce the attrition numbers in my tenure. At the end of the day numbers are all that matters.

Emp: You will never be able to do it. You can never justify it.

NW: Eureka!!! I can do it. Security issue, Enhanced security for the clients. Employees can transfer code and data through public email.

Emp: But no one does it, you know it. They don’t even bother about it where there are products being coded for millions of dollar like MS & Google.

NW: Who cares after all clients security is our first concern. Right (Winks to the HR)

HR: Promotion next quarter!!!!

1 Year in the System

I have completed one year in the system. The most interesting question in front of me right now is should I mourn or celebrate.

Interestingly a year before I used to be a focussed guy; with a planned life and now have a look-

• Who am I? An aspiring Business Development Executive or a Growing Supply Chain Consultant
• Where I am? Pune (My Base Location- total stay 3 weeks) or Hyderabad (I am here on a short term transfer for past 6 months)
• What am I doing? Preparing for sales roles or Getting billed for my company
• What is my area of Expertise? Marketing (My MBA Major) or Supply Chain Planning (My area of work)
  
• What am I learning? How to sell IT Services or Oracle ASCP
• Motivation? Organization's Policies or Self Respect for the work that bears my name
• Passion? IT Sales or Custom Components
  
• Parameters for best place to work? Productivity & Recognition or Gymnasiums & Fountains
• What drives me to work early on Monday Mornings? Awesome work that lies ahead or the parking space on the lower floor in the car park.
• Who is more important? Employees or the Buildings

There are million questions in my mind of similar nature. I know I am totally confused but if anyone of you could provide answers to this poor soul. Answers Anyone????

586 % Per Annum – New Age Money Lenders

Yes, if you thought money lenders were a rarely found species and is only found in rural interiors then you were wrong. The cheat poor farmers, by charging them interest rates as high as 50% per annum then you are again wrong. I, simple supply chain consultant was duped by my financer to pay an interest at a simplistic rates of 586.1064% per annum, yes I am not joking. If you think it is funny then its not and yes I never cheated in any of my exams; I am not an illiterate but just missed the fine print you know.

As my mom always complains that I don’t listen to elders; seems quite true in this case. When I completely misunderstood the ad for the State Bank of India, which said it aloud umpteen number of times through out the day “Only Banking and Nothing else” I didn’t got the hidden warning that I should not use any other Financial Product from SBI except banking and yes I became a proud owner of a Gold Credit Card of SBI. A genuine customer who always paid his bills on time; and in comes the creepy money lender worried about how he will earn if the bills are all cleared in time. This time he decided to roll his sinister plans against this bachelor guy in Hyderabad.

The guy always had the habit of paying the bills in the 1000s the pattern was being observed by the money lender. He used to pay 7000 when the bill was 6600, used to pay 12000 when the bill was 11200. This time he paid a mere 15,000 of his bill of 15,643.46 and the eyes of the shylock oops the money lender shone with greed and he appropriately charged an interest of 314.28 from the guy.

Yes the money lender was SBI Credit Cards, one firm which I had immense trust on because of their banking history in my family. And the guy was me who had to pay an interest of Rs. 314.28 per month on and outstanding sum of Rs. 643.36. And yes they never forgot to charge the Rs. 38.85 of taxes to the government. Eventually I paid up an interest at the whooping rates of 586.1064% per annum. Yes I got my credit card closed immediately and vowed that I would never do any business with SBI cards people.

For all those who are applying for the credit cards from SBI, they have a policy that in case of a part payment the interest is charged on the complete bill amount instead of the amount due. So for example if on bill of Rs. 1,00,010 you pay Rs. 1,00,000 and Rs 10 are remaining as a balance. Then at the gold card interest rates they will charge you an interest of something over Rs. 2000 over the due Rs. 10. That might just amount to an interest rates of 2,41,082.2% annum. I am sure there isn’t a profitable business in the world than this new age money lending.

Airtel: Kusht-mar Care

I was reading an advertisement of Airtel which read 50 million and another 950 to go. Amazing feat for a company, I have had a mixed experiences with the services. I like it because I feel indebted to Airtel and Reliance with their closed user group & intra network calling schemes. When I could not actually afford, I managed to have conversation, whose thought sends shivers down my spine, how on earth I could manage such long hours on phone while now even an hour on phone and I get bugged of like hell.

I have had a personal sense of gratitude for these two cellular companies. I am going to talk about Airtel today, I remember seeing the golden lettered display in Airtel Office (Swargate, Pune) where they desire to become the top most consumer brand in their category. I smiled at it and felt with pride of being an Airtel user.
Leave aside the pride, the amount of pain to be a Kusht-mar of brand like this. I have seen people having including myself having really painful experiences with the brand which wishes to be the apple of the consumers’ eyes. Few examples-

1- Having a pre-paid number in pune Airtel, reaching Kusht-mar care executive through 121 is a pain. First of all they would not connect you, even if they do in most cases the query will not be resolved appropriately. And mind you if you dialed to them more than 3 times a day they block customer care number on your phone (No you don’t need to talk rudely to them, neither you need to be abusive, you just need to tell them sorry ma’am my problem is not yet solved) and three times you are simply gone. Forget that you might ever reach to customer care. You will have to drive all the way to their office. I am sure brands do that, its excellent service and I am happy to believe that 50 million are facing this and the company desires it shove it the backside of rest of 950 million lucky Indians.

2- One of my close friends, did the grave mistake of activating GPRS on his mobile phone which was liable for daily deductions of Rs. 11 (I don’t remember exactly might be 10 or 12 also) and after few months he realized that he wasn’t using the service extensively. So he decided to deactivate it and the prompt reply from the customer care was that service would be deactivated in 24 hours and indeed it was. But for the next 3 months despite 100 calls and trips to Airtel office we could not make them stop the daily deduction for Rs. 11 and finally my friend had to surrender his connection, go through the ordeal of changing his number. Now he is a proud Idea cellular customer who vouches never to use Airtel in his life.

3- This one is an amazing experience with the real kusht-mar service of Airtel. Read through the mails of one of my colleague and Airtel

Message 1:

hello,

Please activate International roaming on my phone. Request you to do it on urgent basis as I am travelling today and will reach Singapore by 4:30 AM IST on 29th Sep.

Regards

Kusht-mar

Message 2:

From: 121@airtelindia.com [mailto:121@airtelindia.com]

Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 4:30 PM

To: Kusht-mar

Subject: Regarding your mobile number 9999999999 [REF:00000]

Dear Mr. Agarwal,

Thank you for contacting Airtel. (Now that you have called us, your bad time has already started)

You had requested us to start International roaming facility on your Airtel mobile number 9999999999. (Lets see you going foreeen land, and me sitting in India… Irony of life isn’t it??)

We request you to send us a scanned copy of Passport through email to document in our records. (he he he nahi ji mazaak kar rahe ho aap, passport bhi hai aapke paas foreeen jaane ki baat karte ho)

Alternatively, you could also send the passport copy in the below mentioned formats for further action.

1. Hard copy of the passport copy in the nearest Airtel Relationship

centre

2. Scanned copy of the passport copy

3. Fax copy of the passport copy

You could fax the letter to us on 9845500121 / 9845600121.

Please be informed that the monthly rental for the international roaming facility is Rs. 149/- and the same would be charged on prorate basis.

Click here for tariff details of International Roaming.

http://www.airtel.in/InternationalRoaming_Postpaid.asp

We would start the International roaming facility within 24 hrs on receiving your document. (24 ghante, Singapore nahi yeh India hai mere bhai, 24 din main ho jaye to badi baat hai)

Regards,

Yuvaraj

Customer Support Service

Airtel

Message 3:

Dear Yuvraj,

Thank you for responding so late with an unsatisfactory reply.

Question 1:

Why was all this not informed when I called up customer care? I specifically mentioned in the mail as well as during my interaction with the Customer care agent that I have to leave on the same night and requested for the services to be activated urgently.

If you can not process the request within requested time or without certain documentation can you not inform the customer upfront rather that running the loop over multiple interactions? That too, with no sense of urgency whatsoever (I had placed the request at 10:21 PM on 28th Sep, your reply to which is received at 4:30 PM on 29th Sep, which itself is more that 18 hrs

delay)

Question 2:

What exactly is the need for my passport? As I understand relevant Government authorities for both the countries have verified my documents including passport/visa/bank statements etc and the fact that I am accessing the services from Singapore should be sufficient enough for you to bill me. Why so much of a fuss?

Regards,

Kusht-mar

Message 4:

From: 121@airtelindia.com [mailto:121@airtelindia.com]

Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 11:58 AM

To: Kusht-mar

Subject: Regarding your mobile number 9999999999 [REF:00000]

Dear Mr. Kusht-mar,

Thank you for contacting Airtel. (aao, pata tha dubara aaoge, kaha than a 24 din se pehle nahi hoga)

You had expressed concern over the activation of International roaming facility on your Airtel mobile number 9999999999.

We understand your concern and will work together to resolve your issue. (Work Together, samjhe kuch? Work karoge tum aur hasenge hum he he he )

We would like to confirm that mobile number 9999999999 is on the Company employee scheme.

We are unable to process your request as we are not in receipt of the salary slip. (acha passport nahi hai, koi baat nahi fir bhi Singapore jaa rahe ho, chalo acha batao kitni salary hai? Fir hum decide karenge tum Singapore jaa rahe ho ya mazaak kar rahe ho)

Further, if you wish to start the International roaming facility, a copy of the salary certificate has to be provided.

The requirement of the Gross salary depending on the service requested for is as follows:

ISD 20K Gross

International Roaming 40K Gross

If the salary slip does not match the requirement, the relevant deposit amount will have to be maintained.

For the above mentioned mobile number the refundable security deposit amount to be maintained would be Rs.6000/- in order to avail the International roaming facility. You may visit the nearest Airtel outlet to make the payment towards the same.

Please find attached the details of nearest Airtel Relationship center along with this mail for your reference.

Kindly be informed that there is a monthly rental of Rs.149/- towards the International roaming facility on prorate basis.

Click here for tariff details of International Roaming.

http://www.airtel.in/InternationalRoaming_Postpaid.aspx?path=1/6/7/12/63

International roaming facility would be activated within 24 hours of receiving your salary slip and request for the same.

Regards,

Josmy

Customer Support Service

Airtel

Message 5:

Dear Josmy,

Thanks for the response. Your reply does not directly answer to any of my 2 queries (1. why relevant documentation was not informed upfront? and 2.

What is the need of Passport?).

However, looking at your answer now I am even more perplexed. Now you are stating that it is not the Passport but my Salary certificate that is required. Now this number is with me for at least 3 months. I have never been informed about the need of salary slip/certificated as a required documentation for a Corporate number. Neither was I informed about it during my interaction with the customer care executive when I raised the request for ISD activation. So why and from where these prerequisites are surfacing now.

I would be obliged if you could please let me know:

1. Why relevant documentation was not informed upfront by the customer care executive when I raised the request for ISD activation?

2. What exactly are the necessary documents required? Is it passport? Is it salary certificate?

3. If there were certain documentation to be provided when I applied for a number under Company employee scheme, why were they not intimated then, and why there has been no intimation since till now?

4. I was promised that the ISD services would be activated within maximum of 24hrs and minimum of 4Hrs of sending a mail request to 121@airtelindia.com. This was "The only" requirement mentioned to me. On what basis such commitment was made?

5. Why was such a huge delay in response from your end even after mentioning that it is urgent? I even mentioned the date and time of my arrival for your convenience.

For your kind information, I have concluded my tour to Singapore and have already suffered the inconvenience. However I am pondering over why I should not take appropriate action against you for "Non providence of promised services within assured timeframe".

Hoping to here some satisfactory response from your end.

Regards,

Kusht-mar

Message 6:

From: 121@airtelindia.com [mailto:121@airtelindia.com]

Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 3:37 PM

To: Kusht-mar

Subject: Regarding your mobile number 9999999999 [REF:00000]

Dear Mr. Kusht-mar

Thank for contacting Airtel. (satisfactory response chahiye tere ko satisfactory!!! Abhi deta hoon )

As we understood that you had already requested us to activate ISD facility for your Airtel mobile number 9999999999. (Humko sab samajh main aa gaya hai, ISD ya International roaming hum toss kar ke pata laga lenge. Yaar passport nahi hai to salary certificate de do. Apna nahi to padosi ka de do, kyon faltoo argue kar rahe ho?)

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard and would like to assure that appropriate action would be taken to rectify the same.(really really sorry, we wanted to irritate and exasperate you but kya karein sirf inconvenience hi hui aapko. Don’t worry we will make up for it in near future)

We realize that this situation must have greatly inconvenienced you. We are a customer centric organization and as such would want every interaction you have with us to be a pleasant one. (he he he customer centric organization…. Joke suna hai kabhi aisa… Pleasant kaise yahi soch rahe ho na?? Who pleasant humare tumhare liye to irritating tha kyon ???)

Further, we would like to confirm that ISD facility has already been activated with effect from 08/08/07 as per our records. (Abhi toss main aaya tha ISD to ISD kar diya ab roaming ke liye mat rona… zindagi main har kisi ko sab kuch thode hi milta hai)

Please find attached the tariff details of ISD for your reference.

Alternatively, please click here for ISD tariff details for your rate plan for your kind perusal.

http://www.airtel.in/PostPaid_tarrifs.asp

Regards,

Shibu

Customer Support Service

Airtel

Message 7:

Dear Shibu,

Just a small correction. My request was for activation of "International Roaming" and not "ISD".

Regards,

Kusht-mar

Message 8:

From: 121@airtelindia.com [121@airtelindia.com]

Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 8:25 PM

To: Kusht-mar

Subject: Regarding your mobile number 9999999999 [REF:00000]

Dear Mr. Kusht-mar,

You had requested us to start International Roaming facility on your Airtel number 9999999999. (Abey yaar kaha tha tumko panga mat karma ISD kar diya hai ab roaming maang rahe ho??? Yaar life main sab ko sab kuch nahi milta…. Main bhi jana chahta tha Singapore jaa tum rahe ho… Jo hain usme khush raho… Santosh dhanam param sukham school main nahi sikhaya kya?)

We would like to inform you that, your mobile number is on the Company employee scheme and we are not in receipt of your latest salary slip.

To enable us to process your request, kindly send us a scanned copy of the salary certificate would have to be furnished.

The requirement of the Gross salary depending on the service requested for would be as follows:

Regional Roaming / National Roaming - 15K Gross

ISD - 20K Gross

International Roaming - 40K Gross (Along with

Photocopy of Passport)

Request you to send the Salary slip in the below formats

1 Scanned copy of the salary slip with company seal

2 Salary slips with company logo in Acrobat format.

3 Hard copy of the salary slips with the company seal.

4 Fax copy of the salary slip with the company seal.

We request you to kindly make the refundable deposit for the activation of required facility. You could visit the nearest Airtel outlet to make the payment towards the same.

Click here for tariff details of International Roaming.

http://www.airtel.in/InternationalRoaming_Postpaid.aspx?path=1/6/7/12/63

Further, with regard to the enquiry of the documentation, kindly be informed that we require the above said documents as per our records for the activation of the International roaming facility. (He he he… Gussa aaya… karo karo… Jyada gussa karoge to khud hi jaldi maroge mere baap ka kya jaata hai)

Regards,

Prem latha

Customer support service

Airtel

Message 9:

Dear Prem Latha,

This response have already been given to me and I have replied to that too.

Please go through the entire chain of mail.

Regards,

Kusht-mar

Message 10:

Dear Mr. Kusht-mar,

You had expressed concern over the non activation of International Roaming facility as per your request in the previous mail on your Airtel number 9999999999.

We understand your concern and will work together to resolve your issue.

We would like to inform you that, your mobile number is on the Company employee scheme and we are not in receipt of your latest salary slip.

To enable us to process your request, kindly send us a scanned copy of the salary certificate would have to be furnished.

The requirement of the Gross salary depending on the service requested for would be as follows:

Regional Roaming / National Roaming - 15K Gross

ISD - 20K Gross

International Roaming - 40K Gross

Request you to send the Salary slip in the below formats

1 Scanned copy of the salary slip with company seal

2 Salary slips with company logo in Acrobat format.

3 Hard copy of the salary slips with the company seal.

4 Fax copy of the salary slip with the company seal.

Also, if the salary slip does not match the requirement, the relevant deposit amount would have to be maintained. For the above mentioned mobile number the refundable security deposit amount to be maintained in order to avail of the roaming/ISD facility, please find below the deposit details:

International Roaming - Rs.6000 (Rs. 149/- Monthly rental Prorate Basis)

Since there is no deposit available in your account, we would request you to kindly make a deposit of Rs. 6000/- in the nearest Airtel Relationship Centre, if the salary slip does not match with our requirement in order to activate International Roaming facility on your mobile number 9999999999.

Please find the details of Airtel Relationship centre for your reference.

Click here for tariff details of International Roaming.

http://www.airtel.in/InternationalRoaming_Postpaid.aspx?path=1/6/7/12/63

We would like to assure you that International Roaming facility would be activated within 24 hours on the receipt of your salary slip and if it matches the criteria. (Lo ab aur Gussa karo…. Dekha humein aapka kitna khayal hai aur aap humesha shikayat hi karte ho)

Regards,

Raja

Customer support service

Airtel

Now seeing this we can actually see how prompt and attentive is the customer service actually. Isn’t it a responsibility of the companies to tell people if they are taking some documents, then why they need it, how would they use it and ensure that these documents will not be misused in any way. Is it not the responsibility of the company to their call center employees that customer service is not about giving a response in a definite time, but it is giving the response to customers’ problem that would define customer service. Not a monologue of what is defined by the system. A small amount of common sense needs to be applied.

After all this I still use Airtel not because of anything else but for the sense of gratitude I have towards this brand and a hope that someday they will understand I am not a Kusht-mar but a customer.

P.s : The comments inside the message in italics and brackets are my personal comments