I will never *ever* be a customer of Tata Indicom. No matter *how* fantastic their products are. Here's why.
My nephew bought a Tata Indicom Photon+ data card, and he gave *my* cell number as the emergency contact number. (Without informing me but quality of one's relatives is quite another story!) Thus began my problems. Every single night, starting at 9.30 pm, and going on till 5.30 am, I get Photon+ status messages on unused bandwidth. Is *this* what Tata Indicom calls customer service? Having the cell phone of hapless "emergency contacts" ring through the night?
I visited the website that was given in the message and left a comment asking for SMS to be turned off for the data card (I gave the number of the data card). Nothing happened.
I happen to be an avid user of text messages and I don't have incoming messages set to silent. It is torture to be woken up repeatedly, night after night to find out what the unused balance on someone else's data card is.
To give the owner of the data card a wee bit of credit, when he found out about the issue, he tried setting it right by calling the customer "care" number. He never got through. When he went to the store this Saturday, he was told the issue could only be resolved on Monday -- Saturday being the beginning of the weekend and all.
Now here's my question. What kind of moron designed the Tata Indicom customer "care" system? Does Tata Indicom really believe that Photon+ data card customers (or their emergency contacts) want to know the balance on the card (even if unchanged) *4* times every NIGHT, night after night? Who is their target customer -- insomniacs?
Which brings me to my point. Photon may be a great data card, but I will *never* buy it (or any other Tata Indicom product, for that matter), because I don't want to be stuck with a product that has shoddily designed support systems and inaccessible customer service.
Update: The messages have been turned off from my cell number. Tata Indicom called yesterday and I've gotten my cell number removed from that particular data card.
I too face a problem, somewhat similar to this. My company's transport service has a SMS system that informs us of our pick-up and drop roster everyday. Funny thing is - I roster for 7.45am pick-up and I start getting SMS updates from 4 in the morning. Luckily I'm not an avid texter, hence I have set incoming texts to silent on my phone. I just wake up and check my phone once to know the cab status. But funnily, these texts keep on coming till the time I reach office and start with my work.
ReplyDeleteApparently it is Photon+ policy to send 4 status messages in rapid succession! I wonder who designed this system -- and why s/he hasn't been fired yet!
ReplyDeleteDear Ms.Bhavna
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Tata Indicom!
With reference to the post in your blog, regarding Tata Indicom services, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
We request you to kindly provide us the Tata Indicom Data card details of your nephew, which will assist us in doing the needful.
We assure you that we are committed to resolving the issue to your satisfaction.
Should you require any further assistance please mail us at Customer.care@tatatel.co.in .
Thanks and Regards
Customer Care
Tata Indicom.
The data card number is 9242420131
ReplyDeleteDear Ms.Bhavna
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Tata Indicom!
Thank you for providing the connection details, we wish to inform you that your complaint has been put before the concerned department.
We have accorded it top priority and are expressly working towards resolving it at the earliest. We should revert to you shortly, request you to kindly bear with us in the interim.
Should you require any further assistance please mail us at Customer.care@tatatel.co.in .
Thanks and Regards
Customer Care
Tata Indicom.
I got yet another Photon+ status update a few minutes ago. I guess it *is* rocket science to rectify issues when support systems are shoddily designed. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteUpdate: Now I get status messages at *different* times -- 4.21 am, 10.28 am and 2.21 pm.
ReplyDeleteDear Tata Indicom, I don't own a Photon+ data card. Can you please turn status updates messages OFF for my cell phone number? The data card number is 9242420131 and I am merely the "emergency contact" for the data card.
Hi
ReplyDeleteThanks for this posting. I have no affliation to Tata Indicom and am just now become their customer after trying out BSNL, Idea.
I am a new customer of Tata Photon+ because BSNL service and internal politics was so terrible to deal with.
Tata Indicom service and support was the best I have experienced in India so far. As promised they activated my account very quickly so that my home office was in working condition quickly. With BSNL it took 3 hours to submit a form, 4 days to get a connection and after week the connection went dead. And all this suffering for subscribing to their highest speed and highest charged (Rs 4500) plan!
Coming back to Tata Photon issue, there is an option to turn off SMS notifications in the users account/profile which accessible from
http://www.tatatele.in/myaccount/EAlertsAction.do.
Maybe this option is available to you, or maybe it is available with certain plans. Also there is an option to change the mobile number to which the SMS messages is sent to.
Anyways good luck.
Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI allowed your comment for the sake of completeness. The *point* of my blog post was that I was NOT a Tata Indicom customer, I had NO idea about their plans, and still got harassed by a system that thought the "emergency contact" needed to know usage of a Photon Data card!