Airtel Cannot Provide STD on Fixed Lines

I tried dialing a Delhi number from Bangalore today only to be told the "service wasn't enabled" on my fixed line. I called Airtel on 198 to check. Spent 30 minutes and spoke to two CSR's.

The first one kept asking me what number I was trying to dial and really didn't get it despite repeating the number about 3 times. Then she was convinced that 011 is an ISD code and I was dialing international. I hung up in disgust and tried again.

The next attempt took about 20 minutes to reach a CSR. This time round the person assured me that he could and would get STD enabled on my phone within 4 hours and refused to give me a tracking umber.

5 hours later -- no surprises, STD remained disabled. I called 198 again and asked for a complaint number which the CSR claimed would only be resolved by December 24th (three days away). When I  asked to escalate, I was given yet another number where I had to listen to that irritating Airtel IVR tell me the escalation department works only reduced hours from Monday to Friday.

I'm still without STD.

Does Airtel really believe that the way to do good business is to have customers deal with flaky IVR systems instead of competent people who can help resolve issues? Given the interactions that I've had with Airtel CSR's, the term moron readily comes to mind.

However, being the good Samaritan that I am, I've got a suggestion for Airtel. Get into the healthcare space. Here's the rationale: given the crap product and lousy customer service, Airtel causes immense grief to customers. This grief, frustration and stress will eventually lead to health issues for customers. What better way to make even more money from customers than by getting into the "healthcare" space? The quotes around the word healthcare are deliberate: I don't expect more than a facade from Airtel -- proclaiming to provide a service while actually just continuing to fleece customers.

Die, Airtel, die!

Where Are You From?

Where are you from?

This is a question that *always* leaves me stumped. With parents of North Indian origin, I was born and raised in Western India, and "home" is now Southern India.

So where am I from?

From the data above, most people expect me to answer "North Indian". Do I belong to North India, because that's where my parents grew up? Having never really lived there, I don't really relate to the culture.West India also hasn't been home for more than a decade. However, answering South Indian is not considered acceptable.

The answer that I want to give is that I am INDIAN, minus any labels. Why is that so hard for people to accept?

Flipkart The False

I ordered a book on Flipkart.com (at full price, i.e., 0 discount) along with a couple of other things. This book had a similar delivery date to the rest of the order, however, it did not ship at all.

When other parts of the order got shipped but not this book, I wrote to Flipkart asking for an explanation. 

Customer "Support": This is to notify you that the shipment of the above mentioned product may be delayed by an additional 3-4 business days.

Me: Are you sure that you will be able to deliver the book and this is just a delay? In that case I am ok to wait. If however, you are unsure of delivering the book and there is a possibility that you will refuse the order after a few days, I would like to cancel right away and get the book directly from Scholastic. Please let me know as this is a hard to find book and I do not want to miss the opportunity of getting it.

Flipkart Customer "Support": This is to inform you that there has been an unexpected delay in having this order shipped to you. As per our records, the above mentioned book is expected to get shipped on September 03, 2012.

Naturally, I assumed this meant that Flipkart was sure about delivering the book, just that it was taking longer than usual, so I decided to wait. 

...

Me: My order is due to be shipped today but the website is not yet updated with any shipping details. Please confirm that you are able to send me the book.

Customer "Support": We would like to inform you that as per our records, the above mentioned book is expected to get shipped by the end of the day today. 

Me: I have not yet received any shipping information for ...  -- which, after multiple delays, was due to ship yesterday.

Customer "Support": This is to inform you that there has been an unexpected delay in having this order shipped to you. We have escalated this issue and the concerned team is looking into the challenges involved which has caused the delay. Kindly provide us one business day within which the concerned team would get in touch with you by email or a call with an update on the status of this order. 

...

End of the business day, no response from Flipkart.

Completely inept handling of my order by Flipkart and it's Customer "Support". I am now poorer by the cost of the book and have lost the window of opportunity of getting it directly from Scholastic. 

Flipkart is now relegated to the list of online websites that are inefficient and inept at handling orders (I've had similar issues post payment with Indiaplaza and now Flipkart).

Websites I've had non-problematic experiences with (in random order):

• Uread.com
• Landmarkonthenet.com
• Firstcry.com 
• Infibeam.com
• Bookadda.com
• Madratgames.com

So, dear readers of this blogpost, beware of Flipkart. They offer nothing new or different from the rat-race of online inefficiency in India and are no longer the lowest when it comes to price either. 

Human Trafficking?

In a shocking incident, a mother sold her 8-day old baby boy for Rs. 40000 in order to be able to fund treatment for her two-year old paralytic son.

The anti-human trafficking branch of Rajasthan Police got involved and said, "This baby ... was given for adoption in return of money. An adoption can only be undertaken through the District Child Protection committee. Besides, no money or gifts can be exchanged in adoption cases." The "trafficked" baby's parents were arrested (and are currently out on bail.)

While I completely agree that human trafficking is abhorrent, one needs to look beyond the superficial facts. In a country like India, where the male child is practically worshiped and people go to any lengths to have one (including killing girl children inside and outside the womb), this mother was ready part with her baby boy in the hope of curing her elder son. She who went through the process of carrying, giving birth and then parting with her 8-day old baby -- in no way strikes me as a human trafficker (even though I do not condone what she did the slightest bit).

As a nation, it would be good for us to strengthen availability of medical facilities at reasonable rates to poorer sections of society so that they don't need to resort to such acts of desperation.

If I was the investigating agency of this case, I would arrest the "broker" and the couple who was willing to take advantage of the mother's desperation by "buying" her baby.

Oh, and then I would turn my attention to *serious* and *brutal* human trafficking that forces thousands of girls into the flesh trade against their will, instead of turning a blind eye because it is lucrative to do so.

I'm a Satyamev Jayate Fan

Satyamev Jayate is about the only television show that I make it a point to watch religiously. The show has come in for lots of criticism ranging from "Aamir Khan is making money over social ills" to "it lulls the middle class into believing they are doing something about social ills by watching/tweeting/SMSing" and "it's scripted melodrama".

Yes, Aamir Khan is probably making big bucks for hosting the show (why shouldn't he?) and a (large?) section of the middle class probably silence their conscience by watching/tweeting/SMSing. And I completely believe that the tears are scripted in order to gain TRPs.

Then why do I watch it each week?

I watch the show because it brings serious ills that plague our society to the forefront; issues that we'd rather not even think of because they are huge blots on our "India Shining" imagery. I watch it because, melodrama apart, it appears to be well-researched and has success stories that show all is not lost. On any issue, it's completely worth it if the success stories help even one person cross the bridge from victim to survivor.

I'd like to ask the armchair critics of the show what they are doing to help deal with the issues that the show is raising (apart from criticizing Aamir Khan for bursting into tears).

To close -- a serious tip of the hat to Aamir Khan for raising, dwelling-on and humanizing issues that we Indians would rather not talk or even think about.

Extortion

Petrol prices above Rs. 80 per litre where I live and I will not be surprised if they cross Rs. 100. There have been the usual platitudes of how oil companies have been losing money selling petrol to us, thanks to the global oil prices.

And then ... there is this: Indian Oil net profit up 224% at Rs 12670 crore. *After* selling petrol at a loss, Indian Oil *still* managed a *net* profit that was 224% *more* than the previous year.

How then, is the petrol price hike not plain and simple daylight robbery?

Raising the prices of petrol leads to all prices rising even further (and inflation has been on a runaway horse for a while now). Yet, the oil companies, instead of helping the nation, choose to further line their already deep pockets.

And Team Sonia/Manmohan/UPA blatantly stand by and let them.

Shame!

Today is a Bharat Bandh called to protest the petrol price hike. While I don't support bandhs, I can't help but see that the imperial rulers of India (Team Sonia), by consistently not listening to the people, essentially leave them with no choice but to resort to bandhs.

Pearls Of Wisdom

Mohit Chandra of KPMG, in an open letter to India's graduating classes brilliantly sums up the issues the corporate world faces with young graduates seeking employment.

Educational institutions would do well to address the gaps and help create employment-ready graduates who:

1> Speak and write English fluently
2>  Are good at problem solving, thinking outside the box, seeking new ways of doing things
3>  Ask questions, engage deeply and question hierarchy
4> Take responsibility for their career and for their learning and invest in new skills
5>  Are professional and ethical

Read the entire letter here.

Flipkart & the Pointy Haired Ones

Update: Flipkart customer service called to 'assure' me that an ETA of 'within 2-3 business days of placing oprder' is a better ETA than 'May 2'.

I said they are morons and stand by it!

_________________________________________________

I have been a fairly regular customer of Flipkart, having ordered ~ 50 books / CD's in the course of my online shopping with them.

If memory serves me right, when I first ordered a book, I was pleasantly surprised to find a book ordered late on a Saturday night delivered the following Monday.

Of course, there have been ups and downs with Flipkart making (and then rectifying) pricing "errors", suffering from poor website response times and throwing 500/502 Bad Gateway errors every now and then. However, I'd been going back to Flipkart because it seemed reliable for timely delivery.

Not any more.

On a a recently placed order (this weekend), the ETA changed without warning from 'May 2nd' to '3 business days from order date'. Now, a glance of the My Orders page gives me *no* useful information. In order to (try and) calculate when my order will arrive, I have to click the order, look up the order date, and then try and figure out Flipkart's holiday list in order to determine when the '3 business days' will be up.

In today's day and age of *intense* online competition, what kind of organization goes from being user-friendly to user-unfriendly? Does Flipkart actually think that reducing functionality is the way to keep customers coming back for more?

Certainly seems like Flipkart is being taken over by the Pointy Haired Community.

Eagerly waiting to take my business  to www.amazon.in!

_________________________________________________

Update: Looks like I'm not the only one having issues with Flipkart. Lots of disgruntled customers vent here.

RTE -- A Cynical Half-Measure?

The Supreme Court recently upheld the Right to Education (RTE) Act as legal, after the government's lawyer said that the fees of children from economically weaker sections (EWS) will be paid for by the government.

That said, the government is willing to pay less than Rs. 20000 per child per year. I don't know of *any* half-way decent school that charges an annual fee that is not atleast double or even 4-8 times that amount. The government's argument of "we spend that much per child in Kendriya Vidyalaya" rings hollow because private schools are *not* central schools.

In an interview, Kapil Sibal suggested that schools should approach corporates to pay fees for the children from EWS, because, according to him, corporates were waiting to do so! Mr. Sibal, given that you are sure corporates are waiting to fund RTE, why don't you write it in the bill/get it passed as an "RTE Tax" in the budget? why send schools out with a begging bowl? Is it because your words come from your hat instead of from conviction? Oh, and while you're at it, can you please tell me what happens to the 3% education cess that you collect from me on virtually every tax I pay?

Another issue with the RTE is that the children from EWS are taken care of from the ages of 6-14, i.e., grades 1 through 8. Children are expected to speak, read and write alteast one language and know basic math. concepts *before* they get to grade 1. How does Mr. Sibal intend for this to happen for the children from EWS if they *start* school in grade 1? And, even more weird, what sense does educating them till class 8 make? A decent milestone would have been the 10th grade (which would get them a certificate), or even better, the 12th grade (which would ensure that they are in school till they get to the legal age of work).

To summarize, RTE is nothing but a cynical modern-day equivalent of "garibi hatao" peddled by the Congress in the hope of winning elections.

What a shame.

Nupur Talwar -- Victim of a Witch-Hunt?

In 2008, a young girl named Aarushi Talwar was brutally murdered in her own home in UP. The local police, in their haste to "solve" the case, came up with some theories and allowed the media in for a look-see at the scene of the murder, thereby destroying vital evidence.

Aarushi's father, Rajesh Talwar had spent more than a few days in jail when the CBI (to whom the case was handed over) concluded there was insufficient evidence against him and proposed to close the case. A judge ruled against closing the case and he remains an accused. He is currently out on bail.

In a twist of events, Aarushi's mother Nupur Talwar has also become a murder accused. Denied bail, she has been take to jail tonight.

Watching (what the media report about) the case, I cannot help but wonder if this is a witch-hunt. The same CBI that said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Rajesh Talwar now opposes Nupur Talwar's bail because she may tamper with evidence. Tamper with evidence four years after the crime? Which was insufficient to proceed with the case?

To be very clear, I have *no* idea whether the Talwars murdered their daughter or not. I just find it very strange, that four years on, the CBI is ok for the murder victim's father to be out on bail but not her mother. When they are both co-accused.

On another note, as a parent myself, I cannot help but empathize with what the Talwars must be going through. To lose a child has to be the hardest thing in the world. And when that happens, instead of mourning for the child, the Talwars spend their time in and out of jails and courtrooms as murder accused.

If they are innocent, by the time they get to prove it, will their lives not be completely destroyed not only because they've lost their only child, but because they've been spending their time fighting to prove their innocence instead of getting closure and moving on?

Tragic.

Airtel ... Aarggghhh!!!

Unfortunately for me, I am an Airtel Broadband customer.

Last month, I received an email stating that a pack worth Rs 85 had been activated on my account. I called up the complaint number (198) and got it cancelled, and also said that I *never* wanted any service activated automatically.

So far, so good. Until ... 30 days later, I got the following email: 

"On your request our Customer Care Executive has made purchase for you, the PC Secure subscription has been activated for your airtel broadband ID ...
Price(INR)	:	85.00/-"

Once again I called up the complaint number (and navigated through irritating options till I was able to speak to a "human"), to be told that I wouldn't be charged, and if by chance I was, I could call and get it reversed. I wasn't satisfied (given that this was the second time it was happening). I asked for a complaint #, which the customer "care" representative refused to provide. Instead I was connected (after a long hold), to the "escalation" department who tried to tell me that unless customers give "feedback" how would Airtel know? And then tried to blame the email on the "server" that sent it!

The above interactions clearly indicate:
*> Airtel doesn't care two hoots about customer service.
*> Airtel is opportunistic and will not hesitate to slap on charged unless you track communication *very* carefully.
*> Airtel hires morons as programmers who are unable to draft emails that indicate a service is free if it is free, and put customers through torture of interacting with customer "care".
*> Airtel has no concept of quality control -- why send repeated emails to customers saying they will be charged for (what they later claim) are free services?
*> Airtel Customer Care Dept is (probably) taking higher management for a right royal ride -- by not issuing complaint numbers to customers who call with complaints (and then claiming to have great service -- see? no complaint #s?)

Airtel surely makes the pointy haired community proud of it!

Punish?

Once upon a time, there was an inter-club skating competition between clubs "Lenient" and "Strict" at the premises of club "Strict".

The parents of club "Lenient" skaters observed that the skaters of club "Strict", even the littlest ones, had extremely good form, stance and were able to bend double and skate through the length of events as long as 1 km. So they mentioned this to the coaches of club "Lenient". The coaches lamented that parents did not co-operate and complained if their children were punished.

Is punishment the only way for children to excel at sport? Surely there must be another way?

Corporate Greed >> Human Life?

Since 2007, the drug company Novartis has been fighting to stop the production of affordable generic medicines in India. These medicines are used not just in India, but all over the developing world to help organizations like Medecins Sans Frontieres save millions of lives world-over.

Medecins Sans Frontieres is trying to stop Novartis from prioritizing corporate greed over human life.

 Even after Indian courts ruled against it, Novartis has continued its legal battle and now the Supreme Court is due to hear the case at the end of February 2012.

Of course, looking at recent judgements of the Indian Supreme Court makes me very hopeful that the court will rule in favour of life and not greed.

Praying for life ...

Eagle (a.k.a. cruel) Dad

My sense of outrage makes it very hard to make this a coherent blog post. Tiger Mom was bad enough, but Eagle Dad leaves me speechless with rage.

A "father" made his four year old run near-naked in the snow, even as the child cried to be rescued from the cold. Then he forced the near-naked child *lie down* on snow.

In what way are the adult's actions NOT sadism and cruelty? Hasn't daddy heard of people, *adults* at that, dying due to cold weather? What if the child contracted pneumonia or some other serious disease?

Why should a four year old be subjected to such cruel and unusual behavior, just because his (I'm assuming) biological father wants him to grow up into "tough" guy?

This happened in New York -- there are passersby in the video; why didn't anyone dial 911? Where were the child protection agencies? Why isn't the adult who did this behind bars?

Shocking and shameful.

Increasing Productivity the Apple Way

The New York Times wrote about the human cost of Apple's iPad.

Among the other horrors that the article documented, one particularly stood out.  Employees at a Chinese factory for Apple were at work polishing iPad screens, but owing to the tremendous demand for Apple products, weren't going fast enough. So the factory decided to "improve" productivity by replacing rubbing alcohol with n-hexane, which evaporated three times as fast. The catch: n-hexane is a toxic chemical that causes nerve damage and paralysis. In the race for greater productivity, safety was willfully abandoned.

More often than not, "increased" productivity is not the result of innovation but human cost. Want more iPad screens cleaned? Replace safe chemicals with hazardous ones that evaporate faster. Want a greater number of iPads per week? Make employees work back-to-back 12 hour shifts.

There would probably be more humane ways of getting the productivity Apple wants, if it gives suppliers a *little* more from it's hundreds-of-dollars-per-iPad profit. To quote from the article, “If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.”

The folks speaking on behalf of Apple essentially shrugged off responsibility because according to them, customers care more about a new Apple product than worker safety in China. That's akin to saying responsibility for ending slavery in America lay with the consumers of south cotton, which was produced by slave labour.

If I was an Apple customer, I would certainly think twice before buying their products.