HDFC once rejected my corporate credit card application. Ohhhh and how glad am I now about that!! Because my husband (he who shall not be named, on request of course...oh don't ask...doesn't wanna have an online trail) is an HDFC bank and credit card customer and I have seen him suffer.
I started noticing it when he went to the bank quite a few times for this and that whereas I have only visited my bank twice in some 10 years. Then he added me as a payee on his Internet banking account. And it took 24 hours to register my name. Redeeming points to buy his mother something took a whole lot of talking on the phone with customer care. Who, by the way, only operate from 9 am to 8 pm or some shit like that. And every single instance I would be sitting on the couch, watching TV, saying "just change your bank!".
But he didn't. Until yesterday, when our frustration reached its peak. And here is how it all began.
We planned a Goa trip and wanted to use Jet Privilege miles. My husband had a lot of points on his HDFC credit card which he decided to convert to miles to redeem. True to HDFC's bad processes, where they like you to visit their branch all the time, he had to take a print out of the points transfer form, fill it, sign it, and drop it at the bank drop box. I thought he was kidding, until I saw it myself. And I told him again, "just change your bank". Anyway, he marched to the bank branch at Thakur Village and dropped it on 7th of May. It was to take 7-8 working days. I was getting irritated on why he was associated with this bank in the first place. I transfer miles at the click of a button on my Amex card. I can do anything from my ICICI online account. But these HDFC buggers don't even have a website on which I can login from my iPad! Grr.
Fine. 7-8 days. We waited. On 15th May, exactly 7 working days later, he called their customer care for status, only to be told that there was NO status! They had not even received the form! Some shit about the form being first sent to Chennai office where they will enter the information into the system. So 7 working days later, it had not even been entered into the system. A whole lot of shouting ensued, after which the phone was transferred to a "supervisor", Bhavesh Patel. Bhavesh reassured my husband that he would call in 2 days and it would all be done by then...not to worry. We calmed down. One flight from Mumbai to Goa and two return flights were already sold out for redemption at Jet Airways. Hmm.
Two days later, Mr. Bhavesh Patel had still not called so we had to call HDFC again. After spitting out the entire problem to multiple people who kept hanging up on us - and this is another thing unique to HDFC...they keep you on hold and after 3-4 minutes, they just hang up on you - we finally got through to another "superior" called Ms. Menon. She assured us she'd check and call back, because the system showed that it was under process, but she wasn't sure where it was stuck. Needless to say, she never called back. So the next day, we called again. It was now the 18th of May. Customer care happily told us that the points have already been transferred! My husband was heaving a sigh on relief when I asked him to stay on the line and went to the Jet Privilege site. No miles transferred. He asked the customer care executive who then said "it's under process sir, maybe it'll happen by day end." No, no, no, no...we were not gonna buy this bull shit. Where is it in process, we asked. Has the info been passed on to Jet even? Don't know. Again, we were transferred to the "supervisor" who luckily or unluckily happened to be our very own Mr. Bhavesh Patel again! Not only was the man indignant about his false assurance of calling us back, he couldn't even help us with our problem. I told him to give me a solution, or a number/ email address of a higher-up, but he was equipped to do none. Bad processes coupled with bad people. Worst combination ever. We were having this conversation at 6:30 pm and he said he would call the back end team (who are these teams and why is everything so invisible to the customer?) and get back to us in an hour. True to his word this time, he called back at 7:30 to tell us that the back end team had already gone home for the day. When I said nothing doing, we have waited enough, I refuse to wait any further and want a solution NOW, he just kept quiet! I said, "we can both keep quiet, how's that gonna help?". To which he still kept quiet! I said "fine! We'll both keep quiet! Great!". At which point our conversation went into that limbo when you fight with your boyfriend and just look away from each other with nobody saying a word, waiting for the ther person to speak first so they are judged as the weaker party, based on some unwritten rule of relationships!
Sigh. At this time, my hsuband just couldn't take it any more and a barrage of expletives came out of his poor harassed-by-HDFC-forever mouth. At which time, Bhavesh asked him to calm down and when he didn't, our dear Bhavesh hung up. I switched on the TV and said, "just change your bank". And he said, "absolutely". And that's where it ended..
It's the 19th now and the miles have still not been transferred. Redemption of miles is not possible for the flights on our chosen dates coz all redemption seats are sold out. So I had to go online and buy Spicejet tickets.
If you don't have an HDFC bank account or credit card, thank your stars and stay away from them. This is how they treat their platinum customers, so you can just imagine how bad their system is!
Middle finger, HDFC.
Showing posts with label customer care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer care. Show all posts
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Saturday, October 16, 2010
A new low for Tata Indicom
Tata Indicom broadband customer service hit a new low today when they told us that they couldn’t lodge a complaint! We were given two reasons for this:
1. There is already an open complaint
2. The system shows no problem in connection so a no-connection complaint cannot be raised!!!
I cannot believe that so much bullshit can be given out. While the old complaint was raised on 8th October, another complaint was raised again on the 13th October. At that time, there was no issue in raising a new complaint. I am tired and seriously don’t know what course of action to take now. I want to take this up with somebody but I don’t know who. On top of that, the customer care executive kept us on hold for a total of half an hour. When asked to speak with a supervisor, we were kept on hold and told lines were busy! My dad finally told the idiot to walk up to the supervisor and get him on the phone. The supervisor was equally irritating and told us the same thing that the customer service executive was telling us.
His solution to the problem was to change the open complaint, which was unacceptable because the older complaint was for www.kotak.com not opening (a constantly recurring problem that Tata Indicom has decided not to resolve). After almost an hour on the phone, we were told that it would just not be possible to lodge a fresh complaint. The best part comes now – I called back, spoke with someone else and got the complaint raised!
Every time I get off a call with Tata Indicom, I end up being frustrated and in a foul mood. Do I just write to the Tatas? Or should I switch ISPs? One day, I’m gonna record a conversation and upload it for everybody’s listening pleasure. And why does the internet conk off every 3rd weekend? And why does kotak.com not open repeatedly?
I have written against these morons earlier too, but some organizations never learn.
http://daysofalps.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-to-do-with-tata-indicom.html
http://daysofalps.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-daddy-beats-your-daddys-ass.html
I have written against these morons earlier too, but some organizations never learn.
http://daysofalps.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-to-do-with-tata-indicom.html
http://daysofalps.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-daddy-beats-your-daddys-ass.html
I hate you, Tata Indicom. Eat dirt.
Monday, June 28, 2010
What to do with Tata Indicom?
Since the time we got Tata Indicom at home, we've realized how absolutely horrendous their service is. My dad once sent them a real bad stinker and even that hasn't helped our woes. On their customer care helpline, I can't stand talking to people who are technically weaker than me. What's the use of having a customer care when they don't know more than you do? Doesn't that just dissolve the purpose of caring for me?
So for the last few months we've been having problems with connecting to a few web sites. The first victim was www.kotak.com which wouldn't open upon repeated attempts. At first, we thought the site was down, but after two days, we called Kotak customer care to find that their site was up and running and they hadn't received any customer complaints for the two days that we were facing problems. That's when we decided to try using my Reliance Netconnect to open the site. Voila! It opened immediately. We then did a ping and a tracert on kotak.com to see that the packets stop moving after reaching some VSNL Delhi router. We'd complained and many emails later, the problem was resolved.
For the last three days, the same problem has been happening with www.irctc.co.in.
So we did what was natural. We complained to customer care via email. Some stupid lady from Hyderabad calls me up the next day to ask me, "Mam, has your problem been resolved?"
"Do you know what the problem was?" I ask.
"Yes mam, your net was not working."
Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!! Even after writing the long email with ping and tracert results, the only thing that has gone into Tata Indicom customer care's head is that my 'net was not working'!!!! Naive? Or plain stupid? So I just told her that that was not the problem.
Ping results
Tracert results
"That's not the problem. There are sites that do not open on the Tata Indicom network that open up while using other networks." I said. "Do you get it?"
"Okay, so the network is not working." she tested my patience.
"No! Did you get the email? Do you understand what it says? I will repeat. irctc.co.in does not open on Tata Indicom. It opens when I use Reliance Netconnect. This is a constant problem with your service. Everytime we have a problem with one website or the other!" I was almost screaming.
"Okay mam. I will send an engineer to..."
"What will an engineer do at my house? The problem is not at my place. The problem is at your server's end!"
"Yes mam. Actually, I am at Hyderabad, so I will send an engineer to the Mumbai server to take care of the problem."
I have to admit I was stumped. I have heard lame replies before but this took the cake. I didn't bother taking the conversation further.
"When will you resolve this?" I asked. "It's been three days that we're living with this problem."
"Within 24 hours."
"Okay. Don't close this ticket. It is not resolved. Bye."
By now, my dad is friends with the local Tata Indicom engineer. So he calls the fellow 15 minutes later.
"Did you get a call to come to our house?" my dad asks him.
"Yes. Your net is not working, right?" he answers.
So after all that explaining to her that one site was not opening, we've a whole round circle and back to 'net is not working'.
I can't take it anymore! I cannot deal with idiots who cannot solve my problem! What am I supposed to do? Who do I complain to? When will Tata start training their executives technically? Customer care on the phone does not even understand tracert results (this was another call at another time)! I will not rest until I bad mouth Tata Indicom. And hopefully until they do something about it.
So for the last few months we've been having problems with connecting to a few web sites. The first victim was www.kotak.com which wouldn't open upon repeated attempts. At first, we thought the site was down, but after two days, we called Kotak customer care to find that their site was up and running and they hadn't received any customer complaints for the two days that we were facing problems. That's when we decided to try using my Reliance Netconnect to open the site. Voila! It opened immediately. We then did a ping and a tracert on kotak.com to see that the packets stop moving after reaching some VSNL Delhi router. We'd complained and many emails later, the problem was resolved.
For the last three days, the same problem has been happening with www.irctc.co.in.
So we did what was natural. We complained to customer care via email. Some stupid lady from Hyderabad calls me up the next day to ask me, "Mam, has your problem been resolved?"
"Do you know what the problem was?" I ask.
"Yes mam, your net was not working."
Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!! Even after writing the long email with ping and tracert results, the only thing that has gone into Tata Indicom customer care's head is that my 'net was not working'!!!! Naive? Or plain stupid? So I just told her that that was not the problem.
Ping results
Pinging www.irctc.co.in [202.93.154.28] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 202.93.154.28:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),Tracert results
Tracing route to www.irctc.co.in [202.93.154.28] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms 59.165.11.193.man-static.vsnl.net.in [59.165.11. 193] 2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 172.31.148.73 3 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 172.31.67.2 4 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 172.31.67.21 5 2 ms * 3 ms 172.31.8.125 6 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms 59.163.59.37.static.vsnl.net.in [59.163.59.37] 7 22 ms 22 ms 22 ms 59.163.55.141.static.vsnl.net.in [59.163.55.141] 8 23 ms 22 ms 23 ms 59.163.55.141.static.vsnl.net.in [59.163.55.141] 9 50 ms 28 ms 25 ms 172.31.61.202 10 26 ms 25 ms 26 ms 172.31.61.202 11 26 ms 26 ms 25 ms 121.241.106.121.static-delhi.vsnl.net.in [121.24 1.106.121] 12 * * * Request timed out. 13 * * * Request timed out. 14 * * * Request timed out. 15 * * * Request timed out. 16 * * * Request timed out. 17 * * * Request timed out. 18 * * * Request timed out. 19 * * * Request timed out. 20
"That's not the problem. There are sites that do not open on the Tata Indicom network that open up while using other networks." I said. "Do you get it?"
"Okay, so the network is not working." she tested my patience.
"No! Did you get the email? Do you understand what it says? I will repeat. irctc.co.in does not open on Tata Indicom. It opens when I use Reliance Netconnect. This is a constant problem with your service. Everytime we have a problem with one website or the other!" I was almost screaming.
"Okay mam. I will send an engineer to..."
"What will an engineer do at my house? The problem is not at my place. The problem is at your server's end!"
"Yes mam. Actually, I am at Hyderabad, so I will send an engineer to the Mumbai server to take care of the problem."
I have to admit I was stumped. I have heard lame replies before but this took the cake. I didn't bother taking the conversation further.
"When will you resolve this?" I asked. "It's been three days that we're living with this problem."
"Within 24 hours."
"Okay. Don't close this ticket. It is not resolved. Bye."
By now, my dad is friends with the local Tata Indicom engineer. So he calls the fellow 15 minutes later.
"Did you get a call to come to our house?" my dad asks him.
"Yes. Your net is not working, right?" he answers.
So after all that explaining to her that one site was not opening, we've a whole round circle and back to 'net is not working'.
I can't take it anymore! I cannot deal with idiots who cannot solve my problem! What am I supposed to do? Who do I complain to? When will Tata start training their executives technically? Customer care on the phone does not even understand tracert results (this was another call at another time)! I will not rest until I bad mouth Tata Indicom. And hopefully until they do something about it.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
My daddy beats your daddy's ass!
My dad just CCed me on a complaint email he sent to Tata Indicom Broadband (who have been sucking at their job of providing me broadband service by the way), and I couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear when I read it! It just has to be shared - so here goes. And this is a pure copy paste! No editing! (Btw, for more broadband woes, read here.)
- Call centre is not having info as to since when the server is down.
- More often complaint is closed without connectivity being re3stored. Call centre is unable to re-open the complaint. We are forced to lodge fresh complaint.
- If the complaint is on Friday evening, no one attends the problem till Monday – wonder how 24x7 connectivity can be assured in this manner.
- Very rarely someone calls up before closing the complaint. There are no calls to update us on the status.
- We have no way to approach any one to escalate. The regional head number (92234 61517 , 022-6725 0837) are not answered. The Andheri Technical Unit (022- 6725 0856) is either engaged are not answered
14 Mar 1545 hrs SR 11873558: Server Down, Complaint closed without connectivity restored
14 Mar 1945 hrs SR 11874212: To continue the complaint, was told that a switch is being replaced. Complaint closed without connectivity restored.
By closing the complaint without restoring connectivity appears to be a cheap ploy to avoid CREDIT which should depend upon purely NO CONNECTIVITY. As a responsible and honest service you should give credit irrespective of complaint having been registered.
Ashish Mandal.
UPDATE 17 Apr 2010 (The mail trail lengthens!!!):
To: Customer Service (Retail-India)Thanks for response.
Re complaint number: 11935276.
1) We are fully aware of means to check connectivity.When your server / switch / cable is not in place these tests are of no use. Invariably "Ping" is timed out.
2) How do we know what is the log at your end of usage. Can you make it available for the period 05 March - 25 Mar. This is necessary as the complaints are closed at your end without restoring the connectivity and without checking with us.
3) As stated earlier the customer service people are of not any help as they only have record of complaint and update if any from your back end, which is invariably too late and erroneous (closing the complaint witout connectivity).
Regards.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 5:36 PM, customerservice <customerservice@
To: Customer service
Dear Vemalatha, Customer Service Team, Tata Indicom Broadband.
This refers to your mail of 16 Apr.
Yes I had telecon with your Ms. Nirmala who "declared" that my complaints are closed. We refused to accept the statement as our complaint in the mail of 25 march are not analysed and responded. The complaint was not far any connection problem at that point of time. If you record the telecon, please hear that. This is yet another instance of arrogantly closing complaints.
We offered to discuss the matter at your HQ in Hyderabad but no one responded to the mail.
If this is what is your customer service, we need to think about our future approach.
Regards,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 6:23 PM, customerservice <customerservice@
Thank you for your time and patience.
Vemalatha,
Complaint Management Team,
Tata Indicom Broadband.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ashish Mandal
To: Customer service
Dear Vemalatha, Customer Service Team, Tata Indicom Broadband.
Yet again a routine response - not relevant to my mail of 25 March. This is how complaints are closed.
Your mail of 17 Apr chose to keep quiet even on the telecon of 16 Apr.
I request this complaint be escalated yo higher level please.
Regards,
I am fed up of the performance (availability) of the network. Wonder why are we paying Rs. 1700 plus for 24 x 7 high speed connectivity. To top it we face following:
- Call centre (60607070) is not able to give any information of the problem and solution. All they say - Server Down, assigned to technical team (whom, when not known). - Call centre is not having info as to since when the server is down.
- More often complaint is closed without connectivity being re3stored. Call centre is unable to re-open the complaint. We are forced to lodge fresh complaint.
- If the complaint is on Friday evening, no one attends the problem till Monday – wonder how 24x7 connectivity can be assured in this manner.
- Very rarely someone calls up before closing the complaint. There are no calls to update us on the status.
- We have no way to approach any one to escalate. The regional head number (92234 61517 , 022-6725 0837) are not answered. The Andheri Technical Unit (022- 6725 0856) is either engaged are not answered
To give a flavor of complaints of last 15 days, look at the History of “No connectivity complaints”:
(This does not include the no-connectivity when we are not browsing but only affecting the running system programs)
06 Mar 2320 hrs SR 11831122: Server Down, Took 48 hours to restore.
09 Mar 1100 hrs SR 11842936: Server Down, Complaint closed without connectivity restored.
10 Mar 0020 hrs SR 11848044: Server Down, to continue the complaint.
14 Mar 1545 hrs SR 11873558: Server Down, Complaint closed without connectivity restored
14 Mar 1945 hrs SR 11874212: To continue the complaint, was told that a switch is being replaced. Complaint closed without connectivity restored.
15 Mar 2210 hrs SR 11880968: To continue the complaint, finally restored after 48 hours.
18 Mar 0915 hrs SR 11892824: Ping timed out but as per call center all systems are fine.
19 Mar 0915 hrs SR 11898256: Server Down, Complaint closed without connectivity restored.
19 Mar 1845 hrs SR 11902362: To continue complaint, Complaint closed without restoring connectivity.
20 Mar 0845 hrs SR 11903684: To continue complaint, finally restored after 36 hours.
24 Mar 1145 hrs SR 11924318: Area server down,
By closing the complaint without restoring connectivity appears to be a cheap ploy to avoid CREDIT which should depend upon purely NO CONNECTIVITY. As a responsible and honest service you should give credit irrespective of complaint having been registered.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE USER SHOULD DO.
Regards,
UPDATE 17 Apr 2010 (The mail trail lengthens!!!):
From: Ashish Mandal
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 2:28 PM
To: Customer Service (Retail-India)
Subject: Re complaint number: 11935276
Re complaint number: 11935276.
1) We are fully aware of means to check connectivity.When your server / switch / cable is not in place these tests are of no use. Invariably "Ping" is timed out.
2) How do we know what is the log at your end of usage. Can you make it available for the period 05 March - 25 Mar. This is necessary as the complaints are closed at your end without restoring the connectivity and without checking with us.
3) As stated earlier the customer service people are of not any help as they only have record of complaint and update if any from your back end, which is invariably too late and erroneous (closing the complaint witout connectivity).
Regards.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 7:54 PM, customerservice <customerservice@
Dear Mr. Mandal,
Thank you for your feedback. This is with reference to your telephonic discussion with Mr. Vamshi on 30-Mar.
We have registered a complaint regarding the connectivity for your account. The issue raised in the complaint will be addressed within 24hrs. We will send the confirmation mail post the resolution of your complaint.
Your complaint number is: 11956930.
Looking forward for your co-operation and support to serve you better.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ashish Mandal
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 6:39 PM
To: Customer Service (Retail-India)
Cc: Alpana Mandal
Subject: Re: Re Complaint number: 11956930 / 11935276
We have not received any communication on our complaint?Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 6:39 PM
To: Customer Service (Retail-India)
Cc: Alpana Mandal
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer,
We regret for the inconvenience caused to you with regard to the instances stated by you in your mail.
This is with reference to your telephonic discussion with Ms.Nirmala on 16-Apr
This is to confirm successful resolution of your concerns.As per the conversation we would like to inform that the connection is working fine according to the usage towards your account.If the probelm persists please revert to us.
Assuring you of the best services always.
For any further assistance, please feel free to contact our customer service in your city, for details of the contact number please visit www.tataindicombroadband.in or write to us on customerservice@
Warm Regards,
Vemalatha,
Customer Service Team,
Tata Indicom Broadband.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ashish MandalTo: Customer service
Dear Vemalatha, Customer Service Team, Tata Indicom Broadband.
This refers to your mail of 16 Apr.
Yes I had telecon with your Ms. Nirmala who "declared" that my complaints are closed. We refused to accept the statement as our complaint in the mail of 25 march are not analysed and responded. The complaint was not far any connection problem at that point of time. If you record the telecon, please hear that. This is yet another instance of arrogantly closing complaints.
We offered to discuss the matter at your HQ in Hyderabad but no one responded to the mail.
If this is what is your customer service, we need to think about our future approach.
Regards,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 6:23 PM, customerservice <customerservice@
Dear Mr. Mandal,
We are obliged to have you as a privieged customer.
We would like to thank you for allowing us to be of service to you and the time you have spent to provide us your valuable feedback.
We would like to emphasize on the fact that you are a valuable customer to us and request you to grant us an opportunity to serve you better. With all the credibility that every Tata product offers we can assure you, our best inputs to keep up with your expectations.
Your satisfaction is our greatest reward. We will strive to keep up with your expectations. We have verified your complaint on your behalf regarding your connectivity concern towards the account and found that the connection is working fine after the assistance provided by our customer service executives .If the issue still persist kindly do revert to us to enable us to do the needful.And please conform us if you have any other issue.
Thank you for your time and patience.
For any further assistance, please feel free to contact our Customer Service in your city ,for details of the contact number please visit http://www.
Warm Regards,
Complaint Management Team,
Tata Indicom Broadband.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ashish Mandal
To: Customer service
Dear Vemalatha, Customer Service Team, Tata Indicom Broadband.
Yet again a routine response - not relevant to my mail of 25 March. This is how complaints are closed.
Your mail of 17 Apr chose to keep quiet even on the telecon of 16 Apr.
I request this complaint be escalated yo higher level please.
Regards,
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