customer service? customer harassment?

How much crap can you take?

At the restaurant, when the waiter botches up an order.
At the ticket counter, when they shut down the counter for "lunch" half an hour before lunch time.
When the new branded shirt you bought, last week, shrinks
When the new DVD player you bought, comes without a remote.
When you paid for 2 burgers and realised theres only one when you get back home.

When was the last time you were cheesed of with a (usually very well established) company, for lousy service? This is after they spend millions of monies in advertising trying to lure you and ( get you to emotionally aspire to use their brand.. right!!!) you'd think they would want to make sure you stay happy and satisfied.. But oh no...

Many of these companies are so bad (mobile phone companies top this list) that at one point you really start wondering if its better to do without whaterver it is that u wanted from them in the first palce

One company in particular offers an experience absolutely contrary to its brand name. Forget "relying" on them, its a wonder if you can get the right information out of their help desk the first few times you call them. Their office staff says one thing, the call centre another..the technician yet another.. Pheww..

But to be fair to them...they are polite...lost yes...but well mannered.

Nothing beats this incident which happened to a close friend of mine.
........................................................................

Airtel delhi offered a scheme by which you get a return air ticket to a destination of your choice, on the purchase of a sim card. Since my friend required to fly down to mumbai often, she decided to go in for this over the other operators.

After she subscribed, on enquiring about the air tickets, she was told that she would have to show 3 months of bills for them to release the tickets. Though she wan't informed about it at the time of purchase, she realised it was a fair argument as you would have guys signing up for a connection and then disconnecting after gettng the tickets. So alls fair..

3 months up, bills in hand, she contacts the offices , is directed to another branch..from there to the branch she got the sim from..then to the head office.. (and you thought government offices were bad, think again)..to no avail!

now what we are talking about here are Air tickets.. so eventually..though very pissed at a promise not delivered, my friend did what most of us do.. she gave up for a bit.. a month down the line..she again called up.. she was informed that the scheme was closed! When she told them that shes been following up, she was told " Sorry for the trouble you've gone through ma'm but theres nothing i can do"

think that's bad ..read on.
One month down the line, she had to relocate to Bombay. Still pissed at airtel, she moved without disconnecting the line.

Once she reached bombay, she begain getting calls from airtel on the charges she has to pay as she didnt disconnect the line. She informed them that, she would definitely pay up, but only after someone has addressed the issue of the airtickets or replied to her queries in writing. She also reminded them that she has never defaulted before, always paid her usually huge bills, well before the due date.
She also mailed the same to the airtel management.

The calls didnt stop. They increased. And worse, they started coming from the recovery agents. These uncouth guys actually started harassing her, abusing her in filthy language!!! Be***ot etc... Bloody unacceptable.

When she stopped taking those calls, they then go one step further. They actually place calls to her friends ( information from the bills am sure) posing as guys from ICICI bank delhi etc.. saying that theres an important piece of information to be given to her, pls give us her mumbai no.

So now, she starts getting calls on her mumbai no. They have kinda stopped after she filed a case against them.. but the point is how bloody disgusting can you get?

How much crap can you take, really?