How? It begins with the ritual of my calling up to enquire when I must pay the bill. My cable operator has a door-collection system in place. Just that the torture begins with a phone call. `Theek hai ma'm abhi bhej deti hoon!' That's the first reply I would get from the woman who mans the phone. Ask her when exactly, and you can be sure she will assure you, ``in about half an hour''.
An hour on, the guy does not turn up. The cable operator office is about a kilometre and half away and a three minute drive. So I call up again. This time she asks for my user id and I suppress my irritation while spelling the user identity out to her. She promises to send him in the next half an hour. By now my connection has been cut off promptly however, for non-payment of dues. The powerful lot that they are, they will renew it only once their boy gets my cash on hand. Rs 800. Not a penny less.
I wait an hour. The guy has not turned up. So I call back. Am obviously vexed enough by now. This time, another girl picks up and repeats the queries for the user name, my home address and other details. I remind her that it is my third call. My first call was at 10 am. By now, it is 1.10 pm. Sigh! ``Theek hai ma'm bhej deti hoon'' she rattles off again, like a parrot.
I wait. And wait. And wait, trying to keep myself occupied with other household work, putting off work that needs me to venture out. And wait. It's 3 pm. I have lost my cool. I grab the phone and demand to know why the delay. The same reply. I remind her that this is my fourth call. And that I cannot wait any longer. `Half an hour ma'm. The boy is attending another complaint in a neighbouring building. He will come by after that,'' she reassures. I remind her that I had made my call as early as 10 am and cannot be held up this way. I even threaten to walk down to her office and create a scene if he does not turn up on time.
My words have hardly had an effect on the voice I know nothing of, for the guy, the technician, has not turned up still. By 3.30 pm, I feel like hitting them. I scream at the woman. I threaten. I argue. I demand to know if she really understands what delays could do to lives. She raises her voice and says she will definitely send the guy.
I am angered all the more. I ask her for her cable operator boss' number. Obviously she refuses. I tell her obviously her boss prefers to hide instead of assuring us customers of quality. She is irritated by now. And only replies what she has been trained to do, that she will send the guy over.
These trained replies are more annoying than the torture in the name of service that these people provide. I yell at her not to talk in a trained voice. And tell her such delays could at times cost lives too. I ask her why in spite of my insisting so much, the option of online renewal has not been given to us. It has no effect.
She says she will send the guy as soon as possible. Today, I got so angry that I called up my husband to please enquire about Wi-Fi options in our area. The last time I enquired, the big firms said they had no feasibility in this part of the city.
My husband heard me out, called the cable operator office and said something I would dare not to. He said he would cut the cable wires running through the poles in our area and get them out of business soon if they dared repeat this inaction. The collection guy turns up at my doorstep, in 10 minutes. Wow! So politeness does not work!!!
I want to yell more at the guy. But he is a familiar face who has obviously come expecting a thrashing down. I warn him if this repeats he will have to answer for it. He sheepishly nods his head, assures me my connection will be renewed in five minutes. And leaves.
I wait. Five minutes. Ten minutes. And am back at my PC. No trace of connectivity. I call them up again. By now the girl on the other end is scared. She gets it renewed and asks me to restart the system. I have not heard it. I call back again. She asks me to check and revert.
And yeah. My connection is renewed. And the anger has had its effect on my body by now. It is 5 pm. I guess that's about the time people wind up work at their workplaces! If they choose to, the internet connectivity providers can be more action oriented, prompt and punctual. To think of, after all this grind through the day, it is not like the connection will not conk rest of the month.
There are days on which internet connectivity does not work for about five hours at a stretch!
When this whole hype of broadband connectivity through cable for cost-effective service began, I don't think quality issues or regulatory measures were discussed for these service providers.
As for millions of internet users like me, it is just prayers that the connection does not ditch us when we need it the most!
No comments:
Post a Comment