Life is (not) good!

Well before you start wondering whats wrong, if you take a close look at the title you would realise that's its the now famous tag line for LG Electronics! Wondering what's not good? Well this is another classic case of poor customer service.

We had bought an LG Split AC 1T, after a lot of R & D and seeking opinions from friends, comparing prices and brands. Given it was the first time I was buying an AC I didn't want to rush it up too! After a lot of comparison and thinking we (Reema & me) planned to go for LG. 3 days later the LG team came down to install the AC in our bedroom. About 2 hours later it was all done! And we were celebrating. After living through the hot summer of Chennai for almost a year that too on the top floor of a residential building, I was relieved to have the AC hoping to have a peaceful sleep then on. All was good till a couple of months ago...There would be days when the AC temperature would remain at room temperature. Not bothering too much about it thinking some loose contact or something we let it be. About 4 weeks ago the temperature control stopped functioning completely. Given the summer was setting in I got flustered and went to the terrace to look for any noticeable faults. Not finding any I finally decided to call LG customer care as the AC was still under warranty. Like most of the customer care teams their back end is also located in Gurgaon / Noida belt. It was a Sunday and I was told that I would get a call in 2 hours and a visit in 24 hours. Consoling ourselves we were waiting for action to be taken.

24 hours had passed by

Forget the visit even the call had not happened! When contacted (obviously) a different executive picked up the phone with the same standard templatised conversation ending with the assurance same as earlier. 24 went to 48 hrs to 4 days to a week. And through this time I had made enough and more calls, screamed at the customer care, tried speaking to their local office here in Chennai. In between all this we were suffering with sleepless nights... A whole week later I get to know that the service centre assigned by the call centre doesn't cater to the area I stay in and the complaint has to be registered all over again. I rather obviously lost my cool!!!!

1 week gone - Engineer Visits

Finally after a lot of begging, pleading, shouting and screaming the engineer did visit much to our relief. After doing a few checks he confirmed that the problem is a gas leak and the same needs to be filled which he did. A few minutes later the AC was switched on. And all looked fine! We were happy...dreaming of a peaceful sleep. And we did have...only for couple of days before the AC temperature control conked again!

Week2: 2nd Engineer

After a follow up with the engineer & the service centre the 2nd engineer came 4 days and some more sleepless nights later. His analysis threw a different problem this time with the AC unit in the house! With the promise that the unit will be taken to his office the same day he left. By now I neither had hope nor belief in anything they were saying.

Pedestal fan a substitute for an AC?

By now I had 2 weeks of sleepless nights. It was showing a work as well. Not able to bear it anymore I went to Rathna Stores (http://bit.ly/iCl0is) in Pondy Bazaar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pondy_Bazaar) looking for immediate respite. After going through some cooler options which I didn't find any good I ended up buyng a good pedestal fan. Wondering how will it substitute an AC? Well it will not but help bring some respite to the heat during the night!

Meanwhile the ordeal continues

The service centre did send the engineer on Sunday (14 days & counting) to unplug and the carry the AC unit for repairs. When requested he informed that he will try his best to get it rectified and install on Tuesday! As if we believed him.... Tuesday became Wednesday (17 days & counting)...more excuses, pleading & screaming followed...

The D Day

It was Thursday...a whole 18 days after I had complained the rectified AC unit was again installed in our bedroom. Engineer tried to apologise for the delay. Even he realised it was futile. That night after 18 days we had our LG AC which was functioning!

The next few days were spent hoping its not a one off and everything is OK. We both realised it was not 100% OK. Cooling was not effective and fast as before, the sleep mode strangely is not working as it should, the power mode is not as intensive / effective. But given what we had gone through the last thing we were wanting to do is give another complaint!!

What we have gone through may be rare, as a percentage of all complaints in a graph inside the corporate boardroom (with perfectly functioning ACs) it may be minuscule but I still wanted to share my experience and just hope that nobody else have to go through this!!!

Customer Care(less)

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work - he is the purpose of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to serve him. - Mahatma Gandhi"

Am sure each and every on of you (especially in India) would have come across the above quote in one form or the other...in a bank, restaurant or any other big outlet mostly right behind the cash counter. Mostly with Mahatma's picture, framed and kept in pristine condition. Though I always wondered is it something which is looked at from time to time by the employees...forget organisations taking pain to inculcate them?

Wonder why am talking about customer service all of a sudden? Well over the last 40-45 days there has been two instances which have filled me with anguish, irritation, anger and even feel violent!!!!

1. United Bank of India - The Bank that begins with "U" http://www.unitedbankofindia.com/

Am sure not many of you would even believe that a bank by that name exists. But according to their financial results for 2009 - 2010 they have done business of more that Rs. 1 lakh crore! I got a corporate account with the bank courtesy Air Deccan. And during my stint their had taken some loans which were to be paid via ECS. All was well till I moved jobs and with that my salary account also shifted. Yeah yeah you will say whats the big deal when there is net banking. Let me tell you they woke up much later on this. So I have been habituated to transferring money physically. First there were some restrictions and then there was a fees I would pay every month. One of these days I made the usual trip to the branch in T Nagar, Chennai to make the transfer. It was a Saturday and I was late by 10 mins. I was not only not entertained even after repeated requests I was told about how they are perfect in their systems. Irritated I went home to come back again on the next Monday. I was there at 9.15 am and the counter only opened at 9.30 am though the timings were 9 am! Eager to get back when I asked why the delay pat came a rather cool reply...systems take time. What upset me even more was when I was told systems have changed and there are restrictions to the amount I can transfer!!! This time I was not going to take it lying low. When argued I was shown a faded photocopy which stated the rule! When asked and examples given of how I have been transferring for the 18 odd months prior to the day these were the statements made

1. The old cashier didn't know the rules

2. We don't know how she did the transfer

3. You would have cajoled her.

Already irritated at the nuisance this answer literally blew my top. I got into a high pitch argument. This is when their 20 something manager tried to sight how all other customers don't have problem with their service. Little do they realise these customers are with them for various reasons not customer care! I was not surprise that they had their say! I had to make another trip to make the reminder of the payment.

A month later when I had to make my next month transfers given the deadline was a weekday I went to their branch next to my office with the idea of doing partial payment. On checking with the cashier much to my astonishment I was told there was no such rule and above a certain amount I need to furnish my PAN card number. When I asked him if he was sure he smiled. I did quickly narrate my entire ordeal to him, made the payments and went back to work. Being part of a telecom company and having successfully rolled out Mobile Number Portability in Tamil Nadu, as a part of which customer could change the service provider without changing the number on my way back I was thinking if there is MNP can there be a BAP? Bank Account Portability!!!

Will share the next incident in a few days...

After watching Quantum, we really need some Solace!

One fine day sitting in office a colleague of mine received an invite for the premier of the latest Bond flick - Quantum of Solace. It was being sponsored by a new magazine launching in India. The word Bond immediately started playing multiple memories in my mind - all those stars who played Bond in the past namely Pierce Brosnan, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton etc etc. As a hardcore fan described the franchise, its the same old plot an island, a technologically superior villain threatening to end the world, some hot babes, cool gadgets, unbelievable stunts ending in Bond winning and saving the world. But the way the plot is built with locations, characters, stunts, gadgets etc etc it makes an exciting affair

Over the next 2-3 days plans were being made to go watch it and I even tried sourcing some more passes without much success. On the day of the event though luckily we got hold of some passes and the excitement build up started all over again. And then its been ages that I watched a movie. We left office much after the 8.45 pm the schedule time of screening. Worried that we might miss some part of it we zipped through the Mumbai streets to reach the theatre. When we entered we realised that the pre-movie bash was still on. The movie started 15 mins later. And with it grew the excitement.

We were in for a surprise right from the start. Quite unexpectedly the movie began with a maddening car chase ending in an accident. And the bond - Daniel Craig drives off in his battered Alfa Romeo to a secret location. Over the next hour and a half to much of our disbelief we witnessed clearly the most boring Bond movie. While there were couple of cool locations but as my friend later described it- where was the plot, where were the gadgets (except possibly the screen which looked like flicked from Minority Report), where were the babes, where was the immortalised dialogue, I'm Bond. James Bond, and where was the Martini? Even the credits were so un-Bond like. The flick unbelievably was a disaster. We left the multiplex wondering whether it really was a bond movie!!!

After watching Quantum, we really need some Solace!

CLICK - The experience

October 2nd. It was a relatively quieter day with less traffic and I left with my colleague for office. After a not so great day at office and whatever followed, we finally left for home. After finishing dinner I went with Praveen (my colleague @ Kingfisher Airlines) to his residence. We sat watching TV. After the usual zapping we settled to watch an Adam Sandler - Kate Beckinsale flick titled 'Click' (got to know the name a little later). Warning: What follows is not a movie review.

It’s a story of a guy who’s happy go lucky what with him laying his hands on a Universal remote which will control his universe. He started using it to make his fantasies real, then forward things he was not too excited about etc etc. With nothing better coming on TV we continued watching. And soon we were into it completely. What kept us gripped is a simple, entertaining storyline which is a trademark of all Adam Sandler movies. While he's happy with the remote and the advantages he has he soon realises life is running too fast and soon getting out of hand. Daughter has grown up and goes partying, wife's got grey hair etc. In another fast forward his wife has married another person and he’s in the hospital for obesity treatment...another fast forward and his dad is no more. And some sequences later he's himself on his death bed. His kids meet him at the hospital upset and move on. Worried that he may never meet them again he runs out of the hospital and ultimately dies amidst his ex-wife and kids. And there was a timely commercial break after that. Expecting movie credits after the break we both wondered what the flick was all about...was it an Adam Sandler movie etc etc. We were in for a surprise. After the break we see Sandler happily sleeping in a big retail outlet. He suddenly wakes up to realise all that has happened to him was a big dream. Happy that he's still alive...happy that he still has his parents around him, happy that his kids are still as young as they were before, happy that his wife was still next to him he’s overcome with joy.

The whole sequence also makes him and along with him the audience realise that he got a second chance to enjoy life. And not let it slip by.

After a hectic day we, Praveen & me watched a movie which was...I wonder what would the right words be...amazing? thought provoking? inspirational? As many thoughts flicker around we both discussed that in a short span we were made to realise what was happening around us. In all a very simple yet beautiful movie. Would recommend it to all of you who haven’t seen it yet.

Just hope to keep it in the back of my mind and approach life accordingly.

My (rather our) days at Sea Palace!

For the uninitiated Sea Palace is a quaint little hotel with some famous landmarks around it...both historical and comparatively modern ones...situated about 4-5 buildings away from the Taj Mahal Hotel & the Gateway of India and the not so ancient Radio Club... Other famous places nearby are the Regal theatre and couple of famous pubs namely Cafe Mondegar & Leopold!

Thanks to the turn of events Sea Palace became our home (3 of my friends and myself) for a period of a month. We were all happy to have a rosy start to our stint in Mumbai...sea facing rooms (look out of the window and it looked like a mini Monaco, what with all the boats & the yachts) good service and to top it all just 15 mins away from work. And with IPL at its peak, we couldnt have asked for more.

Typical Day (@ Sea Palace)
A enthusiastic friend of mine went jogging in the early hours around the Colaba area...wondering whether we would be able to experience it again...We would get ready by 8.30am and meet at the breakfast table. Have the breakfast coupled with some news in the papers and some gossip and set out to catch a cab. And within 15 mins we would be in office. While we were going through the day's work, based on what the IPL itinerary we would plan the evening. The setting was fairly simple...all of us would congregate in my room to watch the match. Over the next two hours over some snacks & yummy food and interesting conversations we would watch the match. Hoping for an exciting finish some days we would split early thanks to the rather one sided sloppy affairs.

Every evening was planned to venture and experience the high life given we would have had to move out shortly... Bade Miyan, Cafe Mondegar's, Leopold, Sports Bar, Regal, Bombay Gymkhana, Not Just Jazz by the Bay!!!! In a short span we had together or alone visited all these places.

Weekends were as usual a bit slow and lazy...Spent almost the entire 2 days in my room...Having food...wathcing TV and napping...

All in all life was great...no qualms...no complaints...
Wish life could always be like that!!!