[noopster]

Nationalised= Bad is the assumption inherent in this thread. From my experience with various nationalised banks, as well as BSNL, MTNL, recent experiences at the regional passport office etc., that assumption is seriously challenged.

I have always had stellar service from Airtel landline/broadband and near-zero downtime in the 7 years since I started using their services. In Bangalore we were one of their first broadband customers on Bannerghata Road and it was a pleasure to see them proactively seek inputs from us (my BIL who lived with us then was a big broadband user, plus I also used it to get on the office VPN etc.) In 2 years in Pune, the only time we had total loss of service was when another agency dug the road up in front of my apartment accidentally cutting off the Airtel cable that had been laid there. Can hardly fault them for that- and the connection was restored after a day.

Not to dismiss your experience, Samurai- it is a serious issue and you should take it up strongly with their management- but have posted my own experience just to inject a bit of objectivity into the overall tone of this thread.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by lucifer1881

Why do you assume BSNL has bad service? Let me narrate one of my many pleasant experiences.

I am not assuming, I know. BSNL connection is fine as long as it works. The moment there is a problem, there is no saying when it will be fixed. I remember waiting 10-15 days before they did anything. I live half the time in rural area, where BSNL service is extremely slow. My parents sometimes go without phone service for a month. Now they have a mobile, so they are not held to ransom anymore.

Originally Posted by lucifer1881

I was told that there is no underground cabling in the building and it will take some time to do the same. We gave it a couple of weeks and then met the Principle GM, BSNL. The cabling was done within two days.

The point is not that it took the Principle GM's intervention to get the work done. The point is that with BSNL, work gets done.

Yours needed intervention by Principle GM, I never had to go beyond the local Airtel office. So it is a point.

Originally Posted by lucifer1881

I doubt meeting the head of AirTel would have solved a problem like mine in this short a time.

Funny you should mention that. This happened late 2005 or early 2006, while my tiny company was still in Bangalore, less than 10 people strong then. I had a visitor at 6PM, and my receptionist told me it was the CEO of Airtel. I was puzzled and asked what does he mean. So he made the visitor sit in the reception and brought the business card. It was indeed the CEO of Airtel Broadband, Mr.Prem Pradeep. As part of the customer reach out program, he was visiting 5 customers every month. That week it was my turn and so there he was, sitting in my room and asking me about my feedback on the service. He spent 30 minutes listening to me and noted down all my concerns before he left.

Originally Posted by lucifer1881

I have been a customer of BSNL since forever. No complaint resolution has taken more than 24 hours. Ever.

Looks like your account has been flagged as VIP, thanks to the GM. I have never heard of such speed from BSNL.

Originally Posted by vnabhi

It is a pity to learn that Airtel service is going to dogs. However, as regards BSNL, I've had my own share of issues.

I've been holding a BSNL landline for the past 2 decades, and had a Broadband account for 5 years.. However, whenever I called them to attend to a problem, they were very slow to respond--it would take them 2 or 3 days to rectify a problem. I gave up my BB connection only because of this issue. It would take my a dozen calls to different people to get someone's attention.

On many occasions, I had to shelve my work-from-home plan for the day, as I felt that only God knows when BSNL would settle the issue. Such issues would occur 2 or 3 times a year.

This is similar to my experience with BSNL.

[rkg]

1.Notion of private service providers do better than govt is not based on facts but on hope.

2. In case BSNL/MTNL , the telephone directory provides list of officers to be approached if the complaint is not resolved with 24/48/72 hr etc. In case private companies one has to deal with anonymous customer care guy who sits some where. he/she refuses to give you his superiors name/address/phone number. every time one calls the customer care he/she has to explain the story from the the beginning to some new guy, who promises you moon but delivers nothing

3. Airtel customer care does not exist at least by my experience. My wife had airtel post paid mobile connection. we have opted for physical bill. But every month we have to call at least 4-5 times to get the bill. they always claim they have sent it by xyz courier and have the signature of apt security with them. this issue does not happen with reliance bills which we get promptly. Airtel wants me to believe that my apt security guy has some thing against them and not giving us the bills.

4. In the airtel mobile/fixed bill there is a acknowledgement , where in the customer care guy has to put check no and stamp. But try it at any airtel customer care centers. they flatly refuse to do it. In reality they are disobeying their own company. You have to drop check in box and hope some nut will properly enter it and you will not be getting the reminder non payment.

5. My brother has airtel broadband connection. When he was in USA for three months it had problems and i had to complain for him and gave them my mobile number. Biggest mistake in my life. He has returned and asked them to remove my number for the list. But even after two years i regularly get calls asking me to pay. N number of time i have told them what was my brother's number. they promise they will change it in their system. But next month again i get the same call. Now a days i just say wrong number for them

If they require more than 2 years and still do not change the customer contact number, they can not by any means call it as customer care center

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by noopster

Nationalised= Bad is the assumption inherent in this thread. From my experience with various nationalised banks, as well as BSNL, MTNL, recent experiences at the regional passport office etc., that assumption is seriously challenged.

No, sorry, I disagree. I don't need to look too far for experience with nationalised bank. My dad worked for a private bank that was nationalised in the 1980, he eventually retired in 1992. How the service quality changed after nationalisation is unbelievable. Basically private entrepreneurship was replaced by government babudom. To quote my dad, he turned from a dynamic decision maker to just a paper pusher in matter of months after the nationalisation, while staying in the same designation. There is a long list of things I can quote from his experience, but let's not go out of topic.

Nationalisation is a good thing only for essential services. But wherever competition can help, nationalisation is a bane rather than boon. If you think BSNL is a good thing, just know this. If not for BSNL/MTNL, we could all be paying peanuts for STD/ISD calls. Today, VOIP based calls can be made to any destination in the world at cheaper cost than your local calls. Yet, the government doesn't allow VOIP calls within India to keep BSNL/MTNL alive.

Further discussion here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadge...ml#post1857795 (How to terminate ISDN E1)

[neon_daytona]

I am in the same boat. Have requested for shifting my landline/internet connection and was shocked to hear the 22 calendar days for this. Its been 18 days now and nothing is moving yet.

I have already shiifted to my new house and have not used the service for last 9 days. Wonder how are they going to bill me for that.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by rkg

1.Notion of private service providers do better than govt is not based on facts but on hope.

It is more than just hope, it is a question of survival. Govt owned companies don't have to worry about Bankruptcy. Meanwhile private company giving bad service will eventually lose revenue and go out of business. If Airtel gives no better service than BSNL, how long will it survive?

Originally Posted by neon_daytona

I am in the same boat. Have requested for shifting my landline/internet connection and was shocked to hear the 22 calendar days for this. Its been 18 days now and nothing is moving yet.

I have already shiifted to my new house and have not used the service for last 9 days. Wonder how are they going to bill me for that.

Take a long breath co-sufferer. Nothing will happen even after 22 days, I am already on 24th day.

[noopster]

Samurai, agree with everything you say: only essential services should be nationalised. But my point was more about the fact that the nationalised agencies SEEM to be managed more profeesionally these days. Of course the system is on the edge of chaos at the best of times!

Hope your problem gets resolved quickly. Surviving without internet these days is really difficult!

[lucifer1881]

Originally Posted by Samurai

It is more than just hope, it is a question of survival. Govt owned companies don't have to worry about Bankruptcy. Meanwhile private company giving bad service will eventually lose revenue and go out of business. If Airtel gives no better service than BSNL, how long will it survive?

Let me ask you a couple of questions.

1. What happens in BSNL when it is found out that a customer has been wrongly billed?
2. What happens when a BSNL or any govt. employee talks disrespectfully?
3. What happens when a particular problem is not resolved within the standard time frame?

Answers:

1. The BSNL employee who is found responsible for the error has to foot the additional amount debited to the customer. Consequence: I have come across very few cases of wrong billing.
2. Every govt. department has a citizen charter and conduct rules. A complaint filed by any person under these may result in the employee losing their promotion, increments, etc. Consequence: Govt. officials more often than not talk to you very politely.
3. There is a mechanism for escalation defined. One does not have to run pillar to post. Consequence: Usually calling up the person one rung higher in the hierarchy solves the problem. And his number is easily available. No need to go through customer care. Direct call to the number can be made.

Yet, you believe a private party offers better service? Apparently, our definition of good service differs.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Take a long breath co-sufferer. Nothing will happen even after 22 days, I am already on 24th day.

Funny that you should choose to let AirTel sort their mess out even if it takes them 22-24 days to do so but talk ill of BSNL because they take 2-3 days sometimes to resolve your query.

PS: This is a never-ending debate. There are those among us who do not want anything to do with PSUs. And there are those like me who do not trust the private parties with a penny of their money.

[rkg]

Originally Posted by Samurai

It is more than just hope, it is a question of survival. Govt owned companies don't have to worry about Bankruptcy. Meanwhile private company giving bad service will eventually lose revenue and go out of business. If Airtel gives no better service than BSNL, how long will it survive?

Take a long breath co-sufferer. Nothing will happen even after 22 days, I am already on 24th day.

Since the days of economic liberalization the service standards of PSU's has improved a lot.

Private sector which was small initially gave good service.Once they became big they are unable to provide the same level of service. Now a days they are worse than PSU's
My experiences with ICICI Vs SBI also reinforces this perception

If Airtel can not change the customer phone number in their servers for two years, do we still rate them as good?

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by lucifer1881

[*]Every govt. department has a citizen charter and conduct rules. A complaint filed by any person under these may result in the employee losing their promotion, increments, etc. Consequence: Govt. officials more often than not talk to you very politely.[*]There is a mechanism for escalation defined. One does not have to run pillar to post. Consequence: Usually calling up the person one rung higher in the hierarchy solves the problem. And his number is easily available. No need to go through customer care. Direct call to the number can be made.[/list]Yet, you believe a private party offers better service? Apparently, our definition of good service differs.

My experience with BSNL is BSNL service is worst, now even Airtel trying to follow bsnl foot steps.

Leave officials talking politely, even BSNL call center person dont talk politely.

The mechanism for escalation is only in papers in BSNL, if you try to find out, they will keep giving 100's of phone numbers and tell us to talk to them, and no one even lift these phones.

[KumaravelS]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Nationalisation is a good thing only for essential services.

I disagree. In India, Nationalization is bad for essential service too.
Nationalization creates inefficiencies and that affects the poor, middleclass and everyone who depend on the nationalized service.

At the risk of OT, I will give two examples.

We all know, thousands of tonnes are food is getting rotten and not good for consumption.

Transmission loss in Electricity is about 27% of the production if not more. We are the highest loss maker worldwide. Wordlwide its around 8%

India’s Electricity Transmission and Distribution Losses « Cleantech India

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by lucifer1881

Let me ask you a couple of questions.

1. What happens in BSNL when it is found out that a customer has been wrongly billed?
2. What happens when a BSNL or any govt. employee talks disrespectfully?
3. What happens when a particular problem is not resolved within the standard time frame?

Answers:

1. The BSNL employee who is found responsible for the error has to foot the additional amount debited to the customer. Consequence: I have come across very few cases of wrong billing.
2. Every govt. department has a citizen charter and conduct rules. A complaint filed by any person under these may result in the employee losing their promotion, increments, etc. Consequence: Govt. officials more often than not talk to you very politely.
3. There is a mechanism for escalation defined. One does not have to run pillar to post. Consequence: Usually calling up the person one rung higher in the hierarchy solves the problem. And his number is easily available. No need to go through customer care. Direct call to the number can be made.

Yet, you believe a private party offers better service? Apparently, our definition of good service differs.

I am beginning to believe we live in parallel universes. As a company head I deal with government departments all the time. Stuff you mention is all on paper. The reality is very different. Most departments (Polic/PF/Labour/Electricity/SSI/IT/ST to name a few) try to blackmail the businesses under their jurisdiction all the time. It is a cat and mouse game all the time. Mostly it is the govt guys who yell and scream and we have to tip-toe around them very politely.

Originally Posted by lucifer1881

Funny that you should choose to let AirTel sort their mess out even if it takes them 22-24 days to do so but talk ill of BSNL because they take 2-3 days sometimes to resolve your query.

Now I am sure you haven't really read this thread. I am trying say from the very first post that Airtel service is now worse then BSNL. I am not letting Airtel do anything, I simply don't have any influence on them, like talking to a Principle GM.

Originally Posted by rkg

Since the days of economic liberalization the service standards of PSU's has improved a lot.

Guess why? They are feeling the heat of competition from private. Lot of the young guys here don't remember pre-reform government service standards, that is before 1991. I am old enough to remember it, and shake in dread.

Originally Posted by rkg

Private sector which was small initially gave good service.Once they became big they are unable to provide the same level of service.

I agree, Airtel was very good in the last few years until they became too big for their own health. But Reliance has been bad since long, I think ever since it changed hands from Mukesh to Anil.

Originally Posted by shamanth

My experience with BSNL is BSNL service is worst, now even Airtel trying to follow bsnl foot steps.

Leave officials talking politely, even BSNL call center person dont talk politely.

The mechanism for escalation is only in papers in BSNL, if you try to find out, they will keep giving 100's of phone numbers and tell us to talk to them, and no one even lift these phones.

Exactly. Now Airtel is getting worse than BSNL.

[Jaguar]

Of late Airtel customer service has gone to the dogs. Be it broadband or mobile. Airtel customer service has been outsourced to a third party. I know because I saw the ID card of the service technician who visited my house had the name of well known software company whose name starts with P. Can this be the cause of deterioration of service?

[phamilyman]

Guys,

Its the botched shifting of services within Airtel FL which has led to all this brouhaha. They have been in complete chaos ever since the shift happened.

To those who sing paeans of BSNL - I took it on June 6,2010 - and having had only 5 days of internet till June 30, 2010 - I put a disconnection application on the 30th itself.

Today is 9 Aug, 2011. Despite multiple reminders - no bill on my doorstep. After about six months of email followup, one lady called me to say that the bill should be a few hundred and I should visit BSNL customer care in person (with a couple of hours in hand) to sort it out. She herself said there's no way she can ensure the bill would be generated.

Service my foot!

[hajaar]

I have had the same problems with shifting my airtel broadband connection. I have called the CSRs multiple times, mailed airtel presence & their nodal offices - to no avail. I am going to go with BSNL for now. The funny thing is that no one in airtel can tell me how to cancel the connection.