Need for Speech.

Early this morning, I had to call up a sort of a call center, a communications desk at a car showroom. The showroom has given my friend who bought a Swift from there, a complimentary postpaid connection from Hutch with all activation fee waived. Since my friend uses Reliance, he asked me if I'd like to take it. I grabbed it for another friend of mine. The postpaid connections in Hutch give a lot of offers out here and I landed upon on a scheme which was just the one my friend and I were looking for.

The connection was taken last Tuesday and the SIM is not yet activated! And the Sales Executive who gave me the SIM, is unavailable, on mobile ofcourse! All because of one stupid person who came for the address verification! Had his mind been a little more balanced, all this delay would have been averted. I use Hutch for the past three years, the same number all along, and I dont have a single complaint against them. And this fellow is spoiling all that image built over these years. It just takes one stupid fellow, to make atleast 10 potential customers switch to some other operator.

Since the dude who gave me the SIM is missing, I called the communications desk at the showroom to find out the status. A lady who spoke yesterday, had good memory, politeness and a sense of assurance in her voice. I was expecting everything to be smooth today, but even now the number is inactive. I called the desk again, and this time it was another woman. And I am appalled by the standard of communication. Out of the three different people who have attended my calls, two of them have been just shocking to say the least, considering they sit at a communications desk attending calls all day.

The one I called today was a total letdown. Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

Me: "Hello, this is Anand and I am calling from Madhapur. This is regarding the postpaid connection I took last week"
Lady: "hmmm..tell sir"
Me: "Did I speak to you yesterday?"
Lady: "yesterday I am on leave sir"
Me: /* blink blink */ Anyways, this is what happened...blah...blah....So I am calling to enquire about the status.
Lady: "tell sir"
Me: "I want to know if the verification was done yesterday like it was promised"
Lady: "hmmm...tell sir"
Me: /* WTF */ "Ma'am, I am asking you a question. Has the verification been done?"
Lady: "hmm..."
Me: "Is that a yes or a no?"
Lady: "Sorry I dont know"
Me: /* Heights */ "Is there anyway you can find out?"
Lady: "What is your number sir? I will find and call you"
Me: /* Find me and call me? */ "Ok...My number is **********, please make sure you call me back by today" (Starred here for want of secrecy :D"
Lady: "Ok sir."
Me: "And one more thing...hello....hello?....hel..." (She hung up!)

I mean, C'mon! Its a communications desk. Their job is to attend calls and answer queries. And the recruiters cannot even make sure they have adequate skills or atleast obtain good training.

And I am not calling her again. Will wait for her call, or go to the nearest Hutch office and log a complaint. [-(