A letter to Tata Photon Customer Care

Update:  Just got a mail in which I learnt nothing new, again a promise that it'll be resolved by 24th July. Still waiting.

Update:  27th July: I checked my a/c tonight, no refund, this despite receiving a call from a Tata Photon exec on Friday assuring me that they'd definitely resolve the issue by Sunday, 24th July. Great going! 
Will try escalating tomorrow.

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I wrote this mail just a while ago. I love Tata Photon, it's a good product, good plans to select from despite being way better than any of the competition in the market. I used to have an Airtel usb internet stick earlier which gave me a measly 5 Kbps only if a billion planets and trillion galaxies aligned favourably so using a Photon was like jumping back to the present from the middle ages.

But lately it's making me fly off the handle like Prakash Raj in Gilli. Maybe I'm overreacting, maybe it was just love that I kept ignoring the little problems like the abrupt glitches in connecting, the device disconnecting etc. Read, and you tell me

from Crownish noway@gmail.com to  cs.mumbai@tatatel.co.in date  Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at  1:14 PM subject  Photon no: 92218xxxxx Statement mailed-by  gmail.com

hide details 1:14 PM (21 minutes ago)

Hi,

As discussed in our conversation over the phone earlier this morning, please find attached a mini statement of the account from which I had attempted the online recharge of my Tata Photon (no. 92218xxxxx) on July 1st 2011.

The Recharge:

My initial attempt to recharge it failed when the gateway page did not load. I waited to see if I get a sms notification about money having been debited before I tried to recharge it again. I didn't get any message, money was not debited. This is reflected in the debit charge of -1250 you see dated on 1st July on the slip. I also clarified this with my bank, the first charge was cancelled. The second time I completed the transaction but there was no confirmation page, I received a notification sms confirming the debit charge.

Again, I confirmed this with my bank  

Interactions with Photon Customer Care:

I first registered this complaint on 2nd July. The executive acknowledged the problem and informed me that this process would take between 7-10 working days and by 11th July 2011 they would make sure that I would be refunded the same amount.

I require internet for work so I asked a friend to recharge my account online for Rs 300 on July 3rd, that transaction too failed after his money was debited, even he has registered a complaint, I have no idea whether he has been refunded yet. Eventually I got a recharge for Rs 1250 from the Indicom outlet in Borivali East on 6th July.

I next checked my account on 15th July and discovered that no refund had been made till then.

Customer Care cutting calls

On Saturday, 16th July, I called up the customer care helpline again. The first time, after explaining the lengthy details, the executive I spoke to said he couldn't hear me properly so I should just call again and cut the call.

 The second executive I spoke to heard out the entire story again, this time I also told her that her colleague had just cut my call. She made no sound for about a minute, no responses, nothing, before cutting the call.

I even tried contacting your twitter account @tataphotonplus who took one more day to reply. 

The third executive I spoke to heard out everything and very solidly assured me that my problem would be fixed by 24th July 1:47 pm.

Heartfelt request

This may seem a nice story of a misadventure but it really isn't when you're in my position. I have barely had problems with Tata Photon before this, one of the reasons I bought it was because a friend who uses it had assured me that customer care is excellent and they solve problems in no time. I'm aware that a problem of this nature requires time to solve but 20 days is already a lot. 

I request you to please live up to the standards expected of a Tata enterprise, fix this situation asap. I'm tired of contacting you, through the customer care helpline, through email, through twitter, through facebook even but I'm ready for any other input required if it helps you work this out easier. 

Regards,
Crownish
Tata Photon Customer

Also, I heard about @customerpain today. It revolves around bringing customer grievances to the fore, ensuring brands follow up on complaints etc on twitter, a good initiative if you ask me. Brands for companies who offer services have learnt that twitter is a hard place if you don't follow up on your promises and Customerpain is actually helping them survive and thrive.

The mail is sent and I'm waiting for word from Tata Photon, I'll post updates as they come in.

Update:  Just got a mail in which I learnt nothing new, again a promise that it'll be resolved by 24th July. Still waiting.
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