The customers of BSNl are nowadays an unhappy lot with the toll free number 1500 remaining ineffective. The officers manning it are inventing one excuse or the other to hang things in fire for an indefinite period.
What is happening is that despite the executives affirming that the complaint has been acted upon and the fault fixed, the problem persists. When the customers point this out the executives ask them to lodge fresh complaints and send them to their higher officials. Things are such that there is no certainty that the fault would be fixed finally and the harassment of the customers continue.
An aggrieved customer said that the executives making excuses for the faults remaining unfixed do not make sense. “They are bound to rectify the faults soon after the complaints are lodged. They might at best take 48 hours. However, what is happening is that they are keeping the faults unfixed while asking us to go for fresh complaints. We are not supposed to bear the brunt of their inefficiency and go on lodging fresh complaints for days together despite us shelling out money to get the service. Things are turning from bad to worse,” the angry customer said.
There are many instances of the customers remaining at the receiving end of the apathy on the part of those who are supposed to address their problems. A consumer based in Harrawala said he had lodged complaint on the toll free number on October 17, saying that his landline phone had gone dead. “I also lodged a complaint with Miyanwala telephone exchange 0135-2685000 and 2685111. On October 19, I got sms that the fault had been fixed. With things remaining unfixed in reality, I lodged another complaint on 1500 and subsequently, a new complaint number issued.
On October 21, I again received message that problem had been rectified. But in reality, things were far from so. I then lodged a complaint to SDO Kamlesh Sharma over his mobile through SMS on October 19 and he promised that he would repair the phone. Still nothing happened. Meanwhile, a message came on October 21, claiming that the complaint had been acted upon. The same happened on October 25 and the problem remained unaddressed.
Desperate, I again called up the customer care executive. He kept me waiting for over 20 minutes and after he came he said that the fault would be fixed in 48 working hours,” he said.
Asked for comment on the sorry state of things rampant in BSNl leaving the customers in soup, the BSNl SDO Kamlesh Sharma said things are so owing to National Highway widening work going on between Dehradun and Haridwar. “NHAI authority pressing JCB to expedite work, the telephone wires are being damaged,” he added.