It has always intrigued me – the way companies – service providers or product sellers – react to complaints from their consumers. Advertisements of products and services promise the moon. However, if something goes wrong, it is the harried consumer who has to bear the brunt. My experience with different organisations has been varied, some of which I recapitulate here. So far, I have not had to approach the Consumer courts, and I consider myself lucky in that respect. I now have a never-say-die attitude, and I like to fight all the way for my rights as a consumer.

Cellular Service

Before going on a trip abroad, I opted for an international roaming pack with my cellular service provider. The specific roaming pack duration was for one month. My trip was for about two months. After one month, as I did not find much use of the roaming facility, I opted not to extend it for another month. However, upon my return to India, I was billed for two months usage. I took up the matter strongly with the service provider. The company reponded that the pack had been automatically extended as I had not cancelled it after one month. After protracted correspondence lasting over two months (how ironic!), the service provider agreed to waive off the extra charges for the second month. Let me also confess that during the course of my dialogue with them, I had to repeatedly hint to quit their services and switch my subscription to a new telecom set up, then launched by India’s richest man. I have a feeling that the hints helped.

Banks

Many will agree with my strongly held view that Indian banks, private or nationalised, are notorious for poor customer service. In an instance where I had been denied due reward points against a credit card transaction, I lodged a formal complaint at the bank’s website. A computer-generated response acknowledged my complaint, gave it a reference number and assured reply within five working days. The reply never came. Even after escalating the complaint to the next level (mercifully an escalation matrix was provided on the bank website), a response did not come. Further escalation to a “National  Grievance Redressal Officer” led to wait of another week. No surprises. Finally, my claim was accepted. But reward points were still not credited to my account. Left with no option, I approached and appealed to Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Banking Ombudsman, after which my reward points were finally credited to my account.

RBI’s Banking Ombudsman

This brings me to another national institution – the Banking Ombudsman. Some years ago, I had issues with a nationalised bank in Varanasi, where I held an account. I wanted my account closed. Since I already held another account with the same bank in Delhi NCR area, where I had settled after retirement, I was not keen on getting my Varanasi account transferred. The bank refused to close my account, but wouldn’t respond in writing to my application for closure. I consulted a banker friend, who advised me to approach the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman accepts complaints – both online and offline – against banks. I tried lodging an online complaint. The online format has been designed to frustrate the best of minds, as if to discourage lodging complaints. Unsurprisingly, the online form was quite a brain teaser for a lay person like me. The long and tedious form sought many details, including spelling out which clause of the Banking Regulation Act was violated by the bank. I could not figure it out, given my total ignorance of this Act.  Again, the banker friend came to my rescue. To add to my woes, the RBI server also crashed repeatedly. After a zillion attempts and three days of unflinching toil, my complaint was finally lodged online. A month later, prodded by the Ombudsman, the Varanasi bank closed my account. Ah, the first taste of victory. Surprisingly, there was no way of complaining to RBI about the poor performance of their server and the legalese required to lodge a simple complaint against a bank.

Consumer Electronics

Having purchased a home theatre system from a Japanese consumer electronics giant, I took the foolish liberty of cutting the power cord and attaching an extension wire. To my bad luck, the system conked out a week later, barely a month after purchase. The service engineer who examined the equipment at my residence acknowledged a component failure, but accused me of extending the power cord ‘unauthorisedly’. He said his service manager would take a call on whether to service the set under warranty or bill me for it. Two days later, I got a call advising me the charges for repair outside warranty, since I had ‘tampered’ with the power supply cord. I escalated the issue to their senior/national level management. To my great relief, the company ultimately agreed to service the product under ‘warranty’, in other words without any charges to me. That was a great moment, because the firm acknowledged finally that the component failure had nothing to do with my power cord extension. I must add that the home theatre system continues to work well with the extended cord, over three years after the failure.

Travel Agency

A leading travel agency from whom I bought an overseas travel package last year cheated me of my reward points by holding on and not clearing them to my bank. Repeated emails and phone calls went in vain. The tour agency just wouldn’t commit to anything. Finally, I managed to access the managing director, after approaching whom I started getting a feeble response. More emails, phone calls and many threats followed from my side, before I finally got my issue resolved, six months later. I have vowed never to deal with that travel agency again.

Tailpiece

All consumer complaints are not serious. Here’s a lighter one – reproduced from the web.

Two consumers jointly complained thus:

‘I write to offer congratulations
On a truly impressive achievement:
Selling us salted popcorn sensations.
Yet this praise is not without bereavement.
I found no real solace to my upset
When I went to the shelf popcorn sits on
And just found the lump in my throat you get
When something you love is there, then it’s gone.
I live in St Andrews, thus the issue:
‘No plans to restock,' you said with a sigh.
So answer this, or hand me a tissue:
Ave I butterkist my true love goodbye?
Let this be a dream. Restock when I wake.
I live with salt in my wounded heartbreak.’

Alas dear ladies your woes are continued,
The popcorn in question has been discontinued
At least from St Andrews in old Market Street,
As nobody wanted to buy this sweet treat
The product in question is not one they chase,
Just when on offer, as limited space
A decision was taken though not in great haste,
To de-list this item ‘cos it ended in waste.
However dear ladies, please dry your tears,
We’ll still sell your popcorn for many more years
The only thing is that you may need to travel,
To find your true love for this tale to unravel
Your favourite popcorn is waiting for you,
Across the Tay River, no really it’s true!
Our product is stocked in both Perth and Dundee,
And I’ve found a way you can have it for free!
Please smile again ‘cos the sun’s coming out,
You don’t have to worry you’ll not go without,
We know it’s been stressful, we know it’s been hard,
But you can still buy your popcorn, here’s a £10.00 Giftcard.

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