Journal Journal: Service Companies and Rampant Incompetence -India-
- Water for Borewell digging to be delivered in time.
- Car remote keys to be replaced.
- DSL Internet connection to be restored after ISDN switch/port misconnection (at telcom service provider).
- Roads in town dug up in a haphazard manner to lay sewers that obviously wouldn't work due to lack of capacity.
- Getting Repairs done at our house in Bangalore.
- Viewing promised channels on Direct to Home TV setup and a Cable TV setup.
On all the above accounts, I notice one thing in common. The lack of delivering in time and complete disinterest in satisfying the consumer. One might wonder if I am dealing with bullish monopolies (geographically) in these areas. The answer is no, the lack of QoS pervades everybody; each as bad or worse than the other.
Digging a borewell for water requires approximately 4000L of water a day for a planned quantum of work. This needs to be delivered at a specific time every day. "Arbitrary Time Dilation", a pervasive disease in the Indian psyche has made this impossible stalling work, causing a backlog of water reserves for the next day.
The "Authorised Maruti Service Station" (who sold me my car) in my town has been regularly promising to fix my car remote keys. (One key in the pair has a fault that drains the battery in less than a week, and the battery ain't rechargable.) I have suggested to them at least two(2) months back that they could replace the remote control system which they fitted in the first place and has been faulty since day one. I hardly see one bothering to listen, finally I had to have someone purchase an alternate kit and fit it to the car. These people claim to be ISO 900x certified and "Maruti certified" (automaker certification), I am convinced that certification and accreditation provide no credentials and QoS and don't work. Earlier, they did a fiasco with fitting up a Maruti Van (the first ever Maruti-Suzuki model launched in India) by underestimating effort involved in changing the headlights. The same company, while I was about to acquire a car loan for buying a new car from them put a gentleman in charge of liasing with the Bank who confidently told me that my loan would never get approved (it got approved the same day he said that, after a chat with the Bank manager.)
After a moderate thunderstorm, my ISDN telecom carrier went poof and that was the end of my DSL access. In India calling Telephone or Electricity Departments for support is akin to screaming at the wall. You need to know someone inside who will request staff to attend to the problem. (Yes, continuation of service is a restrictive privilege.) After I explained the problem that my DSL router was not seeing the router outside, they still couldn't fix the damn thing; and on shifts, the second person informed through the contact was unaware that the problem had been reported to her counterpart earlier in the morning and insisted that I should have done that. Finally, the contact (being a higher level manager) sorted it out early next day using a team that was on special duty (the day being a central holiday.)
The roads in my town have been dug up recently, the work having been disparately contracted to different contractors without an overall linkage and management plan. The resultant is horrible - roads that have caused my dad to have his car exhaust pipe [on a car with low ride height] attended to at repeatedly. The abysmal 2ft diameter pipes to be laid as sewers have necessitated these contractors to dig 6ft under operative roads with little or no traffic warnings. Worse, during a recent tropical shower, any existing signs fell into the pits causing injury and death to citizens caught unawares. During a recent visit by the CM, part of the roads were laid in astounding speed in acceptable quality levels. The work is back to a standstill with half the town dug up and there is no hope that this sewer system will ever be networked and function in the near future. Further, roads laid a week earlier by the National Highways Authority (who took no trouble to collaborate with local authorities) were dug up immediately after. Commuting within the small town has become a nightmare, even if you're walking. The malhandling of the situation goes on despite newspaper coverage with a separate item on the same (apart from letters to the editor.)
We proposed a plan for repairing and slightly restructuring our house in Bangalore where my grandparents lived for over 3 decades (of retired life.) Getting a contractor in the "Software Capital" [bah!] who promises and delivers what he promises is a pipedream. The local authorities are very friendly with people from other states (sarcasm: full). They are almost impossible to deal with when you aren't a native of that state. This is a direct ill effect of linguistic state creation (thanks to the "architects" of India.)
Due to lack of sports channels in the Cable TV setup (allegedly a political ploy as a certain politician owns stake in a MSO distributor) throughout my state, I decided to get a DTH service from a firm that has an awful selection of channels except for two(2) sports channels. They had a premium movie channel (MGM/Zee/Select) which they discontinued without notice one silent night and despite angered viewer feedback, aren't bothered to do so. The Cable TV setup frequently disconnects service or changes channels at will. Despite the fact that all Cable TV setups are controlled by a local alliance, nobody is assured of any quality of service. Most technicians are even unaware of the type of cable or boosters or basic microwave theory to help provide better service (analog television). A combination of the lack of interest in providing customer service and technical incompetence.
Be it the government or a private service firm, gross lack of curt towards customers, coupled with indifference and incompetence dominate Indian companies. Once a delivery date/time is promised, Time delays are a norm, rather than the exception, and delays of delivery from one day to several weeks are quite common (after the salesman acquires his initial/advance payment.) Report a problem, and the first thing they say is "There's something wrong on your side." In a country where some business institutions have the line "The customer is always right." written in their offices (authored by M.K.Gandhi, creator of the "Gandhian Philosophy/method".) I had the same problems with a commercial Mobile Phone service provider from whom I took service for Internet access, and my connection was cut with no apparent explanation and never restored thereafter despite dozens of phone calls where they don't take the trouble to greet you by your name or even phone number.
I believe that this would persist because of public appeasement of all the ills that span both public and private sectors. Chauffers, maids and almost anyone you would want to employ are by default considered unreliable with an attitude towards pilfering. Even these people along with their ills are incompetent (and in many cases illiterate.) I am sick of hearing about the Indian economy boom; a side effect of Foreign Institutional Investment(FII) and not reflective of any growth. The bust is here to come, because all the required factors for it are deep-rooted and no one has any plans of working about it. Recently someone complained about the credentials of an educational institution and the credentials of its very founders, and got slapped with a defamation suit with no attempt made to answer the questions asked. I ask around and people tell me, "that's the way things work here." It is time someone woke up and changed this, and I don't care even if this is a dictator coming out of the masses. (reason: During the last war with Pakistan, due to a country-wide emergency alert, strikes were banned and services were perfect with the Government institutions. Workers could get fired for not reaching offices in time!)