Thursday, April 30, 2009

Some (in)efficient companies

I made my first email account on rediff about 10 years ago. Since then, rediff has grown in size and deteriorated in email service quality. I get some 30-40 junk mails everyday and spam filter is of ultimate useless kind. In fact, it is not only useless, it works in reverse. So much so that I get spams in my inbox and my IIMA call letter landed up in the junk folder. The rediffmail address is used in many of my accounts as login and afaik, the rediff account has no feature of delete, like gmail.

Another such efficient company is Tata. Yes! Don't be surprised. Like every other Indian, I also have immense respect for the house of Tata and their untiring efforts in India's progress. However, their customer care / grievance redressal system is, perhaps, the worst of my experiences. I never got a single acknowledgment, leave apart a reply or followup, from any of the Tata companies for any complaints. For example - my latest pack of 100 tea bags from Tata tea is so pathetic, I really miss the good ol' Taj Mahal tea bags; but none of the email addresses on Tata tea website were responsive for the complaint against bad tea bags. Similarly, the mails against Tata Star bazaar, the retail mart of Tata, went unacknowledged and unanswered. However, I got a very quick and nice reply for a compliment to the head of Croma, the electronics mega-store of Tata.

Another bad experience was with HDFC bank. My first prerequisite for opening a premium account was a fully online account and no visit to branches. However, despite two visits to the branch, my online funds transfer facility was not activated. Finally, I had to abandon that account within a month of opening. But I must appreciate their guts to call me sometime later and to ask for opening an account with HDFC bank.

With such unresponsive and irresponsible behavior, these big brands not only loose some small business but many a customers; and overtime, they may end up loosing everything they claim to stand for. However, there are some very responsive and responsible companies as well, about which I shall write soon.

3 comments:

Chiranjeev Singh said...

I am still waiting for your post on responsive and responsible companies...:)

Waise haven't you had any experience with Reliance. You would have been amazed by Reliance's sheer ability to beat Tata, HDFC or any other company on all accouunts of unresponsiveness, irresponsibility and so on...
(I know these are extreme views but i have had experiences....even otherwise i just like shattering reliance..:)

Sid said...

That post is still in pipeline. Leisure time to write is getting costlier for reasons not unknown to you :)

And yes, I have suffered Reliance once, when they launched the cellphone services. After one year of Reliance, I decided about the last company I'd ever subscribe to. Anyways, I guess the list of good and bad both are very long for all of us.

Venkatesh Nandakumar said...

seconded with the hdfc thing. roorkee branch has to be the worst

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