Ramblings of an Unhappy Consumer

While various organisations have repeatedly stressed on Consumer rights, no-one has ever taken effective steps to protect and enforce consumer rights! We the people of India, fight with vendors, threatening to report to Consumer Forum.. but we seldon do that.

A very famous adage says, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me".
The emerging enterprise centric India is seeing an extension to this saying ..

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.  

  Fool me again : You're welcome, I am a consumer in India".

Consumerism in India 

Well, Honestly.. In India, It doesn't feel great to be a consumer.
Old customs and kind gestures of enterprises that used to go an extra mile to please and engage customers... is sadly, only a figment of history.

Whatever happened to the people who used to say, "The customer is always right". ?
Today, being a customer is like being an oxen tied to the ploughs of a field.

The Concept of Customer Satisfaction is history

And customer experience? what does that mean...
to pay on time and not get services on time, to wait incessantly,
to keep correcting the enterprise's mistakes..
to boil your blood over frustration... and to keep explaining problems that customer-care executives never understand..

What I have said, might be a matter of strong disapproval for many   "happy consumers of India", but please excuse me, I am a consumer who already has had her hefty share of bitter experiences.

The biggest irony of Consumerism in India is that, while nothing can ensure the QoS (Quality of Services) provided by various enterprises, there are a lot of terms and conditions with an added * which ensure customer loyalty and servility.

If you look closely to the Indian consumer-provider relationship, it will be difficult to understand who is servicing whom..?

Ok.. I am eager to spill my venom.:-) Let's start from the telecom sector.

Using a mobile connection in India, is like paying to serve the operator.

Anybody who holds a mobile connection with India's leading mobile operator* will understand what I mean.
*(well, only God actually knows who is India's leading mobile operator, while everybody claims to be the leader/innovator/Pioneer/No.1)

While a consumer gets no written commitment towards services,while he has no guarantee of good service except a verbal communication from sales agents/advertisements....the terms and conditions of the service-providers are always binding on him. In addition comes the policies, that are subject to change without prior notice at the sole discretion of the service-providers.


In, India, we do have a consumer forum... but who has the time and patience to go through the tedious process of getting grievances redressed through it.. and that is probably why none of the operators are bothered about consumer rights, or pressurized by an effective consumer forum !


To know how to complaint against your operator, you can read this post here.


To get services activated, you need to make immediate payments..
But what happens when the said service doesn't function ..? By the universal law of reciprocity you should get a cash refund... (or prorated discount)

As a consumer in India, you could never be entitled to any such facility because you are bound to abide by the terms and conditions * and policies of the service providers who seem to spend more time/effort making terms/conditions/policies to bind their consumers, than to improve their services or keep their promises and commitments.

Getting your work done, or your trouble solves.. is entirely your responsibility :
place a request >> track the complaint number >> follow up >> re-follow up >>recite the same story to different customer-care executives. (and re-loop)

Sometimes it feels like we are actually doing the work all by ourselves and then paying them for giving us directions on what to do.

Even after paying for the services, you have to spend hours talking and haggling with illogical customer care executives... I thought Mobiles were for human convenience and talking to close ones...

In today's electronic zamaana, they ask you to come down to their "relationship centres" (good relationship or bad, that isn't specified though.. :) with XEROX (which should mean photocopy) of your documents.

you too have a story of unfair treatment from your operator? Give us your comments!! To know how to complaint against your operator, you can read this post here.