Sir,
Landline and Broad Band Connection[protected]
it is surprising that our bill contains charges for MOD/Music on Demand. Rs 149 pm.
we have not applied for this service.
some 6-9 months back we received a phone from BSNL that a new information service has been started and one could download any amount of information and we were asked for the email-id saying that a password for the same would be provided to us by return email.
we have so far not received any such password through email, nor are we interested. we understood it is information service/news service etc like yahoo/google etc for a privileged use.
from 1st july we have cancelled our internet connection. on 2nd july we paid the bill only for landline service, while an written application was asked for cancelling the broadband internet service. if such written applications are needed for cancellation, how come Music Services are uploaded by mere telephonic talk and that too without complete details. we were not informed that the service/the MOD service as we just realised during july 012 would be costing us and that we would be billed.
inbetween although we had paid the annual fees for the internet service we started receiving vague bills for Rs 149 from BSNL - we went personally to the Vasna telephone exchange/ahmedabad and we were never told that it is MOD service and we were assured that such bills would not be forthcoming. a bill comes again next month, again we go and get the clarification. we presume since we have paid on an annual base for the internet service and since we do not have an STD line we need not worry and that we have approached the authorities/accounts department and that there would be no dues on our account. Moreover, our internet/landline services are continued and not stopped for not paying the Rs 149 over the past one year.
it is surprising that BSNL uses such false/unethical marketing tactics to market MOD services without any express consent of the internet user and starts billing, nor clarifies that the billing is for music services which could formally closed if falsely started off, while the issue continues being billed for MOD for june 012 too.
the customer has to submit a written application to close the intenet services etc, but BSNL can start offering a service telephonically and start billing without any written application or payment of advance fee, and without fully clarifying the implications of a proposed service in the guise of free information upload; while the so called password is not conveyed through the email system nor billing implications conveyed officially. it all sounds absurd creating accounting confusions at BSNL as well as to the customer,
and today our Landline[protected] is disconnected since july 1st 2012 owing to the accounting confusions although we have paid for the landline service/advance fixed payment starting 1st july/paid on 2nd july. our landline is not yet operative.
we are told that there is a technical snag at pune BSNL, but BSNL does not seem to have the technology or technical skills to remove such a minor snag for the past 3 weeks while PM Manmohansingh wants to operate the nucluer power plants in the country in the name of inclusive growth.
or is BSNL fooling us or not being transparent that unless the MOD payments etc are made the landline would not be restored - about which we are not convinced since we pay our bills regularly, and we are not aggressive users of the landline nor have STD how can a large amount be pending on our account - while we pay for the internet services/landline rent in advance for the whole year. we 99% use our mobile phones and the landline is only for incoming distant calls by distant relatives who have this number with them or when the mobile is not on rarely.
we have been hopping from BSNL number to another each time being told will look into but never a feedback or assurance is returned with guidance for the next step - the vasna exchange, the gulbai tekra office, the navrangpura exchange etc at ahmedabad. the officials each time ask us to talk to another number, while the 198 complaint lines are not functional asking us to press the same buttons again and again a shame for a high growth high tech country taking citizens and the lower middle class for granted.
why cant the customer be trusted and the line be started since we have made a payment Rs 250 for landline on july 2nd evening. any pending bill can be clarified subsequently. the customer is not running away, and we have a fixed address. we have not understand how an amount of Rs 1000 can be due on our account, and why could not the expert staff of BSNL not clarify the accounts when we personally visited on 2nd july and subsequently again on 11th july morning - and we were told instructions have been given to the pune office and the line would be started.
why were we asked to pay only Rs 250 for the landline and the landline service not restored while by the month end another bill for Rs 1000+ is sent. is it a technical snag or accounting confusion. does the customer have the right to understand the account/billing done. how many times the customer needs to visit the telephone exchange to seek clarifications, and how many telephones need to be done to get the line restored. the month of july we have incurred a large undue cost on our mobile phone/Cybercafe costs for emails and forum notifications
the landline is an additionaly facility for incoming distant calls while we mostly-99% use our mobile instruments while a large amount of Rs 1000/- has been sent to us as a pending bill. could things not be clarified on the previous four visits during the past 6-9 months. is the customer being ragged by BSNL as college students are ragged.
may be a BSNL customer care service official could study the whole case and visit our home and explain things to us and collect the payment once we are convinced. lot of Banks now visit homes to collect payments or to handover documents. is BSNL really in service of the nation with excellence in customer care, or wishes to act in a beurocratic authoritative manner as per the old licence raj taking the helpless citizen for granted and rag him to the tunes of the BSNL officials apart from offering the MOD tunes in an unethical manner.
i hope somebody is listening. i do not know how this customer forum operates as there is no acknowledgment and whether the co-ordinator of the forum makes notes of the plight of customers and takes up the matter/facilitates redress of such customer complaints/grievances with the appropriate authorities that matter. Does BSNL or Kapil Sibal or ARaja read this forum or their benign secretaries. may be only VIPs are attended in this country and not the common man. Anna Hazare can be arrested and his team can be politically defamed instead of assuring that the Lokpal Bill would be taken care of sooner, which took more than 45 years to seek attention with the govt of the country passing the buck from one loksabha to the other as public memory is short and some govt would be elected anyway to keep the country going although on life saving devices ever the govt ever on ICU becoming self-defensive all the time especially the past two years.
jai-hind !!! our hon president/the first helpless citizen of the courntry has to say Jai-hind!!! while addressing the nation although not able to successfully facilitate the lokpal during the tenure in govt - a country yet suffering from hunger with grain rotting in the FCI godowns and a helpless govt with a helpless distribution system while we have been able to frame an excellent constitution for the country and train every year a batch of IAS officers whose dignity is glorified for red-tape all the way - and honest officers/secretaries are sooner transferred so that Airlines can be kept going the way one wants to manupulate further perhaps.
hope our landline[protected] would be sooner started my having spent on mobile phones, my emails to Mr BK Sinha/BSNL by emails during the month and now on this hopeful consumer forum if somebody is listening and empathetic enough - in case this forum is not meant to be one more lifeless public device; hope i am not wasting my time and the country's time on this customer forum although it takes more than 150 years to win freedom for the country and we pay lip service to Mahatma Gandhi today, brand Congress.
if someone who matters could acknowledge my complaint on this forum with proposed action for generic public good giving some hope to the nation and the common man. thanks in all anticipation.
best regards - Jai Hind again!!!
k sharada shantaram
[protected]@yahoo.co.uk
[protected]
Aug 13, 2020
Complaint marked as Resolved ![Bharat Sanchar Nigam [BSNL] Logo](/thumb.php?bname=1&src=bsnl.png&wmax=280&hmax=280&quality=90&nocrop=1 "Bharat Sanchar Nigam [BSNL] Logo")
For e.g. my BSNL broadband connection for internet is like playing dice. Some days it works, some days it does not! Most baffling! The call centre is useless to say the least. They are trained to frustrate you. They go through some set process and they have to disconnect in 5 minutes. Does not matter if you problem is resolved or not. Here are some of the tricks they employ to get you off the line.
a. Our back end staff will get in touch with you. (nobody ever will. If back end is more qualified then why are they in the back end?)
b. Line goes blank
There are people in their system who are seriously committed to helping the customers. But they are nicely hidden for the common man. Unless you know where and how to reach them, BSNL can be quite an experience for all the wrong reasons.
The problem is that the capable and willing people are not exposed to the customers.