A morning at metro water

8:45am
Saar showed up 15 minutes late.  Then his computer wouldn't connect to the server.  15 attempts, all failed.  Rebooted the machine, no go.  rebooted modem, no go.  Then one fellow showed up with a cloth, dusted the plugs, disconnected and connected the keyboard, fiddle some more with the plug etc.  Success around 9.10 or so!  

Then the person before me (we had an interesting chat, by the way - his nephew had stolen the land where they had a common sump. What to do? Plus he was all praise for Amma for fixing the auto chaps.) took five minutes gathering together his Rs 347.  Change in one fold of his veshti, tens in another, hundreds in a third etc.  

Anyway I paid and got my receipt.  Turns out I was lucky: the computer had been down the previous two weeks.  Felt like some MAD magazine 'A day at the Metrowater payment counter'!

What a great country we live in!

Voting in Velachery

Urur Kuppam, Olcott Kuppam, Save Chennai Beaches Campaign Kalakshetra Colony Welfare Association, Radhakrishna Nagar
Residents Association, and Valmiki Nagar Residents Welfare Association invited all MLA candidates to address voters
regarding their proposals for the constituency. The meeting set aside 7 minutes to each candidate to present his/her schemes.

I went for the meeting. There were only three candidates who showed up. The PMK's M Jayaraman, the Makkal Sakthi candidate, Senthil Kumar and independent Sharath Babu.

Senthil Kumar: Was the only candidate whom I felt like voting for...the makkal sakthi party seems to be working for the future...it is part of the national party Lok Satta, and looks like each time they are fielding increasing candidates. menthol Kumar lives in the constituency, seems to understand the way the govt works, and is a strong RTI activist I think.

I am inclined towards him more than Sharat Babu. Babu is milking his humble upbringing and his stellar education as credentials, still. While he has done very well for himself, for me to elect him, I need to see some proof of what he has done in these last few years. Besides mentioning that he has visited educational institutions and inspired students, he did not mention anything else. Also, he is an Independent, and I see that as a weakness in the current scenario.

Given the need to have a change of government, there is no way that I am going to vote for the dmk-combine, so what about the bjp candidate and bsp and aiadmk? Well, the first two did not show up and the last one came when almost everyone had left. I hear he vowed to do whatever his Amma decided!!

I think as a voter I need to encourage better quality of candidates to come forth and stand for elections. Senthil Kumar seems to represent one such...he boldly called himself a politician. He also said that even if he did not win, he would still be available to constituency members in their fight to get good governance. I liked the sound of him, and the profile of the people who are helping his campaign.

Escape Cinemas

Another pleasant experience.

• Online, quick ticket booking at cinema.in
• Sunday morning easy traffic
• Express Avenue - lot of parking
• Blush screen - nice seats!
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1...not bad.
• Biryani buffet ...Rs 200
• Odyssey book store...their best yet in my opinion.

Parted from a fair bit of our money, for a single day.

Happy birthday, son!

Sony Ericcson

My K750i (I quite like it), but its a pain to charge...gave it for repair...back in a day...problem fixed. Not bad... Happy me.

Wow!

After my rant of the last time, I do need to recount a +ive experience I had this morning.  Canon india has an online order form for consumables.  

And guess what, it worked!!

Within two hours, I had my new printer cartridges at home!!

This is truly wow!

Happy to help?!

Happy to help

If ever I've read anything fanciful and incredible, it is this article!  I wonder if the authors of this article live in an alternative world from mine, in another dimension maybe?  Have they looked around them, spoken to their neighbours and colleagues in the office, for a reality check?  I would dearly love to meet "Delhi-based K-Singh", who had his ref fixed overnight.  Wow, he belongs in a museum, to commemorate a special event.

Service in India is so ridiculously bad, there is no words for me to describe it.  And now of course I have to put up with a call centre, Vijay, Asha, Johnny or Mustafa (You have to admit they are undiscriminating), telling me how they are so pleased to help me, and not knowing anything about my dashed complaint, beyond the complaint number.

OK, OK, so I'm dealing in generalities.  You want specifics?  

A neighbour of mine had a Samsung fridge that conked, and there was no service in sight, until an NRI relation threatened to sue.  then a replacement unit quickly arrived.

A dear friend in Bangalore had a  Whirlpool ref and had to finally call up the Gurgaon head office before the thing was fixed.  Time taken?  More than a month.

My in-laws' Whirlpool microwave packed up.  They are on an AMC, and guess what, a month has passed, and it has not been fixed.  The call centre promises everyday that today is the day the mechanic arrives, I promise, I promise.  but of course the day passes with no such luck.  The company website has a complaint email id to which we have sent n number of emails, and HAVE GOT NO RESPONSE.  Of course, there are no branch office numbers in the website.  And of course we haven't received any stand by unit.

Rajiv Kapur of Whirlpool makes another point. The customer, he says, is not only demanding, but also does not do anything on his own, “not even change the plug socket, unlike in the West”. And probably he expects it to be done free. “So, for a company, after-sales service has become a very important touch point with the consumer. We actually give world-class service,” he insists.

What a laugh!

Jet Airways has provided great customer service, (and we are no special Gold, Platinum category), in the three or four times we've need something out of the unusual, and our Standard Chartered helpline is competent.

But God forbid you need to deal with Airtel....I could write reams about them.

I invite you to have you consumer catharsis...write in with your rants or praises.  I'm already feeling better after writing this.

Juices, flavored milk edging out colas in Indian supermarkets :: Food Industry India

Juices, flavored milk edging out colas in Indian supermarkets :: Food Industry India

Oh hurray!