~ Jingalala Part 2 ~

After 9 months hiatus, I had my second jingalala moment with TATA Sky. Here is Jingalala Part 1, in case you are interested.

This time around it was related to the renewal of my annual subscription of MEGA HD pack. Renewed it on 7th Jan evening and noticed that the renewal wasn't reflecting. Hence, called the customer support to check what could be the issue. Below is the gist of the conversation between me & the CSR executive 

Vivek: Hi, have renewed my annual subscription but it doesn't seem to be reflecting against my TATA Sky account & still a message on the TV screen.

CSR: The renewal has not been activated; should I go ahead any initiate?
Vivek:Yes, please proceed with the activation.
CSR: Sir, there is a slight problem.
Vivek: What is it about?
CSR: Actually, there is a slight difference in the annual subscription fees. Its not Rs 7500/- but Rs 7990/-
Vivek: Sorry, that price is never listed on your website. I paid for what was shown to me during the renewal.
CSR: Sir, actually there is some glitch on the site and hence the latest prices are not reflected on the website. So, you will need to pay the difference amounts for me to proceed with the activation.
Vivek: *Surprised to hear that*. Told, will not be paying anything extra as it wasn't my fault in the first place if the site didn't reflect the correct amount. I paid for what the site displayed.
Vivek: Have shopped on any of the ecommerce sites; What do you pay for - what is listed on the site or the invisible price that should have showed up?
CSR: Yes sir, I have used ecommerce site and agree it is not your fault. But, you need to pay the difference in order to activate.
Vivek: Am not paying the difference, coz it ain't my fault nor yours. The fault lies with your business, marketing and QA teams who failed to validate the correct pricing on the product offerings. Please ask the respective team to correct the same so that in the future you don't need to fight with customers.
CSR: Sure will pass on the details to the team, but you need to pay the difference.
Vivek: I would like to talk to a superior in the chain of command.
CSR: Sure sir, please hold the line.

Conversation with Sr CSR 

Sr CSR: Yes sir, how would I like to help you.
Vivek: Have the same conversation once again and same response.
Sr CSR: No sir, you need to pay the difference.
Vivek: Lost my patience, told him about Jingalala Part 1. I can once again escalate it to your CEO South region and get this problem rectified, if you don't activate.
Sr CSR: Sir, What is your subscriber number? Is your TV & setup box on?
Vivek: Yes.
Sr CSR: Sir, activation completed. Your subscription has been renewed.
Vivek: Thank you. But TATA Sky has lost the difference amount thanks to bad validation from Business & Marketing teams. If the pricing isn't updated then customers will not pay the amount and your company will loose the amount.
Sr CSR: Agree sir. Will pass on the message to the internal teams.
Vivek: I shall check your site after 24 hours and see if you have updated the amount on your website.
Sr CSR: Sure sir. Will get it fixed.
Vivek: Thank you. Good night.

4 days later, nothing has been changed. It still lists the price at Rs 7500/-

A bit of googling provided the info on the number of DTH (78million) subscribers in India. According to TRAI, there are 39.74 million active DTH consumers in India. Going by the 20% market share of TATA Sky sums up to 7.94 million or 79 Lakhs subscribers.

If we go with 5% of them as Annual Subscribers then we have 395K or 3.95 Lakhs Users. Off these 395K, if we go with various % of users who do their renewals in January then below are the lossese for TATA Sky due to wrong pricing on their website :)

• 19.35 Lakhs @ 1% in January
• 96.77 Lakhs @ 5% in January
• 1.93 Crore @ 10% in January

P.S: Not sure how many subscribers would challenge TATA Sky for the pricing errors & not pay the difference.

~ TATA Sky Customer Care ~

If you are TATA Sky subscriber in India you must have seen their promos / teasers of the upcoming upgrade to their network. I happened to be one of the customers who suffered with the loss of channels - HD, news, regional.

Registered a complaint on 4th April 2015 and happened to wait for the technician to visit. I did give 4 days before calling the Customer Support & stating that no one had visited us. They said that a technician will be sent in the next couple of days. 

Eventually, the technician calls on 11th April when we were away from home and hence requested him to drop by at 17:00hrs. As he didn't turn up, called him to check when he would be visiting. He stated that he wouldn't be able to do much as it was raining (whole evening in Bangalore) and would visit on 12th April.

12th April goes by and he doesn't show up nor answers the phone. 

This is where things getting repetitive:

1) Wait for 20+ mins to get through the IVR process to speak with an (CSR) Customer Support Representative in Mohali, Punjab

2) Appraise them the situation

3) CSR apologies for the inconvenience caused & states we shall send the technician before next day.

4) *Hope* that technician shall visit :)

13th April

As usual, no show from the technician till 8pm. Repeat Step 1-4

14th April

No show once again. Me & wifey repeat Step 1-4. 

15th April

No show once again. Argument with Wifey because she had preferred Airtel over TATA Sky when we were deciding on the DTH connection.Can't even get out due to 12 month subscription which ends in 2016. Me & wifey repeat Step 1-4. 

16th April

No show once again. Repeat Step 1-3. Escalate the matter to Sr CSR & then escalate the matter to Floor Manager (FM). FM says we have a ticket closed that a technician had visited. Was surprised to hear that. Asked Floor Manager, if that be the case then why would I be calling the Customer Support again? Also asked for reference number or acknowledgment for technician's visit. No proof for the visit, FM guarantees that technician will definitely come tomorrow and problem will be resolved.

17th April

Shit hits the fan. Me & wifey are both frustrated & angry that they aren't able to send a technician. When the CSR spoke, asked him to put through to FM directly. Asked the FM, is he sending me a technician from Mohali & should I book a train ticket? He says sorry for the inconvenience caused we are looking into the matter. I stated, "you have been looking into the matter for 13 days without any resolution. Again the same guarantee every other day". This time I took the call reference numbers which I could use in the future.

Then I got an idea, why not find email of TATA Sky CEO, board members or other TATA subsidiaries. Next 30 minutes was spent on LinkedIn and TATA corporate site to get the details. Then sent the below email to various people from different subsidiaries of TATA across globe.

18th April, 12:30pm

Checked my inbox at to see if I have received any response from the CEO. Pleasantly surprised to see that CEO had indeed responded the same night.

Replied back immediately.

Post that email, the action began. Received a call from Mr Das and assured that the problem will be resolved by evening.

At 4pm, receive a call from technician. He resolves the problem in 15 minutes. I tell him that I had to reach the CEO to get this matter resolved. Then he tells me that he had visited another Customer's home the previous day which was again a CEO escalation ticket.

Now you see the pattern. I feel that the main problem here is lack of communication & coordination between Customer Support in Mohali and various nodal centers across the country. 

Wonder if every customer needs to reach out to the CEO of TATA Sky for resolving their issues? I don't know the answer but that definitely worked for me, this time. 

If you are facing similar issue then you know what to do. The entire experience with TATA Sky Customer Support definitely wasn't Jinga La La.