~ 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.

~ Tata Nano ~

It might be the world's cheapest car. But the vision of Ratan Tata, ex-chairman of Tata Group, was to provide an affordable 4 wheeler for many Indian families who were commuting on Indian roads.

NGC's Mega Factories has an episode on the birth of Nano. The hurdles faced during the production were not just limited to engineering alone. It faced hurdle during the commissioning of the factory, where it had to move the entire operations from West Bengal to Gujarat; nearly 2500kms.

The mega factory has 130 robots which operate along with humans to produce about 250,000 cars per year. Quite impressed with the output & modernization of the factory.

~ Fiat Palio: The saga to own my first car ~

I always wanted my first car to be from the FIAT stable. I just love their engines, the build  and the drive quality. After waiting for 2 years for the launch of Punto, being disappointed, finally decided to go with Palio. 

Believe me buying a FIAT car in India isn't easy at all. Any car sales person anywhere in the world would be very happy if the customer walks into the showroom and tells I would like to buy this car, does the booking & walks out without asking any questions. That would be so easy for the sales person without having to explain, impress or up-sell anything. However, the reality is that FIAT is stuck with the partner TATA Motors for doing the sales via their dealer network.

Guess, what the sales person tells me when I go for booking Palio. Sir, why don't you look at Indica, Indigo or other TATA vehicles? My response, no offence to TATA vehicles, sorry am not interested in them. I came here for booking FIAT Palio1.3 MJD  & let's do the formalities. They didn't even have a test drive car, but I still booked it.

Booking was just one step away into insanity of FIAT/TATA sales lifecycle. The next couple of months have not been so pleasant dealing with the sales executives. Here is how the chronology of events:  

21 June 2008. I booked my car with Mainpal Motors, Sankey Road. The Sales Executive promised me it will take 35-40 days for the car to be delivered. 

Regularly followed with the sales' executive on the delivery date. In the mean time, got all the formalities sorted out and got the car loan approved.

4 August 2008: Sales executive stated that I needed to make the full payment to raise the invoice for production & transit. Since, it was my first car and didn't get any advice/caution from anyone else, like a fool I gave them the loan amount. At the time of full payment, I was told that the vehicle would be delivered to me on 13th Aug 2008.

13 August 2008: After successive follow-ups to the D day, nothing happened & the car didn't materialise. Then they sought additional 10 days. I was like fine, let me give another chance.

23 August 2008: 10 days have passed and still none from Manipal Motors called me. I had to follow up and ask what has happened. Again some vague replies on delay in dispatch from the factory, lack of production, demand, etc. I went to the showroom and spoke with the GM Sales Mr Kulkarni. Told him that I have lost patience & interest in even owning a car and feel very miserable at this whole process. Really disappointed that despite giving adequate time & money, I still don't have the car. Mr Kulkarni, requests time till Monday for me to give a confirmation on the delivery dates. I said this time you can either deliver me the car by 30 August or else cancel the booking and kindly return me full loan amount along with booking amount. 

I walked out of the showroom without any confidence nor trust on the entire sales team at Manipal Motors. I felt that they would probably not deliver it on 30th.

Came home & gave a thought about what I could do. Finally, thought that it would be good to bring up the whole matter to Fiat India leadership, so that they can take the necessary steps on their part. Wrote to them about the whole sales experience that I had to go through. My question to them was, "How could Fiat which has such good cars to offer & have such bad sales via their partner. It is hurting their BRAND image and loosing their enthusiasts more than adding new customers." I posted the content to customer support across various FIAT websites in the world, hoping that someone would eventually get back to me.

26 August 2008: Voila! I get an email acknowledgement from FIAT Customer Care International.

27 August 2008: Somewhere around 11:00 hrs I receive a call from Rahul from FIAT Pune office about my complaint & tell me that they are working to get a car delivered. Someone from TATA Motors will get in touch with me. I said am tired of dealing with the sales folks from TATA Motors. He assured me that people from FIAT have taken up my case.

14:00 hrs I receive another call from the South Head of TATA Motors. He finally promised me the good news that my vehicle would be delivered on 30th August. I validated with him twice, he said 100% they would deliver and someone from Concorde Motors (Subsidiary of TATA Motors) reach out to me in the evening.

17:30 hrs I receive the call from Javed, Concorde Motors. He said that they would be delivering the vehicle on 30 August via Manipal Motors since I had done the payment to them.

More than being joyful and excited. I was relieved that the dream of owing a FIAT is not that easy, at least in India.

By the way, FIAT Palio isn't the hottest hatch in the market even with 1.3 MJD engine. The hottest hatch in the country is Maruti SWIFT. The diesel edition of Swift has the same 1.3 MJD engine under the hood made by none other than FIAT. However, Maruti has great sales & wider dealer network. It is selling them like hot cakes & running away with success. Swift apparently has 6 months of waiting period & the dealers tell that upfront at the time of booking.

It's HIGH time that FIAT to debut in India on its own than with joint venture or partnership. It is doing more damage to their BRAND & sales than anything else. Hope, the FIAT leadership is listening to few loyal customers who would like to buy FIAT cars. 

Thank you for reading the rant. Here are the pictures of the red stallion ;)