http://balajin.net/blog/ On happenings around me, that matters to me. en-us mt@balajin.net 2008-05-09T11:31:02+05:30 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/05/09/namma_hudugi_vasanthi.html Am I the only one missing Vasanthi Hariprakash on Radio City. She first moved from Good Morning Bangalore to Joy Ride and now she is no longer on air. I tried asking around a few folks and no one seem to know. I have now switched from Radio City to Fever these days. Who is your favourite RJ these days? 369@http://balajin.net/blog/ The World Around Me 2008-05-09T11:31:02+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/05/09/airtel_update.html Further to my post about airtel, Amitha from Airtel reverted to me saying that, Airtel has put process in place to ensure that these kind of stuff does not offer again. Also, she told me that henceforth any new plans that are being offered will be updated on the website as soon as the offer begins. They will also be including fliers in the bills informing about this starting this month. Let us wait and watch. But I am really happy that they took the complaint seriously and acted upon it, albeit a bit late. 368@http://balajin.net/blog/ Internet 2008-05-09T00:24:34+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/05/04/where_is_srt.html Read on cricbuzz.com chat: wen da hell is SRT cumin in wats rong wid dat guy!!! well its the wear and tear of the groins due to adjusting it every ball srt has faced for last 18 years :) And here is an interesting read on the so called icon's players. 367@http://balajin.net/blog/ Sports 2008-05-04T21:51:12+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/04/27/airtels_cheap_cheating_tricks.html Folks at office have been telling that Airtel has dropped their broadband tariffs for a while. However I dreaded calling their customer care since I spend more than 30 minutes for every complaint talking to a bunch of clueless folks ultimately achieving nothing. Finally I decided to call them on 30th March to check it out. The person who answered the call accepted that Airtel has indeed dropped their 256Kbps unlimited connection from Rs.999/- per month to Rs.750/- per month. When quizzed why did they not inform the customers about the change in rates, she said that it was informed in the previous month's bill. I tried asking her to provide more information on when this was done and she could not answer. So I raised a complaint asking her to provide information on when this was advertised and when can I be migrated. Also, since I was not informed about this new plan, I asked for a prorated rebate on my tariff since the date the plan was announced. She assured me that I would receive a call latest by 1:30pm the next day. I waited till 1:30pm the next day and did not receive a response. I was in no mood in talking to these morons again and decided to call the Nodal officer, Mr.Prashant Kumar Goswami as listed in the bill. However when I called the number, it was again picked up by another clueless agent who said that Prashant is a busy man and he does not handle all calls :-) Very nice. I said if that is the case they should not bother listing his name in the bill as an escalation. I made the following complaints to her. Why was my complaint not resolved as promised by 1:30pm? Why was I not informed about the change in plan? When can I be migrated to the new plan? Since Prashant is busy and does not handle calls, they should not list his name as the Nodal officer and provide a generic name in the bill henceforth. She promised that she will revert at the earliest. She also provided her name and said that I can call the nodal desk and ask for her. She was also kind enough to provide the name of one Mr.Murali who was the next level of escalation but refused to provide the direct numbers of Prashant / Shamik listed as the escalations on the bill. The next day she responded saying that the customers were informed with a note in the bill announcing of the change in plan and this was also updated on the website. I did check the website and this information was not there. She could not provide more information on which month's bill had the information about the new plans. She also said that the new plans were Rs.750/- for 256Kbps unlimited and Rs.999/- for 384Kbps unlimited and she can migrate me to any of the plans immediately. However these new plans came with a twist. Earlier Airtel offered a rebate of Rs.99 if you owned a modem. She said that this rebate was not applicable on the new plans. I was not satisfied with the response and asked her to provide this in writing. She said that she will ask Customer Care to send that email immediately. I also called up the next level escalation, Murali, about the agent's failure in providing me details about the announcement of the plans. Murali said he will revert shortly but never did. Almost a couple of weeks passed and I did not receive any response. So I called the agent again on April 14 saying that I did not receive any emails from her. She said that the mails were sent but I could not locate them. Later I discovered that they had sent an email but I had inadvertently marked it as read. I did not believe her then and asked her to forward the original email again to me. Someone else from Customer care sent an email which said This is to inform that adjustment cannot be provided in the bill if you use your own modem, once you opt for Unlimited 999 @ 384 kbps you will be charged *Rs.999.00/-*. If you would take new modem from company or if you will use your own modem then *Rs.999.00/-* is the rental charged and for new modem you will be charged *Rs.500.00* towards registration fees which is non-refundable. I felt this was wrong since they earlier encouraged to purchase a modem and now there is no benefit of having your own modem. So I called the agent again and this time she was more than willing to give the numbers of both Prashant and Shamik. I called up Prashant and he took down all the details and promised to call me back by 4:30 on April 14th. But as with all other folks from Airtel, he never did. I then called Shamik and explained him the story. He said he will have someone look into it and revert the next day morning by 10:30AM. Promptly, I got a call the next day from Murali saying he was working on the issue based on the inputs I had given to Shamik. I very nicely explained to him that, had he returned my call as promised, there would not have been a need to call Shamik. He was almost useless and then another one by name Ms.Amitha Mohan called. She said the she was the head of Service Excellence and she was looking into my complaints and she will revert. After several rounds of conversation with her, the summary is below. Airtel has had this plan since Dec (or may be Jan, I forgot) and that this was an acquisition plan and was only for new customers. This was not offered to existing customers and was never advertised. She also said that the plan was supposed to expire on March 31st but has been extended for a couple of weeks. She also said I can be offered the plan since I registered a complaint on March 31. I explained it to her that this is completely contradictory to what I have been told by their CC folks for the past couple of weeks. She said she will check and revert. She was more than willing to get me migrated to any plans that I wanted and finally migrated me to Rs.750/ per month for 256Kbps. I will get a rebate of Rs.49/- per month for using my own modem. She did not explain why both her agent / Customer care did not know about this. She again said she will check and revert. She also promised that she will look into the complaints to understand why it took so long to resolve and see how it can be improved. She also promised that the agents at the Nodal office will be educated to provide the numbers of the Nodal officer if requested. It is more than a week now and she still hasn't gotten back to me yet. And I am positive she has completely forgotten this. I will mail her a copy of this post and see what is her response. A couple of days back I checked Airtel's website and both the plans are listed. New Home 750 Residential - 256Kbps for Rs.750/- per month Home 999 (Residential) - 384Kpbs for Rs.999/- per month So Airtel indeed has had their plans from December but they have made it public very lately. They are also not advertising this nor pro-actively migrating their customers to the better plans as they have done in the past. So if you are still paying Rs.999/- for a 256Kbps connection, call customer care and ask to be migrated. Don't listen to the CC agents if you dont get a proper response. They are a bunch of clueless idiots. Keep escalating until you get a resolution. Also, an FYI. I just discovered from TRAI guidelines that if you escalate it to the Nodal officer, your complaint should be resolved within 3 days if it is with regards to a fault repair, service disruption and disconnection of service and within 10 days for all other grievances. Also, as and when there are any changes in any aspect/item of tariff in the chosen package, they are expected to communicate in writing to the subscribers. 366@http://balajin.net/blog/ Internet 2008-04-27T23:52:18+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/04/25/scribefire_fire_up_your_bloggi.html This is a test post via ScribeFire. Every since I moved my blog to MovableType, I never tried any client side blogging tool. I have been happy using the native editor. Let me see how long does this tryst with ScribeFire continues. 365@http://balajin.net/blog/ Software 2008-04-25T16:54:14+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/04/20/to_coffee_or_not.html This one is for Sandip. Enjoy your cuppa. And don't worry too much when going to Barista, the next time. 364@http://balajin.net/blog/ Life 2008-04-20T12:21:50+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/04/19/indian_teacher_explains_the_wo.html This one made my day. Fucking hilarious. Listen to it when you have a few minutes. Indian teacher explains the word "Fuck" 363@http://balajin.net/blog/ Internet 2008-04-19T22:12:47+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/04/11/dilbert.html In an otherwise frustrating week, Dilbert has been spot on. Almost everything that has been happening in the past few weeks is there. Check it out 362@http://balajin.net/blog/ Internet 2008-04-11T23:33:53+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/03/30/update_70th_sree_ramanavami_ce.html A little after I wrote my post about the schedule, I noticed that the official site also has the same listed. This looks better than my scanned copy. Enjoy. 361@http://balajin.net/blog/ The World Around Me 2008-03-30T12:56:38+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/03/29/sehwag.html I was casually asking the score yesterday and someone said Sehwag was on fire. I spent rest of the day on cricinfo / cricbuzz and lamenting about why isn't Neo sports available in office. In the night I went to a friends place to catch the highlights of the match. Man, Sehwag was really scintillating. He butchered the bowlers and took the initiative away from SA. In the process, he smashed a few records. In another wise dead match, Sehwag made it very interesting. Today morning I saw the few overs and looks like he was very tired. He was struggling and soon got out. And Indians tumbled afterwards. If he stayed or if India had taken the initiative, they could have scored 700+ and could have put SA on pressure. Now it is again going to get boring. But this has been a fantastic match for Sehwag. In the last three test matches, he has played nicely. Let us see how long does he continue. 360@http://balajin.net/blog/ 2008-03-29T18:44:02+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/03/27/70th_sree_ramanavami_celebrati.html The schedule for the annual Ramanavami celebrations at Fort High School, Chamarajpet is out. It runs from April 7th till May 14th. I have been having a copy of the schedule for almost month now but I was hoping to find a copy online so I can pass it along. Today, Sashi volunteered to scan the schedule and give it to me as a PDF. So here it is. Check out the schedule and be there. It is also there on upcoming. Add yourself if you are attending. 359@http://balajin.net/blog/ The World Around Me 2008-03-27T21:17:49+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/03/23/long_weekend.html This is one of the classic examples of my planning ahead for a weekend going haywire. The plan was to go and spend the long weekend in Pondicherry. Rishi was planning to go there as well and I had decided to tag along. Meanwhile, my sister said she had been planning to go there and she will meet us around Friday noon. Till about 2pm when I left office, I was thinking that I was leaving for Pondicherry, but suddenly had to change my plans since I was needed in Coimbatore. So I asked Rishi to drop me at Krishnagiri and I took a bus to Salem and from there another bus to Coimbatore. Landed home around 3 in the morning. Rishi seems to have had an ordeal in reaching Pondicherry. And my sister until yesterday noon was saying she did not plan to go anywhere due to the rain, calls up in the night saying she is in Pondicherry. :-) This is one of the reasons why I think a lot before I plan ahead with a group of people. My plans are always flexible and I decide what to do at the spur of the moment. If I plan ahead, something external changes my plans and this ends up in disappointment. And doing the usual things when I am in Coimbatore. Eating, Watching TV and Sleeping. Am most probably going to Trichy tonight to attend a friends marriage and then back in Bangalore on Tuesday. Happy Holi. Interestingly I have seen lot of people celebrating Holi in Podanur and I see colours splashed around this place. This is a change that must have happened in the last 5-6 years. When I used to study about 10 years back, I had never heard of Holi being celebrated this side. The world is shrinking. :-) 358@http://balajin.net/blog/ Life 2008-03-23T11:04:32+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/03/19/cricket_look_alikes.html Fun link for the Day. LookaLike Specifically look at Ponting and Nasser Hussain :-) 357@http://balajin.net/blog/ Internet 2008-03-19T00:44:01+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/03/17/european.html After hearing some funny announcements made by the pilot in a heavily accented tone, I asked the air hostess, "Is the pilot a German?". Pat came the reply, "No. He is European.". :-) 356@http://balajin.net/blog/ The World Around Me 2008-03-17T16:09:38+05:30 http://balajin.net/blog/archives/2008/03/16/cochin.html I am in Cochin this weekend to do interviews for Yahoo!. I have been planning to visit Cochin for a long time and this trip just happened. Yesterday morning, Jemshad and I took a stroll on the Marine Drive. In the evening a bunch of us went out visiting Bologatty Palace, an ancient church and finally the M.G.Road. This evening Jemshad and I are going to Model Engineering College for an orientation and I plan to spend some more time around the city. 355@http://balajin.net/blog/ Travel 2008-03-16T12:23:53+05:30