Is Expecting Timely Service In India is Asking For Too Much?
In terms of time in India, IST stands for Indian Standard Time. But this has almost become a legend these days, as IST is being used in other sense also. I often get to hear IST being added after time details in verbal discussions reminding the other party that it is “Indian Standard Time” and not to expect dead punctuality. Now lets get back to “service” which I want to talk about. You take service of almost all companies in India and most of the you might been promised some time deadline and broken with ease. If you get back to them, you are told “I understand your problem and given a excuse.” Here, I will give you an example I faced with my filter “Pure It” purchased from Hindustan Liver(HLL) in the beginning of this year. Few days back the handle of the tap broken and I have called the Pure IT helpline and requested to replace the tap. They took my order for a new tap(Rs 70) and told that it will be replaced with 2 days. The rep told I will be called on my mobile before the repair guy visits. On the second day I waited till around 4.30 pm in the afternoon and the decided to call the helpline again to remind them again. I was told by one of their rep that he will remind the concerned department and by issue will be taken care of. But nothing happened. The 3rd day was Sunday. So I called on Monday around noon and wanted to know the status of my request. On this the rep told all of their executives are busy and they will not be able to commit any time. Now is this not funny and I feel like asking “If you cannot commit, then what is the company’s commitment to customer service. ” I tried to reason with her, that water is very essential thing and since it the only source of my filtration, if you delay it cause be inconvinience. Also, if you can give any approximate idea, then at least I can get a can of water from outside. But nothing works! Today the 5th day and 5.30pm I have not received any call from them. People in the water business should know that they are dealing in an essential service and should be pro active. So the questions arises, is expecting timely service in India is asking for too much?