2006-01-23

Dialog Self Service Sucks

The customer care call center of Dialog GSM has always been excellent. The staff is well trained, polite and efficient. However, it turned out that their self service, activated by dialing 687, sucks.

Recently, I wanted to change a number in my frequently dialed numbers list (the "family and friends" call list). Everything went well, but I felt very uncomfortable as the system did not give me a chance to verify the new number. I was "told" that it was changed immediately after I entered it.

I felt the need to verify that the new number is correct, so I went to the main menu again and tried to list the new set of numbers. It looked like the last digit of the new number was missing. Oops... I had done a mistake by starting the numeber with a "0777", instead of a "077".

Every other system I have come across either allowes the user to verify before changing an important piece of information (e.g.: password dialog boxes) OR allows reverting a mistake either through the system itself or some other means. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case here.

I called the customer care call center immediately, and explained that I made a mistake, and asked if anything can be done to correct it. I also mentioned that this happened few minutes ago and that I made no other calls, to show that this is not an attempt to exploit the "friends and family" feature. The executive was very polite as usual, but apparently this was a call beyond her authority. I asked her if I could speak to her lead - hoping to reach someone who is authoritative to make a decision - but while she was trying to transfer the call, the line got disconnected.

I called them again, and told the customer care executive (a different person) that I need to talk to her lead. She said that her lead may not be in a position to make the decision, but gave me the names of two people in another department. I managed to reach one of them, but he said nothing can be done, but also told me to try and contact the Billing Manager.

I made another call to try and contact the Billing Manager, but the phone was never pick up.

I gave up. Not only was I charged Rs 100 for the "change", but I couldn't "correct" it until the next billing cycle.

On a positive note, this is the ONLY bad experience I have ever had with Dialog GSM. Unfortunately, as all my attempts to give them constructive critisism failed, I was forced to blog the incident.

Update: Dialog GSM is investigating into the insident, and hopefully will improve the system in question. Very nice of them to take customer feedback seriously.

1 comment:

geekaholic said...

I also had several bad experiences as a result of their automation. I used to have a high credit limit and never payed my bills on time. But for that I was duly penalized by not getting the bonus points and I think a small fin.

More recently the automated system had reduced my credit limit which resulted in my line getting d/c despite me having 3 numbers under my name and having a long standing account since 1998.

At the time I was in pakistan on the Sahana Humanatarian mission and my dad had got an SMS on his phone the day before. He replied and said not to d/c since I was not in the country, but since there was no face to the sms, it ended up being d/c.

When I got back and learned that I couldn't even call the toll free customer support line I was furious.

They wanted me to pay before they reconnected, but I told them that unless they find a way to connect my line and notify me of it, I wont pay. Instead I will come to their office in 3 days, pay the complete amount and apply for disconnection of all theree lines due to unsatisfaction of service.

After about 30 min, I got a call back saying my line was reconnected, to which I went online promptly and paid.

This happened to me again about 2 months ago but I had already paid when I realized I had been d/c. Again I wanted to switch services but within a few hours it was connected.

I think automation is good, but the system should not allow one to loose the human touch to it.