The "New and Improved" library

The new library is ready with all its tom-tommed gadgets. Self check-in and checkout facilities and what not. The weird machine at the door evokes nostalgic feelings of multiplexes and malls one so misses here in Jamshedpur. But is all this tamasha worth anything. No if we go by my experiences. Twice. With all the euphoria of the child who has just been granted the ultimate toy I “checked-out” the books I had planned to borrow. Being the responsible citizen I am, I decided not to print the receipt. It was at this moment that my problems started. The guard at the gate refused to let me out without the receipt. I went back to the librarian who expressed her inability to help me in any way. “But I did borrow this book right in-front of you” I protested. “In fact, you have acknowledged the same”. “Nothing doing” she replied. I was hysterical. “They aren’t going to let me out ever. I am trapped in this library. I just hope they decide to make a movie on my plight; the way they made for Mehran Karimi Nasseri. Even better if they cast Tom Hanks.” After deliberating for what seemed like ages a brilliant idea struck me. What if I returned the book; got it issued again and took a print-out this time? The librarian seemed impressed. So there I went. The receipt felt like the declaration of independence. Out I went of the library and took a deep breath. It felt so good to be “free”.
SERVICE RATINGS

a> Reliability – 2

b> Assurance – 2

c> Tangibles – 2

d> Empathy – 1

e> Responsiveness – 1

[1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent]

BSNL

Well, some of you know that my broadband stopped working on Thursday and came back only on the evening of Monday. The phone was dead.
Although it was unfortunate, but it gives me the opportunity to compare the services of BSNL and Tata Indicom.

Expectation
I wanted my broadband to start as soon as possible. I get completely cutoff from XL without internet.

Service
On Thursday itself, I called(from cellphone) the local BSNL office to tell me about the problem. They gave me a Toll Free number, 1500 to complain. And you bet, that number only works from Landline :). So I went to my neighbour to call at this number and lodge the complain. And in the very true spirit of a pathetic (I personally prefer-parasitic) government company, they slam the phone before you can ask "how much time will it take".....%^$&$&$%&$@!#. Well, nothing happened till 5 PM on Thursday.
Then on Friday, I once again called the local office. This time, BSNL God's were happy and I want not shooed away with a toll free number. My complaint was lodged in the local office. Yohoooo....They assured me that by the end of the day, someone will come to fix the problem. Well, as expected...no one showed up.
Then came Saturday, and I called the BSNL office again. This time, the excuse was something new "Aapka address de diya hai lineman ko. Agar aaj theek nahi hota hai to aap monday ko 10 baze ke pehle call kijiye"....SLAM (I hoped that his head also break with the phone....^!@%#&^#&*)
Well, Sunday would have been more enjoyable...cutoff from the world...but what can you say when XL is hell bent on teaching us even on sundays. Then you really hate being without access to your email. Thank god that I have friends in XL ..who are just a call away.
So story continues, and to beat them up, I called BSNL office before 10 AM on Monday. I was once again assured that it will be fixed today. And guess what, by the evening I was back on the WEB.

Service Ratings
[1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent]

1. Reliability - 1 [I will rather rely on a thief]
   
2. Assurance - 1 [I am assured that they are nothing more than a parasite]
3. Tangibles - 1 [Even a street vendor have better manners]
4. Empathy -1 [They can only dream that they will have empathy]
5. Responsiveness -1 [Sure...they always respond to a stimuli like Official Pressure, Personal Aquaintence, Dadagiri...]

Now, you know how much I hate BSNL. I hope that it gets completely privatised in coming 5 years. That will be too much to ask I guess, so I will even settle for 50% divestment.

Tata Indicom

It sounds weird, but I ended up having a spare mobile connection. So I decided to get rid of postpaid service of Tata Indicom.

Expectation
I was expecting a simple and quick procedure through phone. Also, I wanted them to unlock the handset so that it can be used with any other service provider (I know, I know....it was too much to expect).

The Service
I called the service center of Tata Indicom, went through the gates of automated responses and finally reached a human being on the other side. He very patiently listened that I want to close the service. He tried to cajole me by making counter-offers (I am sure...its part of their training). When I denied to get convinced, I was transfered to his senior. He repeated the whole process by trying to make me lucrative offers and unwilling to listen to me .."there is nothing wrong with your service, I just have a spare service and I want to close it down". Finally, he got convinced that I am not going to budge and he gave up. He told me that the service will close within one week (although its interesting why should it take a week? What now telecom operators have found another revenue stream?).
At the end of the day, a guy came from Tata Indicom to ask the same question "what is the reason for leaving our service". Wow...they really really want to know.

Service Rating
[1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent]

1. Reliability - 4 [I am not sure when exactly the service will end]
2. Assurance - 4 [same as above]
3. Tangibles - 5 [it seems that they care]
4. Empathy - 3 [I know that they were doing their job, but they have started getting on my nerves :)]
5. Responsiveness - 2 [Well, I still wonder why should it take a week]

Courier Service

I don’t think many people know that you can actually send mails and couriers from the “mail room” in the basement of TMDC block. I certainly did not till about a week ago. And now I think I was better off without the information. With the last date of the payment of college fees instalment approaching, I finally woke up to the reality that I had not bothered to collect the Demand Draft from the bank. It however wouldn’t release another instalment unless I furnished the receipt of the earlier one. So I collected the same from the Accounts office and took to the person sitting there in the mail room. The person, all smiles, assured me that the courier will reach the destination (in this case, Patna) within 2 days. Satisfied, I came out and forgot all about it. I was rudely reminded of the same five days later when I received a phone call from my father who explained, leaving no iota of doubt, that how upset he was at this display of irresponsibility from me. Irresponsible? Me? How can that be? Hadn’t I sent the mail well in time? How can I be blamed for something beyond my control?
Once I went there to enquire about the missing courier, the person, all smiles again, very politely explained how it wasn’t possible for him to track the mails once they were dispatched. Why can’t you? I asked, if the others can? He just shrugged. Having given up, I came out. I collected a duplicate receipt from the accounts office and faxed it to the bank. I am yet to receive the demand draft.

SERVICE RATINGS

a> Reliability – 1

b> Assurance – 1

c> Tangibles – 2

d> Empathy – 1

e> Responsiveness – 1

[1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent]

Sukh Saagar

For a die-hard fan of non-vegetarian food like me, there can be no ordeal bigger than eating shuhdh shakahari khana. Sadly this is what happened last night when my friends and I went out for dinner. To make matters worse, my friends (or should I call them my ex-friend since we aren’t on talking terms anymore) made sure that the restaurant we went to did not serve anything that had ever been capable of walking or swimming or had been “laid”. So off we went to a place called Sukh Saagar in Bistupur.
They say it’s the first impression that counts. There was a queue outside the door!!!! I couldn’t have been more perplexed. Now I know why they haven’t opened a KFC outlet here in Jamshedpur. The concierge (the guard actually) enquired about the number of seats we required. The restaurant certainly was running low on supplies yesterday because on learning that we required eight seats he made all possible efforts to chuck us away. From “kam se kam aadha ghanta lagega” (it’s going to take at least thirty minutes) to “family walon ko pehle bhejne ki policy hai” (it’s our policy to send people coming with their families first). To his utter dismay, we didn’t budge.
So after waiting for the better part of an hour we were ushered in. I half expected to see people prostrate in devotion. I mean I have waited lesser to enter temples. By this time, I was hungry enough to eat anything that they would care to place before me; but it seemed that the ordeal was far from over. The waiter stated with a very straight face that anything, absolutely anything we order would not arrive at the table before thirty minutes. “Man!! These people here are obsessed with the number thirty”, I thought. Having come this far, we were reluctant to retreat. We stayed put and placed our order. What we hadn’t realised that the “anything” the waiter had stated included bottles of water as well. After a lot of shouting however, the water did arrive. The wait did serve one purpose though. I had never understood why they depicted water the way they did in those Kinley and Aquafina advertisements. I did yesterday.
After what seemed like an eternity, the food did arrive. The waiter placed it on the table with look one would don when disbursing alms and hurried away without even bothering to ask if we wanted him to serve it. One saving grace however – the food indeed was delicious.

SERVICE RATINGS

a> Reliability - 2

b> Assurance - 2

c> Tangibles - 3

d> Empathy - 1

e> Responsiveness - 2

[1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent]

Multimedia Speakers - Delivered

After deliberating for more than a year, I finally decided to go for a set of speakers to go with my laptop in the hostel. Having recognised the problem, I set out for information search. My consideration set consisted of three brands – Creative, Altec Lansing, and Logitech. After evaluation of the brands I zeroed in on Logitech. A brief online search revealed that a shop in Bistupur stocks them. The website had the shop’s phone number as well. Once I called him, the shop owner was only too happy to know that I had looked up the internet. Probably he doesn’t get many customers who take this trouble. He not only agreed to deliver the speakers to the hostel but also agreed to give a 10% discount on the list price. And true to his promise, the speakers were delivered to my hostel room within the hour.

SERVICE RATINGS

a> Reliability – 4

b> Assurance – 4

c> Tangibles – 3

d> Empathy – 4

e> Responsiveness – 5

[1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent]

Trip to Vegetable Market

Well, I still remember good old days of walking into Walmart or HEB, grab a cart, grab the things you want, especially vegetables and fruits, without being worried about them being rotten or bad quality. Also, you take as much as you want. If you want 137 gm of spinach, actually you can get that.
Here, I have to go with my wife to vegetable market in Sakchi at least once in a week. In the beginning, it was a nightmare. Haggling for prices, correct weights and then choosing vegetables very carefully. We were fed up with spending our quality time in such a mundane activity. So, we decided to do a social experiment. We decided that we will find a vegetable seller and make him or her as our sole shop for buying everything.
Our Expectations
We were hoping that if we become a loyal customer of one of the vendors, then we can rely on him or her for the quality, quantity and price of the products. We were expecting to save time. Also, I believe that things average out in the long run, although my wife does not agree with that (I wonder if wives are of agreeing nature).
The Service
So, now we have a zeroed on to one of the vendors. We have been buying vegetables from him for last couple of months. We have developed such a good rapport, that he himself tells us "is bar gobhi (cauliflower) acche nahi hain, agli baar le jayiega". We don't have to haggle on price, for he automatically gives us a bulk discount. He even gets other vegetables, which are not available on his shop, for us.
Service Ratings
[1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent]

1. Reliability - 5 [The quality of vegetable is always good]
2. Assurance - 5 [Our experience so far has assured of good products]
3. Tangibles - 5 [His shop is relatively cleaner than other shops]
4. Empathy - 5 [He understands that we won't like to have bad 'gobhi']
5. Responsiveness - 5 [He takes care of us as soon as we reach his shop]

Overall, his services are excellent. It seems that we have an implicit social contract - "If you take care of me, I will be your loyal customer". And because of his services, we don't have to spend our quality time in arguing with vegetable vendors.