Unedited

I just spent 3 hours writing all this up. 2.5 hours of those trying to get consistent font size in the blogspot editor. Unedited my ass!

***

I hate all those dental product advertisements. You know how they always show all that bacteria inside your mouth, I think it’s disgusting - it just makes me want to throw up. Except that it makes the mental picture of my own mouth even more disgusting which makes me want to throw up even more. Vicious cycle...

***

I was carrying my laptop in my hands and the mouse fell on the floor. So I asked a colleague – “Can you hand me my mouse?” ...and that just came out all wrong

***

A friend once complimented me on my email signature. He said "It's cool".
My email signature: "Sent from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld!"
I have decided we have been friends long enough.

***

Despite being a woman myself, it’s amazing how much I still need to learn about my fellow sisters. Like I recently learnt there is nearly no correct way of using “even” while referring to a woman. In any form. Ever. Period.

***

I recently visited a long lost friend. I was waiting outside her door when I heard her cat from inside. I was looking for the cat as I entered when she apologised, "I'm sorry I kept you waiting, the baby just wouldn't stop crying, I bet you could hear her from outside"...I told her I could. And that her baby was cute.

***

One co-worker once thought out loud: “I actually like not having a lot to do at work, and just having an easy day”. I told him he must be an exception. Because all of us just love working our butts off.

***

If you are confirming your attendance at a dinner at someone’s house, make sure you send the email to the right person. Or you’ll open a can of worms you never thought existed.True story.

***

I have recently received many marriage invites. Marriage. Not wedding. Marriage. And people often insist I stay present the whole time. I don't know how to tell them.

***

Another long lost friend (yes it’s lost & found day in High School Friends’ Universe) recently got back in touch. After a long update on her life, she said, “I can’t believe you are still single, but I am sure you have guys wrapped around you all the time”. I told her there are loads. Tom Cruise is one of them.

***

I just had my half yearly performance review. We just love sending each other off on holidays.

***

You know the difference between reality and perception? Like when women make a pout and think they look like Angelina Jolie, while in reality they look like they kissed a bee hive? I am a woman and I think this post is hilarious.

customer care the octopus (part 2)

......(continued from customer care the octopus )


The Winner:::: Singtel:
[This octopus is the uncontested winner at having a poor...nay...no head-arm coordination - so much so that it almost definitely deserved an entire piece dedicated to it.

December: Buy a new BB. All excited go jumping along to the nearest Singtel dealer, show him the BB and get a new connection.
Dealer: "It'll get connected in 3 days"
"OK, but it does work with BB right?"
Dealer: "Ofcourse"

2 days later, call customer care in over excitement
After 10 min on IVR
"Ma'm we told you the connection takes 3 days to get activated. Please wait for 3 days before confirming" [Ok fine...huh!!]

5 days later
After 10 min on IVR
"I am sorry mam but your connection is not updated in our system yet. Please wait until Tuesday" [pffffff.....]

Tuesday
After 10 min on IVR
"I am sorry mam but your connection is not updated in our system yet."
"Huh? I have had this number for 10 days now. You said it'll get activated in 3 days! What's going on"
"I am not sure Ma'm. Let me find out and call you back"
[ Its ok, relax! wait for her to call back, she will sort it out]
Wait till evening, call back
After 10 min on IVR and 10 min of explaining the background to some one else
"..so you see, xxx had told me she will call me in an hour with an answer. Its been 5 hours and I still haven't heard back."
"Ok, ma'm let me arrange for a callback"
[But that's what she did in the morning!sigh...]

20 minutes later
"Hi Ma'm this is xxx calling from Singtel. We have activated your line. You just need to restart your phone and your connection will work"

3 days, 20 restarts and another IVR routine later
"Ma'm have you tried restarting your phone? Your connection is active"
"Yes, I did tha..." [CLICK]

Needless to say by now I was furious, so I called them again - this time to scream!

After an extremely frustrating dialogue and many "call transfers to supervisors" later, ..
"Ma'm the plan you have bought is incorrect. It doesn't work for blackberry"
"I am sorry what???????"
"Ma'm the plan...."
"Ya I heard you the first time - I didn't buy this plan, your dealer sold it to me! And I checked with him! he said it WILL work with a BB!!!!"

People were turning to look at me. So I decided to calm down.
"Okay, can you change it to a plan that does work with BB?"
"Yes Ma'm, i can put you on blahhhhhh... it will cost you twice.."
"I don't want that, disconnect this number"
"Sorry mam your connection is under a 1 month contract, I can't disconnect"
"But the connection doesnt work!!!"

Another transfer to supervisor, going by the number of transfer, I should have been talking to the CEO by now!!
"Your team is telling me they can put me on plan blahhhhhh at twice the cost"
"Sorry mam, but plan blahhhhh wouldn't work for your BB for reason blahhhhh"
"What???!!!!! Your team just told me it will..what kind of....pfff...okay fine...so there's no way I can buy a BB plan from you, so disconnect this number - I dont want this"
"Sorry mam but your connection is under a 1 month contract...."

[so you see dear customer....our dealer was a thug who sold you the wrong plan, our team is made up of complete idiots and our policies were designed by kindergartner who we paid peanuts and i don't care if you die of frustration, you chose us and now you must live with your choices....]

......

Finally 1 month later my number got disconnected

15 days later I got a bill. Registration fee + 1 month charges + 2 month charges in advance = S$150 ????!!!!

A similar battle to the above ensued over the completely ridiculous bill, only this time with the billing department. Finally they conceded that I should not be expected to pay anything to them.

And so they went overboard in their realisation. The next bill I received was a S$ -150 !! Yes..acc to them they owed me S$150! :D My happiness didn't last though, the next day I was the one receiving the call!! :P

Latest status - 5 months after I bought a connection that never worked , 4 months after it got disconnected ----

I have a bill that says "Amount due S$150 " ?????????????

And a cheque from Singtel "refunding" my S$150 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

customer care the octopus

Every once in a while life gives us a jolt just to show us how much we take for granted every single day. A few months ago, my life suddenly turned into a never ending live example of Murphy's law. My 3 month old laptop crashed, my brand new blackberry didn't work, my bank account got frozen for no apparent reason, I almost lost the roof over my head, my home internet stopped working for no reason (yes i had paid the bills!) , my home electricity account got disabled (yes I paid the bills for that too!!) .....nothing seemed to be going right.

And when prayers didn't seem to work, I did the only other thing imaginable;

I called up the customer care for each service.

Now Customer Care is a funny animal. Everytime I think of it, the picture of an octopus pops into my head. A big head called the Global HQ with arms spreading all over the world, encircling our dear planet from one end to another. You can imagine if you only had 1 head to manage arms that spread across the earth, it would get a little difficult to give the correct directions wouldn't it? Now imagine the customer care of every company as a separate octopus and you have a complex web of octopus heads and arms all entangled with each other, all of them trying to ...yes... answer your call.

Regardless of the hair splitting frustration I went through at the time, just as with everything else in life, hindsight is your best stand up comic. So here are the top 3 customer care experiences I had... in increasing order of frustration..err..I mean hilarity


#3 Call SBI Customer Care Singapore::

IVR : "If you know the extension of the person you wish to talk to then please dial the extension else press 9 for operator"
press 9
IVR : "If you know the extension of the person you wish to talk to then please dial the extension else press 9 for operator"
[HUH?? I Just Did That] Press 9
IVR: "Thank you for calling us. Have a nice day"
[CLICK]

Sorry what???? I tried this 3 times, and then gave up and sacrificed my precious Saturday afternoon sleep to drag myself halfway through Singapore to get what I needed to get done.



#2 Call Starhub Customer Care Singapore::

"Hi, our internet connection has stopped working. It was working fine till yesterday evening, can you please tell us what could be wrong?"
"Sure Ma'm, can I have your customer number?"
"Umm.. sorry I don't have that at hand, I can give you the name of the account holder, can you search by that?"
"No Ma'm I need your customer number"
"I will have to find a bill for that, can't you find out through the name or my house address? Surely the address will be unique wouldn't it?"
"No Ma'm I need your customer number"
"Okay fine, let me find a bill, please stay on the line"
5 minutes later..
"I have the bill in my hand. But it doesn't have anything like a customer number. It has an account number, will that work?"
"No Ma'm I need your customer number"
[Is that an automated response??]
"But the account number should also be unique shouldn't it?"
"No Ma'm I need your customer number"
[WTF!!]
"Look I am telling you I can give you my address, account number, last bill date, a/c holders' name...but there is nothing like a customer number here..."
"No Ma'm I need your customer number. Without that I can't help you"
[ARRRGGGHHH!!!]
I hung up, unplugged all wires and reset the internet connection a few times. Eventually it picked itself up again.

Next month, I received a bill that read as follows:

"Dear Customer, please note that your current account number will be referred to as your customer number from now onwards."

.......

I am thinking of sending that bill to their customer care center, just FYI.



#1 Call Dell Singapore::

Navigate through a labryinth of pages to find the correct toll-free number, a number that worked on weekends - because obviously I needed my laptop fixed urgently

24X7 toll-free no.1 : "Our working hours are Monday - Friday 9 AM to 5 PM. Please call again later"

24X7 toll-free no.2 : "This number is not toll-free and will be charged usual ISD rates. If you wish to disconnect, please hang up now"
[I did not hang up....]
[They did!]

Try again: "This number is not toll-free and will be charged usual ISD rates. If you wish to disconnect, please hang up now"
[I did not hang up....]
[They did!]

24X7 toll-free no.3 : "Hi, May I help you"
"Yes, I bought a laptop 3 months ago and last night I was checking my email when it suddenly crashed. And it isn't booting up now. The service tag no is xxxxx . Its under a 1 year warranty"
"Please hold on ma'm" ...

[2 minutes later]
"Ma'm where did you buy this laptop"
"Singapore"
"Ma'm you've reached the call center in the United States. Let me give you a number for Singapore"

[What?! I have been paying call charges for ISD ... but this call didn't say it was not toll free!!]

"Yes please, give me the number"
"xxxxxxxx"

New toll-free number: "Our working hours are Monday - Friday 9 AM to 5 PM. Please call again later"
......

A few more calls later I finally managed to find a shop that gave me the right number to call. A couple of months and many more phone calls and emails later, some one finally came and changed by hard disk. so much for my "urgency"! Of course since then I received their emails asking me to fill customer surveys, feedbacks and buy more stuff from them - everyDAY!! - until I did fill out a survey. The emails stopped coming, I think they read the survey! ;)

The winner of all the octopuses is an entirely separate story altogether ... coming up in "customer care the octopus - part 2"

Obituary

Yesterday, I lost a very dear friend of mine. He & I had known each other for over 4 years . For the past 4 years, he had been my constant companion. No matter where I was, or what I did, he always stayed by my side. No matter how busy or idle, happy or sad, pleased or frustrated I was, he was always there; comforting, reassuring & supportive.

For 4 years, we spent endless hours with each other, day and night. His presence never let me feel lonely. He silently stayed by side through all good times and bad and patiently bore with all my mood swings. One time I remember I spilled an entire bowl of hot cereal & milk on him. It was a mistake but it must have hurt like hell. And yet, he didn't say a word. I wondered what had I ever done to deserve such loyalty; and thanked my stars for getting it nevertheless.

But for the past few months, he hadn't been keeping too well. He was always running a high temperature and was always very low on energy. It was as if he needed to be on a glucose drip constantly to do even the basic activities of his existence. All his test reports were absolutely normal; and no one could figure out what was wrong with him. Though on the surface he managed to look well, I could see he was dying inside. Slowly but surely. He still insisted on being with me constantly and somehow I didn't fight him back. May be I should have.

And then, yesterday afternoon while I was work, he just suddenly left me. Just like that. Without a notice. Without giving me a chance to say goodbye. Me & my colleagues tried our best to revive him, but to no avail. I rushed him to a specialist, but it was too late. He was declared DOA.

I brought him back home with me. Protecting his non responsive body from the rain while I myself got drenched. It had been a 4 year long relationship, and I wasn't ready to let go. Not just yet.

And so there I was.

Sitting in my room, feeling completely alone for the first time in over 4 years. Helpless. Isolated. Disconnected from the world. I sat there for the rest of the evening staring into his face. Expecting him to blink his eyes any minute. My mind was completely blank. I couldn't think at all.

After a few hours of complete silence, holding the still perfectly functioning mouse & power cord in my hands, I said good bye to my dear old friend.

My HP Compaq nx6325.

I remember this from the engagement ceremony of one of my friends. now anyone familiar with the north indian hindu wedding system must know what havoc and chaos this 1event must have unleashed over the entire family.

For the less enlightened...the madness begins much before the actual event. The news itself sends tremors across the neighborhood and the family clan that would put an earthquake measuring 5.1 on Richter scale to shame. Suddenly you start meeting/ talking to "relatives" you never knew existed. Worse? the first question they ask you is your name...not your to-be-spouse's, your own! Well you see they only know you as so-and-so's son / daughter. Your and his salary is of the utmost importance and a bigger public figure than your local celebrity. Over the next few months everything from your future savings, to which school should you send your kids to etc etc etc are analysed by the entire clan in detail. 15 minutes into the news and you already wonder if getting your parents to agree to the match (in case of love marriages) or going through endless "bio-datas" and meeting endless potential matches was after all, the easy part. Another 5 minutes and you are sure nothing except eloping would have been better!!

Exasperating as it is, and a blatant reflection of complete lack of privacy as well...to just an onlooker, it can be amusing to the point of being hilarious... here's an example

Setting: Engagement function

Venue: The Bride's house

Hosts: The bride-to-be, her parents, her 2 sisters, their husbands, and 3 children, 2 cousins, 2 aunts with their husbands...minimum 20 people in all. And mind you this is not a "function".

Scene: 5:30, everyone waiting anxiously for the guests to arrive...
Expected time of arrival: 6:00 PM

[and of course the entire conversation is a translation.. from hindi to english]

typical players in each setting
the inevitable just returned NRI who hates everything about India
the classic grandma, and her unfailing wisdom
the giggly younger sisters
the bride who is feeling f***** up with all the artificial make up and cursing her in-laws already
the tons of relatives, each willing to pitch in with their ideas for the couple's future
the poor anxious mother of the bride who hasn't had time to eat all day
the father who can't stop roaming outside the house thanks to his palpitations and ..well acidity :P

5:30

"I need some tea, i have a splitting headache"

"Wait for sometime, they will arrive in half an hour, we can all have tea together,"
"Yeah...uncleji meanwhile divert your attention you know..see my new DSLR..i got this st. from NY you see...fabulous uncleji I tell you..in India, this will cost at least twice, and then you don't even know if its the real thing you know.."
" arey Sonia ke daddy,you have the boy's ring with you right?"
"achcha waise where does the boy work? what must be his salary?"

6:15

"I think they are going to be late"

"Well yes did you really expect them to be on time? "
"ladke waale hain bhyee"
"you know auntyji this is what i hate about India..complete lack of punctuality..this would never happen anywhere abroad"

"haan, ji our Sonia also earns enoguh. I think together they will be able to buy at least a 2BHK in Faridabad at least, property is cheaper there, and within 5 years it will become like Dwarka...very expensive, I have a property dealer in mind, I will tell apni Simi,"


6:30
"May be they are lost"
"arey suno..just call them and see where they have reached"
[following a scramble takes place in which 5 phones come out in 5 seconds from 5 different directions, while the original addressee who was happily trying out the food in the kitchen comes out with a ]

"huh?????"
"arey..rehne do ji aap...jijaji you pls call and see where they are"

[ a pin drop silence, and a 2 min phone call ]

"i just did..they are somewhere here...they said they will reach in 10 min"
"arey sunoji...you come inside, roaming on the street will not help"
"Oh ji nahi ji, I am just taking a stroll, ate too much at lunch na so a little bit of acidity you see"

"haanji haanji bilkul, will be good if they buy a house before having kids you see, they are both young, they can wait 2-3 years for kids ji...settle down first, kya jaldi hai bachchon ki"

6:45
"hai-re, my headache will kill me"
"kya bade papa..[giggle giggle]....here the suspense is killing us, we haven't even seen our to-be jijaji yet...you are worried about your headache"
"oye hoye!! is this the way to talk to your elders? go make 1 cup tea"
"God knows where they are..."
"ladke waale hain bhyeee"

"waise Faridabad also had very good schools coming up you see. DPS also planning to open a branch there you see"

7:00
"didi why havent they come yet...hope nothing is wrong"
"arey nahi simi, dont worry i am sure they just started late only'
"ladke waale hain bhyee"
[muttering] "what the f*** is wrong with ashmit!!
[aloud] Let me give him a call"
"no no you leave it..are you mad!! you are the bride-to-be...what will the ladke-waale think?"
"but mamiji.."
"sonia!! no, you will not call them..."
[muttering again]"pfffff...F****"
[giggle giggle..] " see didi is getting so impatient to see jiju"
[at which the bride gives them a look...sigh...if only looks could kill]

7:15
the much awaited door bell finalyl rings
and everyone comes to order,
all aunties fix their sarees, all uncles get up simultaneously to greet the "ladke waale"
our dearly beloved NRI fixes his hair and gets his new "DSLR" ready
the 2 uncles finalising the next 10 years of the couple's lives get ready to bestow their unbeatable intelligence on the bridegroom
and of course, the inevitable ... giggle giggle giggle..

"madamji cablewaalaa" ,
"ye maraa cablewaalaa, what do you want at this time?"
"this month's bill madam"

[ this is the point, where an innocent onlooker like me has to rush outside and break in to splits laughing, but i dont need to...even in this anxiety, the Indian family has the good sense to laugh....dispelling some of the tension in the air ]

everyone except our annoyed bride, i.e. who is gettin more n more impatient. vowing to "teach" her groom a lesson the minute they get married!

7:30
"Mumma...can I please take off this one necklace, its killing me. And I can barely hold this saree, i am sure it weighs more than I do"
"Bete Sonia, why r u troubling your mother further. just wear it beta, it will be over soon"
[helpless n exasperated], " i'll kill ashmit"
"na beta dont talk like that, this is marriage it happens"
"ladke waale hain bhyee"

and so the drama continues, until the boy arrives with his family; only 3 hours late. the food has gone cold. there is of course no time for tea anymore. the bride's make up is all caky by now and the sisters' giggles have become subdued. but what to do...

"ladke waale hain bhyee" ;)

Swollen Stitched Shut

i had some issues..well i have loads actually, but right now i am speaking specifically about some dental issues. i was diagnosed, a few months ago, with having way too much wisdom. for the benefit of those who missed that incredibly important happening in the world history, here's the link of that woeful discovery. with time and against well wishers' advice i reconciled myself to getting cut n stitched up, and give up half of my hard earned, hard acquired wisdom. so a few days ago, with all my courage and my little remaining bank balance, i marched into the dentist's office and declared i was ready to be slaughtered...err have my teeth taken out.

"lie down, close you eyes and relax....tell me if it hurts"...sighh..and how i had waited to hear these words all my life. right now the only picture that came to my mind was the printed text of Ogden Nash's dentist poem, "this is going to hurt just a little bit".....

"ouch! it hurt a lot already!" ...

have u ever had local anaesthesia shots? they're like tiny little pricks, only they are much sharper. and many of them. after 2-3 shots, my dentist made his move and i felt a long thick rock hard instrument sliding in...it was a steel dentist surgical instrument to extract teeth, what did you think you rotten mind!!

"e ill -ut" I babbled
"What ?? "
"it still hurts" I said, as he removed that steel holder. it looked like a screw driver and that did nothing to assuage my terror.

i was given 2 more anaesthesia shots, stronger this time, i felt a numbness engulfing my face. the dentist resumed. well to be honest it still hurt. the damn anaesthesia was still not working. at least not fully. i have always known myself to be perceptive, but there are healthy limits to everything you know!

anyways, i really wanted it to get over with as quickly as possible and so taking inspiration from an elder brother who had once narrated a story about getting a war wound stitched up without anaesthesia, i just closed my eyes and decided to let the surgery proceed.

i could hear the dentist making small talk to his team, " shouldn't he be focusing on me right now...and he isn't even asking for forceps like they always do on TV".. concerned i opened my eyes and I saw two i gloved hands, holding a screwdriver and knife kind of thing, covered in blood. my blood.

now i consider myself reasonably brave, but at that sight movie scenes of cold blodded murders flashed through my not-under-aneasthesia head and i shut my eyes again. as tight as i could. and tried promised God to never ask for anything ever again, as long as I came out of this alive and with enough blood in my body to not need a transfusion that could give me aids...i knew i was over reacting. and i told myself so. and tried to calm down.

i was doing a decent job, till i heard a sound. the sound of a drill. and it came nearer. i could picture the tree cutting drill swaying close to my lips, the dentist looking at some way of shoving it in and cutting my teeth off. i couldn't bring myself to open my eyes, lest the drill cut off my lashes.....i dont remember being this scared in a really long time. nor do i remember praying this hard.

and then wen i cudn't resist nemore i opened my eyes, and saw a pen sized thing making that sound. phew!! but you would think they can attach a mute button to such a tiny thing wouldnt you?! and just as this was over i started feeling the thread actually going in and out where i was being stitched up. the good news: i knew it was almost over. the bad: i could feel every single millimeter of it. urrghh. for once i wished that damn anae had worked.

on second thoughts though..now i know wat a cloth must feel like being stitched up. another feather to my perceptiveness cap. not sure what to do with this though..apologize to my skirt next time i sow a fallen hem???

as i was leaving i happened to look into the mirror. still shaken with the drills n trying to shrug off the feeling of the stitches, i remmeber messaging my friends that i could play a 2 faced ravan without make up. yes my face was that swollen up.

well its been a couple of days, my lopsided face is almost back to normal, i can talk again and had my first proper meal in 3 days. laughing would still take some more healing but i have developed a new found respect n understanding of Ogden Nash...and his poem "this is going to hurt just a little bit"...

oh and in case u r wondering, the title is just keeping in line with the earlier post on the subject, the tooth tragedy , and in line with marketing's obsession with same letter abbreviations... the 3 S's ;)

Consumerism???????

This is the age of the consumer. Businesses center their sales processes & promotional offers around the needs around the consumers. New innovations happen keeping in mind what the consumer wants. Products are released with a lot of thought put into what the market currently really lacks and the consumer really needs. Right? Wrong!

Nearly a month ago I put in a request to cancel an internet broadband connection I had. I am leaving the country for a few years, and paying the rent unnecessarily for so long just didnt make sense.

So I called the Airtel helpline service to ask the procedure...

Airtel: "How may I help you?"
Me: "I have a broadband connection..I would like to cancel it, can you please tell me the process?"
Airtel:"Ma'm, Why do you want to cancel it?"
Me: (okay...obvious question), "I am going abroad.Could you please tell me the process?"
Airtel:"Can you please tell me where are you going?"
Me:(what??!!) "What does that have anything to do with the cancellation process?Can you just tell me the process?"
Airtel:"Sure Ma'm..."
And he told me. Was a bit annoying, but I left it.

Same day, airtel office
Airtel: "Hi.How may I help you?"
Me: "I have a broadband connection, landline no. ------- ..I would like to cancel it, here are the phone and modem instruments and the application."
Airtel:"Sure Ma'm, Can I ask why do you want to cancel it?"
Me: (well he would need a reason to write on the form), "I am going abroad."
Airtel:"Can you please tell me where are you going?"
Me: (okay may be there's some logic to this) "Does that affect the cancellation process somehow?"
Airtel:"No Ma'm, just asking.."
Me: (he has time for idle chat with 10 people standing on his head?!) "I would appreciate if you could just complete the formalities quickly"
Airtel:"Ma'm your permanent residence is in Delhi, why don't you get it shifted?"
Me: (allright, std. customer retention), "No thanks! I don't want to.I'd just like to cancel this account"
Airtel:"Sure...can you please deposit the outstanding bill?"
Me:"Sure, today is 7th, how much does the bill come to?"
Airtel:"Ma'm you will have to pay till the 10th, since the request will take 3 days to process"
Me: (they will charge me for their processing time?! well whatever...)

So I paid for 3 days extra, completed the formalities and left.
Me: (Whew! that's done!)

few days later

Airtel:"Ma'm you have put in a request to cancel the landline number -------?";
Me: (haven't they cancelled it yet?) "Yes..."
Airtel:"Can you please tell me reason?"
Me: (??????) "Isn't it there on my request form?"
Airtel:"Yes ma'm it says you are going abroad"
Me:"that's correct. why are you asking me again?"
Airtel:"Ma'm can you tell me when you are leaving?";
Me: (What crap!! ) "Why? how is that any of airtel's concern?"
Airtel:"Ma'm no you could continue till the date of your leaving"
Me:"I don't want to.Can you just cancel it immediately? And I don't want any further inquiries from Airtel"
Airtel:"Sure ma'm"

I hung up irritated.

few more days later

Airtel:"Ma'm you have put in a request to cancel the landline number -------?";
Me: (what the f***!!!) "Yes I did. I hope its done!"
Airtel:"Ma'm your form says you are going abroad"
Me:(Oh My God!!) "Yes. So?"
Airtel:"Ma'm can you tell me for how long are you going?"
Me: (these bloddy 7&$&^%$#W) "How on earth does that concern?!!! I am going where, when for how long...how the hell is that any of your or airtel's concern? Are you people planning to sponsor my tickets? my stay? what the hell does any of this have to do with cancelling a net connection????????"
Airtel: "No Ma'm if you are going for 3 months i could put this on hold..."
Me:"No I don't want you to put this on hold! I want you to cancel it! Do you understand??"
Airtel:"Sure ma'm"

Me:(*^%$#@^& better do it this time!!!!!!)

but this wasn't to be!! after a few more days, I got yet another call, this time from the Airtel manager..

Airtel:"Ma'm you have put in a request to cancel the landline number -------?";
Me:" Yes I did!! And this request is NOT open to any discussion or offers from Airtel! I want you to cancel it immediately and I would appreciate if you do not call me again!!!!!"

I could not believe how disgusting this could get. But I thought my retort would have put all tries at rest, until today,

Airtel:"Ma'm you have put in a request to cancel the landline number -------?";
Me: "Oh My God!! I cannot believe you people! I put in that request almost a month ago. I even paid extra for your 3 days of processing! I have responded to atleast 5 different calls till now. For one last time this request is NOT open to any discussion! If I get one more call from Airtel I am going to file a PIL against you people. Do you understand!!! Cancel this connection immediately!!!!!!!"
Airtel:"Sure ma'm"....

The connection isn't cancelled yet. Despite my (this time) shouting and screaming, I am not sure when it will be. I am feeling so annoyed that I feel like surrendering all Airtel numbers!!

Everyone, including me, has been plagued with endless telemearketing calls from banks, insurance agencies, mobile companies, and who not. But I had never felt so disgusted with these aggressive sales and retention strategies than this time.

This is not consumerism..this is not even business.. this is intrusion of privacy and plain & simple harassment!!While the USA, where everyone sues everyone else is one extreme, our country is the other. And its about time we started suing these companies for their lousy business practices and consumer harassing sales & retention strategies.

If I get one more call, I know I am not going to swear in my mind only.... Any consumer lawyers out there??????