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Consumer rage

B. S. Raghavan

CONSUMERS round the globe are being driven to hysterical fits of rage by the utter insensitivity of suppliers of goods and services to their complaints about poor quality, indifference to safety considerations and false claims in advertisements. Consumer rage is fast overtaking road rage as the most unnerving feature of business landscape.

It is particularly galling because consumers have been long hailed as kings whose word was law in all the literature on the virtues of free-market, competitive economy. They find that, far from being given royal red carpet treatment, they get a brush-off whenever they approach a business establishment for redress of their grievance. They are subjected to the same mortifying procedural stickiness as in any other typical bureaucracy from being put on hold for inordinate lengths of time on the telephone, t o being pushed around by nameless, faceless and apparently half-witted functionaries with little idea of the importance of customer relations. In other words, the so-called efficient, customer-oriented private sector establishments have turned into burea ucratic monsters fighting whom is becoming a nerve-wracking experience.

Let me cite two examples where I myself have been left in a state of fuming rage. Beguiled by the cooing of RPG Cellular to the customers in its advertisements in dulcet tones, I became its customer sometime in October last year. Soon I realised that I w as better off without having to cough up a sizeable amount every month even when I made no call whatsoever and served the prescribed one month's notice on the company to terminate the contract and return the deposit. This was on December 19, and when I c hecked up a month later to find out the action taken, an ugly surprise awaited me: Someone at the other end said that my letter had not been received, and would I send a copy?

OK, I sent a copy on January 26, but till date, to all my phone calls, I have been given a bellyful of excuses as to how the ``processing'' will take its course, and things cannot be rushed in the way a customer wants. Be it remembered that by thus manag ing to hold on to deposit amounts for as long as possible, the company also notches up some extra interest on the unrefunded amount!

The IFB has also been enticing customers with its hype on its washing machines. I bought one and entered into an annual service contract as well. I have had to apply relentless pressure on the servicing agency by making repeated phone calls for well over a week or 10 days every time I had a problem before it can be persuaded to send a technician to attend to it.

The interesting thing about customer relations staff of Indian or India-based companies is that their callousness towards customers is so deep-rooted that they cannot even be made to perk up by the bad publicity they get from such write-ups. I had on oth er occasions written about similar instances of contretemps with companies such as Compaq, Aptech, NIIT and Satyam Infoway, and it was all like water on buffalo's back, judging from the thunderous silence that followed without even a minimal effort at cl arification.