Apr 23, 2013 11:22 PM
1614 Views
A new low for customer service in India was achieved today. A vodafone employee, with no obvious provocation except maybe the high temperatures at 2:30 PM, got into an argument, over parking with a customer, threatened to smash the customers car with a brick (actually picked up bricks in both hands and rushed towards the car with them).
The fact that my girls were with me (a 4 .5 year old and a 1 year old), sitting in the car waiting for my wife to get back from the Vodafone store after trying to get the 3G card we bought yesterday activated (as I informed him as well....), did not deter this dude. He kept shouting expletives, tried to drag me and my kids out of the car and threatened to bash my head in for me with a brick that he picked up off the pavement.
He actually pulled open the driver side door, tried to push my 1 year old kid who was holding onto me standing in the passenger seat and pull me out of the car so he could bash my head in for me with the stone in his hand (it was actually a piece of concrete or a paver block but anyway stone is close). A security guard and another colleague of the employee, standing nearby, managed to subdue Mr. Yogesh Patil and get him to leave.
My elder kid was understandably traumatized and started crying. By then my wife had returned fuming about how customer service was hopeless and unable to address 5 customers in over 30 minutes and we might as well get an MTNL 3G connection..... only to realize there was much more that Vodafone customer service was handling than just addressing grievances.
I pacified the family and then went back to the store to speak to the store manager, Ms. Nazneen, about it. First off she gave me a customer feedback form. I said I needed an employee feedback form if they had one, "no sir, we have only this". I wrote out my narration of the incident and submitted the feedback taking a signed acknowledgement.
There was an attempt to convince me that the employee had done whatever he did outside the office premises so it was not Vodafones concern to which I just asked them one question "is the side of the public road Vodafone property for employees to park on?" ....this uniformed employee had clearly implied that "this is Vodafone employee parking" while rushing at my car with bricks in his hands?". The lady replied in the negative and apologized for the misbehavior of the employee also saying that he was "on a break" and she understood how dangerous such a person was to have at work as a subordinate.
She asked for my phone number as she had already escalated the incident to authorities higher up. I clearly told Ms. Nazneen that it was not her fault at all so she did not need to apologize, also that such a person who has no qualms about shoving a 1 year old child and threatening to bash their dads head in with a stone in front of his kids was actually a danger to store employees and the general public as she also understood and agreed. I said I am heading to the nearby police station to lodge and FIR and left.
Bottom line what is Vodafone doing about this sort of customer service? What do you expect customers to do with their cars when they come to visit your stores? Park on the roads? What I understand is that employees park their vehicles outside the store blocking public roads and sides of pavements. While this is the quintessential "chalta hai" attitude prevalent in our nation, what is Vodafone doing to fix it as a responsible corporate entity? Why can there not be a parking area for employees as part of the lease for the premises of the Vodafone store?
Oh and btw the 3G card is not active so far. Last evening got a message saying your documents have been received and card will be active within 4 hours. Today morning the girl on the phone said documents still not received for processing but card will be active in 4 hours. Kharghar Vodafone store of course threatened to bash my head in for me/apologized for that, Nerul Vodafone store said he is submitting my documents, which incidentally he has verified thrice by now, (as in 1600hrs) so card will definitely be active at 2000 hrs (wonder why he had said the same thing yesterday as well when we had bought the card).......
Later in the evening I received an sms from Vodafone saying my documents are incomplete so the card cannot be activated..... right so now I'm poorer by 500 bucks.... my kids have been traumatized and I still do not have 3G activated.... why thank you now I know what "Anything, Anytime, Anywhere" on your tagline stands for.....
Guys focus on making it a better user experience starting from the get go..... all the advertising in the world is not going to get me to continue using Vodafone after the "I will bash your head in with this stone because you are waiting in Vodafone employee parking" kind of customer service..... certainly not Ravi Shastri answering tough cricketing queries (some scheme they have on Vodafone during the IPL)....
