Customer don't care and congestion free networks.

Its been an eventful week . Had fun on the first few days of the week thanks to a visit by some friends from Bangalore. Decided to back my car into a tree , the tree didn't move despite continued threats and ended up having to change the door of the boot.

Last evening, however was even more spectacular. My phone stopped working claiming that it had an inactive Sim . I tried a number of things like putting this in a cool Blackberry and in that I got an even more helpful error message which claimed my SIM card was rejected. A call to the customer care of one of India's biggest networks followed. For folks who don't know, I have a mobile connection with India's largest congestion free network and one that has had folks like Sachin Tendulkar and AR Rehman signed up as brand ambassadors. It resulted in egg on their faces with a claim that they deactivated my phone by mistake. I was surprised to say the least, having paid all my bills for the last 5 years since when I have this number but was prepared to forgive a technical glitch. After all its software, there are always bugs. There is also the possibility of a human error where someone could have gotten it wrong and gotten a typo.

Guess what happens this morning, A call from Airtel's customer care again checking for feedback happens while I am in the middle of a nice little session playing with trees and forests in gcc. The conversation goes:
CC> Sir did you have a problem with your phone ? Did you have a problem with outgoing calls or incoming calls ?
Me> Yes I had a problem , neither was working . The phone said something very helpful like SIM rejected or SIM Inactive.
CC> But sir its working now na ? I just got through to you .
Me> Thinking that he'd come 3rd in a quiz competition with just him in the fray - Yes but the problem was you deleted the line.
CC> All problems solved now ?
Me> But it took you 5 hours to connect it back.
CC> Have you paid your bills ?
Me> Yes, I have . the last one was paid yesterday.
CC> No problem sir, I will check and make sure your bills are reflected in the system.
Me> Fine please do that .
Narrators Interruption> In the middle of this the congestion free network decides to stop working and the call gets cut. So Me calls him back.
Me> We were talking
CC> No problem sir , I will get back to you.
Me> but have you realized the problem ?
CC> What is the problem ?
Me> Patiently explains again.
CC> You must not have paid the bills, thats why they disconnected.
Me> Go check it . I have paid it for the past 5 years regularly and the last one was also paid. Get off your high horse.
CC> What are you saying ? Am I speaking nonsense or are you ?
Me> You are speaking nonsense.
CC> Who's talking nonsense ?
Me> Dont' have time for this , bye.

Customer Disservice is what they seem to be about here and nothing much else.