Life at PSBB - Fond Memories are all that remain

"Pattaani Sundal Bonda Bajji Suda Suda Sambar" used to be the popular refrain that those anti-PSBBians used to go to, in those days of yore, when I was part of that wonderful institution called PSBBSSS. Plenty of nostalgic and wonderful memories and I had the most wonderful times in school. 

Yesterday, as I was mindlessly facebooking, as ever, I came across this picture of the old Nataraj Eraser with the yellow wrapper that we used to get in those days. It is probably something that I wouldn't forget for a long time in my life, due to the pain it gave me when due to some mad reason I put a couple of small pieces into my ear without even realizing I did it. Two months of pain in the ear before it was discovered and flushed out. That picture took me back in time, and has got me back to blogging in this new year 2012. 

Who can ever forget the old Balamurugan Store - the one stop shop for buying everything that you needed for your exams/classes/entertainment/eating. Fryums, 'Rasna', the old lady in the store. I can remember everything like it was yesterday, though sadly the store is no longer there as it has now been replaced by a swanky store - sign of the change within PSBB as well, in terms of the students, I guess. 

Time has not taken away AB (Anand Bakery) though another AB in the form of Adyar Bakery has come to steal its swagger. The Samosa Channa from AB, and watching some friends 'shoplifting' a couple of bottles from there - unforgettable. Nor can I ever forget that mad rush for the 'Special Numbers' in the Cycle tokens that we had to buy to park our cycles in the school. Or distracting the security 'Marimuthu' with songs and what not, to escape outside without cycles if we didn't have a token. 

Football in the basketball court was another special memory. The 200 (??!!) odd people who used to running about the small area in the lunch break chasing tennis balls and plastic balls, or at times the balls from the 'Play Pen' for the kindergarten kids. Getting caught once on the school CCTV cameras for jumping into a house next to school, to retrieve the ball. Or Simon 'Sir' - the "legendary" teacher who  everyone thought would retire at the beginning of every year we spent in school - only to find him there with his ubiquitous spectacles. Or Revichandran who could give Arsene Wenger a run, with his football 'tactics' and 'selection' processes. 

The jinxed sports day that used to get postponed every year thanks to the rain. And the rain holidays we used to get when it never rained. The games inside the classroom ranging from the Pen Game to Book Cricket and then 'A to G' Cricket. The 'tactics' that were employed ranging from taking a thin book or a thick book to a short book or a longer one. Or cricket with a paper ball that was stuck together with cello-tape as the ball and a bound text book or the exam pad as a bat. 

No one could beat PSBB when it came to ''different'' 'subjects'. Transcendental Meditation where we were taught a 'secret' mantra in a dark classroom or Western Music with Felix sir and Samuel sir. But nothing can even come close to beating 'Work Experience' where we were 'taught' to make objects with useless items or cook up some 'delicacies' like Sandwiches with Biscuits and what not. 

Oh Yeah! Future kids - the computer classes when we were supposed to learn Paint, Excel, Access (till date the only time I've used this software) but ended up playing the few games that used to be installed in some 'secret' folder for the entertainment of the teachers' kids. Those times when we used 'Network Neighbourhood' to trick our way through assignments or cause pain to people we didn't quite like by deleting their files. Or Chemistry lab where the lab assistant would give away the name of the compound we had to test.

Those fights between girls and boys for 'superiority'. I even remember some occasions where we had a running race across the sports ground much to the amusement of other onlookers to prove our superiority. And the 'black mark' charts that laid the foundation for the 'boy-girl' teasing that would happen. The 'helping hands' who would help their friends convey their 'love' and the inter-class and inter-batch fights that resulted because of the 'love'. The 'detective' girl who recorded a conversation of a boy proposing to her and had him caught, and the multifarious rumours that used to do the rounds during the days of ''Boys" - the movie.

The elections for the School Pupil Leader which were of much fanfare, and the time when PSBB asked us to wear 'Traditional Dresses' to school and then asked the guys who wore a 'Dhoti' to write an apology letter for the same. Or running to the audio-visual room in the school - the only one with a TV - to check the score of the Indian Cricket matches when they were on.

Those 'Call Parent' meetings for those who failed, and the 'Anniversary Test' and 'Project Test' that helped a few (including me) to scrape a pass. Bharat Kalachar 'reviews' for which the Hindu provided generous help and the tactical EPL discussions that would put Shebby Singh to shame.

PSBB has always had a special place in my heart, and so will all these memories. Plenty more that I can write about, but probably that can wait for another post.

Who can ever forget school-life and what would I not give to be back there again?

What is wrong with Dell's Customer Care & Service

If any Dell  representative reads this, and wants to get in touch with me, you can get to me at shrinivas.sg@gmail.com .. This has been a result of trying to give feedback to Dell, through every possible channel, but not being heard, at every instance.

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When you think Customer Care, and when you think India - probably the only thing that you can remember is the dull music and the announcement "Thank you for your valuable time. All our customer care executives are busy on other calls. Please stay on the line."

From the days of the 'Telecom Revolution' and the IT Revolution that made call centres come into vogue, customer service in India has improved by leaps and bounds. From the days when you had to pay the Telephones guy to fix the telephone to today when we have the BSNL guy outside out house in a few hours/days of the complaint, things have indeed come a long way. As a person, I have had my share of run-ins with the customer service guys of organisations ranging from BSNL, Airtel, Reliance, Next and recently Dell. 

Dell, is highly renowned for its prompt customer service, and its unique model of servicing their products at the customer's residence rather than at a service center unlike most other firms. But I believe it is exactly there that their business model is starting to fall apart, in my opinion at least. Here's 10 reasons why I believe so.

1. Repeated requests for information: Agreed that Dell needs to verify customer details. But it becomes highly irritating and nagging for a customer when he is put through a three minute ordeal of having to answer the same old questions "Name", "Service Tag", "E-mail", "Phone Number", "Alternate Phone Number", "Address" every time he calls Dell up. If all they want through this is to verify the authenticity of the customer, why not stop with just one question! This ends up resulting in extremely long call times. On an average, my three calls with Dell were about 25 minutes long each !

2. Lack of updation in records: Dell's customer records seem to suffer from an obvious issue of being outdated. Something I discovered to my shock, when they somehow shipped my replacement parts to my old address rather than my new address - to which they had shipped parts just a couple of days earlier. Everything ranging from contact number to address never seems to get updated in their system, which I discovered when they kept calling my alternate contact number rather than my primary contact number, which was the number in the service records. 

3. Wipro and other DSPs: The third party outsourcing of service makes it 'impossible', in the words of a Dell Customer Service Executive and Manager, to do anything about poor service from the side of Wipro (the company that mostly provides Dell's Customer Services at our residences). The people from Dell, agree that Wipro isn't doing a great job, but say things on Wipro's side are out of their control, and they cant do much about it. This is something I don't quite agree with, considering it is Dell's brand name and equity that they end up ruining, at the end of the day, and is something that Dell should definitely consider looking into. 

4. Lack of a nodal officer or appellate authority: There is a complete lack of an authority who can be contacted if the customer is unhappy with the response he gets from the customer service centers. This is an area where the telecom service providers score over Dell, as they have visible contact information of Nodal Officers and Appellate Authorities who can be contacted in case of dissatisfaction with the customer Service. With Dell, at the end of the day, it is a vicious circle and the highest you can get to is the Manager at the Call Centre, who is oblivious to everything and says he will do something about it. Try their website, and you get a form to fill up - to which you do not get any response. (It's been a week since I did so)

5. Following a scripted method to troubleshoot: All said and done, it becomes very difficult to handle the multitude of issues that prop up with Dell's systems everyday. But following a scripted method to troubleshoot when the customer already knows what the problem is, and what needs replacing, is not a very wise thing to be doing. All the more worse, is acting by your own whims and fancies, and sending across a LCD and a Flex Cable; rather than the Heat Sink and thermal pads that need replacement. Even more worse, is acting as if the customer knows nothing, and telling him that he is wrong, when he has spent Rs.20000 to extend the warranty to resolve precisely the same issue, one year back. 

6. Lack of listening to the customer: The customer service representatives of Dell suffer from this problem of not listening to the customer properly. Ranging from noting down wrong addresses to not even attempting to resolve the exact issue to more of a focus than maintaining that 'trained accent' rather than listening. The list is endless.

7. Apathy to customer preferences: Though Dell makes it a point to ask the customer for his preferred time of service, they do not quite convey it to Wipro DSP in the way it needs to be done, resulting in the customer being bugged from morning to evening. At times, this even goes to the extent of the customer being forced a service time, as it happened with me. 

First time:

Dell Ahmedabad: We can come for service only at 10 AM on Tuesday. We are busy for the entire week. You take leave and make sure you are there at that time. We cant do anything about this.

 Second time:

Dell Ahmedabad: (At 10 AM): We are sending our customer service executive at 1 PM to your place. Please make yourself available. 

Me:  But I had specifically asked for a service after  4PM

Dell Ahmedabad: We will get back to you

Dell Ahmedabad: (At 2-30 PM, right before a quiz of mine) Sir, I am XYZ from Dell. I will be at your place in 15 minutes. Please make yourself available. 

Me: #$%^$^$%

8. Ill-trained technicians: The service engineers who come to your place, know just to replace the part that has been sent - something that is made clear by the disclaimer at the end of every mail that Dell sends in this regard. With a 'text-book' process to identify issues and technicians who cannot identify issues, it ends up becoming a major problem, when you suffer from a complicated issue. This results in a replacement of every possible part that might be vaguely related to the problem in trying to solve it, rather than actually solving the problem. For example, for a minor issue with a small lock near the hinge, Dell ended up replacing nearly every other part in my system, due to a complete lack of diagnosis. And this, despite me sending them photographs of the area that was damaged.

9. Lack of continuity: When a customer service engineer has been handling your issue over the past week or so, it would be ideal that he continues to handle the issue. It becomes a major hassle for the customer to explain the entire issue once again to a new person, every time he calls up customer care. Dell doesn't seem to have a mechanism to transfer calls to the corresponding customer service executive either. This isn't helped by some pathetic responses by their executives, who do not even respond to e-mails sent to them. (Been about 6 days, and I am yet to get a response). For one issue of replacement of a motherboard and heat sink, I had to explain the problem to 4 people on 4 different instances!

10. Complete lack of willingness to take feedback: Dell, from what I can make out, seems to have an unspoken policy of sending the feedback form to customers only when the customer is satisfied, so that it pushes up their performance ratings. A badly handled service request is never followed up by a feedback form. (I asked twice for the feedback form, over the last week, but I am yet to receive it). I simply do not understand the point of a feedback form, if it is going to be taken only in cases when they've done a good job. And here I was, thinking that the point of a feedback form, was to help them improve, as they proudly state at the beginning of the survey. Things hinge on the boundary of pathetic-ness when the technician who comes to your place, fills up the "Satisfied" part of the form for you, on his own, before getting your signature on it. Lack of any other channel to give them feedback, makes it all the more worse, and forces you to put up with whatever they throw at you. 

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Disclaimer: At the end of the day, I have had a some good experiences with Dell too. But this pathetic experience, overshadows all of that it by FAR.

An open letter to my (ex) sweetheart

To my (ex) sweet heart

I still remember that day, when I was sitting in the canteen, talking to Kumar, and having a plate of Puri-Subji, after I had got the few IIM Calls that I had. It was then that it stuck me that I actually liked you and wanted you to be a part of my life. Rather, I wanted you to be my life. I just couldn't think of any one else who could take that spot in my life. Even in my dreams. It had always been you, just you. I was pretty much shocked that I had not realized the fact by then, and that I had to be reminded by someone else about it. 

The more I thought about it, the better it seemed. Though initially it took me some time to profess my love, I did. Though I never received a concrete reply from you, I even managed to convince everyone about my love for you and most of them believed me about it. Fate decided my next move would be to IIM-A. I was skeptical about how our love would carry on from over there, for obvious reasons. But IIM-A made me realise it all the more. Talking to various people about their experiences with love, I discovered how awesome you were. You just offered everything I could dream of in life. 

I have to admit, initially, it had been your glamour that attracted you to me. But later on I found out you offered a lot more than just numbers (statistics I mean). I had started to believe ours could be a relationship for life despite many warning me that life with you could be quite risky. They warned me that one fine day in the morning, I could wake up to see that you had ditched me. It was accentuated by the stories I read in the papers about such a relationship even leading to death at times. 

I had made up my mind, and I kept telling myself "Oru vaati mudivu panniten na yen pecha naane kekamaaten"  (Dubbing for those who need it: "Jab main ek bar commitment de deta hum to uske bad khud ki bhi nahi sunta" ). I had made up my mind to like you, and I would do it despite anything it takes. I found you ultra cool, sexy and what not. 

But like they all say, all good things have to come to an end. The deterioration started slowly and steadily I should say, when I discovered how demanding you were. The more I found out, the scarier it got for me. Guys with previous experience in love had told me that love is pretty demanding. But this much, I'd never imagined. To be frank, that one experience made me forget half my dreams with you. The candle of love, though, kept burning despite the storm around. I had thought you were irreplaceable, till I discovered an equally glamorous alternative to you over here. Then came along a less glamorous and simpler alternative to you. I started falling in love with her too which complicated things. She offered as much to me, as you. With an added incentive of variety as well. Perfect I thought. She was fun loving and wanted to traverse the world with me. It was all falling in place once again.

But first love, they say, stays with you forever. And it did. Till one fine day, you decided to screw me over for my infidelity. It was a blow I just couldn't take. Unfair, I thought, and gave up on you. Or I should say, almost gave up on you. I started seeing one more alternative to you, as I was getting tired of your shenanigans. It was tough, but the guy who introduced me to my most recent love, was a wizard. The way he described you, simply swept me off my feet. Never in my life had I even given her a glance, but all of a sudden, I could sense her beauty. True love? I still don't know. 

Then started all the confusion. I wanted to give up on my first love. But my heart still had a few pangs for her. My second one ditched me on her own. Guess she didn't find me good enough for her. I simply loved spending time with my third one, and every second, was bliss. People said you wouldn't be able to satisfy me and weren't glamorous enough and simply said, lacked the vital statistics. But I was no longer bothered.

I was finally and truly done with you, and had moved on in life. But why? Why? You gave me that fleeting look. One of those looks that had swept me off my feet in the first place, and I started falling for you once again. Not as madly as ever. But enough to give me second thoughts. I should have realized then, that you were just having your revenge at me. But the old romantic in me, thought otherwise. I dreamed of the luxury we could live in, and started to go gaga. 

All this, before you delivered your final blow. And this time it was CRUSHING. It took me a while to realize it, and now it pains. It will take me quite some time to recover from this. But I know now, that you just weren't meant for me. You were just one of those show-offs who floored me with skin show. I had never been in love with you, I guess. I had just been infatuated by you. Now I realize glamour isn't everything in life. And I'm not writing this in jealousy. I have found my true love at last and I just have one thing to say to you. Please stop giving me those fleeting looks when you have a chance to see me. 

A devastated lover boy 

PS: All feelings expressed in this are not fictional. You are free to take your guesses on who/what though. Thanks to Anand Arasu for the inspiration.  
Image Courtesy: Google Image Search