Keya Sarkar: Experience what difference?

PEOPLE LIKE THEM

For those of us who stay in Santiniketan, back-ups are a way of life. After you have bought yourself an inverter, you invest in extra batteries in case the power cuts are longer than what the battery allows. You also buy a few emergency lights in case the inverter fails and there is no one ready to repair it on a holiday. The really desperate also invest in generators (neighbours be damned!). Similarly, those with dial-up connections also apply for broadband. Those on BSNL, also purchase Reliance or TATA connections. "You never know," is the refrain.

Early this month our telephone line had snapped (incessant rains) but was pretty promptly fixed by our regular BSNL "lineman". The phone line was missed because with it goes our net connection. But even after it got fixed and we still couldn't dial up, we figured our computer modem had decided to give up.

Given that cybercafés are hell holes, the prospect of doing without the net till we got to Kolkata to buy a new machine was not a happy one. We were in a glum mood when the TATA Indicom advertisement happened to us. There was in the papers of August 14 an advertisement for a USB modem. What better way to celebrate freedom than to have an internet connection not dependent on our phone line. Those buying a connection on August 14/15, the advertisement said, would even get a flashlight! When you live in Santiniketan you learn not to scoff at flash lights and so off we went to buy our connection.

The distributor showed us how it worked (the modem), but said it would be a while before we got our flash lights (the company had not supplied them as yet). We were willing to wait for our free gift, excited at the thought of finally getting on to the net in the comfort of our home.

We filled our form, paid the full amount due and then were told, matter-of-factly, that we would get our SIM activated in three days. "Why? Why not today?" we demanded, feeling horribly cheated. "I thought we only had to wait for our flashlight, not surely our SIM," I tried to reason.

But that was how it was. Who is to argue with company policy? We waited for three days. Our fears were true. No SIM card. "The computers have hung," said the dealer in an officious tone. "What?" "Where?" "Ridiculous," we said. He promised to do it the next day.

Of course, his cell was switched off the next day. Finally he called. "No supplies from Durgapur," was the excuse this time. We sent a letter of cancellation. He called back in an hour and told us he had managed to locate a SIM in Suri and could he activate it within the next two hours?

Completely confused by then as to what our reaction to such standards of service should be, we settled for a waiver of a month's rental to agree to a connection. It was by then five days since we had paid in full and some more in cybercafés since. After two days some one called from the TATA Indicom office in Durgapur to say that a month's waiver of rental would be against "company policy" but he could give us a La Opala tea set instead! When we refused he was very surprised, especially because the tea set costs more than a month's rental, he informed us helpfully. He also told us we were the first customers to want to cancel a connection. I couldn't help ask how long he had been with the company. Three whole months, he said.

The distributor however didn't give up. He came home to apologise for the mess, offered to pay the rental from his share. To cut a long story short, I sent this column via my TATA Indicom connection.

We continue to wait for our flash light though. I am afraid to ask. Just in case I am offered some knitting needles instead.