Danda

Last month my Wi-Max connection stopped working all of a sudden. The error message I was getting was of “invalid user name and / or password” now this was kind of strange since all my dues were cleared and the connection was unlimited usage (because that’s what it meant in the days of dialup)

I called my provider to discuss the problem with them and I was told that the issue will be sorted within twelve hours and my complaint is registered, I got a complain number. When I checked it the next morning it was still not working. I called back to hear that I was misinformed the first time & it takes twenty four to forty eight hours and the tech support team will get back to me shortly. For the next two days I kept in touch with my provider for unlimited number of times and every time I used hear that I’ll be contacted by the tech support team within ten to fifteen minutes.

After two days when I spoke to the customer services representative and informed her that its been forty eight hours and I was initially told that it’ll take forty eight hours at max. She very calmly informed me that it takes FORTY EIGHT WORKING HOURS. If you’ve seen Tom and Jerry cartoons, there it happens when Jerry does something to piss Tom off and since Tom cannot do anything about it so all that happens is that a volcano comes out of his head and ears due to anger, well… All I can say is something similar happened to me.

I requested her to transfer my call to the supervisor or some shift in-charge to which I was informed that they don’t come to take calls and whatever it is I only have one option of banging my head with my phone. After repeatedly insisting she asked me to hold & came back on line after a couple of minutes to say that the supervisor is saying that he’ll definitely call me in ten minutes as he’s busy with something. I chose to believe her (as if I had any other option)

After waiting for the call for five hours I decided to launch a complaint against my provider to PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority). I was told by friends that PTA is very good in dealing with the consumer complaints so I thought to give it a try. After my email next two days were Saturday & Sunday (weekend). I didn’t bother calling my provider after complaining to PTA & was waiting for lady luck to shed some mercy on me.

Monday afternoon I got a call from the Tech Support Team of my provider who told me that his head of department asked him to call me and solve my internet related problem. I told him that I was out at that time so he gave me his personal mobile number and told me to call him back whenever I get time. I called him around 21:00 (after office hours) and he solved my problem within minutes. Turns out all I needed to do was to reinstall the drivers and it started working fine.

After that when I checked my email, There was an email from PTA which was carbon copied to me. It was addressed to my provider and some deadline was given to solve my problem. Also they had asked to report the cause of delay. When I checked the time that email was sent, it turns out I got the call from the Tech Support Guy just a few minutes after the email from PTA was sent.

I was highly impressed by what a Government Organization did for me. Like a lot of Pakistanis I also don’t think very highly of Government Departments but this made me reconsider my impression. However at the same time I was quite surprised the way my Internet provider acted in this scenario. They are a private company, they have a lot of competitors in the market yet I had to suffer at the cost of not having internet for five days just because they were a little lazy.

Why do we don’t do our jobs without being pressurized by some higher Authorities? A question I’ve been asking myself for a month now, may be one of you can come up with an answer...