Desicritics Category: BizTech: Customer Service

An Unpleasant Experience at the Local Big Bazaar

DeeptiA — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 17:43:59 EST

As part of a renewed quest for attaining fitness, we decided that we should have all the equipment available, so a Yoga mat was needed. On a Saturday evening, we were resting at home, and decided that we might as well go out and do some shopping, and the motion was passed in record time (although hubby was somewhat reluctant, but without a good reason, was squashed).

So we went to a couple of sports shops, but were not satisfied with either the quality or price of the Yoga mats on offer. Then we remembered that the Big Bazaar nearby also had Yoga mats, and the car was turned in that direction; neither of us remembered that these were the 2 days where Big Bazaar had launched their scheme where you could turn in your old items for exchange, get coupons, and then use those coupons against new purchases. When we saw a queue that was longer than usual, some guesswork and some posters revealed the truth.
We gritted our teeth, decided to buy the Yoga mat, and also a few other items that we needed (after all, we were already here and might as well do some of the grocery shopping). After around 20 minutes, we were done and decided to get onto billing, hoping that the queue would have reduced. Well, no luck. The queue was the same length. We picked the queue that was the shortest, and stood, taking a look at neighboring queues to decide if one of them was shorter. You need to remember that we are fervent believers in Murphy's laws, one of which is that whichever line you are in, it will take the most time.

One elderly lady was getting her stuff billed, and the combination of the billing clerk and the lady were Superman in reverse, with everything seeming to happen in slow motion. I swear, it must have taken them 10 minutes after all the stuff was checked out, to just do the money transfer. She had coupons, she had exchange coupons, she had money, and was trying to use all three to pay, and the clerk was getting badly confused. The queue behind him was getting impatient, with some people starting to mutter. One could not figure out why, when Big Bazaar knew that a lot more people are going to show up, some of the billing counters were unmanned, and they did not have enough people to bag the sold stuff. Not good management.

Then the final disaster. Combine a lady prone to quarreling with some weird policies, and you get a disaster. Big Bazaar would give 2 kg of sugar free with every bill more than Rs. 1200, but if you handed in a bill of Rs. 2500, you still got only 2 kg sugar; this struck me as really weird. It did not take people long to figure out that if you got 2 bills made for Rs. 1200 and Rs. 1300, you would get 4 kg sugar, and this is what this lady was doing. Unfortunately, she did not split her stuff before reaching the counter, and at run time, was moving stuff into billing or away from billing, depending on the value (after all, getting a bill for a Rupee more than Rs. 1200 was a waste); at the same time, after every item was scanned, she would want to know the price, and the discounted price. You can imagine what this was doing to the time it took for billing. I was beginning to turn red and visualized screaming, but then hubby stopped me and counseled patience.

What really complicated matters was that some clothes allowed the exchange coupons, while for other clothes, the exchange coupons were not valid; and the salesman at the clothes counter had promised that all exchange coupons were valid at all items, while for the billing clerk, his machine did not show those offers, and he refused to mark those coupons against some of the items. At this point, clothes were flying here and there, and I was not sure whether any of them really knew which clothes had been billed, which not, and so on.

Then a man behind me decided to do the screaming act wonderfully, screaming at the billing clerk and the lady both; of course, the lady found a new target in the shape of this man, and soon had him a quivering wreck. All I wanted to do was to get out of there, and finally a new clerk arrived, announced that he could not do anything since he had to follow the offers coming on his computer, and practically shooed them out of the place; and would you believe the number of people admiring his actions, even though the mistake was probably with the store people.

What an Idea?

Suresh Naig — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:29:37 EST

I exclaimed “What an Idea?” in disgust, because of its foolishness and lack of forethought. My son was in possession of a prepaid SIM from the service provider Idea Cellular, which along with the handset he had lost a couple of days back. When I called up the number, surprisingly someone answered and I sincerely felt that the handset and SIM were in the hands of some Good Samaritan. However I was jolted when the person arrogantly answered that the phone and the number belonged to her, which she was in possession for over a year.

I immediately called the customer care division to register the loss and block the number. I was in for a second round of shock. The call was transferred to an executive, and after listening to my complaint he said a prepaid cell number cannot be blocked, as per the company rules. Instead he gave me a docket number acknowledging my complaint reporting loss of SIM. I also learnt to my consternation that any person can pay and augment the talk time which will not be refused by idea cellular, in spite of the docket number.

If a handset with a SIM which is lost cannot be blocked, and can be used by any person whose identity could never be established, is it not a farce to demand ID proof while activating the connection. Is it not a possibility, that any person with criminal intent can acquire a SIM and later report loss, so that he can be absolved of a crime, still the SIM continues to be used by his associate?

I feel the Government had banned the sale of prepaid SIM cards in Kashmir, due to this loophole. It is time the Government changes the rules to plug this loophole, lest criminals will continue to rejoice, “What an Idea?”

Post-liberalization India - A Free For All?

Ruchi — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:39:08 EST

My Airtel Broadband was down (second time in a month) so I called the Bharti Airtel customer service number from my Airtel mobile. For about two hours, I couldn’t get through ‘cause the “network was busy”. Finally four hours later when I tried again, I got through. By “got through”, I mean, I got through to the irritating menu system. I punched in my account number, reason for calling, type of problem and finally over five minutes of this annoying IVR later, a real live person came online. And her first question to me is, “what is your account number?”

What the hell is wrong with this company? All this song and dance on their stupid menu is just a delaying tactic? Why should the customer provide the same information twice? That too in its entirety! And lo behold, after giving my account number, she asked me the reason for my call. After being told that my broadband was down, her immediate question was when I last paid my bill, the snide implication being that perhaps my payment delinquency was the reason for non-service.

First, that may well be the reason. However, shouldn’t a telecom company of Airtel’s size have at least sorted out these basic customer service questions? Should these questions need to be asked to the customer instead of being shown on the customer service rep’s screen as soon as I call? After I told her to look it up herself, it took her a good minute to figure out that my payment in fact was not overdue. And then about seven minutes after I was connected, did she actually get to (attempting) to solving my problem. Attempt ‘cause problem was not solved. All I got was a reference number and an unapologetic four hour wait time. So about eight hours of work day downtime, pretty much the whole day.

Where’s the mea culpa? There’s none. This is the same company that will send reminder text messages for bill payments, even before the payment is due! And a day late will attract late fee charges. However, there’s no refund for service downtime. There’s also no refund if they add some “service” to your account without your permission. Those annoying “hello tunes” is a classic example. Suddenly callers are hearing some embarrassing song instead of the classing ring tone; yet can you get a refund without a ridiculously long phone call with some untrained newbie on the other side? The thing is, each such transgression costs the customer very little and thus disincents the long annoying phonecall; however, the volumes make a large amount of money for the company.

This kind of annoying in-your-face, bordering or outright illegal “marketing” and deterrent reparation processes is not isolated to Airtel. All service companies that have grown helter-skelter in the past few years, notably telecom and financial services companies have done so on the back of predatory marketing, ill-equipped infrastructure, and of course speed-trained (hence untrained) customer service representatives who are unable to handle even the slightest deviation from whatever crap script they get to read from. Where the customer is at fault either due to neglect or due to plain ignorance (in the case of many new users of service), customer will pay. If the company is at fault, even then the user will pay.

This raises a serious question. In a country where the population is not previously exposed to organized retail and/or service, who should bear the cost of educating and organizing the customer? Post-liberalization, large multinational companies flocked to India salivating at the prospect of one of the world’s largest consumer base. However, since per-capita incomes are so low here, profits are driven by volume as opposed to high margins. This means that the marginal value of each customer is very little and hence, it makes dollar/rupee sense to reduce after sales-service to a bare minimum to the point of ignoring the customer. However, it is not acceptable for these companies to reduce their after sales service standards (to reduce costs) to such an extent that a new user would almost surely get lost in the maze. If adequate levels of customer service are not profitable, then they shouldn’t be in the business; taking advantage of an unexposed and unorganized populace is pure predatory.

Haagen-Dazs, Mistaken Cause

mbjesq — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:59:56 EST

Photo credit: Times of India

As I have written in a different context, Indians have a strange love of parsing insults from the innocuous -- or as in this case, the poorly thought-through. Particularly when the phantom effrontery seems to come from foreigners.

The latest uproar involves a newly opened Haagen-Dazs ice cream store, which had the bad judgment to fly the banner depicted above to announce its store opening. It reads:

PARTIED AT THE FRENCH RIVIERA? WELCOME.
Haagen-Dazs

EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVELERS

Access restricted only to holders of international passports.

The reaction began with a sketchily described post by Times of India writer and Chief Editor of Times Internet, Rajesh Kaira, on his TOI blog, Random Access. According to Mr. Kaira a pseudonymous "friend" of his was refused entry to this Haagen-Dazs store for failure to proffer an "international passport."

The story was repeated by the TOI as a regular news story. Both pieces carried the headline, "Sorry, Indians Not Allowed."

Since then, it has blanketed the blogs, generating breathless commentary. Feedback from readers has been overwhelmingly incensed and incendiary, even in response to the commendably even-handed post on Desicritics.

I don't get it. Sure, the banner was stupid beyond belief. But that's just it: who could read it and believe that it intended anything as sensible as an insult?

The promotion clearly meant to create cachet by equating the consumption of Haagen-Dazs with the romance and luxury of international travel. Was this ice cream seller determined to sell only to people who vacation in San Tropez? Of course not. To people who wish to sell us stuff, "exclusivity" means little more than "limited to anyone who will buy."

In Noida, that means Indians. It makes no sense to interpret "international" to mean "foreign" or "non-Indian". How many non-Indians are regularly hanging-out in the strip malls of the heinous suburban dystopia that is Noida? We can agree that the ham-handed promotion doesn't reflect a great deal of business sense in the first place, but was it really intended to exclude 100% of the store's potential customers?

True, the Times of India writer says his anonymous friend was excluded by the store manager (an Indian) for failure to present the so-called "international passport." Is this remotely credible? First, consider the source: TOI. Enough said. Second, doesn't this smack of, "I know a guy who knew a guy who..."? Third, what the hell is an "international passport"? The only thing I can think of is the United Nations Laissez-Passer, issued to employees of the UN and ILO.

The concluding line on the banner, "Access restricted only to holders of international passports" is, indeed, problematic. It is rather artless and seems takes the theme of "exclusivity" far too literally. But the clumsiness of the language also suggests that this was something generated locally and not by the marketing department of the American overlords. Leaving aside the inanity of the "international passport" requirement, what professional copy writer would follow the word "restricted" with the redundant word "only"? One in India, only.

Common sense suggests that (a) this was a dumb-ass promotional idea, (b) to foster the equally dumb-ass consumption of absurdly overpriced ice cream, (c) badly mishandled in the execution by some dumb-ass Indian ad agency, (d) on behalf of some dumb-ass decision-maker either at the franchisee or within the licensor's organization. The interesting issue is the last. Who was ultimately responsible for this idiocy? If there is insult to be found in this fiasco, was it a racist barb emanating from shameless foreigners?

I did a little investigation, calling first to Nestle, which owns the Haagen-Dazs brand, and then to the public relations office of General Mills, Inc., which owns the rights to all Haagen-Dazs franchise licensing outside of North America. The spokespeople at both companies stated that each store is an individual franchisee, with "independent responsibility and control of advertising and promotion." This doesn't necessarily mean, however, that General Mills didn't have a hand in the fiasco.

And which General Mills?

The next morning, I received an email from the director of Haagen-Dazs brand management at General Mills India Pvt. Ltd., Arindam Halder. Mr. Halder is the architect of brand management for Haagen-Dazs in India, and the man responsible for overseeing the opening of franchises like the one in Noida. His note offers some important details, which support my reading of the event as an ill-conceived marketing idea made even worse by incoherent manifestation:

There have been some reports on various online media alleging that the recently opened Häagen-Dazs shop in New Delhi, India, denied access to Indians. We vehemently and categorically deny this. Häagen-Dazs products and our Häagen-Dazs shop in India are and will always be for our consumers in India.
The recently opened Haagen-Dazs shop is open to one and all, and there’s no question of barring entry to anyone on any basis. The preview on Thursday, 10th December had a morning media event which was attended by journalists of repute from Indian media. The same evening we had a launch party for our friends and families, less than 5% of whom were foreigners. Also, during the mock training days at the shop leading up to 10th December, a lot of interest were generated and hundreds of walk ins were given samples of our ice cream. The store is now open to all public and seeing brisk business.

The poster in question was part of initial local store communication at a few locations within the same mall announcing the opening of the new Häagen-Dazs shop in the mall. The message was intended to suggest that you can enjoy, for instance, a taste of the French Riviera without traveling to France – by enjoying Häagen-Dazs. Unfortunately the reference to the international passport holder on the poster may have led to a significant miscommunication. This was completely unintended and we apologize for creating the misimpression that may have hurt our sentiments as Indians.

Regards,

Arindam Haldar
General Mills India

Clearly, there was no intent or attempt to exclude Indians; and we can all agree the brouhaha was the result of what Mr. Haldar euphemistically describes as a "significant miscommunication." But there are two very pregnant ambiguities in his statement. First, the "local store communication" language doesn't make clear who originated the promotional idea or created the banner, General Mills India (namely, him) or the franchisee. It simply says that the campaign was deployed locally, in the mall where the store was located. Second, the last line, in which Mr. Haldar says, on behalf of General Mills India, "[W]e apologize for creating the misimpression", suggests rather strongly that the banner came directly from General Mills India. It sounds very different than, say, "We regret that this misimpression occurred at a Haagen-Dazs franchise."

The concluding apology is also laugh-out-loud funny. So eager is Mr. Halder to self-identify as Indian, he essentially begs forgiveness for an Indian company having offended itself.

What conclusions can we draw from all this?

I think we can agree that there is no evil foreign hand in this story, no American or European racist out to mistreat Indians in their own country or determined to slight them. Indeed, Mr. Kaira of TOI got it exactly right (in his original essay, not the subsequent, abbreviated news item), even if he failed to look at the contribution of the licensor:

Whatever it is, it is idiotic. I checked later and found that the franchisee is an Indian company based in Delhi and the man incharge [sic] is also an Indian. I have often maintained that we ourselves are our biggest enemies. Our mentality is that of slaves and we think anything is good only if its approved by foreigners, or the “holders of international passport”. This is all about how India and Indians see themselves. Foreigners have nothing to do with it.

I don't necessarily fault the bloggers fanning the flames of this supposed outrage for failing to take the 15 minutes Mr. Kaira and I did to pick up the phone and get the facts. It is slightly disappointing, however, that the online commentators have almost uniformly ignored the obvious lack of malicious intent behind the fucked-up promotion. And there is yet deeper culpability in repeating only the tastiest, most shocking morsels of this story, in complete disregard of the basic fact that the errors in judgment were made not by foreigners, but by Indians -- even though this was reported and thoughtfully analyzed in Mr. Kaira's original story. This episode presents a cautionary study of how untrustworthy and manipulable online information can become as true journalism cedes way to what passes for "citizen journalism" in the blog world. It is always tempting to tell the story, not according to the facts, but according to the sermon one wishes to preach. The art is to tell a morally compelling story within the bounds of the evidence.

To her credit, and as we would expect, Deepti Lamba's Desicritics essay tells the full story -- as it was revealed in the original TOI piece -- and doesn't shy away from noting Indian responsibility for both the debacle itself and the underlying attitudes which engendered it. Yet, even Dee reaches the abrupt and slightly ambiguous conclusion that "racist brands" should be chased from India. Brands aren't ethical agents. People and corporations are. And those at the heart of this story were Indian. Perhaps Dee's intended plea is to abolish self-loathing; but somehow the anti-foreign implication creeps through.

There will be some, of course, bitterly disappointed that there is no longer a foreign scapegoat by whom to feel insulted; but they will have no difficulty transferring their ire to me for pointing this out. And it will feel just as good, since I am a foreigner.

If Indians want to salvage some national pride from the situation, they can always take encouragement from the fact this crazy promotion could happen in Mother India, but could never have occurred in the United States. After all, most Americans don't have a passport and have not heard of France.

IIM CAT Snafu Continues - Mismanagement and Inconvenience

Aaman Lamba — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:19:45 EST

The first online Common Admission Test (CAT) for the Indian Institutes of Management presented a poor showing for the institutes and the company conducting the test, Prometric, as problems continued to plague some test centres, impacting a number of students across the country.

Problems started on the first day of the CAT, which runs up to December 7th, with students being unable to log in to the test, and a variety of excuses being made by the test centres and IIMs, ranging from hardware problems and virus attacks. Test examiners and invigilators did not appear to have been well trained. Often, computers hung while tests were underway, creating an unfair advantage for the student. The central server is reportedly affected by a virus or malware, and it is strange there was no backup server. Fail safes and alternatives did not seem to have been sufficiently planned, and students were mostly left in the lurch with little to no clarity about students taking the test at alternate dates. Many students travel across the country, take leaves, and generally prepare mentally for the test, thus new slots might be inconvenient in various ways, and affect the general outcome.

Over 50 out of the 360 labs were reportedly closed and problems have continued on day 3. A press conference convened by the IIM Convenor and Prometric representatives seemed to have nothing concrete to offer, apart from platitudes and promises to accommodate all the unfortunate students who had faced problems. The convener seemed to have not taken care of even basic courtesies like turning off his cell phone before the conference and provided generic answers to questions, before trying to pass the buck to the test vendor, Prometric, not best practices from a management institute. As the Wall Street Journal put it, the IIMs need to practice what they are supposed to preach,

The weekend CAT fiasco, in which 50 of the 360 centres had systems fail and students could not take the test, has reinforced the perception of poor coordination and collaboration of IIMs. Going by feedback from some of the candidates who took the test , it seems they not only failed to manage the technical aspects of the test but also did a bad job in training the staff present in various centres. If good management is about reducing uncertainty and systematic errors, then the IIMs have failed that test .The way the coordination committee of the IIMs reacted to the fiasco is also a matter of concern.

The HRD Ministry, under whom the IIMs function, has sent a letter to the IIMs and the CAT Convenor, Professor Satish Deodhar, asking for a factual report on the disruptions of the Test.

The CAT fiasco also creates a problem for broader adoption of computer-aided testing, that is expected to be a major growth industry for test-happy India.

Jet Airways Strike Ends - Victory for Labour

Aaman Lamba — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:35:55 EDT

The five-day old simulated strike by Jet Airways pilots came to an end with the agreement of the management to take back the pilots who had been dismissed for forming a union, the National Aviators Guild. In return, the pilots agreed for a review of the registration of the union by the Registrar of Trade Unions. A coordination committee may replace the union.

The agitation saw over 400 pilots call in sick, and had disrupted operations for the premier airline, cancelling hundreds of flights and impacting thousands of passengers, but the pilots claimed they were fighting for a greater cause, and refused to budge. In response, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal threatened to hire foreign pilots, termed the 'sick' pilots 'terrorists', while continuing to work behind the scenes to resolve the crisis.

The government stayed out of the affair for the most part, apart from making alternate flight arrangements and encouraging a speedy settlement. Rival airlines took advantage of the situation and hiked airfares until the government ordered them returned to normal levels.

The event demonstrated the force of collective action still had effect, and while the root cause may not have been onerous working conditions as with miners or industrial labor, it fit the definition of a trade union as a "continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment" (History of Trade Unionism, 1894).

As a union of the executive class, it had further significance, since these are typically rare. My father helped co-found a similar union in the steel industry in the 1970s, standing for ethics and honesty, although it later became a mouthpiece of the management, as they often do. The right to join or abstain from a trade union is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While unions serve to level the playing field between the management and individual employees, it can also work to the detriment of employees by driving up wages and reducing employment, as in the American model. It can also mean disruption of public services and reduce customer-orientation, as we have seen with the Jet Airways strike.

It remains to be seen how long flights will take to return to normal, and whether this will have a lasting impact on Jet Airways' image,

Air India Under Investigation For Over-Boarding

Ashish — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:26:47 EDT

Airlines frequently overbook, given that there is always a number of people who will cancel, and hence there is a mathematics related to the number of people who overbook. Sometimes airlines land up in a situation whereby they find that this mathematics goes awry, and they find that there are more passengers than seats available. In such cases, the airline has to placate irate passengers, and decide who can go and who needs to be refused. Such cases typically cause a lot of unhappiness. However, it is not accepted that an airline boards more passengers than there are seats available.

Even in these bad economic times, it is unacceptable to have more passengers on board than there are seats, given that these are paying passengers who have a right to proper treatment. Modern airlines have automated systems whereby boarding passes are issued which prevents extra passengers from getting loaded. However, if the airline wishes to violate such conditions, there is very little that can be done.

Further, after the terrorist incidents, the cockpits of planes are now high security zones where passengers are no longer allowed. So, if there is a case when a passenger is allowed inside the cockpit, that is against all security norms and needs to be thoroughly investigated.

We have a case where all this happened. Air India, the national carrier of India, had a case whereby it was found that the airline had boarded 3 extra passengers; this case is now being investigated by the regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). In order to ensure that this case is brought to its logical conclusion, the investigation needs to be thorough (link to article):

In these recessionary times, airlines globally are operating on half-empty seats. But Air India, which is passing through its worst ever financial crisis, is in fresh trouble for allegedly carrying extra passengers on a fully loaded flight. What adds to the irony is that the excess passengers were discovered in a probe into the aircraft's door falling apart when it started moving while attached to an aerobridge!
"Of these three, one woman passenger was accommodated in the cockpit and two others on the foldable seats where cabin crew sits during take off and landing," said sources. The DGCA can now take criminal action against AI for this violation. The cockpits in modern aircraft have three seats. While two are for the pilot and co-pilot, the third is called a jump seat which is usually vacant. Since the process of issuing boarding passes is completely computerized, the system stops generating passes once a flight is full. In this case, however, the probe has found that boarding passes were allegedly issued manually to enable the extra passengers to clear the different levels of pre-embarkation security checks.

This action by the airline was a gross violation of the air safety norms. In this case, the airline was caught because of another incident, and this fact came out during the investigation.

Positive Steps by SEBI - Anchor Investors, No Load Funds, & Lower Fees

Aaman Lamba — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:09:58 EDT

SEBI Chairman C B Bhave continues his trend of investor-friendly actions by various announcements today.

SEBI, the market regulator in India, announced the approval of 'anchor investors' for public offers. This allows an individual or entity to subscribe up to 30% of the institutional share of an IPO, similar to a pre-placement agreement, and enforces a lock-in of 30 days on such investors. Since 50% of an IPO is typically reserved for institutional investors, this would mean upto 15% of the total offering could be given to an 'anchor investor.'

The bidding process for anchor investors will be done one day prior to the opening of the IPO for subscription. This would thereby impute confidence to the retail investors as they see a large investor taking a significant stake in the IPO.

This step is expected to stabilize public offerings and give an overall boost to the primary market. This could lead to concentrated shareholdings, though, and it is likely the general norms of any single investor holding over 34% stake in a company having to make an open offer will still hold.

In addition, SEBI announced that entry loads on new or existing mutual funds would be done away with. Any commission will be disclosed and paid upfront by the investor to the distributor, bringing much-needed transparency into mutual fund investing. This revolutionary step could shake up the mutual fund industry overnight.

In an even more far-reaching decision, no listed company will be allowed to issue shares with superior voting rights. There could also be no preferential issues with superior voting rights. This levels the playing field between investors and promoters, who have typically used this route to reward themselves.

Fees on both equity and debt have been cut by 50% and rights issue disclosure norms relaxed.

Finally, the Board would consider amending its structure to provide itself powers similar to those of a civil court, lending it more teeth and enforcement powers.

FlyDubai, Dubai's First Low Cost Carrier Starts Operations

Kim — Wed, 3 Jun 2009 10:14:51 EDT

Flydubai, Dubai's first low-cost airline, formed by the government of Dubai, began its commercial operations yesterday, on June 1st.

The inaugural flight took off from Dubai International's Terminal 2 at 10:30 bound for Beirut.

FlyDubai is currently flying to Beirut and Amman. They will start flights to Damascus and Alexandria next week and plan to expand rapidly to countries in the Middle East, GCC and India. The evenutal plan as stated on their website is to extend to Iran, Eastern Europe and North & East Africa.

Fares are really low. For example, there is currently a flight from Alexandria to Dubai for 825(LE) Egyptian pounds. When I checked a week ago. A return flight between Cairo and Dubai was roughly costing about 3000LE on Emirates airlines and 2100LE on Egypt Air.

How does flydubai keep its fares low?
1. The tickets are one way tickets for one person, priced on a system based on availability, demand, time of day etc etc. Quoted prices include all applicable taxes. Prices will be quoted in the currency of the country of departure of the flight
2. You pay to change: If for some reason, you need to change your flight, you pay 100dhs per ticket plus the price difference from your original ticket if upwards and get a voucher refunded to you if the price moves downwards. You do have to pay the 100dhs charge per ticket, no matter what the scenario. (There are "free to change" tickets too, but these are normally priced higher than "pay to change")
3. Changes or cancellations can only be carried out 24 hours prior to the flight. Any later than that, you lose the whole amount.
4. Children above the age of 2, pay full fare.
5. If traveling with a child below the age of 2, there is a service charge of 50dhs plus taxes.
6. Fares are lower if you book from the website. A service charge is levied if you book via their dedicated call center (35dhs) or through an agent.
7. The quoted fare allows you up to 10kilos of hand baggage. You have to pay higher for more luggage. If you pre-book your extra luggage on the website, it will be cheaper than just arriving at the airport and then paying for the luggage.
For e.g.: Your 1st piece of checked in baggage (up to 32 kilos) if pre-booked online will cost 40dhs, but if you do it at the airport, it will cost you 150 dhs. The 2nd piece will cost 100 and 150 respectively.
8. If you want to select your seat, you pay 5dhs.
9. If you want a seat with extra legroom, it is 50 dhs.
10. A boarding pass is issued as soon as you book your ticket.

In these times of Recession, this airline could really take off, if they find a large enough market segment.

As I see it, business and holiday travelers without much luggage could find this airline cheaper than its competitors.

For those people I have often seen in the Dubai airport ahead of me, trying to check in 5-7 suitcases each on Egypt Air flights back to Cairo while trying to semi-conceal another 4-6 pieces of hand luggage, this would not be an economical choice.

Nor would it work for people who travel to Dubai with the primary purpose of shopping. I have seen so many piles of new clothes and children's toys unceremoniously dumped in heaps at Dubai's airport, because paying the excess baggage fee on Emirates airlines does not make those clothes and toys worth it. People seem to find it cheaper to just dump the stuff (some with tags not yet removed) than pay the excess baggage fee. These people aren't going to be traveling via FlyDubai any time soon.

This will work for people who just carry their laptop and a change of clothes or two. Its also just 40dhs more for 1 piece of checked in baggage provided you book it online at the time of booking your ticket. So this option will work for a week long travel.

I wonder if the airline allows toiletries in hand luggage with the above restrictions that they have placed. If they don't, it would be cheaper to buy and discard toiletries on arrival than pay 100dhs to check it in.

They must have researched their pricing before coming out with this strategy. It will be interesting to see how full their flights go. There is a large market, given that it is still impossible to get a ticket on a Thursday evening Emirates flight from Dubai to Cairo, if you haven't booked well in advance.

You can book tickets directly on their site:
http://flydubai.com/

Huge Growth in Telecom in India

Ashish — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:08:26 EDT

Mobile phone companies keep fighting with each other about the number of new users that they have signed up; their stock prices are dependent on how many users they have and whether they are the number one mobile phone company. So, you will see a lot of news dedicated to which company is the top dog, which company is getting ahead in the game, and so on. For a sample, review this news article:

Vodafone Essar has added more new users in March, upstaging Bharti Airtel and taking the total GSM additions in the month to 10.8 million, 17.4% more than the additions in February. The record growth in the past three months is clear proof of the fact that the world’s fastest growing telecom market remains untouched by the economic slowdown.

India set a world record in January this year by adding 15 million mobile users, the highest ever monthly additions in any country. GSM telcos added 9.7 million in January. But there was a small dip in February to 9.2 million as there were three less working days in the month.

This increase in the number of users is touted as a major factor in the growth of the telecom business in the country and a reason for the decrease in call charges, and this may be true. It is true that the mobile telecom business has expanded like anything. However, a flip side is the quality of these services is dropping like anything.

I have an Airtel post-paid connection in Delhi, and for the past few months, the quality of the service has dramatically come down. As an example, I was traveling with a friend to office, and had to take an urgent meeting over the phone. In the past, it was possible to do this easily enough, all you had to do was to plug earphones into the phone (or use the speaker phone) and you were all set. However, now, in a 45 minute period, the call dropped at least 4 times. It was mighty embarrassing to suddenly stop hearing the other voice, and realize that the call had dropped (the only reason why nobody made fun of this was probably that they also face similar problems). This is not specific to Airtel, friends having Idea or Vodafone report similar problems.

In fact, there are certain points on my journey where I apologize to people before-hand, knowing that the next 200 meter section of the location will certainly see the call drop (it happens regularly), and calling customer support had not helped in the past. I would have blamed a phone set if it happened only to me, but it happens to other mobile sets as well.

This is not a new problem (refer this article from 2007). Even 2 years back, problems in telecom service was recognized as a growing problem. From the looks of it, it does not seem that the problem has solved, and TRAI does not seem to be very bothered. The other problem of facing network congestion as a normal day occurrence has also increased drastically.