Customers Worst Days In a lifetime

There has been never an incident like this in my life ever ever before. And I wish it should not happen to any other person .

Product : Tata Safari

Service Center : OMR Check Point, Perungudi, Chennai

The history : Tata Safari after being bought from another user , has been given for proactive checkup and up-gradation, where ever needed. They done initial check up and told, there are suspension , braking , power steering, FIP which requires immediate attention . And I agreed , all works were done with assurance that , there wont be any issues here after [again and again].

It took clean two weeks or 15 days for them to work perfectly and fix the issues. After doing proper work, vehicle was delivered .It was Saturday, however compared to what vehicle was previously and present status , noise was high .

Worst Day1 >> Since the fuel level was low , I went to gas station to fill it up. But within time Engine heat shot to maximum, and I had only driven a mere 5 kms. I called up service guy & he told bring vehicle tomorrow to service center we will fix it. And it has been already late.

Worst Day 2 >> I took vehicle to service center, told him about issues.That was a Sunday. They took vehicle inside . Later came back and said issue is fixed you can take road test. Myself and with mechanic , took car for a 10 Km test , and it was found AC was working even if the AC control is in switch off position. Secondly engine heat shooted up as I mentioned before. We took vehicle back to service center . I kept the engine on ON position. I told him "Is this the quality of work , should I have to come back again and again after spending this much money ??"

Then mechanic told to service attender , its in high speed the engine heat is shooting up. I told him, its not a matter of speed, the E-fan is not working , which should work as AC is ON or based on temperature. He told No. He explained , TATA engines are set to cutoff if engine heat is high and wont work after that. I disagreed.

Since vehicle was in standstill position for sometime and simply switched on , I also wanted to show him , AC control is not working , which was working previously. However to my worst , I was about to discover the engine heat was in the maximum position. I tried stopping the engine by taking off key , but it was not working. service man started running in search for help. Finally I asked mechanic to pull the lever stopping the engine. They also cut off battery supply. Then Sales man told "I am sorry Sir, now I know seriousness" . I was sent to my residence in two wheeler and my entire weekend got spoiled like that.

Vehicle was delivered Monday ,with claim that issue has been fixed. However I was unable to take it to long drives or more than 20Kms because of work pressure.

Later I discovered , there were so many small small fixes which they haven't done properly , some dents which wasnt there . They told they will fix it. I repeated the words . "Are you expecting me to come back to you again and again " for which he repeated "No sir , we do perfect job , no more issues "

Day 3 >>

The Worst

Day 4 >>

Worstest

Day 5 >> Waiting

Tata Customer Care : Response good.

Worst Days :

1st EarthQuaking Experience

Chennai Tremors.

Earthquake of magnitude 7.5-7.7 was reported at Andaman & Nicobar Islands . Tsunami alert was issued by Pacific Center. The earthquake was said to be of 35 Km depth. The date was 12 June 2010 Late night IST.

The same day I have done some off-roading and traveled through bumpy roads. In the night I thought of going to office [2nd floor] for a few minutes even though not a working day. I reached there and started checking mails & statuses.

Later we went outside to take tea. After tea I planned to sit few more minutes. After some moment, body started shaking, like the engine of cars :) . Initially I was unable to figure out what is it. As it continued, I watched the body, which was shaking. I though it as something related to todays offroading adventure. But the duration made me confused. Hence I kept quiet. Similarly in the office where around 30-40 was seated , nobody reported anything.

Later colleague from upstairs came to our office The person sitting next me went to give him access.He asked have you felt something. Then obviously answer was YES. Then only I & friends understood that we all have felt it. My friend didn't report this as he thought its not real , as he was sleepy. Similarly most remained quiet. So discussion started all over. Still I didnt checked internet for any data feed.

Later I returned to my accommodation. Where I found a group containing only Chinese- Korean Colleagues are standing outside.And all of the Chinese-Koreans staying there was in that group. There was receptionist trying to take them inside.As I entered accommodation , receptionist enquired of earthquake. However the staff said that they didn't feel anything even though they were in ground floor. While all the others accommodated , continued their sleep ,without anyone reporting any tremors.

I also joined the group , to shed of their panic. Chinese-Koreans were very much disturbed with quake reporting. Men & Women alike. They started querying me

"Have you experienced Earth Quake" " Yes"

"Is this the first time you experienced " " Yes ".

"Is this the first time in Chennai / India " "No " , ""

"Is this building earthquake proof " Then I pointed receptionist and told them "He can better give answer"

"Have you experienced Earth Quake" " Yes"

"Is this the first time you experienced " " Yes ".

These questions were asked repeatedly.

Then they started sharing their experiences. They have seen 15 storied buildings swinging in air , People falling from buildings in their country during earth quake. And they told that they are living in earthquake prone area. One girl was particular about saying, since we have seen this, we know it better & it is scary.

Then one guy asked for net access & checked magnitude. Then only we came to know magnitude & place of orgin. They all told that this is very big to create trouble. Also queried whether place is near to sea or not. Finally they returned to their rooms.

I found out that Tsunami warning has been issued , even though Tsunami has occurred or not was not confirmed. Then some Chinese people came out with one bag and took water in bottle and some food . This was a kind of precautionary measures.

It was the school drills which was attend by a foreigner teenager, who saved lives of so many during the Tsunami that took over Chennai & South - East of India.

It was an experience , like never before and Chinese-Korean knowledge sharing was a good safety lesson.

Boredom of Frequent Innovations

Blogs , Tweets , Facebook, Orkut, My Space. All come up so frequently

Indian Groupism

Where ever we look into we can see "Group"ism in India. No matter , trade union, governments, offices , worship places, religion ,caste etc. It is basic instinct in every Indian to categorise / group people .

As per history , Indians has the unique classification of people based on their work . Which eventually gave way to caste system. Even though several other religions reined in India marginally, there also the differentiations remain not in form of caste , but grouped/categorised. You can see group in political parties, temples ,churches ,religion, mosques all in all. we group maoists and terrorists differently. We even group individuals as a group. We align people in single group lead by a leader. As soon as a group is formed a board of directors or director is also crowned , aimed to protect group.

Indians can easily identify the common features of objects/ subjects and create groups accordingly so that next time one comes , he wont have to wait much, till he is into a group. Group is visible every where, within school , colleagues, professors, educational system also. Group is also visible in relationships , within family, within sisters , within brothers, etc.

However the west & rest of the world seems to be different with what we have in groupism as per information.

The least place where we cannot find GROUPism is the Armed forces. However this might be because of less public attention / media coverage. We even group people based on immigration from nearest state also.

The Spoilsport of '0'

"0" for which all Indians are proud of . Looks like we have much more affection towards 0 than ever before.
Illustrating a true incident.

I was in implementation team in one of my projects. There was a cluster installation of a product. Even though we crossed deadline due to sizing reasons, we were able to complete installation on first server [primary server] and remote database making it more complex. Key point was this was not been performed by anyone among us , so there was space for confusion & doubts. It was a great relief to see this complex architecture installation getting completed in primary server , there by creating creating database. With more than 18hrs spend in cordinating with different teams to make storage , server ,os, cluster ready, I thought of completing second installation too. But we were stuck with error .
"Secondary server is unable to find the primary server ".

• I started debugging
• Windows team started debugging
• Case was logged with OEM

And no need to say all pressure on team

For two weeks I & OEM was behind finding this root cause. Finally it has come to my notice that the hostname with which primary server was configured & the name published in DNS were different. The configured hostname violated naming conventions of company , so we had to redo installation again.

Instead of naming server as SYSTEM"O"1, Windows team by mistake configured it as SYSTEM"zero"1. But both looks same at first sight in system; SYSTEMO1=SYSTEM01 .

This remembered me of the story of spacing of "," taking a mans life.

"0" can make our life miserable this much.

Do or Die Experience

Whats a d0 0r die condition

I have been to Bangalore and was visiting home town . And commutation was by bus. And for which I approached one of the famous private operators to Kerala "Kallada Travels". Since it was festive season I took tickets for both up and down journey.

Due to an official Urgency I had to travel to another location , which was not Bangalore.And this was the same day of my return . So had to cancel the return ticket .And luckily the travels office was far away and there was only one hour left to move to complete all the activities including packing the bag. So car clocked above 100 most of the time .

We then reached Kallada Travels office , the personnel initially told this is an e-ticket so can be cancelled through phone only . I called up the number and clarified that this was bought from your Madivala office. Then I handed over the phone to him based on their request. And they asked to follow up with local office. Then later office came up saying , since this is a return ticket this cannot be cancelled. My self and parents got amazed. Or even shocked.

We asked him for a clarification. He replied "You should only book return tickets only if it is confirmed, if you are not travelling dont book". This words were repeated again and again. And according to them , a return ticket is the one which is booked from a station other than the one we are boarding on date of travel. This really raised eyebrows.

Most funny clauses of this statement are >>

So if a person wants to travel back , he has to get the ticket from where he is boarding after reaching the place.

Also even if there is any emergency , he should / must continue his journey.

Thirdly as per terms and conditions in ticket, Travels can delay , postpone , deviate , reschedule trips , but customer is not allowed to

Finally even if there is no clause in the ticket under terms and conditions mentioning anything, u cannot cancel trip.

I called up the e-booking number , fortunately they were also in the same tone. But as I raised questions , they had nothing to answer. Again phone was handed over to the local office . Finally they refunded a minimum amount.

That time the local office response was "Would you still like to cancel the ticket as you will loose a huge amount of money" :)

So much time was wasted , so much calls were done , so much tension and this had to again compensated with another speeding.

So It was a do or die condition. Customer is totally dis-satisfied.

The Spirit of Republic Day Parade

It has been always my greatest ambition to view the Republic day parade or Independence day parade at New Delhi . However the distance from Kerala to Delhi counts. I was even keen to go to Delhi only to view this spectacular event.

The main issue with gaining an entry was that the awareness levels of residents & localities .They were clueless. And nobody is bothered to find out a way. And some one even commented , "Are civilians allowed to watch Republic day ?". I dont know what resulted comment. And most of them wanted to see the R'day Parade , if somebody take them there , but was eager.

However my quest & will, got the doors opened and got the tickets. I was not sure though on how long I was going to be in Delhi. Thankfully my career demanded my presence here . And this uncertainty made me to get tickets on the closing day 2 days before.

We started from our source in early morning and amid huge enclosure of fog. The speed was below 5kmph. And once we reached Delhi , there was a huge security cover and so many check points. We had to wait another 1-1.5hrs standing before the gates were opened. And believe me you will find a lot of people walking down the roads braving the cold & missing a perfect sleep.

Spirits

Spirit One : Masses of people anxiously waiting early morning without any hiccups to get gates open

Spirit Two : People who came from across culture , states , religion , caste converging in one place

Spirit Three : The spirits are such that you dont know how much time you have spend unless you keep check on watch

Spirit Four : The most excited are the kids , their patriotism really rocks, look into their eyes and you can see the dream come true situation. As we wished to . They dont even mind sitting in sand, dust , grass, wet land to get a closer watch .

Spirit Five : There is always a female presence in the masses as well as in the parade , contingent of NCC girls , sports persons , Bravery award people , Band .

Spirit Six : When a mother points to the Women Cadres, her daughters pride gets escalated to great level . And you can see the spark on her eyes and the smile.

Spirit Seven : People of all ages , culture , diversity mingling & giving their full support to the soldiers , talents , bravery award winners, floats etc.

Spirit Eight : The President & Prime Minister & Guests arrive the venue waving their hands to the public and public greats them . Their faces and the joy they carried were clearly visible, even though they were inside the security proof vehicles and escorts.

Spirit Nine : Well thats it, no more points

When You Think You have to quit

The question "where do you see yourself in 3-5 years ?" has a common answer atleast from the IT industry based out in India.

If ranked on majority

1. I will quit the job & do farming/agriculture *.

2. I will quit the job & follow a spiritual route, some people dont even dare from mentioning meditation , freedom from all *.

3. I will quit the job & join politics *.

and most of them implies that they all are very keen of quitting job.

Some of the answers you dont even find are

1. Switching Jobs/Company/Role

2. Starting a company/venture [not at all]

3. Joining a non profit Organization for social-economic freedom/developments.

The quitting answers has a secret * mark , which means. .

" * Has to have enough earnings "

,can be read as a clause.

Most of us are waiting for the moment when we feel that we have enough savings. And the universal truth is there is no limit for earnings / investment limit. Most of us like to live our life with denial . A denial that my mind is satisfied , a denial that my family , relatives , friends ,people around me are happy, that I am capable for only this .

There are lots of factors however which do effect out decisions, especially out bonds , relationships, friendships , even strangers all play a role . Society has been given the thread the moment we were given life , to take care , to direct.

You will get surprised on hearing one of my friends insight. He is a person , who always mention that he want to quit job and follow spiritualism/meditation , break all relationships, no marriages. But on contrary , his talks always are concentrated in Money. Like why cannot you invest in properties , why cant you stay back and earn money rather than quitting , and so on. Why should buy a mobile like n97/iphone if you have 3300,1100. Always mention the ways in which he saved money. But both ends dont meet atleast for a second / inch.

I believe you might also have met so many friends likes this or you might be the one.

I always used to wonder how the paradox happens. Our innerquest is to make money , but as a mask we take name of religion & relationships.

Some people would like to remain in the same web / matrix meant for them , even though they know the is not the right way. However there are few who later made the decision and changed the way thousands live , lakhs of us earn . Infosys , Reliance ,Microsoft are examples.

Even though we are bored of our jobs , we still continue doing the same mistake.

So when you are thinking of quitting ?