Monday, July 26, 2010

Passport blues

After a horrific experience in Calcutta Passport office, I found out the procedure to apply for a passport in the Mumbai office. Apparently, it is compulsory to take an appointment in Mumbai passport office, so had to go through the same. Got an appointment for 12 noon for a date which was 10 days away (earliest available) and was advised to reach 15 minutes earlier. Once I reached there, I was astonished to see the number of people who were waiting before me. Basically, what they had done is that ‘appointment time’ enables one to be a part of the line which runs upto the required counter. Well, I got in the line but seeing the rush, I was pretty sure of not reaching the counter before 4 in the evening.

Finally, after standing in the line for 4 long hours (after seeing a 45 minute lunch break), my turn finally came. The lady started checking my documents and told me that I am short of one address proof!!! I was shell shocked as I had checked and rechecked the requirements given on the website. I told her that it is as per the website, but this fell on deaf ears and told me to come back the next day with the complete documents. I requested her to at least check my other documents and tell me if everything else is in order, which was indeed the case. But, I had to come back the next day as my one more request to consider my application did not move her!

I was also told that there is no need to take a new appointment and my old application stands valid for 10 days albeit, I need to go another counter if I am not coming on my appointment date. When I went after 2 days, I was instructed to go a general line which looked after cases of coming on non-appointed days. Here again, the wait was an arduous task as I reached at 10 when the office opened and turn came at 3:30 in the afternoon. The lady asked something in regional language which I did not understand and requested her to either talk in English or Hindi. At this, she got furious that why don’t you learn Marathi and random stuff like that. Now, why is that a problem!!! Well, I controlled my anger and told her that I will soon learn the language :P Next, she told that since my passport is damaged (which was smudged due to water), so I won’t be issued a 60 page booklet (I asked for the same instead of 36 page one) as that is a rule! I was little surprised but since it was a ‘rule’ there was nothing I could do. She cleared my application and was sent to cash counter. Here, the cashier asked for a fee of Rs. 2,500 whereas the fee is Rs. 1,000 for a 36 page booklet and Rs. 1,500 booklet! When I opposed the same, I was told that mine is ‘damaged passport re-issue’ case and hence the fee. I told her that it is a ‘expiry re-issue’ case! After some investigation, it was discovered that the first counter lady and had done a blunder in reading my application…how irresponsible are these people. Again, I had to go to the main counter and some corrections were made. Now, a new thing came up. Since she had written that my passport was damaged, now I needed an affidavit for the same from a police station which essentially meant that I need to come back again. Now, I lost my temper and told her that no-way this is gonna happen and I want to meet their senior. I went to the passport officer and had to give a small application and finally my 60 page booklet application was submitted. The whole thing took around an hour. What a criminal wastage of time I thought!

The next step is police verification in which the individual needs to go the area police station once their application reaches there. This usually takes 3 weeks but my application reached after more than a month, followed which police came for enquiry after 2 weeks at my place! I was told to visit the police station where the verification offer was working in the slowest possible speed. Since, he had to harass me, so he came up with this weird excuse that ‘road name’ was missing from my application and hence same would be rejected. I told him that there is no need to get into all this nonsense now…so in return he asked me for a ‘gift’. When I asked what specifically was needed by him, he kept quite! Well, in the meanwhile my documents were checked and I was told to meet his senior also (part of procedure). The next evening I went to meet his senior which was not a problem at all but once we came out he again asked for his ‘gift’ and again the talks went into negotiation mode. He threatened me that he is rejecting my application but then I after some more discussions, my application was finally approved!

Even after that it took more than 6 weeks (normally 2 weeks) for my new passport to come my place.

I recently read this article and was not surprised by it. When such lazy and greedy people are involved in the passport issue system, numbers are bound to come down (Verbatim from the article - in fact, last year saw a reduction in the absolute number of new passports issued). Luckily, I was not working when I had to renew my passport but for working people, it means loss of 2 full working days for standing in the line! How sad and pathetic situation is that….

Sunday, July 25, 2010

India Today!

Ya, I am talking about the magazine but at the same time, it reflects the state of our country’s attitude too.

I subscribed to the magazine using the online portal and was informed that subscription will start from 5th July onwards. When the magazine did not reach us even by 8th, I called up the helpline and asked the issue. They had no answer apart from ‘getting back to me.” Next week again, no magazine arrived at my place and this time my mother called the helpline, but got the same answer! The situation remained same till 20th, I decided to cancel the subscription and called the ‘help’line for the same.

I asked the executive on how to cancel the subscription and out of their process, he asked the issue, apologized and similar stuff. When I persisted for the refund, his reply was “Sir, you have called only once, why the cancellation??” This reply of his really angered me and gave him a piece of my mind. What do they expect, that I should keep calling them!!!

Well, the e-mail for cancellation is already underway and now the same request of non-cancellation keeps coming over the mail. I have not changed my stand on the issue and now waiting for my money to be refunded.

Such careless and insensitive attitude is really disgusting and that too from a group of stature of India Today…

Thursday, July 22, 2010

LIC Roxxx

When all payments are moving towards the online mode, it was little surprised to know that Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) had started an option to pay premium over the net. At the same time, I had my apprehensions of it working to perfection. Nevertheless, I decided to create an account and go through the portal.

It’s a pretty neat work, I must say. The menu so created is crisp and clear and the instructions are prominently displayed on the site. Policies taken in my name were added without any issues here. Then, I tried to create an account for my father too. There is a provision for creating profile for spouse and kids too in an account. So, I was trying to add some policies taken in the name of my mother but the system was continuously throwing an error and was not able to add it.

I called up the helpline and they told me to mail the issue. I sent out the mail and was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply within an hour and that too, on a Saturday! I was able to issue after this after exploiting a loophole in the programming logic :D

Overall, nice work by LIC!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

‘Welcome’ by Vodafone

I took a Vodafone corporate connection as I moved to Mumbai for my job. After all the verification was done, my number was activated in a day or so. In all the while, I did receive calls from them informing me about the billing cycle, call rates, helpline numbers etc.

But after a week or so after the activation, I received a SMS from them which read like this “Kindly call on XXXXXXXX (a landline number) and fix up a appointment so that we can welcome you to Vodafone.” Now, this was unheard of (atleast for me!) but on second thoughts, Vodafone did care for the time and privacy of its user.

Nevertheless, I did try the number to fix up an appointment but alas, was not able to get through even after trying multiple times. I thought, maybe there are too many people who wanted to be ‘welcomed’! ;)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Amazing Grace!!!

In the last few months, my travel by auto rickshaw has drastically reduced as I drive myself now. But today morning, as the car was needed at home, I had to restore to the good old auto for reaching the office. I got one which was standing on the road in front of my building only but the driver was busy in buying ‘dhaap’(coconut water) from a road side vendor. I asked him if he is ready to go and he told me to sit. He continued to be busy in buying the coconuts and it was good 5 minutes before we started our journey as he buying in bulk and it took time to search, cut (partially) and pack them.

When we were just 2 kms away from my destination, he took a turn to the gas station for filling CNG. I protested a bit as it takes quite some time to fill the same. Moreover, there are perpetual queues at these places. Since, he had already taken the turn, I moved out of the auto and waited outside the pump (as this is the rule! – is it????)

Upon reaching the office, according to the meter reading, I calculated and told him that its Rs. 78. He was fine with it but told me that I should pay him 70 bucks only. I was taken aback a bit and asked the reason. He told me that since he made me wait initially and at the gas station (which was NOT counting in the waiting time as initially journey had not started it and he stopped the meter while at the gas station), so he was charging less as these activities wasted my time. I told him that it is fine and he should take the full fare only. But he was adamant to take less…this was something I had never faced before! So I finally told him that take atleast Rs. 75, to which he agreed and left.

In the end, I was moved by his thoughtfulness and this incident again showcased that still there are many people who are considerate in the world!