A couple of years ago, when the telecom services were opened up to the private sector, there was a wave of excitement among Indian customers, most of whom were fed up with the poor service provided by government run monopoly.

Everybody thought that with the advent of private operators, the days of miserable services would be over.

Alas, things haven’t turn out that way. And I am the perfect example of a common man getting conned by private operators.

Perhaps it is the biggest fallacy to assume that privatization is the key to good services.

About four years ago, during the initial days of cellular services, having a mobile phone was more of a status symbol then a necessity. I too thought of enhancing my social status a bit. So I got in touch with Bharti Enterprises and subscribed to AirTel.

To my sheer delight, I got a easy-to-remember number—9810122090.

Four months later, when the mobile became a necessity for me, I felt the need to have national roaming on my number. But to my utter dismay, the company officials told me that I would have to go for a new connection, as the connection I had could not support roaming.

After going through all the paperwork, I got a new connection with another easy to remember number—9810155640. And naturally, I went to the company to cancel my earlier connection, to which I was given a typical bureaucratic reply. I was asked to first submit a written application and also return the sim card. Then, in about four-to-six weeks time, I would get my security back. Now, this sounded too daunting to me. At the same time, a colleague of mine wanted to go cellular, so I gave him my sim card. Even after three years, though the connection is in my name and the bills come to me, the same gentleman is using the connection.

During the same period, I shifted to my newly purchased house in Gurgaon. Like a good customer I called up AirTel’s customer service for a change of address. And I was amazed by the answer. The reply was, "We are in the process of shifting our entire system onto a new customer relationship management system. Please call after 12 May." During mid-May, I called up again and this time my request for change of address was promptly accepted. However, on 3 June, I got my monthly bill on the previous address. Wait, there is more for surprise: I haven’t get another bill since then (as on 3 August). And even though for the last two months I haven’t paid any money to AirTel, my cell is running as usual. Good for me (till the next bill comes).

Since June I have now tried to call up the customer service at least 10 times at different times of the day but have failed to get connected to a live voice. All I get is—for this, press this number and so on and so forth. So much for the customer service of the company which claims to be very customer-centric.

This was the part of the story as far as Bharti’s cellular part is concerned. Now, my experience with its basic service: In the middle of December last year, I went to book for a BSNL connection at my house in Gurgaon. My booking was accepted but the waiting list was close to a year.

Immediately thereafter, on December 26, Bharti launched TouchTel, its basic service is Gurgaon with much pomp and show.

And, thankfully, they opened a booking center right next to Ridgewood Estate in DLF Phase IV—the complex where I stay.

But to my utter surprise, I was told that no booking could be accepted from Ridgewood as they had not rolled out their service there. Then onwards, it became a weekly ritual for me and my wife to pay them a visit to enquire about the status.

In an amazing development, BSNL suddenly decided to become aggressive and give new connections on demand. They started installing new connections at our complex and we also got one around the last week of February.

Suddenly, Bharti also woke up and got us to book a new connection. In the first week of March, when we made the formal booking, we were given the number also—8941216—though the actual connection materialized on April 15 only. However, the current came after another four days. It was alive for a week and then went dead. It took 15 calls to the customer service and four days to get it set right.

Meanwhile, the BSNL connection—6571037—has been running beautifully, excepting once when it went dead. It took one phone call to their complaint cell and the phone was back to life the very next day. And the much-maligned lineman also came to verify it, and even left his pager number so that we could get in touch with him in case of any problem.

Should we say—Mera Bharti Mahaan?