BSNL Open House Session Mount Abu

Mount Abu, on the 30th May 2008 had its first ever “Open house session” in the history of this town. The venue itself was the ground in front of the exchange. A shamiyana was set up for the purpose. The meeting was to begin by 3.pm, I reached the ground along with my brother-in-law sharp at the appointed time, we were greeted by a few of the BSNL agents, the exchange staff and the officials who were going to conduct the open house session.

Indian standard time, or rather Indian Stretchable time, is the norm here. I can’t remember a single meeting run by any government or semi government office ever starting on time. The meeting did get underway finally around 4pm, several Abuites and some personnel from Abu Road were present for the meeting. From my point of view quite a few of the natives had come to the meeting out of a sense of curiosity.

I suppose they were there to see some action, like mud slugging, for after all it was an invitation to OPEN House session. Generally the public at large are not too happy with the services provided by this giant corporation. For some BSNL means “Do not go for this Connection even by mistake, in Hindi it means Bhool SE Na Lena” Why then do Lakhs of people opt for this service, if this service is not up to the mark, why don’t they go for more satisfactory services such as Tata Indicom, Vodaphone, Airtel etc. There is only one explanation for these customers, it’s better to go with a known devil than with an unknown one. For some others it’s their loyalty to the Giant Corporation for having served their fathers and fore-fathers.

The meeting was addressed by by the General Manager B.K.Kaarecha, his speech was to the point and he admitted that a lot more had to be done to better the service all over Rajasthan. The Chairman of the Municipality Jalam Giri along with quite a few senior citizens were the first to be handed the mike to air their grievances and to make suggestions for a more positive outlook. Some serious recommendations were made, one that the “linemen “should be increased as they are the crucial point of contact between BSNL and its end users. There were some hilarious remarks made by some of the audience, one complaint claimed he had made a thousand phone calls to the department for a refund of Rs 2000/- due to him, over a period of four years. I wish him luck and hope this open session discussion refunds this loyal customer his dues.

The mindset of the BSNL staff needs to be changed, via conferences, discussions and seminars, if the message is carried over and they adhere to the adage “The Customer is Right’ the reputation and integrity of the company would expand and Bsnl would rule the roost, otherwise with their present attitude they will go to the dogs in years to come. To be fair to them the quality of service provided has improved significantly over the past few years after the introduction of private operators. We in Abu did have our share of disappointments over the years but today with marked improvement and broadband facility we Abuites are quite contented with the BSNL services I do not vouch for the rest of the country.