E-Paper
On-line duplicate billing a far cry
BHARAT SANCHAR Nigam Limited's claim of providing world class telecom services for citizens seems to be a far cry. It can be gauged at least with its billing system.
BHARAT SANCHAR Nigam Limited's claim of providing world class telecom services for citizens seems to be a far cry. It can be gauged at least with its billing system.
Two years back the BSNL Allahabad had announced to provide duplicate bill for landline customers on-line. A portal named www.allahabad.dotindia was launched here two years back to provide the duplicate bill facility to harried customers. However this on-line facility is not working for the past several months. Interestingly, the authorities concerned are still not aware about non-functioning of the site.
Notably, a large number of landline customers do not get their bills at home owing to laxity of the BSNL as well as the Postal Department. However, BSNL officers always claim to post the bill on time and blame the Postal Department for non-delivery. BSNL officials say that they even pay the required amount to Postal Department on time so that the BSNL customers receive the bill on time.
On the condition of anonymity the Postal Department officials refuted the charge and held BSNL responsible for not making bills available to the department. As a result the customers are the ultimate sufferers and they have to run from pillar to post to get the duplicate bills. They have to face several hardships. Counters made for duplicate bills are insufficient and have no proper facilities for the harried customers.
The problem aggravates since BSNL's failure to provide portal facility to so that the customers could access the bill amount on line. Interestingly, this facility is working fine in other cities. The on-line directory is also not operating since long.
Details of the outstanding bills through Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVRS) is yet to be operated properly. BSNL had requested its subscribers to avail its toll-free services. However the public grievance cell is yet to be created to redress customers' various woes.
BSNL talks about providing its customers with world-class customer experience but it seems to be a far cry at least in this city.
