The predicament of new connection

You should never judge a book by its cover. Truly said!!!!

I was allured by the free CUG calls that I could make from the A**** network to all my A***** subscribers, unaware of the fact that I am being cornered to a trap. A trap which has literally made me tear my hair apart.

The saga (yes it hasn’t been less than a saga for me), started when I travelled back from Bangalore to Chennai. The recession has played a part on everybody’s life and I was too feeble not to be affected by the ghastly spell that it had spread on one and all. I could not afford a number on roaming, though I hate the fact of circulating the number to all the contacts yet again. But then, it would have made a hole in my pocket very soon if i contiuned that number.

This led to an extensive research on the “Most happening cellular connection” in Chennai. After an intriguing session with all the “Agents” from different cellular companies I finally decided that A****** would be the best for me. I was going to make all the calls to A***** mobile for free. Plus a handsome package of 20000 free messages reminded me of my college days where we used to bug all our friends letting them know all the definition of friendship and love.

I thought of reliving that phase of my college life all over again by sending all such kind of messages to all friends. I was ecstatic and was pretty sure that this package would leave me nothing but shelling pennies at the end of the month because my major chunk of expense was getting covered by the schemes that I was getting.

The executive had told me that it would take a day before all the services would be enabled on my number and then I could use it thereafter.

I was full of childish excitement knowing the fact that I could use the free services freely.

The first day I made calls to all all local A***** numbers, sent messages to 50 people. I was competing against myself, the following day beating my record comprehensively with a whooping text message count of 101. I imagined myself raising a bat to a crowd of 10000 people after making a century. I was basking in the glory of self generated hype.

And then……..

A message flashed- “Your unbilled amount is Rs.525 exceeding your credit limit of Rs.500. Please make a payment of Rs.500 to continue with uninterrupted services.

I read that message all over again. Didn’t the person tell me earlier that my credit limit would be Rs.2000. My fingers had taken a decision of dialing at 12*(customer care number) before my brain could pass the signal to it. The next thing I knew was there was a customer care executive on the other side and I was clarifying things up with him.

I was told that as the authentication of my residential address was pending the system had marked me a credit limit of Rs.500.

I was pretty sure that this authentication process would be over and done with in a day or two and I would get the promised credit limit of Rs.2000 after that. To avoid myself from any more hassles I made a payment of Rs.500.

Did, I forget to write before that by now I had received around 8 calls that day, each of the executive reminding me to pay my phone bill. I was really startled to see that they had mastered the art of speaking what they had been taught to, but none of them had an answer if a question was asked to them. After being kept on hold for eternity on each call I realized that it was futile to get involved in a conversation with them. And, hence the payment of the bill had happened……

This time round I knew that I could not be any more adventurous and I only messaged or called if there was a need to…. On the other hand I was pretty sure that this procedure of residential authentication might have happened by now.

But then, A*****(destiny) had some other plans for me. Three days passed(in between I was still getting calls to know “who I am”, “what is my plan”, making me wonder didn’t they take a record of the form I had so duly filled while applying for the connection), another message flashed- “Your unbilled amount is Rs.525 exceeding your credit limit of Rs.500. Please make a payment of Rs.500 to continue with uninterrupted services.

I read the message twice. My software engineer mind asked me to take a note of the timestamp. Probably I was reading the message that was sent to me three days back only to discover later that my horrors were true.

I called up @ 12*. I was amazed to know that verification of residential address had not yet happened. The customer care executive informed me that the person who had come to have a tete a tete with me could not reach me on my address-30 B,gayatri nagar.

Hold on!!!!-30 B? But I had given my address as 13 B. How could somebody reach to an address which does not exist?

I stopped him from finishing his lines which he had by hearted so beautifully. I narrated to him what the problem was, but I was flabbergasted to hear his reply to my question.

“Sorry Sir we cannot update the address before it is verified by the verification team”.

I could not say anything further. I did not want to say anything further.

I called them back again after an hour, only to know this time what was their procedure of disconnecting a number!