It was a Wednesday evening and i was not in the best of my moods. I was thinking of how to get this, how to complete that, how would the knowledge transition progress, so on and so forth while walking along the road. The heat and humidity was getting trying its best to bring my spirits lower than it were already. On top of it, I had to take a subway to get to the other side of the road. Now subways have a higher temperature and higher humidity in my part of the world. I got in and was wondering whether tomorrow would be better or worse than how today was when i saw her.
She was sitting on the steps, looking intently at every face she could look at. She was slim, her face was nothing out of ordinary but her eyes were remarkable for two reasons. One, they had a very innocent and curious look in them and two, they were green-grey. Our eyes met, they locked and she smiled.
It was a smile that was like the sun shining shining out of a wee chink in the clouds, to use a very banal expression.
It was the smile which symbolized to that things will turn out good, just go ahead.
It was a smile which had a very simple message, "Dont worry, be happy.".
I climbed the steps, passed her by, but not before stooping down and giving an affectionate pat on her head. How else do you pat six year olds who, when sitting, are no higher than your knee?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
'Promising' Airline
I had booked a ticket on the most recently revamped airline and, had to cancel the same on the 6th of April, 2008 due to unavailability of leaves.
Therein started a long drawn hassle of trying to get the refund. I hope they have really recorded my calls for reference and audit and take some lessons from it. Here is the series of mails i had written in which i have been really polite, and whats more, i never got a reply for any of them.
==========
23/04/08
Hello,
Even after waiting for the stipulated fourteen days, I am yet to recieve my money. While you guys were amazingly prompt in extracting those cancellation charges, you are taking your sweet time in giving back my hard earned money.
As a customer, i want the reason for this. More than that, i demand my money back, if you are done with earning interest on that. The time of taking my name twenty five times in a call,saying that you are extremely sorry and understanding my pain is passe. No one is picking up the call at the number given by you. Please dont give me 'one of the various reasons' as you have mentioned in the mail. Tell me where exactly MY money is stuck in the whole process (if you DO have a process in place) and i just might be able to help you out.
Expecting MY money back,
Anant Bhide
=======
25/04/08
Hello everyone,
I am the unfortunate 'guest' who had cancelled his airline ticket and who is yet to see his OWN money.
Sorry to mess your Friday, ES, but would someone spare some time of their busy schedules and give a plausible reason why my case has not been solved even after your stipulated fourteen business days? Please dont say it is "in process". Tell me where in the whole process (if you have one, that is) is MY money stuck.
Is the refund volume so high (why are people cancelling your airline tickets?) that you cant give my money back? In that case, give me some contact details of those aggrieved souls so that we can raise a collective voice against this so-called 'fourteen days' period. Can you give me some Area/Country manager's email id where i can further bow down for MY own hard-earned money?
Thanks for all the treatment given to this 'guest',
Anant Bhide.
=======
28/04/08
AS(this is the call center manager),
So far i have talked with R, U, Hp, Hf, so on and so forth. All I have got is 'it is under process, Sir'. If you scroll down, you will see the same on the mail sent by your airline on 6th of April. When i tried calling ES, no one picked up the phone. It has been quite a time since i cancelled my ticket but I am yet to get MY money back. You see it is MY money and i am very much concerned about it.
Though Deccan does not care much for my convenience, I do care for yours and hence I am re-re-resending my ticket details:
Ticket number: #######
Refund reference number: #######
I was pleasantly surprised that your flights now run on time and whenever i want to fly, your airline is my preferred carrier. Refurnished interiors, color and length of cabin crew clothes, flight timings are only a part of the whole bunch called 'service', my friend. When you call passengers as 'guests', treat them likewise. In Tamil, 'payanigal' is the word for passengers and 'pannigal' is the word for pigs. Know the difference of treatment the two deserve.
Please process my refund ASAP. Or, please give me email id of your superior/supervisor/manager where i can crawl further asking for MY own money.
Good luck to this 'guest' ,
Anant Bhide
=======
This is the mail I sent to their CEO, hoping little action on 12/05/08. I strongly believe that the 'process' had been completed and the refund coming after a day of sending this mail was a clear case of serendipity.
Hello everyone,
I had cancelled my ticket on 6th April 2008 and your website said I would be getting my money back in fourteen days. I take great pleasure in informing you that i have not recieved MY money back but i am on a first-name basis with a great number of 'friends' from your call center.
I am that 'guest' who has been lucky enough to get empty promises that my money would be refunded after the magical 'three-six working days'. Hf and Hp (peace be upon these good people) had promised me that i would get my money on Friday, but in which year that Friday would come they did not say. I was lucky enough to hear to the dulcet voices of R, G and R promising the same.
AS and ES are terribly busy people who cant answer mails or, in case of ES, take calls. May the Lord Almighty grant them enough strength and patience to do their daily work. Most of the team leads dont clear their mail boxes regularly enough which ensure i get Mailer Daemons further clogging up my inbox. The amazing call center does not have a outgoing facility which ensures i waste atleast half an hour on the phone listening to the frivolous music. And whats more, i get to rack up STD bills while waiting for sweet friends to pick the call. While the Captain thinks of what to write in the next issue of S, your inflight magazine and VM thinks of where from the next cheerleaders would come, event to sponsor or whatever, here is a 'guest' who is yet to see his OWN money since last six weeks.
Let your families support you all the way,
Anant Bhide
=========
I finally got my money back on 13th May 2008, more than six weeks after i had initiated the 'process'.
Morals of the story:
1. Let your creativity and sarcasm run riot
2. Send a mail to the CEO directly
3. Most importantly, send mails but dont expect any action
And life still goes on,
Anant.
Therein started a long drawn hassle of trying to get the refund. I hope they have really recorded my calls for reference and audit and take some lessons from it. Here is the series of mails i had written in which i have been really polite, and whats more, i never got a reply for any of them.
==========
23/04/08
Hello,
Even after waiting for the stipulated fourteen days, I am yet to recieve my money. While you guys were amazingly prompt in extracting those cancellation charges, you are taking your sweet time in giving back my hard earned money.
As a customer, i want the reason for this. More than that, i demand my money back, if you are done with earning interest on that. The time of taking my name twenty five times in a call,saying that you are extremely sorry and understanding my pain is passe. No one is picking up the call at the number given by you. Please dont give me 'one of the various reasons' as you have mentioned in the mail. Tell me where exactly MY money is stuck in the whole process (if you DO have a process in place) and i just might be able to help you out.
Expecting MY money back,
Anant Bhide
=======
25/04/08
Hello everyone,
I am the unfortunate 'guest' who had cancelled his airline ticket and who is yet to see his OWN money.
Sorry to mess your Friday, ES, but would someone spare some time of their busy schedules and give a plausible reason why my case has not been solved even after your stipulated fourteen business days? Please dont say it is "in process". Tell me where in the whole process (if you have one, that is) is MY money stuck.
Is the refund volume so high (why are people cancelling your airline tickets?) that you cant give my money back? In that case, give me some contact details of those aggrieved souls so that we can raise a collective voice against this so-called 'fourteen days' period. Can you give me some Area/Country manager's email id where i can further bow down for MY own hard-earned money?
Thanks for all the treatment given to this 'guest',
Anant Bhide.
=======
28/04/08
AS(this is the call center manager),
So far i have talked with R, U, Hp, Hf, so on and so forth. All I have got is 'it is under process, Sir'. If you scroll down, you will see the same on the mail sent by your airline on 6th of April. When i tried calling ES, no one picked up the phone. It has been quite a time since i cancelled my ticket but I am yet to get MY money back. You see it is MY money and i am very much concerned about it.
Though Deccan does not care much for my convenience, I do care for yours and hence I am re-re-resending my ticket details:
Ticket number: #######
Refund reference number: #######
I was pleasantly surprised that your flights now run on time and whenever i want to fly, your airline is my preferred carrier. Refurnished interiors, color and length of cabin crew clothes, flight timings are only a part of the whole bunch called 'service', my friend. When you call passengers as 'guests', treat them likewise. In Tamil, 'payanigal' is the word for passengers and 'pannigal' is the word for pigs. Know the difference of treatment the two deserve.
Please process my refund ASAP. Or, please give me email id of your superior/supervisor/manager where i can crawl further asking for MY own money.
Good luck to this 'guest' ,
Anant Bhide
=======
This is the mail I sent to their CEO, hoping little action on 12/05/08. I strongly believe that the 'process' had been completed and the refund coming after a day of sending this mail was a clear case of serendipity.
Hello everyone,
I had cancelled my ticket on 6th April 2008 and your website said I would be getting my money back in fourteen days. I take great pleasure in informing you that i have not recieved MY money back but i am on a first-name basis with a great number of 'friends' from your call center.
I am that 'guest' who has been lucky enough to get empty promises that my money would be refunded after the magical 'three-six working days'. Hf and Hp (peace be upon these good people) had promised me that i would get my money on Friday, but in which year that Friday would come they did not say. I was lucky enough to hear to the dulcet voices of R, G and R promising the same.
AS and ES are terribly busy people who cant answer mails or, in case of ES, take calls. May the Lord Almighty grant them enough strength and patience to do their daily work. Most of the team leads dont clear their mail boxes regularly enough which ensure i get Mailer Daemons further clogging up my inbox. The amazing call center does not have a outgoing facility which ensures i waste atleast half an hour on the phone listening to the frivolous music. And whats more, i get to rack up STD bills while waiting for sweet friends to pick the call. While the Captain thinks of what to write in the next issue of S, your inflight magazine and VM thinks of where from the next cheerleaders would come, event to sponsor or whatever, here is a 'guest' who is yet to see his OWN money since last six weeks.
Let your families support you all the way,
Anant Bhide
=========
I finally got my money back on 13th May 2008, more than six weeks after i had initiated the 'process'.
Morals of the story:
1. Let your creativity and sarcasm run riot
2. Send a mail to the CEO directly
3. Most importantly, send mails but dont expect any action
And life still goes on,
Anant.
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