I had first got hooked to Costa Coffee a couple of years ago and have staunchly defended it against a lot of friends, who asked me try out
Gloria Jeans, Coffee Beans, Barista etc. because the coffee was
consistently good, convenient, close to office, stores that I have to visit.

But an incident happened yesterday, that prompted me to write about it. Lucky Bhatt aka @bhatnaturally was in town from Bangalore and we had planned to meet up at Costa coffee in Phoenix. Whilst waiting for him with @b50 @shamikv we decided to have coffee. Asking them to hold a table, I went to place the order, wanting to prove a point to @b50 that Costa would serve good cold coffee without sugar.

Walking back to the table, saw a man pushing his chair from the table from the corner of my eye, as also an aluminium strip jutting out where Costa had used it to economize on the wooden flooring. It
snagged my trouser and baam I went down in a ugly fall; trying to save
the edge of table hitting my eye, put the entire pressure on my left
knee. Managed to get up, with people running up enquiring whether I
was hurt. @b50 raised his voice to one of the service boys, who just
beat the strip down and wandered off.

We sat finishing our coffee, trying to gather my wits and checking the swelling before leaving.

The issue here is not that I was hurt – maybe I was at fault, which
I was not; maybe the strip, floor was not maintained properly, which it should have been, given the fact the brand coffee charges; but the fact that the attitude of the staff – no one even bothered to look at what the commotion was, come up to enquire “whether I was hurt” offered a
cold compress – to act humanitarian, which one would expect from a brand like Costa.

When I tweeted about this, a couple of people said that they knew the
manager would I like to speak to him; whilst some said “sue them”.
If I were in the UK or USA, I would have done so, not for money but
for the attitude, however I definitely want to bring this to their CEO/President’s notice and see whether they have a semblance of customer service feedback mechanism at all.

I am not a Jet lover or traveler, however business exigencies forced me to travel last week on Jet to Aurangabad (being the only morning flight)

The entire previous day, web checkin was not working, though finally managed at around 1 am in the morning for the 6 am flight.

Reached the airport, felt like trying to enter Virar local, except there was scented BO, given the fact that there was a line, right till outside of everyone wanting to enter the airport.

Inside was no better, some 5-6 jet staffers waving their hands, walkie talkies like gymnasts or traffic constable at Dahisar check post.

On the web check in it had said, that I could go straight to counter 63 which incidentally was empty. Then began a tug and war with one of the staff bent on pushing me to some other counter. Finally managed to check in and with 1 hour left was being pushed to the security and gate.

Once boarded, found that all the overhead bins were occupied, not that I needed them, but still. The seat was a nightmare come true - reminded me of ‘Baby’ the tuk tuk of Bangladesh where you actually end up with your face between your legs, trying to breathe and live.

They seem to have cut corners on seats - squeezing in a couple of additional rows; followed by seat belts - or else why would they announce extension belts availability?

In this 45 minute flight they also tried to fit in sale of juice, breakfast, snacks - which meant that people occupying the aisle seat had to watch their elbows.

On landing, the luggage took it’s own time, in spite of that being the only flight at that time of the morning. So some rules to fly Jet Konnect:

1) Do not carry hand baggage, if you do rush to your seat the moment gates are opened.
2) Opt for aisle seat only if you are short, thin or can squeeze in the seat.
3) Carry your own extension seat belt in case there are more than 4-5 people that require it.
4) Learn to become a contortionist in case you forget to keep money in your top pocket, in case you want to buy.

Hopefully, they will learn that you cannot have the same attitude as a full service airline!

I had earlier written about Samsung customer service here having been completely satisfied.

In the past fortnight I have had an opportunity to review the same service. Having bought the TV and succeeded in getting the panel changed here, however exactly a year later, the same panel went off.

On calling the service engineer, who definitely came promptly and informed me that the warranty was over and hence the panel would cost me 25000+. On debate with the customer service, that it was exactly 2 days from the warranty date and more important, how can the same TV have panel problems thrice in a spate of 18 months, there was no answer besides the routine “Sir, sorry we cannot help, you will have to pay for the panel”

Working in a retail business, I appreciate the stance of warranty dates, the fact that the panel problem is persistent, the TV is at fault and hence an explanation is required, which in spite of a fortnight having passed is not forthcoming.

So, in all likelihood, I am left with either having to pay them (but to what warranty?) or dump the TV and buy a new one.

I wonder if other brands are the same?

It is surprising that in an industry that relies on human contact & touch point, most of my colleagues rely 90% on email and get really upset when I refer it to playing billiards. Email is the safest way of pushing things off your plate, not taking responsibility, accountability, because the moment you click ‘Send’ your job is over.

Of course there is always the Tech team, India’s connectivity problems etc that can be blamed for non receipt of information, further compounded by GPRS, EDGE, dropping signals etc.

But once out of office, on weekends, chatting with friends and all connectivity works perfectly.

I remember a time, when there were no multiplexes and visiting a cinema was a special occasion, where you dressed up and reached there much before time, to see all the government advertisements AND there was no popcorn, pasta being delivered to your seat. Maybe if your parents were feeling happy and not having carried snacks from home, you would have been treated to a samosa.

The National Anthem used to be played in the end of the movie and everybody stood at attention, sung along in their not so melodious voices and then the doors were opened allowing you to go out.

TIME flew, for a while they stopped playing the national anthem, before somebody recalled and it was made mandatory all over again.

Now there are multiplexes everywhere, working couples, friends, families come rushing last minute to see the movie, carrying practically meals that would feed a small nation, stepping all over your toes, hands mostly without a nary of an apology.

The National anthem is played before the movie begins.

And more than 30-40% people wait outside the door, chatting for it to begin and get over. Out of the ones who are already seated there are always those, useless bums who refuse to get up or get up slowly, muttering to themselves.

There are some people, moi included who take umbrage about this and there is an argument, even a fight at times. (newspapers have reported too)

Compared to the past couple of years, I have noticed that the people not getting up is in a very negligible minority these days, however the fidgeting, muttering still continues.

The most popular reason cited is “Democracy” which is all fine, but the same people stand at attention when applying for a visa, traveling abroad amongst other things, but feel it beneath their dignity to respect the country that they live in.

We are all to blame for this. Well I do stand up for the national anthem & sing it proudly. Do You?

Some days before the actual date this year, I was Honored when someone asked my help to tweet the names of people who lost their lives last year.

However, there was a hue & cry by a lot of people who felt it was in bad taste, due to which we decided not to go ahead with, but keep a silence in our own way.

It was actually funny & pathetic to see a lot of the same people get patriotic, crucifying the media, politicians from a distance using all kinds of hashtags on the same day with the thought of making it a trending topic. Read the rest of this entry »

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