Dell hell in India, Hello airtel.

A friend of mine karthik, an avid blogger is struggling with Airtel, a leading mobile phone company. They seem to be screwing up with one customer now they are india's largest cellphone company, obviously the numbers means more problems and KArthik rightfully says, this is Airtel HEll, like Dell Hell!. Dell smartened up, unfortunatley Airtel is dumb and is not doing anything its actually a wonder they are the biggest, I guess country folk where they get thier numbers dont ask for relistic things unlike city subcribers. IF your reading this, help make things right, compnies cannot take their customers for a ride, spread the word Airtel YOU HAVE TO ACT and listen to the customers

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HEre is karthik's post:

Airtel HELL…the new Dell Hell!
Posted on April 2, 2009, 7:50 pm, by Karthik S, under opinion.
Or should it be, AirtHELL? (BTW, this is Dell Hell)
My problem that I first complained and blogged about is still unresolved. Here’s the mail I sent to 121@airtel.in yesterday.
“Subject: Simple problem not rectified since March 11th - What is wrong with Airtel?
My number is 9845XXXXXX and I’ve logged in a complaint on March 11th over the fact that I’m not able to dial into a particular number - 0008004401625. This is the India bridge number of an international conference call and works with EVERY single service provider in India. I’ve personally tried this number through Aircell, Tata Indicom, Spice, Idea and Vodafone. It works.
In Airtel…landline and mobile, the message I get is, ‘this number does not exist’.
I’ve made several, several calls since March 11 to solve this issue, but it has still not been resolved. I was supposed to get on to this conference call today at 7 pm and its 7:45 pm now. Still, no help. I’m on a call with a customer service right now as I type and he gives me a number supposedly belonging to a nodal officer. I place him on hold and call that number, only to be greeted with a time announcement that that particular number is valid only from 9:30 to 6 on weekdays.
I’ve been making calls almost every other day, each lasting more than 45 minutes. No body has even been remotely helpful.
A technical person called me last week to say that the number I gave does not exist and that they’ve closed my problem entry. I asked him a simple question, ‘Did you try calling from a non-Airtel phone?’. He actually said, ‘No, we do not have non-Airtel phones in our floor’.
Don’t you think this is extraordinarily silly? That is precisely my problem and I had raised exactly that in my first complaint.
So, how long should a customer be harassed before a seemingly simple and harmless problem is rectified?
I’ve been an extremely satisfied customer of Airtel’s services and have 2 of each - mobile connection, landline connection and broadband. This is the first time I’m facing this problem and it has been a harrowing time trying to explain the same problem along with verifying everything from my phone number, billing address, waist size, passport number…and what not.
What is wrong with Airtel? Let me remind you that as I type this, my problem is still unresolved.”
I got this response.
“Dear Mr. Karthik,
Thank you for contacting Airtel.
You have expressed concern over the inability to call the particular number 0008004401625 from your Airtel mobile number 9845XXXXXX.
We completely comprehend your viewpoint and sincerely apologize for any difficulty caused to you.
Please be informed that your concern has already been registered. Kindly refer to the Service Request number 27112609 in any future communication about this concern.
We would revert to you by 24 working hours.
You could view the status of your Service Request by dialing *121# (Toll Free) and press the call button, details will immediately appear on the screen and you could also dial 12115 (Toll Free) for the same.
For further assistance, mail us at 121@airtelindia.com
We value your association with Airtel.
Warm Regards,
ArunCustomer Care ExecutiveBharti Airtel Limited”
And, I mailed this today evening after making that grave mistake of not being able to take the call from 9845012345 thrice. Why? I was attending the call of the nature - I realize now that it was a miserable error in judgment - I should not have stepped inside that darn loo.
“As I type this, its 7:10 pm. I got many calls from Airtel today - none were even remotely helpful. A customer service manager I spoke to last night (Phani Kumar), as promised, called me and said my problem is being looked into. Someone named Mamta from Gurgaon called in the noon and said the problem is being looked into. On last count, there are at least 7 people and 3 departments that are ‘looking into’ my complaint.
You mean to say that all these folks are either extraordinarily incompetent or just do not care for a customer?
I get 3 missed calls from 9845012345 at 6:45 pm today evening and unfortunately I was forced to attend to a personal emergency, pertaining to my bathroom - in other words, I was taking a shit. I try calling the number back and try to get the update meant for me - a customer service person says that ‘they’ will call me in 24 hours.
Is that the price of going to shit in the evening at 6:45 pm? What sort of demented customer service is it that doesn’t allow me to get in touch with the person who was supposed to update me and tried to reach me so desperately to give me 3 missed calls?
Do you even understand the magnitude of this problem? My complaint was placed on March 11th. Today is April 2nd.
I still don’t even know what the problem is, could be or will be. One of the many people I spoke to suggested that the number I tried calling/ or its owner may not have an agreement with Airtel. Is that a joke? When every other service provider in India has an agreement to connect to that number, why not India’s largest Telco?
I have about 10 service request numbers on SMS, have spent almost an hour trying to explain my problem every alternate day in the evenings and sometime during office hours.
That number I’m supposed to call (0008004401625) is a bridge number for a client conference call. Can I tell my office that due to Airtel’s incompetence I’m not able to dial into that number and join the conference? How is that every other service provider in India supports that number, except India’s largest telco which reverts a ‘number does not exist’ message?
How is it that I’m able to call another number with the same 6 digit prefix, through Airtel? That number is 0008006501314. If that number works through Airtel, why not the number I’m trying?
What exactly is wrong is Airtel? This is the first time I’m facing such undue nonsense from Airtel, a brand that I used to admire for its prompt customer service.
This is the most disgusting chapter in my entire life - I can say it with confidence because I’ve logged in so many valuable hours speaking/ shouting/ abusing/ pleading/ begging/ explaining/ praying my problem to so MANY people at Airtel customer care.
The only outcome? From March 11, when I placed the complaint first, I still have my issue unresolved.
I’ve blogged about this earlier - on March 11. Also recently. I’m blogging this entire mail (the one below too) now, so that my blog’s readers can know how India’s largest Telco treats its customers.”
What more can I do? All I want is to have my issue resolved and get onto that conference call.

Highest paid politicians in the world

Dont see these guys taking a salary cut yeah:)

There is nothing like a scandal involving porn films claimed on Commons expenses to focus attention on the pay and perks enjoyed, sorry earned, by our public servants.
Even before Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, was forced to apologise for her husband's blue movies there had been calls for the whole system to be overturned. The committee on standards in public life which has promised to report on MP pay and expenses by the end of the year is under pressure to do something radical.
Whenever MPs come under attack over pay they are quick to argue that compared to executives in the private and public sector they are not particularly well paid.
With the G20 leaders in the country we thought it was worth getting a snapshot of how much the highest paid presidents and prime ministers around the world earn. For comparison's sake all earnings have been converted into dollars. It also shows basic annual salary only, not the expenses claimed on top.
So, where does our own Gordon Brown stand?
1. Lee Hsien Loong - Singapore
Salary in dollars - $2.47 million
Salary in local currency - S$3.76 million
2. Donald Tsang Yum-Kuen - Hong Kong
Salary in dollars - $516,000
Salary in local currency - HK$4 million
3. Barack Obama - United States
Salary in dollars - $400,000
4. Brian Cowen - Ireland
Salary in dollars - $341,000
Salary in local currency - €257,000
5. Nicolas Sarkozy - FranceSalary in dollars - $318,000
Salary in local currency - €240,000
6. Angela Merkel - Germany
Salary in dollars - $303,000
Salary in local currency - €228,000
7. Gordon Brown - UK
Salary in dollars - $279,000
Salary in local currency - £194,250
8. Stephen Harper - Canada
Salary in dollars - $246,000
Salary in local currency - C$311,000
9. Taro Aso - Japan
Salary in dollars - $243,000
Salary in local currency - Y24 million
10. Kevin Rudd - Australia
Salary in dollars - $229,000
Salary in local currency - A$330,000

Source: http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2009/04/the-10-highest-paid-politicians-in-the-world.html

Google trying to take over your brain...

IS google trying to take over your brain?

Introducing Google Brain Search for mobile
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:34 PM
Ever had a word on the tip of your tongue but just couldn't remember it? Or perhaps blanked on a person's name in a socially awkward situation? Or even suffered memory deterioration due to ordinary aging or questionable life choices? If so, Brain Search for mobile may be for you. Using our new CADIE technology, we can now index the content of your brain to make it searchable, thus bringing you aided retrieval of memories. Check out this video to see how it works:Your phone already has an antenna, which can pick up wireless signals. CADIE technology modifies the input wavelengths so it can read brain waves. Go to the Brain Search App (here on a computer or here on a phone.) If you bring your phone to your forehead, your phone can index your brain, making it searchable. Since your phone is now modified to read brainwaves, you don't even have to type your search. Put your phone to your forehead and think your query, then click on "Search me". This is helpful in situations where you don't want onlookers to know what you're searching for, so you can feel comfortable asking personal things such as "What did I eat that's making me so gassy?" or "Did I ever go out with that girl? She looks vaguely familiar." And, since CADIE's artificial neural networks run faster than those of a human being, it is faster for her to search through your thoughts and memories than for you to do it yourself.Brain Search is available for the US, UK, France, Germany, and Italy, and on a number of different devices.
On Android and iPhone devices, Brain Search runs in the browser, taking advantage of HTML5 and Gears technologies.
On Windows Mobile devices, make sure you download and install the latest version of Google Mobile App. Click the Panda icon (CADIE's choice, don't ask us) to get to Brain Search.
On Blackberry devices (US and UK only), make sure you download and install the latest version of Google Mobile App. Type "Brain Search" in the search box. You'll get a link to Brain Search in the search suggestions below. To get started on any of these, go to google.com on your mobile device, and click the Brain Search link.Don't forget. Brain Search.

Tech spending to fall

Research firm Gartner expects worldwide technology spending to drop 3.9 percent
By BARBARA ORTUTAY Associated Press Mar 31, 09 3:25 PM CDT in Technology
Dragged down by the weak economy, global spending on technology products and services will likely decline nearly 4 percent this year, research firm Gartner Inc. said Tuesday.
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Gartner expects a broad-based slowdown, leading to a 3.8 percent decline from 2008, to $3.2 trillion. Hardware will see the sharpest drop, nearly 15 percent compared with a 2.8 percent increase last year. Spending on software, which can help companies save money, is expected to stay nearly flat, rising less than half of 1 percent.
The latest forecast would be worse than the 2.1 percent decline in spending that the tech industry saw in 2001, after the dot-com bust.
Worldwide, companies are trimming their budgets, waiting longer to upgrade to newer computers, for example. And consumers squeezed by the recession are slashing their discretionary spending.
Gartner called its forecast bleak, and said government stimulus packages won't be enough to offset things soon. The research firm expects a "slow, prolonged recovery during 2010," said Richard Gordon, research vice president, and head of global forecasting at Gartner.
Also on Tuesday, Forrester Research Inc. lowered its forecast for U.S. tech spending because of the worsening economy. The research firm now expects U.S. business and government spending on technology products and services to fall by 3.1 percent this year, compared with its earlier forecast of 1.6 percent growth.
Forrester Analyst Andrew Bartels said that in some ways the credit crunch has hurt technology spending more than the recession.
"Companies are so afraid they won't be able to borrow if they need to (that) they are going through extreme lengths to preserve cash," he said.
Forrester expects growth in tech spending to resume in the fourth quarter of this year, and "gather strength" in 2010. Bartels said there is pent-up demand from companies that need to spend money on new technologies.
"Once the recession bottoms out, once the financial markets start to function more normally, that pent-up demand will start to resurface," he said.

Source: http://www.newser.com/article/d9797ocg1/research-firm-gartner-expects-worldwide-technology-spending-to-drop-39-percent.html

Ongoing Recession and Survival With Help From Outsourcing

Economies the world over are nose diving and situation has been getting bleaker by each passing day. Facing the worst recession in the recent times, most of the big corporate houses have gone for massive revamping, including down-sizing staff strength, cutting down on fringe benefits to employees, cutting down on other expenses, freezing on any capital outlay etc.
In such gloom, how does one survive? Is there no solution to this recession? When will this gloom end?
The answers to all the above questions lie in the fundamentals of Economics. The entire economy floats on the balance of demand and supply. Any fluctuation in one is bound to impact the other. However, for the entire economy to function smoothly, the factors of demand and supply cannot be left alone to function. For some products, the demand-supply theory works independent of any interference. But, for some products, the theory behaves erratically and it becomes critical for inducements to smoothen the erratic behavior. These erratic behaviors & inducements become necessary in difficult times like recession.
Let's take the example of two diverse products: Motor Cars and Wheat. While wheat is a food item and is a commodity that will never lose any slump in demand. The only impact the demand-supply theory has on Wheat is in the pricing of the product. If the demand is higher than the supply, prices will do up and vice-versa. The product however will continue to be produced and consumed no matter what is the condition of the economy.
At the other end of the spectrum is Motor cars. This is a product which is mostly touted as a luxury, rather than a necessity. Therefore, the impact of economic conditions have far-reaching effects on this product, far higher in magnitude than they have on products like Wheat. Of course when the economy does not have any spikes, the demand-supply theory has an impact on the pricing of the motor cars, but when the economy is facing recessionary pressure, the survival of the very product can become questionable.
Today's economy has become far too complex than it was during the times of Keynes or Adam Smith when most of the basic tenets of Economics were issued. Today, each product is inter wined with other products in an economy and the economy of one nation is inter wined to the economy of the world. So, any impact on one product in any part of the world can have repercussions on the world economy. That is precisely the reason why today the entire world is facing its worst ever economic debacle.
The chain started when the housing mortgage bubble burst and banks & financial institutions lost millions of dollars. this resulted in contraction in funds availability. This in turn had a negative impact on businesses and general people. While some businesses found it difficult to get additional funds for expansion or new ventures, many others found it difficult to meet working capital requirements. This in turn propelled businesses to take stringent actions like saving every penny and cutting down on costs, including reducing staff strength. This in turn had a highly negative impact on general people. Because of the spreading gloom and imminent unemployment, people blocked their expenditures. This had a dual effect on the economy. While the products in the "necessity" brand did not face grave danger, the products in "luxury" brand took a real hit. This in turn had more businesses shutting down and more people getting unemployed.
In such a scenario, economy can be revived by increasing any one of the three spending components: Consumption, Investment or Government expenditures.
Governments the world over have been taking the third component seriously with the hope that it would create employments and induce positive sentiments in people to loosen their strings. But the desired effect is yet to be seen. It is predicted that the Government spending would have the desired effects but would take time, maybe a year or so.
If the sagging economy has to be restored faster than that, recourse has to be taken with the other two factors as well.
It is here that small businesses and outsourcing come into play. During these gloomy times, a small business has to survive first to see the positive effects of Government spending. And this is where outsourcing helps. With the technology having advanced to a level where distance does not matter, one has to look at options of cutting down costs and surviving, and then generating surplus funds to spend, which combined with others' spending would have positive impact on the economy.
A small business shall look at the various options available today to cut down cost. If until yesterday overheads were higher because of in-house operations, it would make sense to outsource them and reduce them further to reduce the pressure on revenue. For a hotel/restaurant or for a garage, accounting is an overhead that can be easily outsourced and costs saved, for an accounting firm, data entry can be outsourced.
While taking the decision for outsourcing, the businesses have to strategically devise their policies so as to take the best advantage of resources available the world over. Abundant availability of certain resource at one place needs to be evaluated with the rules & regulations governing that place as well as with the political stability of that place in order to ensure that outsourcing does not fail because of external factors. Other factors that need to be taken care has already been discussed, including data security, communication compatibility etc.
Thus, instead of looking at outsourcing as a problem, it would be in the interest of businesses and countries to look at it as a tool to beat recession!
Steve is a qualified accountant (Indian CPA) and co-founder of APT Services, the fastest growing outsourced accounting service provider in India. Steve has over 10 years of expertise in audits, accounting (both US & Indian GAAP), payroll and tax preparation services. For details on services provided by APT Services, log onto http://www.aptservicesonline.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_S_Walker