Automation Pains: Chennai Telephones
I am amazed all the time at the labor pains being borne by the ordinary citizens in delivering supposedly 'efficient' technology systems in public institutions. Chennai Telephones is one case and self the victim. read on...
Chennai Telephones shifted my telephone from one end of the city to other after collecting all the dues (or so I thought). This was in November. I had paid the November bill on time and constant travel meant December bill was not paid by due date. So, the telephone went 'off' after the grace period granted by the Department. When I went and paid the bill within a day, I assumed that the connection will be through immediately. Not so. The handset whenever we tried to call another number, kept telling us that, 'your line has been dis-connected, please contact the area accounts officer for details'.
I visited one of the customer care centres of BSNL, the very friendly lady asked me for all the details and whether it was a recently shifted number, etc. Then she informed me that I have another bill pending against my name for the month of November in the old address, BSNL charges you even during the transition time if you have a broadband along with your telephone connection. I found it surprising, but, went ahead and paid the nominal amount and assumed that now the connection will be restored. During the time of shifting, it is a procedure to check for all pending bills on a location for a phone before it is permitted to be shifted.
But, another week went without the connection being restored, so, I looked up the BSNL area DE and called a number yesterday. A very friendly lady took down all the details and my mobile phone number and assured me that she will attend to the issue. She called back to inform me that according to their records I seem to have no dues against my name (thank God), and, she doesn't know why my connection is not working. She also assured me that the concerned people have been informed. This was yesterday.
This morning, I get a call from the same lady followed by another gentleman, it transpires that the new number given to me had earlier been under another person's name and he had 2 pending bills at the time of surrendering his telephone line. As that number has been issued to me now, the billing software conveniently decided that the new owner should pay the bill!
Quite a few questions remain:
1. When BSNL gets a phone line for surrender or transfer, do they really check all the pending bills, if so, how?
2. How can someone surrender a phone line without paying all the dues and walk away?
3. What is the process in the system when an account is closed, does it close the accounts at all? How could a system re-assign bill based on number and not on the name?
I am blogging this because I realize that the questions are related to the software the BSNL uses rather than the people there. Software have bugs and bugs unless reported, fixed and reviewed are left unattended till a major disaster takes place. I am still not convinced that all the software that are used in our government services have been tested for fool proof delivery or they have a mechanism by which every instance of wrong performance is reported as a possible bug in the software to the developers.
Chennai Telephones shifted my telephone from one end of the city to other after collecting all the dues (or so I thought). This was in November. I had paid the November bill on time and constant travel meant December bill was not paid by due date. So, the telephone went 'off' after the grace period granted by the Department. When I went and paid the bill within a day, I assumed that the connection will be through immediately. Not so. The handset whenever we tried to call another number, kept telling us that, 'your line has been dis-connected, please contact the area accounts officer for details'.
I visited one of the customer care centres of BSNL, the very friendly lady asked me for all the details and whether it was a recently shifted number, etc. Then she informed me that I have another bill pending against my name for the month of November in the old address, BSNL charges you even during the transition time if you have a broadband along with your telephone connection. I found it surprising, but, went ahead and paid the nominal amount and assumed that now the connection will be restored. During the time of shifting, it is a procedure to check for all pending bills on a location for a phone before it is permitted to be shifted.
But, another week went without the connection being restored, so, I looked up the BSNL area DE and called a number yesterday. A very friendly lady took down all the details and my mobile phone number and assured me that she will attend to the issue. She called back to inform me that according to their records I seem to have no dues against my name (thank God), and, she doesn't know why my connection is not working. She also assured me that the concerned people have been informed. This was yesterday.
This morning, I get a call from the same lady followed by another gentleman, it transpires that the new number given to me had earlier been under another person's name and he had 2 pending bills at the time of surrendering his telephone line. As that number has been issued to me now, the billing software conveniently decided that the new owner should pay the bill!
Quite a few questions remain:
1. When BSNL gets a phone line for surrender or transfer, do they really check all the pending bills, if so, how?
2. How can someone surrender a phone line without paying all the dues and walk away?
3. What is the process in the system when an account is closed, does it close the accounts at all? How could a system re-assign bill based on number and not on the name?
I am blogging this because I realize that the questions are related to the software the BSNL uses rather than the people there. Software have bugs and bugs unless reported, fixed and reviewed are left unattended till a major disaster takes place. I am still not convinced that all the software that are used in our government services have been tested for fool proof delivery or they have a mechanism by which every instance of wrong performance is reported as a possible bug in the software to the developers.
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