Service, Service, Service

Service, Service, Service

Bank is a service organisation. Or so I thought. I had not walked into a bank for a long long time.

Two days back I walked into a Nationalised Bank branch with my friend a retiree and the Treasurer of our Residents' Welfare Association.

First we wanted to deposit some money into our Association account. The Cashier said Sorry - you have to wait because there is no connectivity!!

I pointed out to the Cashier that our account with the branch and we were in home branch. We were only depositing money. All she had to do was accept the money, affix the bank seal sign and return the counterfoil to us. She could enter the amount as and when she gets the connectivity. She looked hither and thither. Maybe she wanted to ask the Manager. After some blinking she finally accepted and gave the counterfoil.

Now comes the impossible. My friend had a self cheque against which he wanted to withdraw some money. The cashier said Impossible. I can't view your account. I can't do anything....

My friend said we should wait. I told him: Why should we?

Let us meet the Manager and ask him to allow us to withdraw.

As we walked into the Manager's cabin I shook his hand and introduced myself. He gave me a blank look as though I was from the ED. He didn't give out his name. My friend is a retiree and he is having his account in the branch for more than five years. As the Treasurer of our Association he visits the branch atleast twice a week if not more. But the manager didn't seem to recognize him!! Neither did he greet him!

I made the request and he said there is no connectivity. He said wait for five minutes. Then he disappeared. Maybe he went for prayers that nothing should happen to him if he permitted to withdraw the money.

After a while he came back and said why don't you give a missed call from your Mobile and get the balance? My friend said that he had already done that and gave his mobile with the message to the Manager.

The Manager stared at the screen. The balance was twice the amount of the money to be withdrawn.

Now he made a very bold decision. He asked the cashier to part with the money!! The cashier was delighted. Probably she thought that her name would appear in a Book of Records or something to that effect.

We have become slaves to the computer and sadly lost all of our thinking capacity!!

Now how is this Manager going to disburse loans??

God save this country!!

On-line woes!

I have been saying and I will continue to say that an air-conditioner is not a product to be bought on-line. It is more or less like a boy and a girl or a man and a woman meeting (!) on Facebook maybe after seeing the profile picture of a bright sunny actor or actress!! Most of the time or almost all the time it is not going to work out. Let me explain...

Yesterday a smart IT guy rang me up and said he wanted some doubts cleared. I told him that I would help him. First he said that he had purchased a model 155 ??? model of split air-conditioner from an on-line portal and he wanted to know the capacity of the unit. The technician who came and installed the unit was not able to explain that. I told him that the 15 in the 155 stood for 15,000 BTU and he had bought for himself a 1.2 ton capacity air-conditioner. Then he went on to say that his room size was 72 sft but there was no cooling at all even after suing the ceiling fan(!!). He wanted to know if his unit will be replaced. I assured him that his unit will not be replaced but the defect (may not be a major one) will be rectified and all he had to do was register a call in the toll free number of the concerned company.

In the afternoon another tech guy rang me up and wanted to buy an air-conditioner from me. He said that his friend had purchased an air-conditioner from an on=line portal and the unit was installed nine daya after delivery. The unit was defective and did not work and the return policy was that the unit should be returned within seven days from the date of delivery!! Ha, ha.

On-line is a web. Amazing flip!! You enter into it and a maze will be on!!

But let me tell you one thing. You want to buy a particular title of Chetan? Please buy it on-line and get it at your doorstep!!