Chennai Auto fares fixed after seven long years

We at Bhumi started a campaign on www.Change.org on June 25, 2012 to fix the auto fares in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu. 16,632 people signed the petition and we met the government several times, it has all finally paid off

The government of Tamilnadu have announced the revised Auto meter fares today

I received a call from the Transport Minister an hour back (Aug 25, 10AM) with the following details

• Minimum fare for the first 1.8 Km is Rs.25, and for every additional Km is Rs.12.
• Between 11pm to 5am the charges would be 50 percent in addition to the fare.
• Waiting charges for 5 minutes would be Rs.3.50 and for an hour it is Rs.42.
• Complaint mechanism helpline 'like 108' will be established
• It's the first time in India that the GPS electronic meter is going to be used, which would record the details of the journey travelled and has a panic button, that if pressed by the customer would alarm the police.
• GPS electronic meter will be issued for free by the government free, at a cost of Rs.80-90 crores
• From the news: Drivers charging extra will get their licence suspended or the auto will be seized.
• From the news: The corrected fares comes to effect immediately and the final deadline to the fix meter is October 15th. 
• Reference - Relevant Government Order

Lots of people to thank: 

• Our Chief Minister Ms.J. Jayalalithaa
• The Transport Minister Mr.Senthil Balaji
• The officials of the state transport department 
• The 16,632 people who signed the petition to make this happen. Our voice was amplified 16,000 times because of you! 
• Members of the press, especially The Times of India - Karthikeyan Hemalatha
• www.Change.org - for creating the platform, esp. Surendran Balachandran for all the guidance & encouragement
• The awesome team at Bhumi, anything is possible as a team!

What if everyone treated you like Tata DoCoMo - 2

Continued from What if everyone treated you like Tata DoCoMo - 1 - The real truth behind the 'Disruptive innovation' by Tata DoCoMo

I was getting fed up with all the spam from Tata DoCoMo but didn't wanna subscribe to the National Do Not Disturb registry because I wanted to receive all SMSs and calls from Bhumi.

Call 1 to Customer Care: After getting through all the hurdles, believe it or not I was put on hold for over 15 minutes after which I disconnected the line.

Call 2 to Customer Care (2 days later): Officer refuses to stop Spam from Tata DoCoMo unless I subscribed to National DND registry. I tried demanding my right to not receive marketing spam from Tata DoCoMo but to no avail.

Call 3 to Customer Care (after a few minutes): Thought I'll speak to a manager or someone higher up who could handle the issue better. My call was not connected at all and instead I heard a recorded voice message asking me to 'email listen@tatadocomo.com if I had further issues'!!! Do these people even care?!?!

Email 1 to listen@tatadocomo.com: Read through and have a laugh. I've copy pasted the email as it was sent, the parts in bold were actually the ones they missed. I'll post a screenshot of the email as an update within a day or two.

Hi,
I'm being subjected to excessive spam from Tata Docomo on my number 8148XXXXXX
I do not want to subscribe to National DND registry.
I just don't want any marketing spam call or SMS from Tata Docomo
Both are different, please do not try to educate me on the above, I'm fed up of the same from your call centre people.
Please cancel all communication from Tata docomo to my number immediately.
Please also send a list of all VAS charges that are being deducted from my account in the last 90 days, i believe all of these have been deducted through fraudulent means.

Dr Prahalathan KK

Response from Tata DoCoMo to Email 1:

Dear Mr. Prahalathan,
Greetings for the day!
This is with reference to your email dated 28-April-2012 regarding dnd related details for your Tata Docomo number 8148XXXXXX.

We regret the inconvenience caused to you.
In case you don’t wish to receive any promotional calls, OBD or SMS, you can register for Fully Blocked option or choose Partially Blocked in case you would like to receive information on any of the following topics:To activate the DND service send SMS” START DND” to 1909 and choose the options based on your requirement. 

0 - Full blocking of Telemarketing calls/SMS 

1 - Allows calls/SMS from Banking / Insurance / Financial products / credit cards 

2 - Allows calls/SMS from Real Estate 

3 - Allows calls/SMS on Education 

4 - Allows calls/SMS on Health 

5 - Allows calls/SMS on Consumer goods & automobiles 

6 - Allows calls/SMS on Communication/ Broadcasting /Entertainment/IT 

7 - Allows calls/SMS on Tourism and Leisure 

Once you activate DND, the promotional calls/SMS will be stopped within 7 working days from the date of DND registration.

And also be informed that upon checking our records the deducted amount for vas service-mobile mirchi and this service is also deactivated successfully.

And also be informed that you can call *191# select 6th option to deactivate any vas service in future. 

Please feel free to contact us for any further clarifications or call us at 121(toll free) from your TATA Mobile phone or 9043012345 from a Non Tata Mobile phone.
Assuring you of our best services at all times.

Warm Regards,XXXXXXXTATA DOCOMO- Customer Service

There is more to come.

UPDATE: There is no more to come, we quit using Tata Docomo due to unabated excessive spam

Screenshot of above conversation.

What if everyone treated you like Tata DoCoMo - 1

I've been using Airtel for a really long time, over the past few months Airtel has almost doubled calling rates. So for Bhumi calls I ported my old Hutch number into Uninor, tried it for 2 months and dumped it because of poor signal. Then we chose Tata DoCoMo numbers some 3-4 months back. It made sense, they offer 10p/min intra network local calls like Airtel, but while Airtel is extracting 90p/min for a call to a landline or for any STD call, Tata DoCoMo charges only 1p/2seconds.

Tata DoCoMo claims to be a 'Disruptive innovator', but what they don't tell you is they will 'Disrupt' your life with unbearable amount of spam text messages and marketing voice calls.

As I am blogging this post
67.5% of text messages on my Inbox is SPAM from Tata DoCoMo
40.0% of the calls I've missed are marketing calls from Tata DoCoMo
35.0% of the calls I've received are marketing calls from Tata DoCoMo

So why am I blogging about Tata DoCoMo, don't all telecom companies cheat us?
(Airtel for example is yet to return approx Rs.4,000 billed in excess over a 3 month period on my broadband connection in 2010-2011)
Because the other telecom companies are not misleading the world with ads like 'What if everyone treated you like your Mobile Operator'

Check out how Customer care treated me @ What if everyone treated you like Tata DoCoMo - 2

There is more to come!
 UPDATE: There is no more to come, we quit using Tata Docomo due to unabated excessive spam