How I used twitter to get a cable connection

This is a narration of how I used social media (namely twitter) to get myself a cable connection. Our TV was arrived via container after nearly 2 1/2 months. So we were on TV jo upvaas till that time.

Once we setup the TV we were eager to get a cable connection from one of the dish providers here in India (TataSky, Dish Network, Airtel, etc). I had seen a shop with TataSky on its board. So he must be a distributor for TataSky. I went and asked him some questions about HD, DVR, etc and then I paid him money for a TataSky Connection. At that time he said it will be done in 2-3 days.

We waited eagerly for 2-3-4 days and when no one turned up I went to his shop and asked him the reason for no-show. He said he had contacted the folks who do actual connection and they had called me on Sunday and since I did not answer the phone they must not have come. The phone was with me the whole of Sunday and I am sure they did not call me. But I calmly asked him when they will come now. He said they will surely come today.

The today never came. He came up with different excuses like “Power Cut today. So they have probably not started their work”, “They come from far and hence will be there by evening”, “Probably they have run out of HD DVRs, etc, etc. He gave me the number of the installers but when I called them to find out when they will be there no one picked up the phone.

15 days went by since I had paid him and no cable yet. I was prepared to ask him for a refund and go with either Dish or Airtel.

You can imagine my frustration. In the end I searched the web and found one more similar case like mine where the connection was not setup for 2 weeks. Someone mentioned in that forum that TataSky is very responsive on its social media channel (twitter).

So next day I tweeted

@TataSky, TataSky sucks. Applied for new connection in Kondhwa, Pune on 14 Sept. No connection yet. Terrible excuses every day.

Immediately within couple of hours I got an email from TataSky asking me for my number. They emailed me saying someone will contact me soon.
No one contacted me on that day.

So I tweeted again next day

@TataSky Today is the last day I give TataSky for installation. Otherwise I will switch to Airtel. 14 days and still no progress.

Things started to happen real quickly then. A customer service representative contacted me and got the details of the shopkeeper, etc. This agent was in Bangalore. I also got calls from TataSky local office in Pune asking me for details. They talked to the shopkeeper directly and got the number of the installers. The TataSky folks were also not able to reach the “supposed number” of the installers. Later the TataSky rep told me that the shopkeeper is probably just dillydallying for whatever reason and he is even blacklisted.

Anyways, by evening TataSky folks came home and I had a cable connection after 15 days. I was impressed by TataSky service. I should have booked the cable connection directly with them over phone rather than going thru a shopkeeper.

In appreciation of Tatasky i tweeted

@TataSky Kudos to your team for quickly resolving the issue of delayed installation. Good to see such great customer service. Am a fan now.