DTDC, “India’s Largest Domestic Delivery
Network Company” that apparently serves more than 10,000 PIN code areas in
India, has persuaded me to run away from it and embrace India Post. Let me tell
you the story.
On May 23, 2012 I handed them a document to
be delivered to a friend in Kannur town, Kerala. Frankly, I didn’t have great
expectations. I thought they might deliver it only on May 26 although I had
hoped for a May 25 delivery. But I had underestimated DTDC’s ability to hoard
consignments without delivering them.
DTDC’s Kannur office called my friend on
May 28, informed her of the arrival of the consignment, and asked her to
collect it from the office. As her house is in the heart of town, less than a kilometre from the DTDC office, she insisted on home
delivery. The DTDC man said that they were not required to deliver it at her
address because it was an ordinary consignment. In that case, she said, they
were welcome to return it to the consignor. Finally, it was delivered to her
around lunchtime on May 29.
I was thoroughly disappointed both by the
inordinate delay and by the way they initially refused home delivery. I spoke
to the Ahmedabad manager of DTDC. She didn’t find anything amiss because she
said according to the contract, DTDC was not required to deliver it by any
deadline. She wouldn’t give me the names or contact numbers of anyone in the
corporate headquarters. She gave me an e-mail ID to which I could write what I
wanted.
I immediately wrote. It’s three weeks now;
they haven’t even acknowledged my e-mail.
In the meanwhile I went through the barely
legible small print on the reverse side of the consignment note I got from
DTDC. The local manager was absolutely right. The company doesn’t take any
responsibility whatsoever for the consignment you hand them. The risk is
entirely yours. There is no explicit promise to deliver it. If they admitted
that they lost your uninsured consignment, they would give you a maximum of Rs
100 in compensation.
Many companies frame their contracts in
such one-sided manner to fight possible litigation from a strong platform. But
the implicit promise is quite different. But the DTDC manager retreated quickly
into the safety of the lack of any explicit promise.
When India Post delivers unregistered
articles in five days, why should I pay DTDC three or four times the postage for
this kind of treatment?
It was therefore pretty easy for DTDC to
persuade me to jump into India Post’s arms. Incidentally, my friend’s reply,
sent by registered post (not speedpost), reached me on the fourth day.
Photo Credit: http://www.istockphoto.com/
Your are lucky that your post article reached in 4 days..It might not be the case every time...It is no different with Speed Post..although Speed Post refunds your postage..if you are willing to fight for it..
ReplyDeleteI have realised one thing..have low expectations..if they deliver in time..its your good luck..if they don't, you were'nt expecting it anyhow!!!
I prefer to use Speed Post since it costs less..
My disappointment is not so much about the delay as about the manager's (and the company's) attitude towards the customer. There was no tinge of apology. The company appears to hide behind the lack of an explicit contractual obligation to deliver consignments within a specific time-frame.
Delete1. I had similar experince with DTDC. Their office is a stone's throw from my residence. However when a package of shoes arrived, they called me to come & take delivery as they had no delivery boys available. I asked them to take their time to recruit & then deliver. They finally delivered after 2 days.
ReplyDelete2. ABout the fine print, I feel that govt should frame a standard set of conditions for all service providers whcih should be part of their License. Govt should also state a minimum limit which should be a deterrant to Service provider rather than a compensation to customer. Once you take this view, things should change.
3. BTW, I really enjoyed the new e-Postoffice started by India Post. I am now able to see & order stamps of my choice rather than trudging to GPO which is 30kms away & waste a whole working day.
I once applied for a Airtel landline at my house. In the newspapers there were so many complaints about how long it took from the time you applied for a line to the time the line was actually installed. You would fill out the application form then be given a card acknowledging your application and informing you to wait until you were contacted by post (there were no cellphones at the time) about when your line would be installed. So I went to one of their offices, filled out the form and got the card and was told to check on them in two weeks. I insisted on being told why two weeks and the lady was a bit pissed off at this request that she referred me to her boss and warned that if I took my rudeness there, I would never get a line, ever. I had heard that there was a waiting list of about 800 applicants. I went to her boss and asked the same question. What are the two weeks for? He respectfully took me through the entire process from department to department that my application would have to go through until the line was installed. I counted seven offices that it would have to go to. I told him to do his part, which entailed only his signature and give me the form. I said I would personally take it to all those offices myself. The first two were easy, The third one required the transport department to allocate a vehicle to surveyors to come to my place. I said I would take them in my car if they were around. They were, so we went with them to my house and they did their thing. I honestly do not think they did anything but hey, what do I know?
ReplyDeleteOn arrival back to their offices I went to the ‘stage four’ office where the occupant just told me without even looking up “put your form there and come back after a week”. I was a bit tired and decided I had made enough progress for the day and went home. I went back there the next week on Wednesday and I kid you not, the form was in exactly the same place I had put it a week before. When the guy saw me he just looked at it, signed it then told me to come back after a week. I refused. I insisted that he explains what he had done with the whole week I had given before and what he intended to do with this other one he was asking for. I told him that I needed the line for my work and since I did not have a line, I had no work so I would sit there and wait. He thought I was joking. I refused to leave his office till something was done. He asked me to excuse him and then he left me at the office, went for lunch for a whole hour and was shocked to find me still waiting when he returned. He laughed but I was convinced he had gotten my point. He proceeded to take me through all the remaining steps. In about a week I had my landline working.
Amazing. I think the main reason we get rotten service is that we are willing to put up with it. We rarely insist on our rights as consumers as you did, Deepak. We are also generally reluctant to put up with the inconvenience involved in demanding good service.
DeleteWhen I called American Express Call Center last week to contest a charge to my card, the customer service representative I spoke to spent a great deal of time on the phone with me so that he could be sure he had obtained all the facts.
ReplyDeleteI had been willing to let part of the charge stand because the company in question had performed some of the services it promised. However, after hearing the entire story, the employee told me that he would delete the entire transaction. He never once consulted a supervisor.
The moral of the story: Even if your business is a one-person operation, you must demonstrate to your customers that you really care about them by doing everything you can to meet their needs and solve their problems. And if you have employees, empower them to do the very same thing.