I have been a member of the society for I don’t know how long and I enjoy reading their monthly magazine and sharing it with others too.
Since a couple of years however NGS has handed over the distribution and subscription processes to some organisation in Mumbai India and I have had all kinds of problems with the latter.
Here is the latest exchange of mails between me and their local agent. Both mails were exchanged today. My first mail was in reply to a mail dated January 3, 2013 advising me that the matter was being forwarded to the concern department (sic) and that I could expect a response soon. (I have interpreted the concern department as one that is concerned about customer complaints and not the concerned department.)
From Me: “Today, it is the 24th January and I am sure that the concern department is
still working on the matter that is now more than three months old.
I hope that you and everyone concerned with customer satisfaction in your
organisation is very happy with the progress being made, though it may of
course be of no interest to you if your customer is satisfied.
Or am I wrong?
I would like to receive a concrete solution to my problem instead of your
routine almost automated response like your first two paragraphs in the
letter dated the 3rd of January after which you have been totally silent.
Is there a method by which I can escalate this upward in your organisation
if at your level you are unable to solve the problem?”
The response: “Dear Sir,
Greetings from ACK Media!
With reference to your mail, we have forwarded your complaint to our concern department and will revert you soon with your subscription details.
For any further queries please feel free to contact us on our helpline numbers 022 – 40497435 / 36 between 9 am to 7.00 pm, Monday to Saturday.
Assuring you of our best services at all times.
Best regards,
Aahan Khan. ”
As suggested by them, I rang up the number given and spoke to one charming lady called Puja who kept telling me that Mr. Aahan Khan has left for the day despite my informing her that Mr. Khan had been forwarding my complaints to the concern department for the past three months and that I would like to speak to the concerned department. She finally requested me to call again tomorrow as I suspect that it was getting to be her going home time too.
This matter pertains to the renewal of my sbuscription, but my interaction with Mr. Khan throughout last year was on non receipt of issues due to their choosing a totally inept courier company to deliver the magazines and my experience with Mr. Khan even then was that he would pass the buck to the concern department and revert. He never did and I had to keep at him by mail and phone calls.
When my subscription problem started, I had contacted the NGS in the USA and they simply washed their hands off the entire matter by asking me to contact the Indian arm of their operations.
I wonder if my blogging about this poor customer service will result in some action from the local arm of the NGS, the ACK Media, which from all accounts seems to be a giant in its field. Or is it that its size prevents good customer service?