random ramblings

My phone was low on balance so I had to get it recharged today. I usually get my brother to do it, but decided to get it done myself this time on my way to work.

I went to my usual shop where I recharge my phone and guess what they were busy watching T.V (I would be cool with it if they were watching the world cup, but they were watching some movie). On asking for recharge I was informed that they no longer do any recharges for Aircel. I agree that not a lot of stores carry Aircel recharge coupons, I wonder why, but this was where I initially bought the sim card from, talk about turning your back on customers.

Another store which also stocks recharge coupons among other things was closed as today was a Monday. I thought I wouldn't be able to get my phone reachaged today or would have to visit an Aircel store, its way out of my regular route.


But luckily on walking some distance I noticed a small shop that appeared to have various recharge coupons. I half heartedly asked if he had Aircel Coupons and just glanced on the counter and noticed that he did. I promptly bought the coupon. I also asked for a special recharge to get text messages too. (99 messages for 9 bucks, isn't that a good deal, especially when you're charged 1 buck for every minute or text.)

The guy at the counter was quick and handed me the change money back without asking for a lower bill or giving any excuses of not having any change money.


I usually recharge my internet pack quarterly, costs 301 bucks. I'm gonna need to get the internet pack soon, no prizes for guessing which store I'll be getting it from.

Last week on Saturday as I was browsing the web I my connection was suddenly disconnected. I tried several times to reconnect by none of the browsers I have were able to connect to the internet. I assumed that there may be a temporary outage with the service provider so I just left it be.
I tried to access the internet again in the evening and still had the same problem, no connection, so I called the customer care number of Aircel and after a long hold I managed to speak to someone who said he couldn't help me as their server was down.
I tried the next day on Sunday and the internet service was still not working. I spoke to customer care again and was informed by them that there was a minimum balance required of 5 bucks to be able to access the internet. I tried to explain that the service was working fine just a day before with my 0 balance sim card but the guy was not interested in that at all. The next morning Monday I went to a store and recharged for 10 bucks (talk time credit of 7.07 bucks) and I tried to connect to the internet and Magic the service was working. But when I got home it was not working again.
I called up customer care again and the guy I spoke to this time said I should reset the internet settings and would not listen to the fact that the settings were fine and working in the market hence the issue here was with their network. He assured me with flowery language that everything will be fine once the settings are reset. I just wanted to go online again 'cos I was concerned about being timed out in the chess games I'm playing on Chesshere.com so I sent the required SMS and saved the settings. But still no connection. So I called them back, by this time I knew the options I had to select on their IVR.
The guy I spoke to this time said the the automatic settings and not always correct and may at times miss not on certain option, I found this to be strange, but the guy insisted that he would give me manual settings and that would definately work. I tried that, It didn't work. And by then I was starting to lose my temper.
I called again and the explained all that I had tried so far and that I was certain that the issue was on their end. Finally this guy said he would send a team to investigate the servers that provide coverage and took down the address and said that the issue would be resolved in 72hrs. I wasn't really convinced but there was nothing else I could do other than wait 'cos there was nothing that either of us could do 'cos this was really a job for the network engineers.
When I checked on tuesday morning I was able to get a connection but it was very slow and browsing was impossible. I was glad that the network had taken my complaint seriously but I assumed that they may have changed their network coverage and hence I was now in a poor coverage area. Also I wasn't sure that this would be resolved soon so I decided to put my Chesshere account on vacation mode.
On Tuesday night though the internet was working pretty fine and I was finally able to post the pics from my recent picnic.
I just received a call from Aircel to check that the issue was resolved, which is why I thought about posting about this now. Well the service isn't perfect but I'm glad its working.
One thing I still recall from one of the calls is that at the end of the call the guy said "For more information on our products and services you can visit our website" and I was not in a good mood so I replied saying "thats what I cant do right now." I later felt guilty 'cos I realised I may have sounded rude and I feel sorry about that. I hope that guy was not offended. Now this was before I realised that it might be their standard closing statement so the next time I call I'll remember to not mind that.