Jio is seriously bad at customer care

On 12/7/16 I got a notification from "Jio Notifications" saying "You Jio number 82xxxxxx02 is now ready for tele-verification". I replied to that email mentioning that I had not applied for a Jio connection; but that email bounced because (obviously) such notification mailboxes are "not monitored". The original email said nothing about this and neither did it give any alternative email to contact.

Then I started getting plan activation notifications, recharge notifications, data quota exhausted notifications, recharge successful notifications. I was a bit hopeful that the person who owns that number (which was not masked in any email, BTW) would figure out that they had given the wrong id but that never happened.

Finally, I thought I'd drop an email to "Jio Care" and ask them to remove my email.

September 5:
I do not have a Jio acccount/number. Probably someone has given my email id by mistake. Kindly remove this email from your records.

September 5:

Dear Customer,

I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you with regards to wrong notification sent on your email address.
Please ignore the notification received with regards to Jio number 82xxxxxx02.
I have escalated the issue to the relevant team, I ensure that you will not receive the notification in future and correct email id is updated.

September 11:
I'm still getting these emails. For example, I got one a few hours ago with the subject "50% of Daily Data quota exhausted for Jio Number 82xxxxxx02". It shouldn't be so difficult to remove my email id from this number's account?

September 12:
Dear Mr. Naik,
Thank you for bringing this issue to our notice.
I have checked and confirm that the Jio SIM is not registered with your name.
It seems that your email id has been updated in our system in error by our customer.
I request you to ignore the future emails and we will make the necessary changes at the earliest.
I appreciate your time and patience.

I am still getting the notifications and I have just two simple questions to Jio:
1. How difficult is it to actually verify the email ID that has been given by a customer?
2. How difficult is it to remove a wrong email ID from a customer account when it is pointed out to you?

And one simple question to the customer:
1. How can you possibly think my email belongs to you?

Magic settings

mppe required,no40,no56,stateless

Pi-Hole

I had trouble installing pi-hole on my Raspberry Pi. Looks like this was due to problems reaching the repository mirrors. Take a look here: https://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianRepository

Not enough content?

Not sure what Google sees when it visits my blog, but here's what they had to say about my AdSense application:

Insufficient content: To be approved for AdSense and show relevant ads on your site, your pages need to have enough text on them for our specialists to review and for our crawler to be able to determine what your pages are about.

Embracing Technology - The Wrong Way!

I've got a nice car insurance policy that gives an OBDII device that can track the car along with reporting other normal parameters that you can get from OBD (I have another OBDII device but it connects to a local system via Bluetooth). Now, to activate this device I need to download an Android app, scan the barcode on the device and install in the car. Simple?

Download app -- oops, country restricted app. Somehow Google Play doesn't think I'm in India so it blocks the app download. Not sure what Google has in mind, but why would the insurance company put this restriction on a free app?

Workaround, set the Play Store to another account I have on my phone which is set to India, app downloads and installs.

Run app, asks for userid and password -- oops, the insurance company did not send one. Shouldn't be a problem, I can just register a new one.

New user -- oops, email is already in use. Phone number is already in use. You exist in the system but nobody bothered to tell you that. All right, they have an option to log in using your Google account. So I'm logged in now. Problem solved?

Policy does not exist in your account. No worries, you can add a policy by clicking here. But why wouldn't you automatically associate the policy if you already have my email and phone associated with the account?

Oh well, add new policy. Policy number is in multiple pieces, each piece goes into it's own little box. Enter premium amount. Why? Apparently it's a security feature. Only a legit customer would know both the policy number and the premium. Right. OK. The premium amount is on the policy document, which is a PDF attachment in my mailbox. Not a problem, entered it. And done. On to the OBDII port?

Nope.

What? Maybe I missed it, back to the list of policies. Nope, nothing there. OK, contact customer service, send email with screenshot. They should be able to fix it right.

Time passes...

3 emails from customer service. Wow. Er... all auto responses. "We are looking into it, will respond as soon as we can, etc. etc." But here's an interesting tidbit - "In case your matter requires immediate attention, you may chat with us instantly on below link, we are available round the clock (24/7)."

My problem is not an emergency, to be honest. So I wait. No further response till the next morning. I do have one more trick to try - they have a web based portal as well. It may have more functionality than the app. (One of my pet peeves, why would you not put everything in the app?)

On the browser, wade through their page looking for a login link. Finally find it (there should really be a standard location for login links, in this case there was a login link right at the top, but it was in the middle of the bar, not to the right like most sites do. I think I should just have asked the browser to search for "login" instead of scanning the text myself; might be a good idea for a plugin?). User id, password. OK, I don't actually have one since I logged in using the Google account the last time. No worries, "forgot password" (the web forces us to lie, I didn't forget the password, I didn't have it to begin with), send password to both email and phone. Wait.

Time passes...

Nothing. Try again... wait... nothing.

Oh well, login with Google again. My policies. Nothing there - click "here" to add new policies. But wait. Validate your phone number first. Click this button to send OTP. 

Click. Nothing. Click. Click. Click. 4 OTPs on the phone. How much effort does it take to disable the button after I click on it, or even to show a message that an OTP is on the way?

Enter the last of the OTPs, congratulations, your phone is verified. Now you can add a policy. Same set of data to enter, policy number and either the premium amount or the date of birth of the policy holder. Hmm... not sure I gave DoB in a car insurance policy application, but who knows?

Enter the policy number, enter premium. "Policy Number Already Exist." Nice.

Let's try the chat. Here's the transcript, edited to remove some personal details:


Thanks for contacting Insurance Company. Currently all our representatives were assisting to other customer. Kindly be online, our next available representative will assist you shortly

CustRep
9:42:13 AM
• Good Morning...

You
9:42:20 AM
• Hi.I am unable to add my policy to my online account. The error shown is "Policy Number Already Exist.Please Check Again. "

CustRep
9:42:24 AM
• You are chatting with CustRep

CustRep
9:43:01 AM
• ok sir may i know it is what kind of insurence

You
9:43:15 AM
• Car insurance

You
9:43:20 AM
• Policy number NUMBER

CustRep
9:43:48 AM
• ok sir already have add any other policy in this portal

You
9:43:56 AM
• No

You
9:44:07 AM
• I've logged in today for the first time

CustRep
9:44:23 AM
• ok sir

CustRep
9:44:37 AM
• We regret for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard

CustRep
9:45:06 AM
• may i know your name?

You
9:45:18 AM
• MYNAME

You
9:45:33 AM
• The policy is in the name of NAME

CustRep
9:46:56 AM
• ok sir

CustRep
9:47:50 AM
• plz send the screen shot your error customercare@InsuranceCompany.co.in

CustRep
9:48:13 AM
• our team will be check your details and let you know

You
9:48:34 AM
• OK. I've already done that.

You
9:49:15 AM
• The auto response said I could use chat if I wanted quicker help.

CustRep
9:49:24 AM
• within 3 working you will get the revert back

You
9:50:02 AM
• Thanks. Looks like the chat channel can't do much to help.


Back to square one. Very tempted to change insurance providers once the term is up next year. If I've paid good money for a tracking device I expect it to work. If an auto response says I can use chat, I expect them to be able to help.

I'm thinking there should be a public licensing org that should audit such companies' websites, processes and workflows before they are allowed to launch. I also think users should have to be licensed before they can be let loose on the Web.

Cost of Living

Internet from China Telecom - 100 Mbps - CNY 1688 per year

Bottled water for the dispenser - CNY 18 per bottle, CNY 50 deposit for the bottle or prepay for 15 bottles and the deposit is waived

Piped gas (cooking and water heater) - CNY 496 for 200 cubic meters

Oh well...

I crossed the road, walked into a bar, and changed a lightbulb.

Then I realized that my life was a joke...

Language

PT asked me about how I'm getting along in communicating, given I have no Chinese speaking skills whatsoever. Pasting my answer to him below:

English for the ones in office and hotel. Housekeeping staff doesn't understand much but I don't need more than gestures and basic English to communicate with them.

Taxi drivers via cards that the hotel reception writes for me if I ask them to call a taxi for me. I always carry a hotel address card for returning to the hotel.

Local map app for showing places where I want to go, either to taxi drivers or even asking for directions.

Google and Bing translate apps for asking for stuff in supermarkets and for taking photos for translation.

People are helpful and so far everyone I've had to interact with can read from the phone. Team mate came with me to get my local SIM card and also helped to get my Suzhou citizen's card (for bus, subway etc.) so it was faster, but I could have probably struggled through it without him being there.

Subway is marked in English, so as long as you know where you want to go you should be fine.

Bank account form was in Chinese but a lady there filled it out for me, she spoke English.

Public transport

I've used the public buses and the subway here in Suzhou. Very clean, fast and generally good availability and frequency. Some thoughts in no particular order:

Buses:

1. Bus routes are in an LED display in the front of the bus.
2. A lot of bus stops also have upcoming bus numbers displayed on an LED screen on the bus stop too. Very convenient to figure out how long you need to wait.
3. Bus stops are typically within a few hundred meters of each other, so in most cases you don't need to walk too far to get to one. There isn't one too close to where I am right now, but it's still walkable.
4. Google maps does have mostly reliable data on the routes, but may not have the current data on schedules.
5. Bus rates are mostly fixed - 1 yuan for non-A/C buses and 2 for when A/C is on. A/C is on in winters and summers.
6. There is nobody other than the driver in the bus, i.e. no conductor or ticket checker. You enter the bus from the front door, make the payment at a console/box next to the driver and go to your seat. Exit from the other door.
7. Payment can be in coins, which need to be dropped into the slot of the metal box in front of you as soon as you enter the bus.
8. Payment can also be made by the Suzhou Citizens' Card, by touching it to the payment surface near the coin slot. There is a 40% discount for paying by such a card.
9. You need to be aware of where to get off, or keep checking your maps app. The bus will stop at each and every stop on the route, regardless of whether someone wants to get on or off (in fact, the driver doesn't really know where you want to get off except if he looks in the mirror to see you waiting).

Subway:

1. There aren't as many subway stations as bus stops (obviously), but it's certainly faster via subway to some points in the city since it skips road congestion and travels faster.
2. You can always take a bus to the nearest subway station.
3. Subway stations have multiple entrances/exits, typically one on each street near the station. You can check your map to figure out which exit is closer to where you need to go.
4. Getting a citizens' card makes it very easy to pay for the subway ride - no need to go to the kiosk or counters to buy tickets.
5. Enter the station and find the entry/exit points - typically will have a security guard and an x-ray machine for passengers' luggage.
6. Touch your card at one of the card readers at the entry point - that will open the gate and record your point of embarkation.
7. Figure out which direction you need to go, and wait for the train on that side of the platform.
8. The train has indicators inside it to show which station it is at and which are still to come. There are also announcements and LED displays that show the upcoming station.
9. Once you get off the train, find your way to the exit and again touch the card to the reader - this opens the gate for you to leave and records where you got off, and presumably deducts the appropriate charge from your card. Apparently there is a 5% discount for using the card.

Overall it has been a good experience with public transport in Suzhou even with my lack of language skills.

Photos from Suzhou

Near the office. The stone balls are all over the place and meant to prevent vehicles moving on to pavements or areas they are not supposed to be in.

 

 

Dushu Lake from the hotel window:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Night scenes at Moon Bay and surroundings

         

Christmas decorations in the hotel: