BSNL - Better Say No to Landline

I could have also named this blog - "My Ordeal In Getting A Landline Telephone Connetion".

Recently, I realised that I badly needed a broadband connection and initally approached Airtel and then Reliance. Both didn't have the infrastructure in the area I live in and I was driven to our sarkari operator - BSNL. They claimed that you can pay 500/- from your pocket and have a landline connection within a week - All in a jiffy. I was excited! I went to the BSNL office. Here's what followed:


Day 1:

Loation: BSNL office, Bangalore
Ambience: Noisy, Crowded

I enter the BSNL office. The security gives me a look just as the one a jailer would cast on an escaped convict. I pause and start to speak. Before I can even display my Hindi proficiency, the guard interprets and splutters out that it is lunch time and I should come after 2:00 p.m. I glance at the boards there that proudly proclaim that the office hours are between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

I wait and enter the office at 14:10 hrs. The "Customer Service Center" is extremely crowded and the security has the face of a father whose child has broken the nose of a couple of neighborhood kids. I could see some people pleading with him to be let into the CSC. After a moment of thought, I by-pass the CSC and enter the office. As there is no reception, I go to a desk and find most seats empty. I approach the nearest non-empty seat and ask politely for a new-line application form. The gentleman on the desk doesn't bother to raise his head but points his pen towards what looks like the south-easterly direction and says "Last desk".

I walk up to the last desk and repeat my request. I get a 3-page form. I check it only to find that the new rates announced by BSNL and the ones printed on the form do not match. I ask the gentleman who handed me the form where I need to submit it. Pat comes the reply, "Nearest office to your house".

I come back to my office, check the BSNL site to find an offfice close to my house. The site says that the office closest to my house does not accept new-line connections. I ring them up. They reply to the contrary.

Day 2:

Location: BSL office nearest to my house
Ambience: Noisy, Crowded, Unruly

I walk up to the new-line counter (which closes by 13:00 p.m.) and give my application. I am acompanied by a friend who speaks the local language. The lady doesn't find a DD and says that they do NOT accept any kind of payment other than a DD. That turns out to be a wild-goose's chase.

Day 3:

Location: BSL office nearest to my house
Ambience: Noisy, Crowded

I enter the office at 10:15 a.m. and am made to wait for 20 minutes as they work to "bring the systems up". The lady refuses to see my application. After the tormenting wait, I go up, present my DD and the application.

At this point I should tell you something about BSNL's application form. The application wants more data than what an university would ask from you if they are to get you admitted. One of the many esoteric things they ask you is "the telephone number of a house on the same side of the road as yours". I live in a rented house on the second floor. Other floors are occupied by the owners and I had filled in my house-owner's number in the above-mentioned column.

The lady rejects the application saying that the telephone number should be a BSNL number. I say I know absolutely nobody in the area. She's stoical and says if I continue speaking so irresponsibly she'll ask me to go to some other BSNL office.

Day 4:

Location: Citibank
Ambience: Good

I enter citibank. I'm greeted by a lady at the reception. I say to her that I need to cancel a DD taken in favor of BSNL. She helps me with a form. I sign it and the process is over in 5 minutes. I leave as a happy man plus 500/- in my a/c still minus a landline.