Activating the debit card

 

This morning, I finally got around to visiting the grand old bank near my home to activate my debit card. I have been their customer for more than three decades, but just about four months ago they thought I was worthy of having a debit card, and sent me one. While other banks pushed these cards down your throat or shoved them into your pocket, the grand ol’ one kept revisiting their QA processes to assess my suitability…

 

The envelope had been lying on my desk all this while; I was eyeing it everyday but never could muster the courage earlier to do the task. Every interaction with the grand old bank gives me the shudders.

 

Other banks send you such cards and ask you to wait for the T-PIN or something. This one asked me to contact the branch. I asked the fellow at the security desk and he guided me to the teller counters. There were long queues in front of the first three, and the last counter had only one person. I joined him. The teller was stacking notes as I joined. She then started counting the notes on a device beside her.

 

The machine counted till 79, then went “ER 08” – Beep !! She pressed some buttons, then tried again. Same result : “ER 08” – Beep !!  She tried with a different bundle of notes… and again, “ER 08” – Beep !! It was obvious to everyone that the machine was trained to count till 79 only, but she did not understand, and was oblivious to the queue behind me, that was getting longer by the minute. After about six or seven trials, she took all the bundles of notes and went to an old fellow sitting quite a few counters away. We waited.

 

She finished counting all the bundles there, came back, entered the data on her system, then released cash to the fellow in front of me. It was my turn, finally !!

 

I told her I wanted to activate the debit card. She said, “Why here ?” I told here that the letter said so. She brought out a small device and asked me to enter my account number. I did. Then the device asked for my phone number. I entered my phone number, and the device said, “Time out !!” She looked at the device, then at her screen and asked me to go to the ATMs where the security guard, who was apparently trained in these things, would help me out.

 

Made my way to the room beside the branch where the ATMs were housed. People were waiting patiently in a fairly long queue for updating passbooks and withdrawing money, and the security guard was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, he had stepped out for a tea break.

 

He returned after a while, and I was once again number three in the queue. He called me to one of the ATMs. The key pad of that machine was well and truly hidden from view. I inserted the card, entered the account number with great difficulty and the machine said, “Time out !!”

 

The guard offered to help. On the second attempt I rattled out the numbers in rapid succession while he entered them. First the account number, then my phone number. SUCCESS at last !!  

 

My debit card was finally active !! Time taken from start to finish : 1 hour, 20 minutes.

My experiences with ecommerce

This may be my very own unique set of experiences, but I am sure many of you will have your own stories to tell as well… With the rise of these e-commerce websites and their non-stop advertisements, I thought of giving them a try.  

Over the years, I have purchased many things off these sites, from transistor radios to undies. The common thread running through these purchases, with a few exceptions, has been one of surprises and compromised quality. Now read my litany of woes…

Wooden stand lamp : What can go wrong with this ? The lamp came with three pieces of wood that could be fitted together, a lamp shade, a lamp holder, an LED bulb and wiring. I assembled it and set up in my bedroom. Very nice !!

On day three, the bulb died in a minor explosion !! A first in my life. I replaced the bulb. Three months later there was a burning smell in the room, and the lamp went out. The wire had short-circuited !! I replaced the entire wiring – not taking any more chances.

Transistor radio :  I purchased a nice transistor radio with a retro look. Worked flawlessly for six months. Then the rechargeable battery died. It was a pretty unique battery that took me a while to replace – again off the Net. That lasted for about four months. Now I run it as a radio set plugged into a power socket. The band selector switch requires a few slaps and tweaking every morning before any sound comes out of it, and the volume control has a mind of its own.

CD/DVD player : Purchased a fairly cheap CD/DVD player from one of the web-sites. Ran perfectly well till the monsoons. One thunderclap near our place one rainy afternoon, and the player got so scared that it refused to recognize any CD/DVD after that. Could not lodge any warranty claim – that is a different story.

Purchased a replacement player after a few months – the earlier model was not available anymore. The warranty card asked me to register the purchase on the manufacturer’s website. The list of products that they have on that website, does not include the device I have bought !!  Now I am on my own, hoping this product will last. It is working, though, with the odd hiccup now and then.

This episode reminds me of a conversation I once had with a roadside Chinese vendor somewhere in southeast Asia. I had asked about the warranty of the product I was buying. He had said, “No warranty lah !! You want I give. You buy, I forget.”

Paper shredder :  Purchased a paper shredder encased in a beautiful blue plastic box. I could shred only three sheets of A4 paper, before one of the rotating blades bent and went out of alignment !! Now it is a beautiful piece of junk.

Cargo shorts : I had purchased a pair of cargo shorts abroad that lasted me for about seven years. Thought I would buy a second pair. Purchased it off the Net once again, since the retail shops did not have it. The material was very thin, and I had to get a tailoring job done to replace all the zip fasteners and parts of the stitching. Thereafter it was usable.

Ordered a “repeat purchase”. This one came in a different colour and material. But it was of a better quality than the previous one. They changed the meaning of a repeat purchase.

Undies : The less said the better !! Some purchases were outright scams. Some purchases were of poor quality – possibly factory QA rejects, some were of the wrong size.  One piece was bright, post-office red !! Who wears post-office red undies ??

Books : There is a particular book that I love reading time and again, but it has been out of print for many years. Wanted to present it to someone and went on a search. The website said they had two copies. I ordered one. Received a completely different book by another author, but with the same title !!

Multi-meter : I needed a multi-meter for many reasons. I had used one of SANWA make, many years ago and was thrilled to find it on the Net. Ordered one. What came to me is a fake / replica product “SUMWA”… But thank God, it works.

Lens cap for Nikon DSLR camera : I lost the lens cap of my camera a few months ago while trying to ride a horse and take pictures at the same time. Purchased a replacement off the Net. Got a CANON lens cap, although I had specifically ordered NIKON. It fits, though.

Do those websites take responsibility ? No. They conveniently pass it on to the source companies. And the worst part is that, for weeks together, they will flood you with advertisements about the product you have recently purchased !!

Now tell me, can we ever compete in the world with this kind of business ethics ? In my opinion, never !!