Thread: Tataindicom broadband customer service gives away confidential customer information

I have been raising this issue with Tata indicom guys for some time now and even had a few heated arguments with customer service agents and a few supervisors but their normal response is that they hang up on me saying this is what their procedure is.

"Your details are at risk with Tata"

This is what the problem is : When you call up their customer service they ask you for your id which is the e-mail address they would have provided at the time you got the connection and some of us actually use their e-mail service so that e-mail address is not something that only the customer knows... any one can get hold of that right ... those people who you would have sent e-mails to...

Now carry on reading and see how safe your personal details are with Tata indicom broadband customer service department...

Once you provide the e-mail address instead of asking you to confirm the details they start like a parrot and will tell you your name is blah blah blah your phone number is blah blah blah and your home phone is blah blah blah and your address is so and so...

My point is that any tom dick or harry can call up Tata indicom's customer service and tell them my e-mail address and get all my confidential details from Tata without any efforts atall... What is this?

Here is what Tata indicom customer service people do:

Customer calls up:

Customer service agent : What is your id sir/madam
Customer: My id is abcdefgh@vsnl.net.in
Customer service agent : Thanks for providing the id... Your name is Mr so and so and your telephone number is 123456789 and you are calling from xyz city ( some times they even read out the whole address)

Customer: Yes that correct information.

Above is what happens when you call them up but how on earth does that prove that the caller is indeed the rightful owner of the id he has provided... I could get hold of mr x's e-mail id and call up tata and get every freaken detail about him/her from Tata.

My latest call to Tata is recorded and uploaded as an attachment so please download it and listen to it its only about 1.5mb and about 6 mins call ... in the end the customer care rep Yasmin hangged up on me which is kind of normal for them as this is what normally happens when I raise this issue.

For those who are registered members here they can download the attachment and if you are browsing as a guest please register and get the direct download or alternatively you can download it from here :


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Ideally what the procedure should be?

Customer calls up :
Customer service agent : may I have your id please..
Customer : My id is blah blah blah
Customer service agent : Can you please confirm your name and telephone number for security reasons
Customer: My name is so and so and my number is blah blah blah.
Customer service agent : Lastly to make sure its the right person I am talking to can you please confirm your postal address?
Customer: Yes my address is so and so.

Customer service agent : Now that we know I am talking to the rightfull owner of thier account ... How can I help you today sir/madam.

^ This is how it should be


I have raised this issue every time I called them up and even spoke to a few supervisors and they all kept saying that your concern will be put across to the concerned department and officials... well no results yet its been almost a year since I first raised this issue and I hate to bring this in public but they have left me with no options and you watch this single post will make them change their procedure and I would love to see some of their lazy ass arrogant supervisors get sacked for not taking action and/or conveying my message to the authority which deals with such matter within their organization.

I request all my blogger friends to please blog about this issue and also link to this post so sooner or later Tata indicom would change thier stupid practice.


If this practice is not stopped I will file a Public interest litigation here at New Delhi and I am sure we would have a huge indiabroadband.net gang attending the hearings and shouting slogans against Tata indicom.


PS: I am not fond of screwing a company's reputation in public but I did my level best to bring this issue to Tata's notice directly not once not twice by 10's of times and waited almost a year before coming out in public against this stupid practice they have in place.

A request to all readers : If you find this thread usefull then please digg it at : Customer details not safe with Tata indicom and spread the word as far as you can so this info gets into some deaf ears...


Note for Tata indicom legal loophole mongers : I specified at the begening of the call that this call is being recorded and you can also hear the beep all along the call.


File compressed by mail2sc

If you listen to the call carefully I actually had to stop her from reading out my whole address as this recording was going to be posted here for all of us to listen.

If you are a television or any other media reporter you are free to take up this story and also use the audio file with a condition that this thread or website : www.indiabroadband.net be mentioned in the story.

All you need to do is send me a quick PM or use the contact us form before you use this article.

Thanks

Just listened the conversation. It's really too much. I've also a bad experience with Tata CC last week. I'd an Indicom post paid connection and wanted to surrender. I called the CC and placed the surrender request (Almost similar confirmation questions and answers as in your case). After that I've received almost five to six calls within a couple of days requesting to retain or transfer the connection (to my Indicom number and alternate number). Lastly I'd to use harsh words. This is not Customer Care .....Customer Curse

See this also (An IBF Thought (Cartoon series ..Picture1))

Hanging up on customers is NOT good customer service.
And I agree they should not tell you the address, if they
want to verify, they should ask you the address and compare
it with the one on file.

-Farce

Originally Posted by retro

are you a south indian ??i love southies!!
im telling him to change hi broadband service

I guess you are outta here.....


-Punch Farce

The problem with technology in India is the lack of follow through.

Abroad, the way it is done- includes all the said questions - in addition they confirm the phone number -FIRST- you are calling from. Ideally this should be the one registered with the service provider.(unlike in India where one can have more than 2 or 3 phones... over there it is kinda expensive for the ordinary soul!)

If you were calling from a different number, then the next option the customer service agent asks for is the answer to a secret question.

Just providing our email address... hmmm. Have you complained to Tataindicom? It would be good to one.

cheers

Originally Posted by interubun

The problem with technology in India is the lack of follow through.

Abroad, the way it is done- includes all the said questions - in addition they confirm the phone number -FIRST- you are calling from. Ideally this should be the one registered with the service provider.(unlike in India where one can have more than 2 or 3 phones... over there it is kinda expensive for the ordinary soul!)

If you were calling from a different number, then the next option the customer service agent asks for is the answer to a secret question.

Just providing our email address... hmmm. Have you complained to Tataindicom? It would be good to one.

cheers

Yes I have complained to Tata many times and if you listen to the complete call I actually complained about this to the good lady at Tata's end and she hanged up on me... This has happened to me atleast 10 tims in the last 8-9 months... I have even spoken to a few supervisors and they just do their best to get rid of me and forget about what I said.

The file doesn't play with Windows media player. I heard it with MPC. Pls check it.

I too had bad experience with tata indicom and terminated their service a year ago.

Definitely tata should change this ridiculous practice ASAP.

Originally Posted by Admin

Here is what Tata indicom customer service people do:

Customer calls up:

Customer service agent : What is your id sir/madam
Customer: My id is abcdefgh@vsnl.net.in
Customer service agent : Thanks for providing the id... Your name is Mr so and so and your telephone number is 123456789 and you are calling from xyz city ( some times they even read out the whole address)

Customer: Yes that correct information.

Above is what happens when you call them up but how on earth does that prove that the caller is indeed the rightful owner of the id he has provided... I could get hold of mr x's e-mail id and call up tata and get every freaken detail about him/her from Tata.

This is absolutely horrible. Many many thanks to Admin for bringing this to the notice of all.

I have a suggestion here unless you have already done it.

I was thinking that if you can please send an email to the highest authority of the service provider and bring this whole issue into his/her notice then it may work.

I again thank you for updating us all about it.

Last day, I was contacted by GM of Pune Circel seeing my " Precautions during plan change thread in BSNL section" .Hope a top rated official from Tata Indicom is also a regular here and see this thread.

I have had the worst 8 months of internet usage using Tata Indicom (TI) / VSNL as my ISP. They not only suck at customer service but also ISP service. I was tired of using my local cable vendor's pathetic service and changed to VSNL (bought and operated by TI) in hope to bring some sanity but ... I had a revelation ... the local guy who did my cabling (TI "outsourced" this to him) was the same as the one who does it for my local cable vendor. And the worst part was that he was running a switch box for the local cable vendor on my terrace which was a better setup than the TI switch box. It took me 10-15 calls to TI and finally a threat of police complaint to have that installation removed from my property while I was still a "customer"!

I have changed it to MTNL and am a happy customer since 2-years. If MTNL is not avaiable in your town (Its BSNL's counterpart for Mumbai and Delhi only), I suggest go for BSNL. Its totally worth the service. The customer service is not very polished (MTNL) but its effective and you can get your problem solved very easily if you speak courteously and politely. By the way I have a count of how many times I have called customer service of MTNL in past 2-yrs ... its 5 times ... thats right JUST FIVE times if you thought that was a mis-type number ... out of that once was my mistake ... I had changed my modem password unknowingly ... twice was when Mumbai was flooded and one could understand the infrastructure being ruptured ... But it still did come up within 48 hrs when the "MNC" that I use to work for took the same time to bring up their "dedicated leased T1 line" or whatever and other 2 times was when there was a change in DNS Servers (or probably both of the ones I had configured in my settings were down) ... Its been immaculate ... touch wood!

Originally Posted by meetdilip

Last day, I was contacted by GM of Pune Circel seeing my " Precautions during plan change thread in BSNL section" .Hope a top rated official from Tata Indicom is also a regular here and see this thread.

thats great ! :thumbup:


As regards to TATA, its pathetic !

ridiculous..

I remember those "TA-YOU MINT" msges i get on my tata phones. If anyone know that you-mint is a spamming website and tata has handed over the contact details of its customers to them, maybe for some money and alll i got is spam msgs from them. Open up your spam folder in gmail to know what the hell this you-mint is. I dont know about others, but i was very much annoyed by those cheap msgs from TATA. TATA is a crap company downing the standards for the indians.

What the hell?asking email for user identity verification.

Here for example they ask for a code on the back of my Evdo box which is like : 23J829OWMV

i get you-mint mails on my emails...

i can just think how splendid one Tata customer will fill accepting those amazing messages all round the day...

Originally Posted by SBey

What the hell?asking email for user identity verification.

Here for example they ask for a code on the back of my Evdo box which is like : 23J829OWMV

this is a better way...
but actually they dont do it everywhere..

Yes its far better,anyway u guys should make real fuss about this stupid practice of tata. :thumbdown:

Originally Posted by SBey

Yes its far better,anyway u guys should make real fuss about this stupid practice of tata. :thumbdown:

Happy Independence day to Our Pakistani Brothers, sisters and patriots.
we hope we wont fight more as its better for own to hold the family the best ways, so that those mongers outside our home wont take the opportunity to make tensions between us..


this is not appropriate thread. please reply in Independence day thread only..

I come from a country where disclosure of such information is illegal. So much so, in fact, if I'm working in a pharmacy, for example, and I see an old teacher or something, then I'm not allowed to mention afterwards that I even saw them. Or something like that - but yes, strict is the word, and it is the law which my company would follow, even in India.

OTOH, India has basically no privacy laws. There is section 21 of your constitution, but that doesn't apply to private companies (in fact, I think it's a deliberate omission):

The Supreme Court recognized the fact that the right of privacy is an integral part of the fundamental right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. However, the right is only available and enforceable against the state and not against action by private entities.

Probably the closest thing to a privacy law in India is the IT Act of 2000; but these mostly relate to information security on a computer. I don't know if they've really thought too much about the social-engineering aspect of it, though it probably could be spun that way.

Promising legislature awaits, though. The Personal Data Protection Bill of 2006 would provide protection to the personal information of individuals.

As of now, check Tata Indicoms terms of service, privacy policy and anything you can find which suggests that they should be keeping your data private. If such a clause exists, you could go after them for breach of contract (failing to fulfill the promise of personal privacy per the TOS) and for violating the IT bill relating to information security.

actually there are no privacy laws in the country/no agency to force that law into being.

well that is why i like vodafone (as a mobile service provider of course) or airtel for broadband... first of all i rarely need to talk to them... and if at all i do have to, they do not make such rookie mistakes!

Originally Posted by StarK

well that is why i like vodafone (as a mobile service provider of course) or airtel for broadband... first of all i rarely need to talk to them... and if at all i do have to, they do not make such rookie mistakes!

that rookie thing may take her job away from her..

Originally Posted by mickey

that rookie thing may take her job away from her..

nope that rookie mistake is not the fault of that particular exec... its the same for anyone at tata.. so its tata indicom that has trained them for this...the mistake is in tata's methods.

Originally Posted by StarK

nope that rookie mistake is not the fault of that particular exec... its the same for anyone at tata.. so its tata indicom that has trained them for this...the mistake is in tata's methods.

but alas the girl has to pay for it.. do you think the teacher is going to be punished if she tells lessons the wrong way??? i guess no..

Originally Posted by mickey

but alas the girl has to pay for it.. do you think the teacher is going to be punished if she tells lessons the wrong way??? i guess no..

oh come on... when its the same routine for everyone working at their call centre, then that girl wont be the one singled out.

its not a freakin classroom...!

This is typical Indian INSECURE customer service - trust that your personal information is not secure...there is no option without all of us writing to the company and advising them of the security risk.

This happens with credit card companies as well - imagine that!

Originally Posted by mickey

Happy Independence day to Our Pakistani Brothers, sisters and patriots.
we hope we wont fight more as its better for own to hold the family the best ways, so that those mongers outside our home wont take the opportunity to make tensions between us..


this is not appropriate thread. please reply in Independence day thread only..

Yes, this is not the appropriate thread - *your* comments belong elsewhere, I would think...