Mobiles and Me

It all started with the entry of Nokia’s 1100 mobile. Since it was very cheap and affordable I got a chance to own a mobile when I was in school. Didn’t use it much those days since most of my friends didn’t have a mobile.

When I entered NIT Trichy, I still used 1100 for almost a full semester before shifting to Motorola L7 also called as the SLVR. This mobile was slim and chic and was worth showing off. But one fateful day my roommate, Aditya, pounced on me and phone slipped off my hands and the glass screen had broken. Luckily the mobile was working. I used it without bothering to change the broken glass for more than a year.

During the early fifth semester I had a felt like changing the display. (Ya.! I did change the display after one and a half years) But sometime during Festember 08, the mobile took its revenge on me for not changing the display for a long time by disappearing from my desk in my department. After frantically searching for it for more than a couple of days I had to give up. I got a duplicate sim card and reverted back to my 1100.

After a couple of months, my bro went to the US leaving behind his Samsung E250 mobile. So I was granted another chance to use a multimedia mobile. After losing all the contacts I had in my old mobile I started gathering them again. Though it wasn’t as great looking as my L7 it was still good to use. But then bad luck returned. During one of my regular beach visits a few weeks back, I forgot the presence of the E250 inside my pockets and got myself completely wet. It was only after a few minutes I realized that it was shouting all the time for help. But it was too late. It had stopped working.

Luckily, I still have that good old 1100 with me. After making a few minor repairs here and there I’ve made it look as good as a new 1100 mobile and I thank Nokia for making such rugged and long lasting mobiles especially for people like me. Not surprisingly, the 1100 is not just the world’s best-selling cellular phone model, but also the best-selling consumer electronics device, having sold some 200 million units since 2003. This clearly shows that many people emphasize on durability more than looks.

The one thing I’m glad about is that I’ve had the same mobile number all these days even though I’ve changed my mobile quite a few times. So even though I lose contact numbers of others they still have mine and anyday I can use the ‘Can I know who this is?’ SMS to get back all my lost contacts. I hope the Mobile Number Portability option is implemented as planned (that is by around Sept 2009) so that I can keep using the same number even though I change service providers.

AIRTEL

I’ve been a Airtel customer for quite a long time now. During my early days of using this service I never used to get any SMS or any calls from them. I was pretty mush satisfied with the package which I was using. It worked well for me. No Trouble. Gradually this changed. I started getting more and more calls and SMS citing various offers and packages and booster packs.

Each day, I get atleast 10 worthless msgs from Airtel telling me to download Hello Tunes Ringtones and stuff by calling them at the rate of Rs. 6/min. One offer tells me that I can win a chance to win a Maruti Swift .. absolutely FRE. Ya. I get that. WIN means FREE dumbo.!

If I call Airtel Customer Care at 121, the infinite loop to reach a “Customer Care executive” started. I had to hold the line for close to 6 minutes before I was connected to a Customer Care executive. Getting to speak to the customer care executive is a real pain. When I ask them they say there is no way to speak to the person directly. I have to go through the ‘system’. I suggest them the following method where it gives us two options in the beginning of the call.

1. Speak to our customer care executive.
2. Listen to the endless dumb recorded voice.

What could have been a really simple solution is made very complex. But I’m not planning to make a change to other service providers. Except for this sms spam they have been pretty helpful. I had some 500Rs worth talk value but my validity was getting over. They increased my validity by 3 months as a goodwill gesture. Isn’t that great? Even after these 3 months I had a few bucks remaining and they have now extended my validity by 6 more months. And my calls charges are also pretty reasonable. That was enough for me to stay with them.