Electricity billing is not supposed to be a high-tech area, and something that is being done fairly accurately and successfully by a large number of countries. Hence it seems somewhat strange that we see many cities having billing problems in terms of electricity. Seems like a casual attitude, or maybe not enough control over what is happening. Or maybe the powers be have not taken a good look at the problem to come up with a good solution, instead of keeping on trying to find new solutions. So, read on as to what the Pune electricity department has to say about why it cannot do billing properly:

Speaking to TOI, Gautam said that the MSEDCL was in the process of switching over from spot billing system — where bills were issued on the spot after taking meter readings — to digital photo reading in the city. “And this transition was leading to many billing complaints,” he claimed.
He said the new system was expected to reduce complaints about inaccurate readings, leading to inflated bills or issuing bills without taking readings as people entrusted with the job will be pulled up in case of errors.
Asked about instances when consumers had not received bills for years together, despite repeated complaints to sub-division office, Gautam said he will personally intervene in such matters. “Such complaints are supposed to be settled at the sub-divisional level, but if consumers are made to make repeated trips, the matter will be taken seriously,” he said.

Somehow consumers have to listen to speeches like this often, and the reliance they now put on such statements is far less. Citizens have gone apprehensive of the efficiency of Government institutions as well as their concern for normal citizens.

MR A, young call centre executive had just obtained his first credit card, when another bank’s DSA (Direct Sales Agent) approached him and explained the benefits of carrying two cards. The new card was for ‘free’ and the only document required was a photocopy of the first credit card. Mr A felt proud for the power of his first card and in his enthusiasm to quickly get another one in his wallet, he photocopied both sides of his card and handed over to the DSA executive. At around same time, Mr B, who teaches history at the city college, was impressed by the tele brand advertisements on TV and recently obtained an ATM-cum-debit card to be used for mail and telephonic orders. A few successful transactions later, he found one of his orders was not getting accepted even after repeatedly punching of the numbers as guided by the voice prompt. After making few attempts, he nearly gave up, before he realised that it was the last day to avail of the ‘best offer’. He, therefore, decided to take the help of a tele agent and read out to her the card number, validity date and the last three digits on the signature panel of the card for urgent processing of his order.
Prima facie, both the above stories sound mundane, which none of our friends above found anything disturbing either. However, Mr A and B were all shocked to see what they found in account statements of their cards the following month. They found their card had been misused and found items of online shopping transactions, which they never did.
As on date, transactions in CNP (Card-Not-Present with the merchant) environment such as online ticket booking, utility bill payments, purchase of books or any Internet, telephone or mail orders, merely require the users to enter their card number, card validity month/year and a code called CVV (Credit Verification Value) or CVC (Card Validation Code) that is available on the card itself.
CVV is a three-digit code typically imprinted at the end of signature panel on the reverse of the card (or a four-digit code little above the end of card number on front side) and is meant to serve as authorising code for CNP transactions. In short, CVV number in CNP transactions is a key to your card account, just the way the ATM PIN is for accessing your bank account. However, unlike the PIN for ATM use, CVV code is printed on the card itself and is rarely protected by the users. This exposes all credit and debit card users to the risk of their cards being misused for online shopping.
Banks, when contacted, remind you of the standard terms and conditions for issue of cards and say you are advised to protect your cards all the time. You must ensure that your card is swiped strictly in your presence and no one is making a note of your CVV for fraudulent online usage. They further tell you, in case you suspect that your card details are exposed, you must get a fresh card issued with new CVV and then protect that card well. Under these circumstances, the only way to protect your debit or credit card from fraudulent CNP transactions is to memorise the CVV and then put a small opaque sticker on it or simply erase it from the card.

Sometimes, dealing with corporations is like dealing with a black box. You have no idea whom to approach if you have things that you want to change, or if you want to resolve a complaint. And in many cases, where the company has no good policies on how to deal with consumers and their rights, it gets even more difficult. This is the reason why we have consumer courts, so that there is a forum where the rights of customers can be protected, and companies that default on this aspect can be fined. So here’s an example from Gujarat where the consumer in this case, a user of a cell phone was charged Rs. 50 extra. He fought this with the cell phone company and finally got a victory in his favour with the cell phone company being forced to refund the charges and pay additional for fees and other charges:

A mobile service provider that deducted Rs 50 from the prepaid account holder Jignesh Darji, without intimation, was penalised by the Vadodara consumer court. The court asked the service provider to pay Darji the Rs 50 along with nine per cent interest and compensation for mental agony. The total sum to be paid to Darji now amounts to Rs 8,550.
Darji had bought a pre-paid card of the Idea Cellular Company and recharged the coupon regularly. On September 29, 2003, Darji recharged the prepaid coupon worth Rs 325. But the next day the company deducted Rs 50 from the coupon without intimating the card holder.
But the assurance never materialised after which Darji went to Jaagrut Nagrik, a consumer protection organisation, seeking legal aid. Jaagrut Nagrik filed a complaint at the consumer court on behalf of Darji.

This is yet another instance of the rights of a customer getting protected at consumer court. These are an effective medium to haul companies up if you feel that your rights have been violated and the company is not taking the required steps to get you your rights.

In a step towards greater consumer ease for the traveler (something I did not consider very likely to happen in UP), the UP State Tourism Development Corporation has gone ahead and made online booking facility available for the various hotels and bungalows run by it. This has been done for now in 18 such facilities, and should be a boon for the budget traveler who would not want to book a room in an expensive private hotel:

In order to facilitate customer services, the UP State Tourism Development Corporation (UPSTDC) has gone online for bookings in the hotels and bungalows run by it. The online facility was launched on Monday and can be accessed at the departments website www.up-tourism.com.
Included in the list are the Hotel Gomti of Lucknow, Hotel Ilawarat of Allahabad, the tourist bungalow and the Taj Khema of Agra, the Gulistan complex of Fatehpur Sikri and the tourist bungalow of Varanasi in addition to others.
All credit card holders can go directly to the site to check the availability of the rooms and to make the payments directly. A minimum of 48 hours and a maximum of 60 days notice is required for the booking.

This is a useful feature. If they are able to maintain the web site facilities for online booking, then this will be a great feature.

Travelers on buses are normally a harried and troubled lot. Information about bus services are hard to come by, with bus schedules many times not being accurate, and it gets difficult to plan for a journey. Many times, people are found to spend hours in the bus terminal, not knowing when the next bus is available. At such times, there is a lot of cursing about why this information is not available more easily. Well, in Gujarat the Road Transport Corporation has started a free SMS service whereby travelers can get to know route information easily through an SMS:

As a pilot test, the project was taken up in a part of the state where nearly 41,000 people used the service. Three of these requests for bus services, came from phone numbers in the UK and 306 from other states in India.
Secretary, GSRTC, P D Patel claimed that the methodology for receiving information is user friendly. Service seekers have to follow a particular format and send an SMS to 9998805656.
Soon after that they will receive an SMS on their mobile phone. The SMS will incorporate timings of the first five buses. If more information is required, passengers have to send the message again. This facility is also applicable for all state and inter-state routes. Patel said that this service was free.

Such a service, if followed properly and accurately, can be a big boon to users. People opting to get information using this service will no longer have to queue up, or ask all sorts of people about schedules and maybe even get wrong information. This is a good model that other states should replicate.