Dreaded phone call to etisalat

We have two land line phone connections at home, one of which blanked out on us a few days ago. There was no dial-tone and whoever called that number would get a busy tone. All the phone bills were settled, and we even switched the two phones thinking that there might be a possibility that something went wrong with the instruments. There wasn’t. It was the phone line. This only meant one thing – we had to make the dreaded phone call to etisalat.

If you’ve lived in UAE long enough, you would have at least read/heard about the infamous customer service provided by etisalat. People I know have waited months for simple technical issues that took a whole of five minutes to solve. People have complained about receiving generic responses to a variety of problems. The stories are endless.

Running out of all options, I dialed the three digit number and expected to be on hold for about 15 minutes before I got routed to one of the customer service representatives. Not wanting to get bored, I decided I’d make some tea while I’m on hold. So, I follow the computer wizard on the phone and press a combination of keys before they please me with some etisalat music while I wait. The numbing music.

I decide now would be a good time to switch to the loudspeaker mode on the phone while I go make tea. That didn’t happen. Before I could even press the combination to switch modes, my call was answered. Yes, in a miraculous four seconds. THAT was my hold time. I couldn’t help but smile. After the customer service representative introduced himself to me, the first words I uttered were “wow, that was quick”. To not sound rude, I apologised and without a pause narrated the problem.

I already knew what response I would get – “we’ll send a technician over to check for the problem, sir”. That didn’t happen. I was asked the problematic telephone number and then put on hold for a few seconds. Then the representative informs me that due to a fault caused during maintenance, the phone line lost connection which has now been reset and should be active in no more than five minutes. Yeah, as if it will be THAT easy.

Just in case the reset did not work, I was given a complaint number which I was to reference when I call back to report the problem. I thanked the representative and hung up. I decided to head to the kitchen and finally get around to making tea, after which I would check whether the problem was really resolved or not. Just to measure my luck with etisalat that day, I decided to pick up the phone just to see if the problem could be resolved before the five minute timeline.

I head over to the phone expecting no dial-tone, but that didn’t happen either. It worked. It just worked. The whole process of resolving the issue didn’t take more than two minutes. I was impressed. I felt special. I was so impressed, I wanted to call back and register how happy I was with the service. That didn’t happen. I just couldn’t get through to a representative this time around (or maybe I was too impatient to wait more than a few minutes). Did I just jinx myself? Nonetheless, I decide to email them.

Has etisalat finally started to listen to its customers? I can’t be the judge of that after just one experience in such a long time. But I hope they continue this streak. Oh, and I finally didn’t get around to making tea.