Public utility services in the public sector like say Indane Gas, owned by Indian Oil Corporation, are providing Online services in a peculiar fashion.
That is their website offered online booking for refilling the domestic gas cylinders. The service used to work well for some time.
But the last time I booked online and waited quite long for my cylinder, I contacted the customer care, to get a reply that Online services are temporarily down. And that my last booking has been lost. In the meantime my consumer number has been de-activated and now, I have to go through the formalities of a re-connection, which includes a payment, due to the time lag of non booking a refill in three months.
I have had a similar experience with LIC of India, when the SMS alerts offered by them stopped functioning and my Anmol Jeevan policy lapsed due to non payment. Also, I was not even informed about the lapse of my policy.
How can these public sector institutions implement services in a half hearted way and get away with it without any remorse or accountability, by passing on the damages to the lone customer?
Is there a legal remedy that I can avail?
regards
Nataraj S Narayan
