Why big business sucks.

Business, and the way it should be conducted.

Ok, the US of A is the land where dreams come true because of the incredible strength of the capitalist economy and rags to riches stories actually exist, right. And India has the ossified, moribund economy where most things are till under Government monopoly, and hence, by definition, inefficient, right?

Wrong.

This blog is to complain about big business and what it does to small people. I came here last year, just an average joe international student with no social security number(SSN) and no credit history. The SSN arrived really quick (both the people at the University as well as the Federal building downtown very pretty sweet about it). The fun started after that. Credit history is just that: a record showing that you pay your bills (especially credit card bills) regularly and may be considered a ‘safe bet’ by someone offering you a loan. There is a slight chicken and egg problem here: one may not be approved for a credit card without a credit history, and how does one create a credit history without a credit card? Yes, this beautiful piece of irony was not lost upon me. Thankfully, my credit union was sweet enough to give me a credit card with a very modest spending limit: a good way to build up credit history.

The big phone companies were something else altogether, though. Back home, prepaid plans are the rage, because they offer flexibility and are quite affordable. Here prepaid plans are quite exorbitant. Phone companies like to tie you down with a one or two year contract. Then they offer you a cheap phone for free. But this takes credit history. Which I didn’t have. Oops! So they asked for a 500$ to 1000$ cash deposit. Which I didn’t have either. So my solution (and this is true for many international students) was to ask a senior to apply for a cellphone in his name. He was nice enough to help me out. Voila! I was connected! This was last year.

A week or so ago, my handset started acting up. I realized that it had given up the ghost and decided to take this opportunity to get off my lazy butt and get the phone transferred to my name. So I legged it to the local dealer. Who told me quite unequivocally that it couldn’t be done. I simply wanted:
1. To get the number transferred to my name.
2. A new handset.
3. A new plan, with less minutes each month.

The bloke told me that I was asking for the moon. Now, I know it for a fact that rival phone companies advertise that one can switch service providers and keep the same number. So why was this so difficult to imagine? Me lost and thinking ‘what????!!!!’.

I took several deep breaths and said to the bloke, ‘imagine that a bloke goes to college with a cellphone taken in his father’s name. When he graduates and gets a job, he wants to change the cellphone to his name. Could you do that? Yes? THEN HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT?’
It took a lot of convincing for the bloke to do the job. Of course he did it! Just turns out that it required that he think for a moment. Now this is a difficult thing to ask for.

This is what throws me off. Back home, I could get a dealer to do this in nothing flat. In fact, I have had better service from the government owned services. This is supposed to a part of the thinking ingrained in a businessman: get the job done, give the customer what he wants. At least, that was the way it was back home. Here is seems to be: follow the rules, lose business, and then go blame outsourcing and immigration.

Bottom line: big business is not always more efficient. Any organization is as flexible and as efficient as its juniormost underling. In this case, my phone company should simply be extinct with the kind of survival instincts it seems to display.