How customers view DPDC and BTCL

ELECTRICITY and telephone, two basic and necessary services, have been historically unreliable and riddled with rampant corruption in Bangladesh. The organisations — Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA), Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO), and Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) — providing the services are known for causing monumental problems for the common users. Recently, these organisations have been renamed as Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and Bangladesh Telephone Company Ltd. (BTCL) with the declared objective of improving customer service.

The Center for Policy Research and Social Responsibility (CPR2) recently undertook two surveys using pervasive sampling to assess opinions from the urban educated groups about these two services. Key findings are presented in the following lines:

The demographic profiles of the BTTB respondents indicate the following: 45.7 per cent were service holders, 24.7 per cent business persons, 5.0 per cent housewives, and 24.6 per cent represent other vocations. DESA/DESCO respondents also have diverse professional backgrounds. Among the respondents, 39.7 per cent were service holders, 24.4 per cent were businesspersons, 8.3 per cent housewifes and 27.6 per cent belonged to other professions.

Of the 330 respondents for the BTTB survey, 37.2 per cent belonged to 21-30 age group, 26.9 per cent, to 31-40, 19.9 per cent, to 41-50, and 16.0 per cent, to 50 age group. The male female ratio was 60:40. The surveyed people’s educational backgrounds indicate 57.7 per cent were graduates, 32.3 per cent had masters and 10.0 per cent had other qualifications.

Income braketwise, 28.1 per cent of respondents for BTTB survey belong to below Tk 10,000 per month group, 25.1 per cent earn between Tk 10,000 and 20,000, 27.5 per cent, between Tk 20,000 and 30,000 and 19.3 per cent, more than Tk 30,000. On an average, they had 11.3 years subscription experience with BTTB.

Of the 496 respondents for the DESA/DESCO survey, 38.0 per cent belonged to the 21-30 age groups, 25.7 per cent to 31-40, 18.6 per cent to 41-50, and 17.7 per cent belonged to above 50 age group. The male female ratio was 60:40. Of the people surveyed 34.5 per cent were graduates, 32.3 per cent masters and 10.7 per cent had other qualifications. Income wise, 26.8 per cent earn less than Tk 10,000 per month, 27.3 per cent earn between Tk 10,000 and 20,000, 24.7 per cent between Tk 20,000 and 30,000 and 21.2 per cent more than Tk 30,000. On an average they had 14.6 years subscription experience with DESA/DESCO.

The preliminary results of the two surveys showed that the subscribers of BTTB and DESA/DESCO experienced different sorts of problems.

A majority of 36.1 per cent of the BTTB respondents complained about the problem of poor connection, 34.1 per cent reported about inoperative phones, 12.2 per cent faced the problems of irregular billing, and 17.6 per cent complained of exaggerated billing.

Of the respondents for the DESA/DESCO survey, 53.5 per cent experienced load shedding, 21.9 per cent complained about low voltage, 14.9 per cent of erratic power supply and 9.7 per cent complained about exaggerated bill.

Facing so many problems, 90 per cent of the respondents for the BTTB survey and 80 per cent of the DESA/DESCO survey lodged complaints against the two service providers with different authorities at one point of time or another.

Of them, 61.4 per cent of the BTTB respondents had complained against core service failure as their phones were out of order or bad poor connectivity, 31.5 per cent complained against failure of support service like irregular billing and 7.1 per cent complained about misbehaviour by service staff.

On the other hand, against DESA/DESCO 51.9 per cent of the respondents complained about core service failure, 29.9 per cent complained against support service failure and 18.2 per cent complained against misbehaviour by service staff.

Among the respondents of BTTB, 70.8 per cent “actually” lodged complaints with local complaint centers, 17.3 per cent with higher authorities, 10.2 per cent with influential relatives or friends, 1.7 per cent with media, and 73.0 per cent respondents of DESA/DESCO “actually” lodged complaints with local complaint centre, 13.2 per cent with higher authorities, 10.1 per cent with influential relatives or friends, and 3.7 per cent with the media.

Among the respondents of BTTB, 48.1 per cent indicated that they visited local complaint centres physically, 30.3 per cent made calls on T&T or mobile phone, 16.5 per cent sent somebody else to the complaint center, 1.5% writing letter to newspaper, 3.6% in ‘other’ ways as their preferred way of lodging complaints. On the other hand, 42.5 per cent of the respondents of DESA/DESCO indicated that they visited the local complaint centres physically to lodge complaints, 32.1 per cent lodged their complaints over T&T or mobile phone, 17.7 per cent sent somebody else to the complaint center, 2.4 per cent wrote letters to newspapers, and 5.3 per cent followed other ways to lodge complaints.

Among the respondents, 83.6 per cent complained that the BTTB service staff demanded graft money from them and 77.0 per cent of them gave in to the demand; 49.5 per cent mentioned that the demand for money was direct and 50.5 per cent said the demand was indirect or implied. It was found that on an average a respondent had to pay Tk 580 as gratuity. The refusal to pay led to non-cooperation of the service staff for 64.4 per cent of the respondents. For DESA/DESCO, 84.4 per cent of the respondents complained that the service staff demanded ‘bribe money’ and/or gratuity from them and 74.3 per cent of them had to pay. Of the respondents, 44 per cent mentioned that the demand was direct and 56 per cent said the it was indirect or implied. The refusal to pay led to non-cooperation of the service staff for 60.9 per cent of the respondents.

According to 58.7 per cent of the respondents, the BTTB did not take complaints seriously, while for 65.9 per cent, past experience with complaints was no good, whereas 60.3 per cent of the respondents complained that DESA/DESCO did not take complaints seriously, and for 67.7 per cent past complaints brought no results.

Of the BTTB respondents, 30.9 per cent expressed their dissatisfaction about working hours of the complaint centres and 46.6 per cent expressed their dissatisfaction about working hour of the DESA/DESCO complaint centres.

Among the respondents of BTTB, 27.1 per cent and for DESA/DESCO 33.2 per cent do not know where to complain.

For the BTTB, 69.5 per cent and, for DESA/DESCO, 67.1 per cent of the respondents reported the recurrence of the problem shortly after a response to the complaint by the service personnel.

According to 31.2 per cent of the respondents, bills sent by BTTB were accurate and 30.0 per cent said that monthly bills are delivered on regular basis. And according to 30.2 per cent, bills sent by DESA/DESCO were accurate and 33.1 per cent agreed that monthly bills are delivered on regular basis.

Of the respondents, 67.6 per cent expressed their dissatisfaction about payment procedures for the BTTB bills which they find tiresome and time consuming and 77.8 per cent consider record keeping of bills by BTTB as not satisfactory, whereas 73.7 per cent found that the payment procedure of DESA/DESCO bills as difficult and 77.7 per cent were dissatisfied with DESA/DESCO bill record keeping.

Only 10.8 per cent of the respondents reported that the service provider performed the service right the first time and 10 per cent received the service at the time when BTTB promised to do so.

Only 13.3 per cent said that the service provider performed the service right the first time and 10.5 per cent received the service at the time when DESA/DESCO promised to do so.

Only 10.9 per cent respondents of BTTB and 10.4 per for DESA/DESCO found the concerned officers on their seats.

For the BTTB, only 12.4 per cent of the respondents and, for DESA/DESCO, only 11.8 per cent said the employees could convince the customers that the problem would be resolved duly.

Only 17.5 per cent of the respondents felt secure in transactions with BTTB, whereas only 15.9 per cent felt secure in transactions with DESA/DESCO.

Only 12.9 per cent of the respondents had trust in the employees of BTTB while 14.5 per cent had trust in the employees of DESA/DESCO.

Only 18.1 per cent of the respondents of BTTB and 16.9 per cent of the respondents of DESA/DESCO considered the employees of the respective organisations as competent.

According to the findings in the surveys, 12.4 per cent of the respondents of BTTB and 10.7 per cent for DESA/DESCO were satisfied with handling their complaints.

Among the respondents of BTTB, 13 per cent and 11.3 per cent of DESA/DESCO were satisfied with the service provided.

Only 13 per cent of the respondents of BTTB agree with the proposition that their complaints were satisfactorily resolved, whereas only 10.7 per cent of the respondents of DESA/DESCO said that their complaints were satisfactorily resolved.

Syed Saad Andaleeb, SSM Sadrul Huda, Assistant Professor, East West University, and Segufta Dilshad is research fellow with CPR2.

Source: Financial Express