Original Review date: 22nd June 2013
For those of you who do not wish to read my long, sordid, story of woe - If ACT offers to make you a connection, either accept that the money you’ve given them goes towards their employee pension fund or don’t bother - either way, it’s not like you’ll be getting any service.
I currently live in Bangalore and I’ve been having a huge problem with ACT Broadband. I was asked to write a review of this horrid ISP and might I say how glad I am to find that it isn’t just me who have been apparently diddled by this ISP.
On the evening of the 11th, I spoke to an ACT subscription agent, a Mr. Sajid to inquire about the connection being advertised by them for high speed internet connections. I then decided to opt for the 15 MBps plan which I then paid for 6 months advanced payment (an amount to the tune of close to INR 6700 or so) so that I can avail of a free Wi Fi router and Installation. At the time, I was told the connection would be up and running in 7 days.
On the 13th, I received a confirmation e-mail from them thanking me for my cheque which they en cashed promptly. On the same day, I was visited by two representatives of their company, a Mr. Vinod and a linesman who had come to perform the installation. In the process of doing so, I discovered that they had planned to take the connection from a "Distribution Point (DP)" which was located on private property, the owners of which had gone on vacation and wouldn’t be back until Friday.
This Mr. Vinod then promptly responded that they would return the next day between 2:30 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. to attempt to install the connection again. I took time off my busy schedule to be home during the given time so as not to cause inconvenience, only to be inconvenienced myself - Mr.Vinod didn’t bother to call until I took the initiative at approximate 3:15 P.M. to ask if they would be coming. He claimed to have visited the house to find it still locked, and that they would not be able to know for sure until Saturday evening. We were then given no further update on the situation.
Since then, attempts to reach Mr. Vinod on his cellphone have resulted with him not answering the phone. My calls to the original subscription agent, Mr. Sajid, have led to half hearted vague responses of speaking to "the office" which again, have resulted in nothing. On top of this, I have also filed two more complaints in the past 2 days to have something done ( by phone, a call handled by Agent Rupa, second complaint was handled via e-mail, which recieved a generic response e-mail with no action taken). This morning I also got to speak to fellow named Mr. Nithin (after yelling at that Sajid fellow, he finally coughed out some info on his superior) who then promised to call back. He didn’t and we had to call him back - he then promised me that this Mr. Sajid would come by at 2:30 in the afternoon and the line would be installed today itself. So, I waited and as is to be expected, 2:30 came and went - called up Mr. Sajid only to be given, once again, some vague response of something been done. He then claimed that "the owner of the house where the Distribution Point was installed had returned and was refusing to let them install more connections because he didn’t want any more wires coming into his house", apparently. Such are the wise infrastructure decisions of ACT Broadband in the Ulsoor Lake area.
So now, I’m stuck waiting for these people to rub their two IQ points together, hopefully start a fire with it and somehow manage to get my installation done - thankfully I didn’t cancel my existing (and equally terrible) Hathway connection because my month wasn’t up yet. I find it really bizarre that an organization would choose to install their DP in the bedroom of someone’s house (as opposed, to say, you know, a building with security guards and whose roof can still be accessed even if everyone in the building went to Rishikesh or were dying of dysentery in their own apartments ?_?) and on top of that, actually expect that to not be a problem in case the people living in that house go on vacation and leave up at their mercy in case our net should go down. Hell, it actually sounds more and more like a fraudulent business practice.
In any case, I suppose nothing will be done if I complain yet again because, I will, as expected, get a generic reply from ACT telling me that they are "very sorry for my inconvenience and that they will do their best to rectify this situation". Nothing ever gets done, but they’re still very sorry, apparently.
I haven’t even had the modem or the line even laid down and I’m running pillar to post with their customer service - two complaints lodged in 11 days, each of which were promised to be rectified in 48 hours. I suppose this is only an omen of things to come if this is the way they run.
As a public service message, might I suggest that for the benefit of those living in your building, if you do see some unscrupulous agent stick their ACT Broadband sticker in your lift/hallways, kindly remove them - if not for restoring the beauty of the wall, but atleast to prevent people from getting conned like this. Think of it as your good deed for the day and a service to the public at large.
Sincerely,
One more "customer" who got "excellent service" from "the beshtest ISP in India".
Edit (26/06/2013) Mr. Kiran Kumar the Nodal Officer, has intervened in the matter and preventing this issue from dragging on for a few more weeks - he also took the time to apologize for the poor display of his field display for which my father and I are very grateful. As a result of this, now that my initial hassle of getting
the connection set up is finished, I can now devote my time to seeing how good it actually is. As a result of this, the review has now been amended to reflect the necessary parameters as they are being checked.
For the record, it has taken us a total of 15 days to have our connection set up from initial contact to final installation and verification. Perhaps in future, this time can be amended for future subscribers of the service.