I am probably one of the oldest continuing customers of Alliance Broadband Pvt. Ltd. I had started with them way back in June 2002. Then my package was a 64kbps unlimited, and now I am with a 384kbps unlimited line. With a 7 years long experience with ABSPL, I shall say, this ISP is only good when all technical sides are running ok, they are the worst if any technical defect occurs.
If all goes ok, this ISP is hard to beat. Indeed. But during downtimes, they’ll kick the hell out of your brains. Basically unprofessional guys and girls rule on the helpdesk. They asked me to send email with problems faced when my line was out of order for 3 days! So that’s just one small example how big hi-tech guys sit on the helpdesk. Another bad side of helpdesk is: big liars are sitting there.
If there’s a genuine problem in the line, they’ll guide you to do ping check, then they will sit for a netmeeting and check problems, what follows later is: virus check, spyware check etc. Ultimately, if no good result is obtained, they simply hang off and advice you for a hardware check.
They did it to me 3 times in these 7 years, they even adviced me to buy new PC; later it was found that the LAN wire was defective/disconnected. They did same with my newly puchased Dell laptop, adviced hardware defect, but Dell just gave the solution over phone and all was ok. So this it, when they have no solution, they tell you your PC unit is bad, buy a new one or call hardware expert.
At one instance, there was problem between head office and franchaisee owner, my line was off for 7 days: when I called repeatedly, they stopped answering me. So, if there’s problem in management level, you get ignored.
In these 7 years, my LAN IP stopped functioning 2 times. Before detecting this, as usual, my PC was adviced to be bad. But when I told my laptop also doesn’t get the server ping, they brought their own laptop and then only found the problem. They are childs while detecting problems.
Recently, package configs changed: 384kbps has become upto 768 kbps during 12am to 8am. Which is another big lie. There is no change in speeds. I am telling this after watching it for quite a while. The speeds have not even gone above 384 kbps at all after 12 am.
I AM DESPERATELY WILLING TO CHANGE MY ISP. After 7 yrs. Sigh! Can’t carry on more with this terrible ISP. 7 yrs was like hell, and it was only due to no other good ISP in Kolkata. BSNL was terrible, they sent me Rs. 10, 000 internet bill in the month when I was out of city. Wanted to take Reliance NetConnect or Tata Photon, but reviews are bad, so I am struck with Alliance.
If franchaisee forgets to renew my package, then line goes off at 12 midnight, if I call helpdesk and literally bed them to extend my line till morning so when franchaisee comes he can tell head office to renew: helpdesk will not extend a 7 yrs old customer’s line - that is their business policy - no goodwill and nothing they respect at all.
Bill Payment disaster: Alliance once sent me a duplicate bill. When I asked to confirm, they said ask your franchaisee. When I said they said head office sent the bill so I have to pay, they said how can we say if you paid or not? What the hell - I pay thru A/c payee cheque every month, billing desk is telling ’how can we say if u paid’??? Who else can say? Their own account is being paid, and someone else can say? How silly is that?
I CAN WRITE A BOOK ABOUT ALLIANCE, I already said, a 7 years long relation with them was like hell. I held up my patience for 7 long years, now I am fed up finally. The worst side is: they don’t respect or politely deal with a long time customer who has good business records with them.Only reason to carry on for 7 yrs because when all is good, this ISP is best. But they leave you completely vulnerable, so after 7 yrs I really don’t wish to continue with them anymore.