Over the past few years, I have lived in four different cities, and so I have had to change ISPs frequently. My choice of ISP depended on factors such as availability, distance of service outlets from my current residence, the turnaround time for service activation, and the attitude of service personnel(they all seem controlled by a higher entity; therefore, this factor is the last one).
The ISPs I have used until now include Airtel, BSNL, You Broadband, Reliance, and Idea. Among these, I found You Broadband the best and Idea the worst.
When I moved to the current city, I started with a wired Airtel Broadband connection. It worked fine for about 6 months and then went kaput. I called up their customer service and they promised a technician visit. Although the technician never arrived, he gave Airtel customer-service agents the verdict that the internal wiring was faulty and will have to be repaired. As I hadn’t quite felt comfortable with the technician who had visited to install the service, I decided to give up Airtel and opt for a wireless connection instead.
I had used a Reliance 2G-type dongle in the past, but its throughput had deteriorated after Reliance had launched its 3G service. So, it was quite apparent that the best option would be to get an in-vogue 3G connection. After a bit of research, I settled for an Idea NetSetter post paid. It was activated within a few hours. However, it turned out to be very expensive. Their bandwidth gets consumed very quickly(yeah, that’s not the case with other wireless ISPs). Moreover, the Idea customer-service people are incapable of understanding customers’ requirements.
Ultimately, fed up of the Idea customer service, I closed my post-paid account with them in December 2012 and got a pre-paid NetSetter connection. I had obtained an account-closure receipt from the outlet where I had submitted the closure request. Just to be sure, I had also written to the Idea appellate and asked them to confirm the closure of account number 1.12314265 for data card -. They did, and I had hoped this would be the end of Idea post-paid woes for me. Alas, this wasn’t the case.
Suddenly, on March 16, 2013, I received a bill via email for data card -, but bearing a new account number: 100002819308. I called up the outlet where I had submitted the closure request, and they confirmed that the account had been closed. I even wrote to appellate.delhi@idea.adityabirla.com, but my emails have remained unanswered. Instead I have received a couple of fishy emails from crystal.prod@idea.adityabirla.com stating that my request to bar mobile number - has been initiated and processed. Other than this, at 8:44 pm, March 19, 2013, I received an email from pcmsupport.dl@idea.adityabirla.com with the subject "Final Demand Letter." It mentioned that I need to pay an amount of Rs. 251, failing which legal action will be taken against me. I don’t have a post-paid account with Idea anymore and all the dues were paid in January 2013. So why have they created a new post-paid account and why have they sent me this email? I have tried to contact their customer service but the calls never go through to any customer-service agent. My emails to appellate.delhi@idea.adityabirla.com also haven’t been answered yet. The Idea company is sick.
Update 27/03/2013
I had written this review on 20/03, and to date(27/03) I don’t know why Idea had created an account using my name and address. They did send numerous emails mentioning that waivers are being processed and that they couldn’t be applied.
Update 16/04/2013
I don’t know whether Idea is run by robots or what. Most likeyly it’s one big fraud. I wanted to know why this account was created in the first place. But they sent me a waiver email a few days. And today, they have sent me another bill. They have crossed the limits of stupidity.
Update 17/05/2013
Until now, Idea has given numerous disconnection request numbers, including the following:
S1-1686943374
C1-2057174573
They have also promised to close this account, which they had created fraudulently, and stop sending me bills. But I still keep receiving bills from them. And they are giving false reasons for not disconnecting the number and closing the account. The latest reasons was they had talked to me over phone and that I had agreed to keep the number. What nonsense is this?
What can be done next? What action can be taken against them? I am sick and tired of calling up and writing to their useless customer care people.
Update 27/06/2013
These things(they can’t be called humans or even animals now) are back to their nonsensical ways again. They confirmed last month that this account and number has been disconnected once and for all. But I received an email today stating that the number has been unbarred. Why are they acting this way is beyond me? I have also complained to TRAI but, apparently, everything here is rusty.
This is the email I received today:
-Original Message-
From: crystal.prod@idea.adityabirla.com [mailto:crystal.prod@idea.adityabirla.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2013 11:42
Subject: SR# C1-3081022171 Closed
Dear Customer, your request for Unbarring on Mob.No. - has been processed successfully through Communication IdC1-3081022171.We thank you for preferring Idea cellular and look forward to servicing you. Please note: This is an auto generated mail, kindly do not reply to this mail.