Part 3
Lies just got more innovative ....
16-July-2005 01:11 ist (yes, in the morning..., thats when I get online ...)
{almost reads like the captains log, star-trek}
I got a new error message today...It is something which I have never seen before.
I am sure it is a non-violent error and will be able to communicate with me.
Hmmm......It says ’’Invalid Quota/Account Expired [530]’’..I think to myself ...this is something new...lets understand what it means.. spend a few minutes thinking ..tell myself I have probably used up my quota for the day (?????? what did I do today...not much ...just checked mails..)
so finally having no other option I call the gods of sify (customer helpline) and sure enough I receive enlightenment...
’’No payment has been received from your end’’
WHAT ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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Part 2 Jun 03 2005 18:30
The Band of Lies just got broader.....
Fortunately I had connection today afternoon and as the SIFY tradition goes....
Instead of the 48k plan that I had paid for and should have been getting...
I was getting a download speed of 2-3 kb/s .
Called the customer support (Narendran) and asked him regarding the same.
He mentioned that I should delete temporary files on my machine to get better speed !!!!!!! (Probably thought I was from the Amazon jungle and was using the computer for the first time..) Yet I obliged..the humble being that I am ...and the kind of person who is always willing to look at the possible other side of the coin..
And then Narendran mentions the truth ...
Asks me to verify the DNS entries and gives me a different set of entries !!!!
Asked him why things like these are changed on the fly and there is no communication to the customer and there is no reply. Asked him when I could expect an engineer to look at the issue (since he though I was from the Amazon, I behaved like the Barracuda ) and he mentioned 12 hours. Reminded him of the 6 hour promise of the salesman and he after a discussion with his senior mentioned that I would get a call from the Sify engineer by late evening.
The time of writing this is now 04 Jun 01:00 AM....and I am yet to receive any call....
Additional thoughts :
#If there is a 6 hour cap on each individual user per day and they restrict the speed to around 1/2 the actual speed, Sify can find DOUBLE the number of SUCKERS like you and me to LIE to...
# And if you want to learn to lie, you know whom to call up....
I am sure you will get a lesson or two....
BTW, I think under Product Rating we need to add another option Recommend to Enemy just after Worst ...
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Once upon a time, there was a country called India. In this country there were many types of people, most of them hard working, trying hard to make their ends meet.
As time progressed there were many advancements in this country. People got telephones, cable-tv and then there was a huge information technology revolution. This revolution brought along with it the monster known as the ’’Internet’’.
Indians first drooled over it, started going mad for the measly dial-ups. Having seen this the intelligent baniyas (read mammoth organizations) of the 21st century decided to make hay while the sun shines.
Among them was Satyam.......
It looked at the opportunity of providing connectivity to large organisations. And then saw that it could use a piece of its bandwidht to provide connectivity to home-users....
I being among those Indians who drooled at the thought of dial-ups (inspite of all the problems), thought that broadband was the next big thing happening in India after our Independence. We would be ’connected’ and on par with the big boys of the world.
Little did I know that somewhere else another plan was being hatched , to pour cold water over my ecstacy.
Current Day Scenario : (March 2005)
Having looked at the leaflets that were pouring in from the Satyam guys almost every Sunday alongwith my Sunday Times, I decided to give the number a call and find out more details.
After giving a call I am asked for a suitable time when the person can come down to my residence to explain the ’plans’ . (Little did I know that these were plans of my doom....)
After about a week of my not being able to give time, we decided on a Saturday morning, the guy (who I found was from the local cable operator) came down to my residence and gave me a run through of the various plans.
Since I leave home almost everyday around 9 am and come back only by 10 - 11 PM, I queried whether support will be available at the given time.
I was informed that such incidences will not arise where support will be required and if required, I will have someone to attend to the issue immediately.
After multiple such queries and a load of information later, I paid him by cheque the amount required for subscription and the first months charge in cash.
One other assurance that I got from him was that the connection would be done the same day as the cheque encashes and will be done at my convinience (after 10 pm) since there was no one else at my residence who could supervise it.
And that is where the tragedy begins ....
* After the payment (cheque was encashed on the 3rd day from payment.), the guys did not bother to show up nor call. (I was informed that the connection would happen the very next day the cheque is encashed.)
* After a call from my end, the Sify guys asked me what time during a weekday would it be possible for them to come to my house for a connection. Since I had already discussed this, I mentioned that around 10.00 pm would be a good time.
I was flatly informed that the same was not possible and they would be able to do the connection only during day-time latest by 7 pm !!!!!!
After multiple calls to the number that I was given, the guys finally came down on a Sunday at 8pm about 14 days after the cheque was given (and after almost 10 days after the cheque was encashed.)
The engineer that come down to my residence was an absolute novice ....
Wat he did was absolutely unforgivable...
He un-installed the anti-virus which was already present on my system and installed the sify client.
After about 2 days of using the Internet I found with that I had an infected system (and a whole lot of files) which were infected.
After calling Sify support regarding the same, I had to clean up the mess myself.
Soon I found that the only 24 hour support is a phone number where people will take your call and give you a reference number and nothing will be done about your problem.
Within 10 days of getting the installation, one fine day the broadband connection stopped working. After more than 4 days and 12-15 calls they managed to get it working.
#Current situation is that I get downloads at 2-3 kbps.
#i do not have the driver cd for the lan card that was installed on my computer.
#Calls to the local cable operator (who is supposed to be a Sify partner) yields no replies or action.
#The connection goes down almost every 3rd day.
#Calls to the 24 hour support number yields action but not before atleast 1 whole day has passed.
#I have just found that the so called 24 hour connectivity has a daily cap of a max of 6 hrs or 150 mb whichever is earlier. (24 hrs connectivity !!!!)
Moral of the story is :
If you want a broadband connection, DO NOT GO THE SIFY way..
You will be running into a bunch of liars......