I still rue the day I signed up for this filthy connection, courtesy Tata Indicom. But then I didn’t have a choice. Apparently, Airtel and BSNL have yet come to this area, B.T.M. Layout first stage, Bangalore. That left me with Sify with an alternative and another pathetic one at that, judging from my past experiences , far from sweet and better off not delved into.
Coming back to the point, it was a 128 kbps connection I required, wanting to share it with 2 others on a LAN. For a long time I mulled over it but what eventually made me fall into the trap was that the corporate offer they had for H.P. employees – no installation charges no initial deposit, a bit of a rarity these days and I fell for the bait like a stupid fish. Rs 898/- per month inclusive of all taxes was what it would come to, I was told. Indicom had sent one of its engineers, to set it up for us and we were all pretty excited about how it’d turn out which comes with the territory. Then came our undeserved retribution……best described as a boxing bout between me and Mike Tyson aka Tata Indicom Broadband Service.
ROUND 1: A STRONG RIGHT TO THE NOSE
We weren’t pleased with our download speed in general, but it was sufficing our requirements with mediocrity and I was not one to start carping easily …. 12…24…36 hours go by and lo comes down the gavel. It’d only taken 36 hours and our connection had fallen apart. Soon, started the phone calls. Customer Care: “Your problem will be fixed in the next 48 hours sir, anything else we can do?”2 days go by….. We call again, “The cable has been cut off sir. Will be fixed today itself”, is the reply. Another day…another call by me…he eventually gives me the number of some marketing guy in that area. I call up …..he promises it’ll be fixed by night time….doesn’t happen …..I call again……marketing guy doesn’t pick up…..messages he’s on leave…redirects to another guy…..who promises the same thing….the day goes by…… next call to redirected guy…..says “Everybody is on leave sir, will be fixed soon”. Me: “Well, what’s the occasion ? Why is everybody on leave?” Some pathetic excuses….I hang up…Eventually we get the number of the guy who actually fixes some problems. He promises to come the next day…..it takes one more reminder to make him arrive at our house. He sees the state of the router, everything seems fine. Says he’s going to check where the cable is broken. Mind you this is 5 days after the Customer Care guy has already stated it was broken. And they didn’t know where yet…..very efficient…Needless to say as must be evident by now, the technic doesn’t come back. The next day we call up the technic directly to avoid time wastage and redirection……he finally fixes the problem. Yes, victory at last! Apparently, Karnataka Electric Board didn’t like the Indicom cables snaking around the electric poles and got them cut. Then why did the Indicom people wind it there in the first place?
The next episode of X-Files I guess…..
ROUND 2: A DEFT BLOW TO THE JAW….Anish bleeds….
Well, our rejoicing was premature as what followed was far from satisfactory. We’d opted for a 128 kbps connection. However never did we have 128 kbps connection. It varied between 0 to 64 kbps like a damped sinusoidal wave, eventually settling at 0 for a while, while I tore my hair, not being able to check my mail or not being able to send one. Important ones! Poor me! For a quick test for your download speed go to https://pcpitstop.com and run the speed test. You’ll find the figures….In my case it used to be something like 54 kbps…next test-34….next-65…..12 kbps ”how encouraging!” It has even gone as low as 2 kbps….then back to 61 kbps….that’s the trend more or less. On one rare occasion it went up to 78 kbps and once 101kbps to my delight in a space of 8 days. But mostly, it used to be as defunct as the company’s customer care people. But there was more to come….
ROUND 3: THE UPPER CUT……Anish falls
We weren’t 2 weeks after having signed up for the connection that we get a mail form Indicom, “Please pay your bills before the 16th of this month to avoid disconnection.”I found myself thinking, “As if had the connection all this while!” I mean what did they mean by saying they would disconnect a connection which was hardly ever functional in the first place? And sure enough, the bill had increased too, after adding some rubbish costs it came to Rs 930 in spite of them assuring us there would be no further tax additions etc. Strange how these people were so prompt about sending the bills without worrying about what they should be, most. And, of course to make things even better, the connection went down the very next day. Same phone calls……same assurance….this time they placed some woman at the other end to win our sympathy…..saying, ”Please don’t leave us, everything will be Ok.” This time they fixed it a bit faster though, in 4 days. Great improvement ....claps... Guess what - after 5 more days of oscillating performance history repeats itself yet again. This time they’ve assured us that it won’t be fixed till 2 days at least. Now, I sit wondering how many more rounds of Tyson would I have to endure. Would I wait till he bit my ears off? Did I have a choice? Not quite, if Indicom were Tyson, Sify was definitely Lennox Lewis, an even more dangerous proposition. I guess I’ll have to wait till I get hold of some people who’ll provide services without sparring with me. Let’s summarize what the bout has delineated so far:
Only about 50% of the time will be your Indicom connection somewhat functional. Even when it’s functional, the performance will be bursty, rendering you impotent many a time.
It seems not only the employees of Indicom but even their connection is on leave on weekends, without fail.Very loyal!
Only after 5 days since the complain will the customer care people look into the matter and you’ll have to make do with a makeshift solution.
The customer care is full of people who shift the opus onto others, so it’ll take you eons to actually make contact with the right guy.
After all this ruckus, the technician will complain of having been contacted directly and not indirectly??? Probably lost some of his beauty sleep.
When the bill comes around, one thing that they do on time you’ll find it to be more than was agreed upon.
And they’ll keep winding the cables around the electric poles, so the Karnataka Electric Board people can cut it again. What utter fools!
The whole cycle of 7 points mentioned so far is recurring by nature. A vicious circle for us and probably an automated tool for the Indicom people.
The biggest side effect is the amount of money you’ll be wasting courtesy of countless phone calls to them.
Moral of the story: Don’t think twice and avoid this baleful encounter with Tyson himself. It’d be a painful experience if you didn’t heed me. Believe me, you don’t deserve this torture!