Stop!!! Don't go for Hathway ISP, atleast in Bangalore. Choose Airtel or BSNL (if telephone exchange in a limit of 4KMs). I recommend Airtel because of it's 4 hour SLA and upload speed of 25-30Kbps for 256Kbps connection. Hathway uses Airtel bandwidth afaik. Read on for my experience with hathway
I was (and still am a customer) of Hathway as per the contract plan ending only on January. 2007. Had they didn't take back my modem, promising me the refund, completely cheating a customer, I wouldn't have write this review. This is the first time I am writing a review for a service and I am sad that it turned out to be the worst experience in my life.
I subscribed for Freeway 6 months unlimited plan on July 9th , 2006 and paid 6 months in advance. The sales executive, Shekhar told me that , anywhere I shift inside the Bangalore City, I will get the Hathway connection also shifted. On Oct 4th, I shifted my location around500 mts away from my previous address. After consulting with the cablemanager, I was told by Satish, Technical Manager on Oct 7th that thereis no feasibility in the new location and was asked to contact Billing Desk for the refund. I got a reply from the bangalorehelpdesk@hathway.net on 7th confirming that.
Following the instruction, I contacted billingbangalore@hathway.neton 13th Oct and on following up over phone for next 3 days, I got aconfirmation by 16th that I will be getting a cheque of Rs.2600 considered towards the refund by November first week.
When I didn't get the refund by November 2nd week, I called billing department again, first time to be told that, it is the refund department which handles it and I have to contact them. On confirming the eligible refund amount of Rs.2600 , they asked me to return the modem. I did refund the modemby 15th Nov and got a written confirmation from the person who tookthe modem.
By Dec 4th, I got another email from their Billing guys saying that, as per the head office, I am not eligible for any refund. Aftermaking a few more calls to get a solution for this issue, I was told by the billing executive, to call Mr. Chandrasekhar (passionately called Mr. CS by his colleagues) , Refund Manager . Here is where the fun begins.
45 days already passed. Now Mr. CS told me that he can't make a decision and asked to call Mr. Arun Rao, Sales Mgr regarding the refund. And promised me that If Arun confirms the refund, he can issue it without any further delay.
I did contact Mr. Arun on Monday (who was at Mysore on Friday, attending a meeting) when talked to him, I was promised to be called back with a solution. It is interesting to be noted that one Mr. Vinod claimed that he is the Arun, and started talking to me. Only after explaining the situation, he is telling that "sorry I am not Arun Rao. He is on a meeting and will tell him to call you back." Unfortunately, I never got a call back.
Everytime I call them, after being on hold for 10 mins , I will be told to call them after 1 hour, since he is on a meeting. Imade a few more calls on 12th Dec as well as 13th Dec to Hathway's Sales Manager's office (Bangalore) finally to be redirected to Ramesh, Accounts Mgr, who claimed to attend the phone in the midst of a meeting. He confirmed with me that CS is the person who can make the decision. When tried to call CS again, (to complete the loop), he was busy on meeting and an executive there, told me to call him on 14th Dec.
Totally frustrated by their lack of customer service even from the managers, I emailed Jayant , who is the CTO of hathway and CS .
So what can you expect from a management who lures the money from the customers and refuses to attend the customer's calls redirected by their own subordinates saying a false reason that they all are on a meeting. And promising the refund, takes away the modem within the contract period.
I am not sure about managers of Hathway in other parts of India. But in bangalore, they are the worst a company can employ. They can't even boldly say that you wont be getting a refund and return the modem in working condition. Managers looking for excuses to avoid the calls..It's a shame that is the same Rahan Raheja group, which owns Globus, Outlook , Exide employs such managers, who can't make such simple decision . If managers are pathetic, how can the Customer support any better.
There is something more funny that I was told by their own customer support executives themselves that, those managers were not in the meeting and each of them were in their cabin. They understand the value of money, but not the millionare group, Rahen Raheja.
I will surely update the review if there is any action taken in favor or against my case
Dec 15 4:15 PM IST
Though there is no official confirmation, there is "leaked" news from one of Hathway's officials that Mr. Dulal, the Account manager at Bombay office, have emailed Mr. CS (or refunding department ?) asking for issue of the promised refund to me. If I get a call or email from officials, I will update it here once again.
Jan 16 4:00 PM IST
I didn't yet get my refund back against that "leaked" news. So I guess I have to believe they are playing. I called them again and couldn't talke to any of the managers, but could talk to Kavita, Retention Executive there who after contacting the Billing manager (yeah CS) "promised" me that I will get a confirmation call from Billing tomorrow. My contract will be ending in 3 more days and I don't have hope in them.
Jan 17 3:00 PM IST
As expected, no phone calls today. Once again kudos to the management for considering the customers are dependent on them. How long will be the question. Mahatma said, a business is dependent on customers and Hathway says, we plan to challenge Mahatma. Good luck guys.
Jan 17 5:30 PM IST
I was told by the person who "unofficially" told me that I will be getting refund for sure and told me that the reason for delay is because Headoffice people at Mumbai didn't respond. Called up Mumbai billing support and asked about it now and they also said "Sir what is your contact number ? We will contact you back" . Best way to close a phone call from a customer ;)
Jan 17 6:15 PM IST
It's fun. I again called up Mumbai office and talked Mr. Sriram, Senior Billing Executive told me I have to talk to Mr. CS and talk to him. So loop completes again. Should I blame it on Mr. CS ?
Feb 2 10:45 AM IST
Another update over Yahoo IM. Note that there is still no official updates. Snippets...
Sumathi: ur cheques has been reached our office so kindly come and collect ur cheques
Sumathi: as last time 2customer didnt get the cheques from the courier so they told that let the cust come and collect the cheques
Abhilash: okay..I am no more at Bangalore now and now at kochi..So wont you be able to send it on registered post ?
Abhilash: remember not courier..I prefer registered post ..If it is courier, let me know
the details of courier..so that I can follow up with them
Sumathi: ok
So that's it. Now let me guess their next response, if contacted after 10 days. We have sent you the cheque by courier on Feb 2nd itself. We have already warned you to come and collect the amount from office. We can't do anything if the cheque is lost.
Feb 8 2007
I GOT THE CHEQUE OF Rs. 2676.
