Jul 21, 2006 09:59 AM
2700 Views
Hi readers. it me again. And, I am going to write about my terrible experience with ISP providers. Today’s generation is slowly becoming more and more Internet savvy and I am not one standing apart. A serious confession from my side would be that I never accessed Internet till my engineering. Also, I did not have a email addres till that time. Some would say Oh My Gosh!! But, it is a hard fact.
During engineering, I starting browsing more and more unveiling the power of Internet: both good and bad.I had a computer at home and decided to get a net connection. Although, I used to come very less to home (since I stayed at hostel), my sister used to use the net for her study purpose during her MBA days at NMIMS. So, my Initial encounter was with the biggest telecom brand at that time i.e. MTNL (Please donot laugh...) This is what I read some days back that MTNL has won the best telecom brand for customer satisfaction in terms of consumer trust. U can check DNA, Mumbai few days back for details. That time, the broadband connection of MTNL i.e. triband offer was not started. Then, we had to connect to the phone (the phone becomes unreachable) through a external modem for net browsing. First problem was that the phone becomes sort of dead and there’s no way that one can reach you. Mobiles phones were still at a nascent stage then.
The speed was so horrible and connectivity so poor. And believe me, if u are downloading a file more than 10 MB size, then start praying as the connection could break any moment. Then you reconnect to start the download again. Thanks to all these atrocities, my first bill came around Rs. 3500(normally bill used to come around 800). There was a month when we even paid a bill around 7000 too. Hey, this is a monthly bill. I never knew how much we used for paying that much. When I went to MTNL, one person actually told me the real story that it is per-minute charges equal to a call-charge. So, practically, if u speak or surf for one hour, you pay the same amount. That time the charges were around Rs. 3 per minute. After facing the trauma for around 5 months, then I decided to leave MTNL’s great connection. I have heard that nowadays the connection has improved a lot, but really donot have the guts to go for that offer.
Then, I switched a lot between VSNL/Caltiger/Mantra Online, etc. But, hardly I could find a perfect ISP provider. Cost was too high and hardly any service was value for money (paisa vasool). Then, one of my MBA friends told me to go for a cable connection. (still repent for that one-fine-day)He advised me to get an unlimited connection here by paying a one time fee from the cable guy. Our cable guy is more freakier than Jim Carrey in the Hollywood flick. I called him to find that we would have to pay an initial installation of 3000 and then I didnt have a LAN card too for which I paid Rs. 400. I thought that it's a one-time investment. So GO FOR IT. The charges were around Rs. 650 for 64 kbps. Also, the connection was Sify.(was in awe of the brand) I had browsed many times at Sify’s i-way so thought it must be great. The cable guy came after 2 weeks and then connected me to God again. Initially, everything worked fine as it goes with other ISP services. Then, the real thing started.
The connection became poor and on Saturday and Sunday, when I used to surf more, the connection just wouldn't be there. However, the initial charges made me pay again and again every month. The problem I used to face more than the surfing used to be the monthly renewal of service. Around every month, for the first 10 days, I was practically without net. Sify has a customer service who used to call me at the last date of expiry of the service saying, "Sir, your Sify account is going to expire tomorrow. Do you want to renew it?" I used to say, "Obviously." Then he politely said," Sir, I am renewing your account and we will ask Mr. Rajan (thats the name of my cable guy) to come and collect the charges." I said, "Fine, Buddy. No problem." After this, there was neither any renewal of service or any payment terms for 10 days or so. Ultimately, after saying lots and lots of WTF to Mr. Rajan, then my service would start. In between, while surfing through the Sify site, I came to know that they offer the broadband payment via. website also. I called their toll-number and after a lot of music/jingles spoke to a CSR. She told me the service which I was paying to the cable guy Rs. 650 was actually charging only Rs. 300. I asked her, "Where the hell does the remaining 350 go?" She said,"those are the charges for the maintenance of broadband service." I donot know what does that mean... If anyone has a clue, then please do tell me.
I particularly wanted to speak about a survey we MBA student had worked upon in relation to the customer satisfaction for a reputed ISP provider in Mumbai. The results were so much staggering that I realized that my trauma was nothing. Almost every individual is left by the ISP provider at the mercy of the cable operator. The good thing for corporates was that mostly they dealt with either the provider directly or a distributor. However, the poor resident like us used to suffer a lot. There was a guy at Khar who was surfing only a hour (that also maximum) daily and had a service of 128 kbps paying around Rs. 1200 every month. When I asked him why he didnt go for a lower scheme, he said that my cable guy told that this is the best scheme for my needs. Also, he told that other schemes are prone to viruses and this one is not. HUHHHHHH!!!!!! I was so much surprised at this guy’s innocence in terms of computers. Not everyone here are net-savvy and take it mostly for email access or for chatting. This was the biggest problem faced by majority of the residents that they were in schemes of unlimited usage when their usage was limited in reality around a hour or two max in a day. Wonder what the ISP providers are doing for the customers? Is it the same way things work in other metros or non-metros?
Coming back to my scheme, I finally got fed up and decided to call-off the service. The cable guy told me that the billing cycle for Sify is actually longer and why dont u opt for Pacenet? It seems pacenet had lower billing cycle! However, this service was so much virus prone that even Norton got destroyed twice! Norton engineers can use Pacenet service to find the vulnerability of their anti-virus software. My system used to crash so many times. Finally, during this monsoons, a meteroite hit me. My motherboard got literally destroyed. When my computer guy was called, I was shocked to discover a wet motherboard. And, it got wet due to water dripping out of the cable wire that is connected in USB port behind the comp. I have till date incurred charges of around 2500 for that. I have not paid him (neither I want to) charges of around 2000. I have kept the cable wire in a bottle near my window and so far half-bottle has filled with rain water. I plan to serve it to my cable guy when he comes!!!
Still, I am in search for a perfect ISP provider. People recommend me to go for the Triband offer of MTNL or Airtel’s new broadband offer. I am still scared and decided not to connect God for some time atleast...................................
