Non-technical issues:Tata's real problem. Review on Tata Play

Tata-Sky Family:

I am one of the owners of the tata-sky set-top box.The concept is really good.To bring satellite quality television viewing to an average indian home.Technical issues non-with standing, it's the non-technical issues that let such an admirable product down.

The Good:

I purchased my set-top box a long time ago, before september of last year.The installation and demonstration were painless.Set-top box had good build quality.The connection wires were all run according to my wishes.The tata-sky representative who had come along was adequately informed.He helped me fill up the forms and documents.The picture is good.But sometimes when you're watching sports, like football or F1, the display seems to somehow pixelate around the area of most action.Sort of like watching poor cd quality action.The recharge facility is also geared towards convenience, similar to a prepaid mobile connection.They also have a dedicated toll free help-line, to call free from anywhere to enquire about your connection.

The Ugly:

Here comes the bad part.IF, at all, tata's sky flops, it is because of the human element rather than technical issues.One key technical snag is that the service suspends itself in the event of rain.This is a strange quirk, because my relatives living in the UK, where Sky is, did not report of such.Anyway, that is speculation at best, so I do not want to comment.Tata's aftersales support is slowly diminishing.Or atleast, it can't keep up with the current trends that make us, the customers, the key in suceeding with a product.We are slowly growing into a buyers market.Some reasons for cause of frustrations:

Relocation:

*Has a lot of complications to it.Shouldnt be so complicated as majority of the Indian house holds have an on-the-go lifestyle.Additional 1000rs to be paid by means of recharge card.The dish, should not be removed by us.But, rather, by an authorised tata-sky representative.This is fine as long as the response to a call is close to atleast 2 months, incidentally, the time I had to wait.By then, my landlord wanted me and my tata-sky OUT of there!So, apart from comic relief, did not get much insight into tata's fabled service.

Feedback:

One of the central reasons for me writing this reviews, the feedback form expects the customer to fill up complaints in 60 words or less.Okay, call me loud mouthed, but I simply couldn't convey clearly the situation prevailing in 60 words!And, the feedback form is unlimited, so it does NOT limit the user to 60 words, rather it expects us to count out the words(punctuations are considered words, believe it!)all the way!Great work, Tata.Why don't we have a CAT exam along with it?*

No Rain, No Gain:*

Everyone now knows about this, and that is a good thing.Because, when I first bought into the tata-sky family, no one told me!Simply put, Tata expects us to go play outside in the rain, and sit indoors during the shine.

I hope this review was helpful to you.I tried to be as unbiased as I possibly could.Hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

Take care,

Karan.