Tata Sky took me for a clean ride!. Review on Tata Play

I have been forced to voice out my opinion on these DTH gimmicks. Especially Tata Sky, which I have been using since 2005. I am vexed with the games Tata Sky play with people.

In the month of June 08, a new offer called 'Annual Package' was introduced, wherein you will have to pay for 12 month and out of that 2 months is free. It was definitely a good offer as I was subscribing the Jumbo package of Rs.310 every month. So I guessed that I would be saving Rs.620. By then Neo Sports was separated from the Jumbo package and was charged Rs.30/month. Also the jumbo package which was Rs.350 was reduced to Rs.310. With no other option, I had to accept the extra payment of Rs.30 every month for neo sports package. So by now I was paying Rs.310+30=340.

Now my issue is that in the month of June 08, I had opted for the Annual package and had paid Rs.3100. During that period, Star Sports, Star Cricket and ESPN were part of the package without any condition. So it is understood that I have paid even for the mentioned sports channels till June 09. Then in the month of September, I started to receive messages on my TV stating that Star sports and ESPN were free till Sept 30th. I was receiving the channels almost till October 15th and suddenly they were removed!

When I called up the customer care, they accept the mistake and are helpless to settle the situation. But in the end they keep repeating like scratched records that the channels were FREE to watch till sept 30th! This is bullshit! In the first place, there were no mention about the channels being free in the month of JUNE 2008. How can a company give it's products free of charge for months together? What kind of business is this? In september it was mentioned "Subscribers who activated their Tata Sky connection on or before 31 July 2008 continue getting this channel ‘free’ till 30 September 2008". Why this was not mentioned in the month of June??? Tatasky people still feel that they are ruling the skies. They should look down and see the number of new competitors breathing down their necks.

So the entire drama is nothing but monopolism! For the moment, Reliance seem to be a better bet in switching over for its latest technology. I am sure Tata Sky will burn their pockets if they plan to switch over to mpeg 4 technology which will cost them a lot. Also reliance have been offering good offers wherein I need to pay just half the cost of what I have been paying to Tata Sky for a year and that too along with a new dish and receiver! So definitely there is no harm or no loss in throwing the Tata Sky dish and receiver in the dustbin. I know reliance will do anything to squeak inside the already captured tata market share! Now I am in the hunt for a better service provider and this time I will have to be very careful.

Tata Sky have come up with a new gimmick called Tata Sky Plus to hold back existing customers from running away to mpeg 4 providers (Big TV, Airtel and Sun). Now they are announcing that existing customers can avail a discount of 50% on the plus receiver! TS plus is a mpeg 4 receiver and TS people are getting ready to switch over to mpeg 4 from mpeg 2. But they have done enough damage to shoo away most of their existing customers.

Nov 21st:

I had switched over to Reliance Big TV the very next day I had put up this comment in MS. Believe it or not, I got the Reliance dish installed in just 20 hrs out of their 72 hr assurance! I read so many reviews firing Reliance for thier bad service. Yet I decided to take a plunge with a small prayer. Reliance signal reception is 91% compared to Tatasky's 65% maximum in Hyderabad city. Also the channels are very clear and so is the sound. By god's grace I have not faced any problems till now and hope it goes on for a year. Channel surfing was better in Tatasky, but still clarity wins on Reliance. Risk takers can give a try on Reliance BigTV. I feel its worth for the time being.