Thursday, December 07, 2006

Tata Indicom Broadband India - The worst choice ever

Now.. this is something which was expected much much earlier....
It says I am not the only one who is suffering with the services of tata indicom broadband from VSNL.
Here is a documentary of the pathetic service provided by tata broadband










At last I am kicking the connection out


I had a real test for my patience level with Tata Indicom Broadband, giving too many chances to them hoping that they will improve their services and give a trouble free internet experience - But It's not..

Last month I had a downtime of 10 days+ and as usual they are playing with me (As usual) not giving proper response whether they will give validity extension in lieu for the downtime.

So.. that ends it (of course not.. I have to send a legal notice to them and take my issues to the consumer forum as they have made me to suffer so far)


If you have used Tata Indicom Broadband, no need to explain to you how pathetic their service is.

I happened to be a customer of theirs and had a real test for my patience level. Read it more at Tata Indicom Broadband story.

Well I am not alone while expressing my experience to the public. I have seen a lot of bloggers like me expressing their frustration on Tata Indicom Broadband Internet connection. This is an attempt from me to group everyone together in my fight against the poor services provided by tata indicom broadband from VSNL.

Read them below

Complaints Board - Tata Indicom Broadband

vishnuvardhan on tata indicom broadband

Tata Broadband Blog

kamlabhatt's problems with Tata Indicom Broadband

Pathetic Tata Indicom Broadband service in Delhi

MouthShut Reviews on VSNL Tata Broadband

Whats up with Tata Indicom Broadband?

tata indicom broadband issues..

Tata Indicom Broadband - Heights of incompetence

Red Alert: Escape from Tata Indicom!


Here's My Story

In November 2005 I opted for a broadband connection from Tata Indicom Broadband from VSNL as I had no other provider in my area and being a small installation fee of 1000 Rs. But the service till now is really pathetic. Initially I used to have frequent disconnection, adding to worries, I had to spend of my mobile airtime calling customer service and raising complaint/follow up. There were instances where I made complaints / follow ups more than 10 times in a month with average calling time of 10 minutes.
many a times I had to give multiple complaints for the same disconnection due to this situation. My connection was down once, I complained to them, but they closed my complaint saying that same evening some representative had called me and found that it is working fine. I DIDN'T RECEIVE ANY CALL AND IT IS STILL NOT WORKING !! This is a real cheating from their end.
I had a little more annoying experience with them

I went in for an online renewal for my connection, after paying at the credit card payment gateway, getting back to their site, it showed an error page. (payment was completed, but a server error happened with their system). It took me 2 months to settle this issue and at the expense of 10 calls to customer care (average length of call - 12 mins from my mobile).

I never had a full month since last Nov in which I got uninterrupted connectivity. Every month I had to spent additional money in terms of my mobile bills (the calls I make to customer care).

IT REALLY SUCKS.. IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT TAKING IT, EVEN AFTER READING THIS, I WISH YOU GOOD LUCK.

Now I am using my airtel mobile connection and a mobile connected to PC for browsing as I can't rely on Tata Indicom Broadband any more as they will dump you when you are really in need of internet. Dont take tata indicom broadband internet connection and kick them out of industry.

Related: tata indicom broadband gateway

Updates on my issue on 16th jan 2007

In the month of September and October 2006, I faced 2 huge downtime of about 10 and 20 days.. Together 30 days..
All these days Tata Indicom VSNL people kept of charging 16.67 Rs per day from my prepaid balance. I informed that such thing is happening and I wanted credit of these many days where connection was down and charged. I never got a reply stating that we will credit.. Where is customer service here..

November 13, 2006 was the day my account was supposed to be renewed. I decided that I am not going to renew as these people will take advantage that I will continue to be a customer even if they didn't give credit for downtime. I informed them by email and calling customer service that I have decided to opt out of service unless they give full credit of 30 days of internet usage accounting for the downtime. My account went inactive due to non renewal and I had about 430 Rs balance in my account. One month renewal for their On and On 64 kbps package is 561 Rs. So my loss at that point was around 1000 not taking into consideration the cost incurred in calling to consumer support.

It is 16th january 2007 and a person from Tata Indicom broadband to enquire why I am renewing my account. I told the same old story which leads me to decide why I am not renewing my account. Finally what I heard from him is proceed to consumer forum and file case against tata indicom

Now its left to the reader to decide to take or continue with the Internet package from VSNL or Tata Indicom Broadband.

Please support me in this cause by spreading my word.

Updates on my tussle with Tata Indicom Broadband

Day before yesterday i.e 1st Feb. I got a call from one of the executive from Tata Indicom Broadband. She informed me that my account is inactive (I Know that) and there is some offer with which they can offer me 30 days validity extension at the expense of 200 Rs out of the 405 Rs balance I have. I told here yes and activate my account.
I was back on my Tata Indicom (Broadband is it ? ) connection. I felt at least I am able to use something what is owed to me.

But....

Today i.e 3rd Feb which is a Saturday (You know saturday is a holiday even for tata indicom broadband connection), not to my surprise IT IS DOWN AGAIN ( OMG This shit again..).

I am not surprised, not angry.... BUT IT PROVES THAT THEY ARE NOT PROFESSIONALS

The connection was back working very next day (Surprisingly !!). But I had by that time taken another internet week from Airtel mobile as I can't be without the link to the outside world :).

Saturday 24th Feb

Not a surprise again, the net is down. My modem light is blinking suggesting that there is some connection fault - something very usual on Tata Indicom Broadband VSNL network only. ( I am contacting airtel again for the slow internet (but always on) dial up connection on mobile)

Your usage has exceeded 80% of the validity in the Broadband Account

Thats the first mail (obviously from tata indicom broadband vsnl) I am seeing on connecting through my mobile on Saturday morning.

This is noteworthy to mention that they are very punctual in reminding you that "Your usage has exceeded 80% of the validity in the Broadband Account" , 90% etc.. Also you will get at least 3 calls from agencies offering renewal pack to my doorstep.

But..

Why I should renew or buy something which I am not going to receive ?

Hope its not you who is going to suffer like this .........

Do you know Tata Indicom broadband is going to be a real looser in this story. They are having a close watch on this page to see what I am going to write next..

Here is the proof. They are in fact watching everyone who write their bad experience with tata indicom broadband..

Below is the visitor stats (especially the visitor activity from Tata Indicom Broadband - VSNL). Click on the image to view complete.



Updated stats on 1st march 07



Frustration continues

An executive from Tata Indicom Broadband kept on calling me asking why I am not renewing my account. hearing him plead to try it another time, on 12th of March, I took a new unlimited 128kbps pack and.......

Its 4th day today and my network is still down. The experiment to try Tata Indicom Broadband for the last time was an utter failure.

If you are a Tata Indicom VSNL Broadband Customer, and facing problems like me (I am sure you will be), throw them out.. switch to Airtel or BSNL and slap them on their face.. MAKE THEM SHUT DOWN

Tata's ....... Learn how to please customers rather than riding on the reputation you gathered in past for cheating customers now.

Here is a new slogan for Tata Indicom Broadband which I feel they can modify to market their services better.. !!

"Do More, Live More, Test your patience level with Tata Indicom Broadband" !!

8 comments:

Customer Justice said...

It is bad to hear about TATA's doing such things. Would you like to share yoru story with our readers? Feel free to send me an e-mail, and if you want join our blog.

Let us all work for customer justice!

MESH said...

I was stupid enough to get an entire year's pre-paid subscription to Tata Indicom Broadband. It's a month since I have got it and it has been down almost every day since, sometimes for more than 3 days. All calls are only to customer support who are no less than a parrot who has learnt a few new sentences.
The technical guy comes over only after he re-boots the switch and calls to ask if the connection is up, and by the time he reaches his office again, the connection is down again.
I don't know why a Tata Company cannot see that they are losing their image. I have taken an oath to not use any Tata products in the future. They obviously do not care and are sitting preety on the pre-paid charges i have paid for the whole year. When asked for a complete refund they are only willing to repay what's left from a daily reducing charge of usage. I wonder what usage they are referring to, cause i don't remember a single day without having the connection down, they only offer an extention for the time it has been down. What good is an extention on something that doesn't work.
These guys need a shock, i'm willing to go the distance by filing a lawsuit if there are others who are willing to come forth and sue these incompetent people. It's time to show the Indian Corporates that the consumer is not a SUCKER.

Vikas Goyal said...

I am having postpaid connection and in just one week I am experiencing lot of disconnection problems. I can not switch the provider as our stupid builder Rohan Vasantha has some kind of ugly contract with Tata Indicom. Helpless :(

Unknown said...

TATA Indicom Broadband is HORRIBLE...

For last 35 days, connection has been up only for last 12 days :(

My own experience : http://shamit.org/dpal/Tata+Indicom+Broadband%2C+A+Nightmare

Unknown said...

Hmm.. I'm in the same boat as yours. I'm absolutely frustrated with their Customer Service, and there is just no "escalation" path. I want to take them to the court.

blogspot said...

HI guys,
The initiative to escalate the matters to way and beyond the TATA indicom broadband consumers suffering and creating a unified source of users you are requested to provide your email id and user id
You are requested to share the same at my email id
blogspot3@gmail.com

Your's truly
The blog3 team

This a blog to be used by the Residents/Owners of Suraksha ParkView said...

I had a Tata Indicom connection in my wife's name and recently I got a
lawyers notice to pay up or face consequence!!
The story goes like this ..
I am had been a subscriber to Tata Indicom's broadband connection from
August of 2007 to October of 2007. Due to dissatisfaction with the
service, I had requested to disconnect the service in the Month of
October 2007 and I have also paid my dues till same date. Inspite of
the fact that I canceled, the field staff did not come to pick the
equipment for a few months. After repeated call's to there call
center, they picked the equipment from my place in the month December
2006, but I continued to get the bills. Again, I had bought this
matter to the Tata Indicom's call center many times. In fact, I also
made a complainant through the internet in the Month of June 2007. I
got bills till July, and now they want to give me a bill for services
I never used!!
Please let me know if you are planning to take further action. I want
to join in.

RB said...

Totally agree with the person who had such horrible experience with Tata indicom. My experience in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, is almost identical.

1. Over 90% of the time I don't get internet service. Technical support is totally inadequate, nobody
has a clue why the server is down. Nothing gets done in spite of several phone calls. They don't
keep the equipment in working order, and wait till customers like us call and complain that there
is no internet. This is totally unacceptable.

2. Customer care (the 1-800 number) too has inordinate wait time, and just hangs up on me
saying "call later". This is unacceptable. Even now, the internet service has been down
for more than 4 days. Nothing is being done. I have been calling everyday, when I finally get
through to a customer service "executive" all I get is some platitudes. They also tell me that
i will receive credit for all the days when I had no service, but this is a lie --- see point 5 below.

3. In spite of escalating to Nodal officer for Tamilnadu region (several times), there has been no
response. This is ridiculous. What has Tata come to? I plan to publicize my frustrations all over
various internet fora, and warn the public not to sign up for Tata indicom.

4. Towards the end of March 09, I signed up for Tata's broadband DSL internet service, and paid in full
for 4 months. More than Rs 5500. I was explicitly told by the salesperson (DineshBabu, Coimbatore)
that there would be no charges. Still I was sent pro-rated charges for march, and additional extra
charges on each subsequent bill.

5. Finally, in spite of being told by customer service that I would receive credit for all the days when I had no service
this has NOT happened. Just to quote one instance, I had no service from April 6 till 23rd. But, lo and behold, the
April bill shows no refund. In addition to providing lousy service, Tata have also taken to outright lying. I am stunned at Tata's audacity. This is causing irreparable harm to their valuable brand name.

I plan to register complaints with consumer protection groups, write letters to the editor in all major newspapers,
and also widely publicize on the internet.