Jan 10, 2009 01:28 AM
3947 Views
(Updated Jan 24, 2009 09:56 PM)
I signed up for a Tata Indicom broadband (TIB) plan (monthly cost Rs. 780.00) with unlimited size/access during September, 2007 in Pune. So far, I am a satisfied customer with TIB connection.
*Had issues few times, but on-site engineer resolved them within 24 hours!
*I had encountered issues few times as the router could not able to establish connection with the server. Then I will plug-off all the wires/cables connected to the router, then reconnect them all and then try again. I had succeeded many times with this procedure.
When the above procedure does not help, I used to call TIB's customer care cell and they will promptly log a complaint and inform me that an on-site engineer will visit my home to fix the issue within 24 hours. Everytime, they do not forget to ask me the conveninent time for the engineer to visit. Sounds small thing, but it is a differentiator with customer care process of other companies (in any field) in India. I see a professional approach here! Promptly, an engineer will visit within a day and fix the issue within 45 minutes or so.
I had reported issues ~6 times in the last 16 months, which means I have had issue for every 75 days (2.5 months). I think it is acceptable considering their engineer's response!
Bottom-line is problems are everywhere, but how frequent issues appear and how soon it gets fixed are most important! Regarding their support service, I am very happy.
*Speed and value for money
I download quite a big stuff (songs, huge documents etc) and I do not feel any slowness most of the times. Sometimes it was very slow, but there could be several reasons such as more concurrent users, or their booster-router/server might have been down etc. I sometimes use 2 computers connected to internet (my desktop computer and my laptop), those times I can see a drop in speed but that is reasonable as both shares the same bandwidth, so drop in speed is understood. For me, this is a good deal!
FYI: If you are not going to use internet too much, you can opt for other plans for lesser cost (which is limited to downloading size and usage time as well). Check out the store for latest offer and plans details!
*Wireless Router
I wish they offer wireless router. This could be helpful when two (or more) computers (located in different rooms in the same home) will be using internet concurrently. I am trying to replace the current router with wireless router, but I am not sure whether the speed will rapidly be down compared to the wired-router. I need to check it out first!
*Free Email-id with VSNL/ETH domain
For most of the plans, they offer a FREE EMAIL ACCOUNT (yourname@vsnl.net or something like that) for your use. I suggets you to not to use those email accounts just because if tomorrow if you wish to withdraw subscription and going for other ISP (Internet Service Providers) like AirTel Broadband or BSNL etc., you lose this EMAIL ACCOUNT and you can no longer access it. Emails play a key role in everybody's life hence you would NOT want to change it any time, hopefully you would want to keep an EMAIL ID for your lifetime for obvious reasons.
By default, TI will email the monthly bill to the EMAIL account they offered for FREE. However, login to their portal and change your preference to get the monthly bill to be sent to an alternative EMAIl account as well like Yahoo! or hotmail or GMail accounts!
*Bill Payment Options
You have so many options to pay the bill. Earlier, I used to drop a cheque in the ICICI bank's ATM. But, now they have started calling me and ask my comfortable time so that their bill collection center person can come to your place and collect the cheque and give you the receipt. This seems older way, but I feel this good to me since their on-line transaction portal does not allow my bank to make online payment. Hence I have to choose other ways to make payment and their bill collection center comes handy since November, 2008.
FYI: I had couple of times missed the due date but paid within 3 or 4 days after due date. I was neither been charged any late fee or the connection was cut. May be they might have a grace period for defaulters for 5 days or so, though I am not sure.
