Why Tata Indicomm sucks… November 21, 2007

Internet has always been one of the essential things for me to survive. A day without Internet is like a day without oxygen as far as I am concerned. This is the story about a time when I moved from my home at TNagar to a home at Tambaram with my friends since my parents had got transferred. Our new home was a brand new classic flat with 76 families. It had the perfect atmosphere… swings, lawns, gardens everything. But the only problem was that the only internet provider in that locality was Tata Indicomm (originally VSNL). Finally in a week we applied for Tata Indicomm postpaid special plan according to which we were supposed to pay 4 months advance of Rs3000 and need not pay installation charge or advance for a speed of 128kbps unlimited.

Things went well for the first month. Then the problems started; there would be frequent down time. Even if we call the customer care (not a toll free number) they would take days to rectify it. We didnt have any other choice coz Airtel still didnt have coverage in that area and BSNL needed lots of formalities. There problems were bearable until the 4 months got over and the billing cycle started.

After the 5th month a guy from Tata Indicomm came to collect bill. He told us that only cheque was acceptable. All of us had a bank account without a cheque book. So he said that he will write a cheque in his account and collected the money. 6th month billing cycle came and we took a DD to pay the amount. A few days later our Internet connection went down. We called the local Tata office (the customer care was in Hyderabad and calling them was waste of money and time. They had no clue what we were talking about). We told our id and they told us that there has been a cable cut and they were rectifying it. 2 days passed and still no sign of internet. We were totally frustrated now coz most part of our mini project was based on internet. Sharad was doing IBM great mind challenge and I was creating an API for Flickr.com in Ruby. We called them up again and this time they told us that we haven’t paid the bill. We insisted that we had paid the bill and told them the DD number. They told us that they never got it. That evening we went to bank to find out. The very next day we had paid the bill, Tata had encashed it.

All of us went to a STD booth after having tea in the evening and called them up. Initially Sharad talked iwth them in english and they were shouting back in tamil the usual stories. Frustrated I grabbed the phone and yelled back in tamil. Sharad, my rommates, the water delievery guy who was running the phone booth all were awstuck looking at me talk fluently in tamil. At the end of the “conversation” I kept/slammed down the phone and told Sharad “Internet connection has been restored”. Sharad said “I didnt have any clue that you could talk tamil fluently”. I replied “Neighther did I. Plus neighther me, nor they had any idea what I was talking about” . Then came the 6th month billing cycle which we promptly paid. Few days after that internet connection again went down. This time too they kept saying cable cut story for a few days until we realised that this was once again a bill not recieved thing. This time we caught two trains and went to Tata office at Chetpet two times. Turns out the 5th month bill which was paid though Tata’s cheque had bounced and they wanted us to pay fine for the bounced cheque. How on earth were we supposed to pay fine for their cheque in the first place? Anyway the people at Chetpet turned out to have a little bit of commonsense than those at Tambaram and the whole problem was rectified.

A few weeks later news came that Airtel Broadband came to the locality. The day we took airtel connection, we called up Tata and told that we would like to discontinue their service. That was one of the memorable days for me. It felt so good telling them that we no longer needed their service. After a lot of winning about how their service was best in spite of the frequent down time, wrong billing, never caring customer care, we finally had them come and take away their equipments. Airtel broadband was one of the best experience we had ever since.

About a month later a call came from Tata Indicomm. They said that I have not paid the internet bill for the month. I told them that I had disconnected their service long back. They would always say that they would checkup and call back later. This thing continued for a next few days. It was similar to those annoying caller tune calls. They would call up at the most unexpected time. Anyway since I had all the bills and letter that I had surrendered the modem, I didnt have anything to worry about. So when they kept calling I did have my piece of fun. This was one of the last conversation we had before I left Chennai. I had their number stored in my cell and I knew it was them.

Caller: Hello is this Prathul?
Me: Yes
Caller: You have not paid the internet bill
Me: Really? how sweet
Caller: huh? (pause for 1 min wondering what to say next)
Caller: Your internet bill for this month is pending. We have cut your internet connection.
Me: I paid my bill yesterday and my internet is working fine. Thankyou
Caller: No, you internet is down for a week. Your id prathul86 right.
Me: Which Id? College id or passport id?
Caller: But sir tata indicomm didnt get any bill for this month from you.
Me: Tata Indicomm? Why should I pay Tata Indicomm when I use Airtel.
(the same ususal converstion continues. At the end…)
Caller: ok we will…
Me: …check it up right?
Caller: ya
Me: As usual…
Caller: Sorry to disturb you
Me: Oh no no. Dont be sorry. You will be calling me back tomorrow.

They didnt call back ever again. Later I left chennai and went to Madurai where my parents had got transferred to. A few weeks later they started calling again. This time the fequency of calls was high and much annoying. They would call me when I am in roaming at Hyderbad, Kerala or anywhere else. One day I was in the middle of serious and hectic business. Suddenly the phone rang.

Caller: Hello, is this Prathul.
Me: Yes. Tata Indicomm bill? You called yesterrday right.
Caller: Yes
Me: And didnt I explain that I have paid all bills and didnt I give you the bill number too?
Caller: Yes
Me: Also I gave you the DD number for all the bills I paid, didnt I?
Caller: Yes
Me: So whats the problem now?
Caller: You havent paid in the bill.
Me: Which bill?
Caller: July bill.
Me: I cancelled my internet connection in May. How do you expect me to pay July bill. I have all documents that I had cancelled you service in May. If you want you can come and have a look.
Caller: But you have to pay.
Me: (having crossed the breakdown point) Ok you know what? I havent paid your bill for the past one year. I have no interntion of paying it too. Feel free to file a case against me. Now if you call me one more time, I am going to file a case against you. Goodbye.

Havent heard from them ever since…