Airtel Broadband: Fair Usage(FU) fraud! And more....

[prabhusati]

Originally Posted by vina

Slightly off topic:

Which ISPs/plans provide the best Fair Usage policy?

As far as i know, it is BSNL. If you take the unlimited download for Rs.750 per month @ 512kbps; it is actually unlimited. There is no fair usage clause; which in my opinion is an unfair clause when the service provider says it is an unlimited plan

[vamsi.kona]

Originally Posted by prabhusati

As far as i know, it is BSNL. If you take the unlimited download for Rs.750 per month @ 512kbps; it is actually unlimited. There is no fair usage clause; which in my opinion is an unfair clause when the service provider says it is an unlimited plan

As far as I know all the providers do have certain data limit, after which though the speed is reduced while the amount of data that can be downloaded or uploaded is not limited. The limit however may be slightly higher in case of BSNL.

But of all the customer cares that I experienced, Reliance should be the worst among the the private players. The issue was regarding cancellation of connection in the name of my sister, which was not done but the bills were generated. Every time I called some new executive would answer me and said that they don't have records of previous calls as they didn't record calls!!!. They would say that they would take up the matter afresh. And the worst was they didn't even issue a complaint number. So I had to go through the process every time.

Fed up with this I recorded my call to the customer care once, when I insisted on specking to their regional head, and they accepted that it was their fault and would resolve the matter. Of course they didn't know that I recorded the call. You know what after all this they had the audacity to send a legal notice claiming payment of dues. I promptly sent a reply stating that I had recorded conversations where they had accepted that it was their fault. I was to slap a case of defamation but had to move to Mumbai for Job and didn't pursue the matter.

Of late I heard that Beam tele is giving wonderful packages and the service is also very good. For around Rs. 1000 hey are giving 10mbps speeds with 30 gb limit after which the speed is reduced. Though I am not sure of this, one of my friends said that even after crossing the limit the speed is reduced to 1mbps or 2 mbps, which is very good.

[JustCause]

Originally Posted by JustCause

Too many people are bashing Airtel based on things they are 'told' or have 'heard'.

@tsk
This was with reference to sgiitk's post & some other posts that give a very vague explanation for hating airtel. I multi-quoted that posts but, it didn't appear in my original post. Though my broadband experience was intended to be read by you also.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

I did not do any plan migration. IPTV FU used to be 25GB, and it got reduced to 15GB, on its own.
Now I have the option of paying 300 INR less, and going to 2mbps and 10GB FUP, which I have asked them to enable, since I rarely download more than 10-11GB a month.

FUP quota should not decrease if you are on the same plan. You must have got a call from Airtel for that to happen. If another family member did not give the go-ahead, you should first find who authorised this in the first place. I had used the same as a leverage when they charged me for additional usage. They have all changes documented in your customer profile at Airtel, which you can see at their office.

BTW, which tariff plan are you currently using?

[Sn1p3r]

Oblate Airtel landline and broadband department has been acting like a PSU.

The worst thing they have done is to hire incapable call centers. The quality has deteriorate considerably. Pity we do not have good options. Where people in other countries take 25mbps and higher speeds to be normal we are stuck at expensive low end deals.

[MaserQ]

^^Yes, Airtel have been behaving like a languid PSU when they are anything but. Customer service used to be the group USP at one time. They managed to build a power brand with a customer-centric approach, but now they are just a massive marketing company that outsources most of its key functions.

The IT side of things is completely handled by IBM, while the tower installation, contact centres and service personnel are also handled by third party vendor/contractors. One wonders if this method of operation has diluted some of their core brand values.

[tsk1979]

Finally the issue is sorted. Quota problem is gone now, and I am back to normal speeds!

[Sn1p3r]

Originally Posted by MaserQ

^^Yes, Airtel have been behaving like a languid PSU when they are anything but. Customer service used to be the group USP at one time. They managed to build a power brand with a customer-centric approach, but now they are just a massive marketing company that outsources most of its key functions.

The IT side of things is completely handled by IBM, while the tower installation, contact centres and service personnel are also handled by third party vendor/contractors. One wonders if this method of operation has diluted some of their core brand values.

The PPP link down error persisted for mother at home and she called the tech guy, she followed the lame on off route suggested by the help and after almost an hour of calling called me. I directly called the area technician and he said the hub was down and will resume the connection after 1.30 minutes. The sort of coordination they have really gives me jitters as to how they remain competitive. The technician in the mean time actually changed the password to which I had to remotely and painstakingly reset it on the modem. Waste of useful airtime.

I would like to inform the uninitiated that Airtel changes it's plan quite often but will not tell it's loyal customers. I was paying higher than the normal for 1mbps 135 channel iptv that had cap at 15gb. The latest plan saves me 100+ bucks with 139 channels and 2mbps speed at cap of 10gb. But 14 July request still is pending meaning I continue to have slower speed and less channels for 15 days. Pathetic. If you speak to the guys at customer care they just give you a number and say the systems are down and that we should wait for two hours. What happened to the customer is king send I will make a note while the server is down and feeb in the entry?

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Finally the issue is sorted. Quota problem is gone now, and I am back to normal speeds!

Did they make you wait till your monthly cycle is reset or was there a different solution. Thanks!

[sumannandy]

I am using BSNL for the last 1.5 years in Bangalore. Speed and reliability is good. They also try to resolve issues, if any, as soon as possible, and follow up with calls to ensure everything is working.

Server problems are rare.

For that matter, I also did not have any problem with Airtel when I was using it in Kolkata, and I think it is one of the best broadband connections available in terms of reliability.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Finally the issue is sorted. Quota problem is gone now, and I am back to normal speeds!

Glad to know there's been a quick resolution.

[download2live]

I will chip in with data for TataIndicom Broadband.
I have been using it since last two years.
Its a 256 KBPS connection with 2 MBPS connection between 10 in night to 8 in morning. Rs 1213 per month.

The fair usage policy is here also. Its 45 GB per month.
I have received calls from them few times that I am nearing the quota limits and I can expect a downgrade in speeds when I exceed it. Point is that they kept me informed.

[sumannandy]

I have been using Tata Indicom wimax connection. The downtime is on the higher side, as in 1.5 months they had downtime thrice. Finally I disconnected the connection.

[phamilyman]

I figured the issue. Their billing systems had planned downtime from 9-19 july (or so an email said, which i promptly deleted!!) - consequently, they have not even raised my June bill so far.

Prolly something like that was what caused instability in your case. A misconfigured billing system

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Sn1p3r

Did they make you wait till your monthly cycle is reset or was there a different solution. Thanks!

Monthly cycle still not reset, they did a manual quote reset. Now my account will have higher quota too.
I use a 1499 plan which has 512kbps speed instead of 1099/1199 plans which have 2mbps speed. This is an old plan, and should not have quote(or 25GB quote). But due to some error or something, there has been an error. Moreover, I cannot switch to the 1199 plans, as in Airtel, you can upgrade, but never downgrade, but as long as there is no quota I am happy!

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Glad to know there's been a quick resolution.

thanks for your support doc

Originally Posted by phamilyman

I figured the issue. Their billing systems had planned downtime from 9-19 july (or so an email said, which i promptly deleted!!) - consequently, they have not even raised my June bill so far.

Prolly something like that was what caused instability in your case. A misconfigured billing system

its almost august now!

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Monthly cycle still not reset, they did a manual quote reset. Now my account will have higher quota too.
I use a 1499 plan which has 512kbps speed instead of 1099/1199 plans which have 2mbps speed. This is an old plan, and should not have quote(or 25GB quote). But due to some error or something, there has been an error. Moreover, I cannot switch to the 1199 plans, as in Airtel, you can upgrade, but never downgrade, but as long as there is no quota I am happy!


thanks for your support doc
its almost august now!

512kbps @1499 is really very expensive. You can instead opt for one of the 2Mbps plans where FUP limit is 75 GB (1599 pm) or 150 GB (2000 pm) where Airtel also offers a 20% discount (whereby the net charge is 1279 for 75 GB or 1600 for 1500 GB). The speed is 2MBps in this plan!

Talk to them about it!

[Sn1p3r]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Moreover, I cannot switch to the 1199 plans, as in Airtel, you can upgrade, but never downgrade, but as long as there is no quota I am happy!

But I am downgrading from 1399 to 1199 plan. Hope this is done as it's still pending and the system upgrade messed the cycle.

Originally Posted by joslicx

512kbps @1499 is really very expensive. You can instead opt for one of the 2Mbps plans where FUP limit is 75 GB (1599 pm) or 150 GB (2000 pm) where Airtel also offers a 20% discount (whereby the net charge is 1279 for 75 GB or 1600 for 1500 GB). The speed is 2MBps in this plan!

Talk to them about it!

These are not offered to IPTV customers.
Just for the sake of information for fellow members I can tell you that IPTV sucks at Airtel. Mum just likes the time shift else would have switched a long time back. If you have a heavy download the modem gets overwhelmed with LEDs going berserk and IpTv reception gets effected. Therefore no 4mbps connection with IPTV the ports are locked.
The channel flip is terribly slow and you can not hide the channels you do not want to see. No mechanism. The advertised interactive tv does not change it's dynamic content. Thus your daily horoscope which my mother would rather see, is 1 year old the radio on interactive tv never sings, the movies if you hire them are not in HD. I was the first one to get IPTV ( had a good run with it in Denmark) but in our land with zero accountibiltiy it is a curse.