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I wanted to share my experience with regard to trying out a new Airtel Broadband Connection. Here it goes, hope it helps others.

So I am fairly happy with my BSNL and rarely think of changing it. Recently, though, started to use youtube for study materials and found the buffering to be very annoying. So after trying to work around and analyse what else I can do, decided to try out a new connection.

Saw the reviews of ACT and Airtel, somehow as I have been using Airtel Postpaid since time immemorial, decided for it, as the service has been very good.

Now, see a pamphlet, asking to 'call xxxxxxx for an Airtel Broadband'. I give the guy a call, and he lands up within 10 minutes at my place. I give him all documents and ask him, when you the whole setup start working, he tells me, 'Saar, maximum by 2 days', I say, fine, no problems.

So I wait, for two days and nothing happens, call the guys and he starts to give his excuses, today, after two hours, tomorrow morning things like that. So frustrated, I call Airtel and they are even more hopeless and say 'Sir, please call the person, to whom you gave the docs, we cannot do anything'.

Then I call the DSA Office, they again give me crap about problems with the line. Then I call the guys manager, and he says, I will call you in 10 minutes, Does he call back - No. Not even once these guys have bothered to call me, Not even once.

Today, is day 5 of this episode and the manager says, by 2pm, I will have my connection working, and guess what it is 2:10 pm right now.

So, wrote an email stinker to all parties and copied Airtel biggies, hope they read.

But this has shaken my belief is the 'so called' private companies are better. Honestly, BSNL's service is the best I have had, and if they had the same plans that Airtel has, I would pay more and get it.

Here are the parties involved in the whole episode, please take care while dealing with them:

Name of the DSA: Lakshmi Enterprises
Address: Manjunath Nagar, Rajajinagar, Bangalore 560010

Name of the Salesman: Anjan, Phone Number: 9632324390
Name of the Manager: Purushottam, Phone: 9611191891

Place where I stay: Shantinagar, Bangalore 560027


What have I learnt: if you want to buy an Airtel connection, please buy it directly from the company or better, get a BSNL for peace of mind.

This is what even I wanted to say. Airtel also outsources their services to franchisees. And thats the reason I think, these problem come out. If you go to the main show room or call them up as the main contact in your area, I "hope" situation would be better. Its also possible they may flatly refuse saying no ports available.

As regards to BSNL; my experiences : As long as it works its great. If it stops, then the fun starts. And the other problem I see is changing a current plan on the fly is quite difficult. You need to visit their office and get this done. Has this changed in recent times?

Email is passe for these guys. Use twitter or facebook. That gets better responses IMHO.

Sad they dont want to sell you a new connection!

BSNL customer care is a comedy.
For any technical problems, its strict no-no.
They will parrot whatever is there in the manual (which is available online btw) - they even ask you to type the initial password that was set when you first got the setup :Frustrati

One can refer to India broadband forum for any technical solution for BSNL.

But in-general, there are no issues in BSNL (past 7 yrs of my exp). Road cuts and their system changes might cause disruptions sometimes but they are fixed quickly.

Now you can change the plan online through the portal.

It's quite easy .. Actually you can use their UDAAN page to change plans. This trick is quite popular in India Broadband forums. Here is how you do it.

STEP 1
Goto http://udaan.bsnl.co.in

You should be able to see this . Click on the REGISTER FOR NEW LANDLINE ... link


STEP 2
In the pop-up, fill the details Circle, SSA District, etc etc.. and choose the PLAN CHANGE option and your preferred PLAN in the drop downs marked. Once submitted, the regional office will call you and change the plan immediately. I switched to my current plan using this.

You can also do the same in selfcare portal. http://selfcare.sdc.bsnl.co.in/

Agreed, did the same and was resolved within one day.

You are being slightly harsh on BSNL, these guys are good. Even the old ladies you talk to when you have a problem have grace, where these private companies are rather over the top.

And BSNL has never let me down. Period. Only if the speeds were as good as Airtel I would gladly throw away my Airtel connection.

Most of the problems that occur in BSNL are due to some government authority cutting off their lines, but those things are resolved way faster than Airtel in my experience. Ofcourse I am talking about BSNL in Bangalore and it might not necessarily apply to other places.

Seems like Airtel BB has totally forgot the meaning of customer care. When I moved to my new place recently, there were no airtel connection there initially. I started using Airtel 3G and after couple of months BSNL started giving service to my area. But during the same time Airtel also called me and informed me that they would also provide BB connection (i.e. restore my old connection). But I had to go out of station for couple of months and so didn't follow it up that time. When I got back to Bangalore, I asked the Airtel guys to provide me a BB connection at my place. They've informed me that someone will contact me soon (within a week). Weeks passed and so a month passed too, numerous calls to their customer care and except for promises to send someone or resolving issue within next week, nothing happened in real. In the mean time BSNL were already providing connections to my neighbours. Got fed up with Airtel after waiting for a month and half and all I got were false promises. Talked to the BSNL guys and now within 2 days I got connection. Yes, it's slow (4Mbps plan), but it's up and running and I surely can live with the speed. Bye, bye Airtel BB, they've started well initially but seems to have surely lost the plot recently.

+1. My BSNL connection has been down for a week now as the wire got cut a couple of places due to some work. I have the number of the person who is fixing the issue (Got it from BSNL through an SMS) and I dont know what is holding them up as nothing seems to be moving. I keep telling my friends the same, as long as it works, BSNL is the best and once it stops then you are at a lot of people's mercy:deadhorse

I had Airtel at my earlier residence and had no issue what so ever. My new house is not covered by Airtel yet and if they are available, I would gladly shift to it.

With Airtel, buying the connection is frustrating. DSA being DSA, will give unreasonable ETA. Usually, it takes ~10 days for connection.

Once connection is installed, it is rock solid. If a complaint is raised by customer, it impacts performance metrics of field engineers. So, they ensure that network uptime is good.

+1 This is what I have realised too. Getting a connection can take time. But once done its quite smooth sailing. My folks have BSNL at home and many a times broad band is down. More than filing a complaint they have to directly call the field guy (they have his cell!) who comes at his own leisure. If its a weekend gone case.

OT : Reminds me of the Jaspal Bhatti's flop show episode on getting a telephone connection. Being a lines man is considered a top job! :)

Experiencing trouble with cancellation of Airtel BB service.

I had called up Airtel in November end and asked for termination of BB while retaining landline. they also asked me to send a mail mentioning cancellation and to ask for landline offers. Next day, I get a mail from them which said something about cancellation in 7 days and I still can contact them in 3 days to reverse it. During the phone conversation, I had told them clearly that services can be maintained until a specified date and then closed.

Shockingly, I receive a bill for the full BB services and call them up. First, someone there says there is no proof of cancellation even after I forwarded the email I had received from them.

After sending another strong email, I receive a call and the person says the cancellation has not been done properly by me. They say, the earlier email only informed them that I will cancel after a certain date. They suddenly come up with 'proof' and say the Airtel person whom I had originally spoken to while cancelling had recorded that I will be cancelling only in future and that I should send another cancellation request. :Shockked:

After much argument, they still insist that they will only cancel now after I give confirmation and I will be still charged for services until now. I confirm cancellation but insist multiple times that it will be effective from the time I wanted closure of services and expect reversal of charges.

The caller acknowledges that conversation is recorded and I ask him how my earlier request is ignored while their persons report is recorded.
Anyways, I repeat multiple times about my position and what should have been done.

I again get a call the next day and am offered alternate low rental plan and no mention of cancellation. I again insist that services are already cancelled from my side and am not interested .

Looks like we have to engage services of a lawyer and make sure all communication is clear and recorded properly.