[motorhead666]

what a coincidence of me bumping into this thread the day i disconnected my bsnl broadband.these guys just dont care if they lose customers.bad connectivity was always an issue but now the phone itself has been dead since last 15 days. if this continues will have to give up the 15 year old bsnl phone number too.

[triedeverything]

Make sure you make some noise. You'll end up like me - some one from BSNL is calling us almost everyday now to find out if 'all izzz well' We also have been given a couple of phone numbers and names to call if there is a problem.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by triedeverything

Make sure you make some noise. You'll end up like me - some one from BSNL is calling us almost everyday now to find out if 'all izzz well' We also have been given a couple of phone numbers and names to call if there is a problem.

Strongly agree with you.
But the irony is, when they call up from BSNL for no reason (when all is smooth), that is the time you've to start worrying; don't know when the connection will go kaput.

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by motorhead666

what a coincidence of me bumping into this thread the day i disconnected my bsnl broadband.these guys just dont care if they lose customers.bad connectivity was always an issue but now the phone itself has been dead since last 15 days. if this continues will have to give up the 15 year old bsnl phone number too.

Seems BSNL is determined to remain on its suicide course. 29 days and still no results for our Broadband and phone issues. Somebody called day before and asked if everything is ok now. When I gave him a HUGE no, he said cable work going on and it should be good in the next 1.5 days. As expected, no change. These guys don't even seem to know what they are talking about and they most certainly aren't bothered about loosing customers.

Btw, which area are you in?

[ghpk]

Only thing is its "SARKARI" they don't loose their Salary on not fixing issues on priority so who care, Salary to Aa hi jayegi.

I am sure they'll only be visible in villages in coming decade.

[jinojohnt]

My experience:
You call BSNL customer support, they give you some number that will help you to fix the issue. You call this number, and you'll again get another number to call. This goes on, until you call the 5th or 6th number, and then you find that the executive on the other side either talks like "This is all that I can do, please get lost" or "Sir, I cannot do anything against my Boss, can you call my Boss? I'll give you his number".

But the strangest thing is that when I personally went to the BSNL office, the staff was very friendly and they explained everything to me and even helped me sort out the issue then and there itself (This happened at 2 BSNL offices in Trivandrum).

May be BSNL is not that bad, it just happens that the people who attend the calls have a "don't care attitude".

[Raccoon]

^^^Who has the time to visit their dingy offices?? In any case, my experience with that has not been good either. Our line issues persist and they aren't interested in solving them... they just put the blame on the cable problems on the roads. Am in the process of looking for alternatives.

[nirmaljusdoit]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

^^^Who has the time to visit their dingy offices?? In any case, my experience with that has not been good either. Our line issues persist and they aren't interested in solving them... they just put the blame on the cable problems on the roads. Am in the process of looking for alternatives.

Dingy, no ways atleast here in Bangalore.I was expecting the same before i walked into the BSNL customer care center for a BSNL mobile connection. Same old public sector staff, but in an airconditioned, swanky office
Good service too, i got a mobile connection in 10 minutes flat.(Still cant believe it)

Even my home BSNL broadband conked again last week. The last time it did, numerous complaints didnt work, but a greasing of the palms of the linesman worked wonders !

This time, didnt waste time in calling the call center. called the linesman, gave him a 100 & requested him to take care of it.
End result - Line back to normal the very next day !!

Why waste time & energy in calling the call center & talk to some technically challenged people when your local guy can solve your problems ?

[jinojohnt]

Reminds me of an incident that happened some time back:
I called the BSNL call center and complained that my prepaid phone is being charged even when I get the "subscriber cannot be reached now" message for international calls.
The call center executive's reply - "Nobody else has complained about this. So we cannot do anything"
Me - "How many people have to complain about the same thing for you to look at a complaint? Give me a complaint number for this (and your name), I'll talk to the BSNL jto first"
Some more heated exchanges follow.
The executive didn't give me his name or complaint number, but I got the problem fixed in one day anyway

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

Dingy, no ways atleast here in Bangalore.I was expecting the same before i walked into the BSNL customer care center for a BSNL mobile connection. Same old public sector staff, but in an airconditioned, swanky office
Good service too, i got a mobile connection in 10 minutes flat.(Still cant believe it)

Even my home BSNL broadband conked again last week. The last time it did, numerous complaints didnt work, but a greasing of the palms of the linesman worked wonders !

This time, didnt waste time in calling the call center. called the linesman, gave him a 100 & requested him to take care of it.
End result - Line back to normal the very next day !!

Why waste time & energy in calling the call center & talk to some technically challenged people when your local guy can solve your problems ?

I don't agree to that method at all. Rather than paying bribes, I'd much rather change service providers. And dammit, we do have a choice now, so lets use it!!

Also, whats to stop the linesman from deliberately tampering with your lines again after a few weeks or months to make some more money outta you, now that he knows you have a surplus of 100 buck notes?

Furthermore, I'm paying Rs. 750 for a measly 256 kbps connection which isn't even working good at all, as of now. And I just found out - Reliance is offering a 300 kbps unlimited connection for Rs. 450 only, with no installation charges (if I pay 3 months advance, else Rs. 500). BSNL does not give any hardware for free, you have to either buy or purchase it from them or elsewhere. Reliance isn't charging anything.

BSNL looses on every count...

[nirmaljusdoit]

Even i don't agree to paying a bribe to getting things done, but no other option in certain cases :( certain people aren't going to change overnight either, especially with PSU's, cops, RTO's etc. The system is too deep rooted. Besides, for me peace of mind is paramount & time too valuable to spend on making endless calls & complaints !

Agree with you on the linesman tampering with the line & its a risk im willing to take

Did consider shifting to another service provider but didn't :

- Have had the connection at home from many years and im pretty satisfied with the 2mbps speed & stability etc.

- IN the last couple of years, connection has been down a max of twice a year, never exceeding a day or two. (Esp when it rains)

- From the feedback i collected about other providers, BSNL seems to be one of the better devils in the market. Have heard horror stories about Airtel's billing issues, Reliance connection issues, etc etc

I can sum up my experience that when it works, it works excellent, when its down, God only save you

[vnabhi]

I switched over to Beam Cable from May 1st and it works like a dream. I paid Rs 5500 for a 6 month unlimited 2mbps connection.

I see the following advantages:-

1. Does not need a modem, so I have one plug point free.
2. Works even when there is no power in the house---however, I need to disconnect the cable from the wireless router and put it directly into the ethernet slot in the laptop.
3. Has a fantastic upload speed of > 1mpbs, apart from 2mbps download speed. My kid downloaded a movie in less than an hour, which used to take 7 hours or so on bsnl.
4. Good A.S.S---quick to respond to queries.

[gendarmee]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

I switched over to Beam Cable from May 1st and it works like a dream...unlimited 2mbps connection.

Sounds good. The problem with beam is that it doesn't work well in all areas in hyd. Where it works, it does well. 'used to have Beam before, the received packets would stop every now and then. The internet would work in bursts all through. On a rainy day, the LAN cable burnt the LAN socket and the motherboard had to be replaced. Switched to B.S.N.L after that. Have had only 2 major issues (both in the last six months) in over 5 years of usage. Both issues have been a pain to get fixed though.

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

Even i don't agree to paying a bribe to getting things done, but no other option in certain cases :( certain people aren't going to change overnight either, especially with PSU's, cops, RTO's etc. The system is too deep rooted. Besides, for me peace of mind is paramount & time too valuable to spend on making endless calls & complaints !

Agree with you on the linesman tampering with the line & its a risk im willing to take

Did consider shifting to another service provider but didn't :

- Have had the connection at home from many years and im pretty satisfied with the 2mbps speed & stability etc.

- IN the last couple of years, connection has been down a max of twice a year, never exceeding a day or two. (Esp when it rains)

- From the feedback i collected about other providers, BSNL seems to be one of the better devils in the market. Have heard horror stories about Airtel's billing issues, Reliance connection issues, etc etc

I can sum up my experience that when it works, it works excellent, when its down, God only save you

Well, if you ask me, if you don't agree to pay a bribe, then you don't... no matter what! And we get the kind of system we deserve. We are ready to pay bribes, so bribe takers will always abound. Anyway, enuf preaching...

Originally Posted by gendarmee

Sounds good. The problem with beam is that it doesn't work well in all areas in hyd. Where it works, it does well. 'used to have Beam before, the received packets would stop every now and then. The internet would work in bursts all through. On a rainy day, the LAN cable burnt the LAN socket and the motherboard had to be replaced. Switched to B.S.N.L after that. Have had only 2 major issues (both in the last six months) in over 5 years of usage. Both issues have been a pain to get fixed though.

Gosh... beware of that! Some people have lost lives and property destroyed (fire) due to high voltage surge thru phone/internet lines! I recall several such cases due to Hathway cables, few years ago.

I switched over to Beam Cable from May 1st and it works like a dream. I paid Rs 5500 for a 6 month unlimited 2mbps connection.

Has a fantastic upload speed of > 1mpbs, apart from 2mbps download speed. My kid downloaded a movie in less than an hour, which used to take 7 hours or so on bsnl.
Good A.S.S---quick to respond to queries.

Sounds great... wish they would operate in Poona. Upload speed is very important if you are using P2P. You gotta be able to give back at least as much as you take. With BSNL, I'm right an amazing 8 kBps upload speed... beat that?

[kala]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

Furthermore, I'm paying Rs. 750 for a measly 256 kbps connection which isn't even working good at all, as of now. And I just found out - Reliance is offering a 300 kbps unlimited connection for Rs. 450 only, with no installation charges (if I pay 3 months advance, else Rs. 500). BSNL does not give any hardware for free, you have to either buy or purchase it from them or elsewhere. Reliance isn't charging anything.

BSNL looses on every count...

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

- From the feedback i collected about other providers, BSNL seems to be one of the better devils in the market. Have heard horror stories about Airtel's billing issues, Reliance connection issues, etc etc

I can sum up my experience that when it works, it works excellent, when its down, God only save you

+1 to that. Raccoon, before you sign up for these "unlimited" schemes offered by Reliance, Airtel, Tata Indicom etc, just check with them about their "Fair Usage Policy". As far as I know, unlimited isn't really unlimited for all these ISPs, and there's a specific data limit which they consider as "Fair usage" (you may or may not find the actual value buried in the fine print that they make you sign - I'm not sure) beyond which they start billing you per MB.

That way BSNL's unlimited schemes are really unlimited, and as Nirmal said, as long as it works it works pretty well. Yes, their customer support really sucks, most of the guys who attend to your complaints in their call centre have no clue about how to solve your problem and end up wasting a lot of your time - but from what I've heard, most of the other ISPs aren't too much better either in that department.