June 26, 2013
Rating
I currently live in Bangalore and Iâve been having a huge problem with ACT Broadband. I was asked to write a review of this horrid ISP and might I say how glad I am to find that it isnât just me who have been apparently diddled by this ISP.
On the evening of the 11th, I spoke to an ACT subscription agent, a Mr. Sajid to enquire about the connection being advertised by them for high speed internet connections. I then decided to opt for the 15 MBps plan which I then paid for 6 months advanced payment (an amount to the tune of close to INR 6700 or so) so that I can avail of a free Wi Fi router and Installation. At the time, I was told the connection would be up and running in 7 days.
On the 13th, I received a confirmation e-mail from them thanking me for my cheque which they encashed promptly. On the same day, I was visited by two representatives of their company, a Mr. Vinod and a linesman who had come to perform the installation. In the process of doing so, I discovered that they had planned to take the connection from a "Distribution Point (DP)" which was located on private property, the owners of which had gone on vacation and wouldnât be back until Friday. This Mr. Vinod then promptly responded that they would return the next day between 2:30 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. to attempt to install the connection again. I took time off my busy schedule to be home during the given time so as not to cause inconvenience, only to be inconvenienced myself - Mr.Vinod didnât bother to call until I took the initiative at approximate 3:15 P.M. to ask if they would be coming. He claimed to have visited the house to find it still locked, and that they would not be able to know for sure until Saturday evening. We were then given no further update on the situation.
Since then, attempts to reach Mr. Vinod on his cellphone have resulted with him not answering the phone. My calls to the original subscription agent, Mr. Sajid, have led to half hearted vague responses of speaking to "the office" which again, have resulted in nothing. On top of this, I have also filed two more complaints in the past 2 days to have something done ( by phone, a call handled by Agent Rupa, second complaint was handled via e-mail, which recieved a generic response e-mail with no action taken). This morning I also got to speak to fellow named Mr. Nithin (after yelling at that Sajid fellow, he finally coughed out some info on his superior) who then promised to call back. He didnât and we had to call him back - he then promised me that this Mr. Sajid would come by at 2:30 in the afternoon and the line would be installed today itself. So, I waited and as is to be expected, 2:30 came and went - called up Mr. Sajid only to be given, once again, some vague response of something been done. He then claimed that "the owner of the house where the Distribution Point was installed had returned and was refusing to let them install more connections because he didnât want any more wires coming into his house", apparently. Such are the wise infrastructure decisions of ACT Broadband in the Ulsoor Lake area.
So now, Iâm stuck waiting for these people to rub their two IQ points together, hopefully start a fire with it and somehow manage to get my installation done - thankfully I didnât cancel my existing (and equally terrible) Hathway connection because my month wasnât up yet. I find it really bizarre that an organization would choose to install their DP in the bedroom of someoneâs house (as opposed, to say, you know, a building with security guards and whose roof can still be accessed even if everyone in the building went to Rishikesh or were dying of dysentery in their own apartments ?_?) and on top of that, actually expect that to not be a problem in case the people living in that house go on vacation and leave up at their mercy in case our net should go down. Hell, it actually sounds more and more like a fraudulent business practice.
In any case, I suppose nothing will be done if I complain yet again because, I will, as expected, get a generic reply from ACT telling me that they are "very sorry for my inconvenience and that they will do their best to rectify this situation". Nothing ever gets done, but theyâre still very sorry, apparently.
I havenât even had the modem or the line even laid down and Iâm running pillar to post with their customer service - two complaints lodged in 11 days, each of which were promised to be rectified in 48 hours. I suppose this is only an omen of things to come if this is the way they run.