Internet Woes

Internet Woes


Of late I’ve been planning to get an internet connection. But lo! I had no idea which ISP to opt for? So, the sojourn begins…..

This is towards the beginning of August this year. I went to the nearest BSNL office to inquire about the internet services they offer. And like a law abiding citizen I filled in the necessary forms and submitted the relevant documents. Here goes the dialogue between me and the lady in-charge.

Lady in-charge (asked): Do you have a BSNL landline connection?
Me: uh.. am afraid No.
Lady in-charge: Do you know of any nearby BSNL landline number?
Me: Nope
Lady in-charge: Okay, where do you stay?
Me: Somewhere near the station. Adarsh Nagar Colony.
Lady in-charge: Which floor do you stay?
Me: Ground floor.
Lady in-charge: Lemme inquire, tring tring tring “cable lines unda?”(Do you have cable line over there, No? ok) Leda? Ok
Me: What is it?
Lady in-charge: Sorry, there are no cable connections out there, so we can’t help you.
Me: Tired and frustrated standing in the queue for almost two hours, went back empty handed.


Wait the story doesn’t end over here. There’s more to come. At this point of time I had decided to take internet connection any how. So the second innings began.

I happen to read this leaflet, some “Star Communications” saying something like this:
“First time in kukatpally, RELIANCE internet connection!!! Hurry.” I thought oh wow, so finally I can get the connection. I dialled in the given number and found that the person on the other side could not understand Hindi or English, so he handed over the phone to another sales person. He agreed and said “Madam paanch din mei connection ho jayega” Paanch din wow that sounds brilliant. (Madam we promise to provide you the connection within five business days).

The guy said that he would come and take the cheque and the other required documents. After calling him like twenty tines, finally one fine evening he came to collect it. But after that he never turned up. In the mean time I went to my home. But kept calling these people; so that they don’t forget that they had the cheque, which was already encashed.

Finally the installation people came, installed the modem. I was elated that after such a long time I was finally going to surf the net at the comfort of my home. But then I get to see the message “Page cannot be opened”, please try again. This is what followed.
Me: What’s this?
Net Guy: Madam, what operating system do you have in you system?
Me: Windows Vista.
Net Guy: Madam you better format your system and change the O/S to XP.
Me: No I'll lose all the data that is stored in my system. There must be a way to get internet connection with Vista O/S.
Net Guy: No idea ma’am. I can’t help you. You get your system formatted.
Me: Then I made a series of calls to friends, near and dear ones. Hey can you tell me why am unable to get the connection after installation is done?

All my friends came up with different solutions. But neither helped me resolve this problem. The guy who installed never turned up till date to fix the problem. The customer care people just have few things to say. This is how it goes….

Customer care: Good evening, this is x, how I may assist you?
Me: I got internet connection on so and so date, but it’s showing limited or no connectivity.
Customer care: Can I have your user ID madam.
Me: Yeah, it’s 331526888556611
Customer care: okay ma’am please be on the line, I’ll forward this call to our technical department and they will definitely resolve your problem ma’am.
Me: Okay.
Customer care: Ma’am this is so and so, can you please tell me what kind of problem you are facing.
Me: Yeah, sure. Though installation has been done, it’s showing no connectivity.
Customer care: Okay ma’am I will give you a complaint reference number. Please note it down. We will send somebody to fix the problem.
Me: Okay fine.

Day 2: No response, nobody turned up
Day3: Again called up reliance customer care. This is how it goes.


Customer care: Good evening, this is Y, how I may assist you?
Me: Repeated the same problem again.
Customer care: Sorry for the inconvenience ma’am, but I’ll definitely escalate this problem to the technical team. And will DEFINITELY resolve your problem.

Day4: Nothing happened. Nobody from the technical team came to resolve the issue.

Day4: Evening. I called up the customer care people again to repeat the same problem. But to no avail.


Customer care: Good evening, this is Z, how I may assist you?
Me: Well I think you better refund the money because I am no longer interested to take the internet connection.
Customer care: Sorry ma’am the installation charge is non-refundable. You have to talk to the manger.
Me: What!! But those people who came for installation said it will be refunded if the connection doesn’t work.
Customer care: No ma’am. You can wait for some more time, and I assure you that your problem will be resolved.
Me: OKAY.

Now I’ve no other choice other than waiting. Poor me :-(