For Sify Broadband, time has a totally different meaning…

For Sify Broadband customer care in India, 1 minute stands for 1 hour. Perhaps that is why yesterday evening they told me that the net (which went down for 3rd time in the last 4 days) will be back up in 15-20 minutes. As I see it now. It took them 21 hours to get me back online. They got it totally right in their brochure: get Sify broadband and leave behind unpredictable cable internet.

Here is my latest mail to them:

Hi,

I don’t know if you remember me or not. But I am one fed up customer of Sify broadband. I write to you pretty regularly. Coz incidentally my net goes down pretty regularly. It was down entire last Saturday. It was down Wednesday afternoon. It is down since evening today. It rained for 5 minutes at around 6 pm and net went down. I called your area representative at 6:05 pm. I went out. Came back at 8pm. It was still down. Called your guys again. Same old response, it will be up in 15 minutes. Its 1020pm now. The net is still down. 10 days in April, I have had problems for around 9 days. That’s a good ratio. I am really enjoying the true power of internet which is that it is never gonna work reliable for you if it is Sify broadband. 3 months I have been complaining, net still goes down with every power cut (in addition to the routine feature downtimes you give me pretty regularly). You have 2 people for the entire Panchkula region. That would form another excellent ratio for service people per customer. Maybe Sify is for those people who have their kids living abroad and hence they need internet rarely for chatting with them. It just can’t support people who are online 24×7 like me.

I think I will do it this way. Every time my net goes down, I am sending you and the other email ids I have, a mail. Maybe this will get the problem solved. The net at this moment is still down. Your guys have stopped responding to phone calls. I know they are on the phone but not responding to my calls because when I called from my cell just after calling from my landline phone (the last successful call I had with them) which went unanswered, they picked up. Pretty interesting customer care you have here. If you cant solve the problem, don’t answer the phone. And if you don’t have a solution blame the power fluctuation, the user’s computer or perhaps the almighty.

Seriously, if you want to provide services be serious about it. Sify’s ideology is wrong if it expect to survive on the shoulders of cable wallas and a support staff of 2 guys in one entire city. That’s what Panchkula has. 2 guys for entire Panchkula region. I am busted unless I get an alternative net provider in this region.

Maybe you won’t learn unless there is any competition to u in this region. Well that’s my bad luck.

Another stupid question. I have these many disconnections when the whether is fine and there are no storms. Rainy season is coming. What will happen then? Last time it rained, I found your switch half dip in water hanging in a polythene bag on the top of a tree. Today it rained for 5 minutes and its more than 6 hours your net is down (and it will remain down till around 12-2 pm tomorrow as it always has been). God forbid what will happen when the real rains come down. I think I am going to be writing a lot more to you.

I am thinking of starting an online Blog (maybe I can use the new Sify Blogging service) on how reliable net connections are in India. That will be a great way to publicize the service consumers get from the local Sify guys in India.

Frankly speaking, If you cannot provide the service you promise to offer (reliable net) then please tell me clearly. I will leave the work I do online. Get my Sify connection disconnected and try to live in peace. Its better than to wait for your guys sitting in front of the computer pinging a dead gateway 24×7.

Regards
Sushubh

OK. I got a pretty quick message from them and they plan to look into it… Well, if they continue to have me as their customer, I will keep u (is anyone interested!) posted…

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response. And I appreciate the efforts you are planning to make.
Well, I have no ill feelings towards Sify as such. It is pretty good value for money (with the revised packages) and I get pretty decent speeds. But reliability is something which nullifies all the good things about the network. Frankly, if the downtimes get a bit understandable I am pretty happy with it. I know technology wise its not possible for prefect connectivity and downtimes of 1-2 days a month are pretty understandable. But 3 times in 1 week. And downtime with every powercut… It does not do the brand name justice. Your people in panchkula are polite (though they tend to generalise the sitution creating conflicts with the actual condition the problem is in). I had be happy with a genuine reply than a reply that is given just to make the customer happy (one of your local guy kept on promising me 15 minutes even at 10:30pm, it sounds stupid coz no way he can get his guys to work at that time). And yes. I need more reliable network. A lot better than what I have right now.

If Sify decides to drop my sector or me out of the customer base, I would definitely regret my decision to inform you of the actual ground condition at panchkula in my local area coz I don’t have an equivalent alternative at this moment…

I need this connection. please don’t drop me out.

Regards,
Sushubh