India Broadband Forum

Bigboss

I have taken a new Big TV connection on 31.08.08 with smart card no. 200511906888 against a payment of Rs. 2990 i.e., Rs 500 more than the base option of Rs. 2490. It comes with a free premium pack of channels offered for 6 months (incl all the Kids, lifestyle, Sports & other niche channels) or a popular pack( which excludes many of the usual channels provided by local cable operators/MSOs) for 12 months as a free subscription plus one regional language pack of our choice as free pack for the selected period.
Though I have personally ticked the correct options for a 6 months premium pack in the post installation appln form provided by the installation guy, the Big TV has carelessly punched 12 months popular pack which is short of all the normally viewed premium channels & also some other regional pack (ie., Gujarati-Rajasthani, which is the native language where I stay which I never opted for). This punching is done by their local installation service provider & you donot have any control over it even if they make blunders. And on top of it Reliance DTH says it cannot be changed inspite of their own mistake & having a copy of my signed form with them which is perfectly in order.
I had to make dozens of phone calls to their toll free no., which connects only after several attempts ( & even on connection, Min 10 minutes in queue most of the time even during their office working hrs, & much more during nights) and also to their local installation & services provider, who says he has sent mails to their distributor & washed off his hands & stopped taking calls from my no. The result was not a Big TV but a Big Zero of disappointment. Moreover one always encounter incompetent & un-empowered staff at BIG TV Call centre no., who never passes their calls to senior chaps inspite of specific requests/problems & offer no help except to read out from their computer. So I AM STUCK WITH A USELESS PACK AND I REGRET HAVING DISCONNECTED MY LOCAL CABLE WHICH WAS GIVING MORE CHANNELS WHICH ARE OF RELEVANCE TO OUR FAMILY VIEWING THAN THIS BIG BULLSHIT TV. Even the much touted 20 movie channels run the same films non stop for 2 weeks & that too on a monthly subscription basis & the English movies are as per pay per view which sounds good but a big pain in the pack. You will never attempt this again after using it once, I vouch for it.
Even the signal reception quality esp., sound is affected with huge background noise disturbance with slightest of rains, which we donot notice much in cable signal probably either it is filtered specially or dilutes due to the in-line signal boosters. No big deal between MPEG4 & MPEG2 tech as far as end user is concerned, it serves the DTH operator better for pay per view etc.
TATA SKY as I have seen is equally fraught with these issues but there were never inflexible esp. for things which were done wrong from their end, as my office colleagues expressed (& even change pack inspite of marginal usage) & provide the similar set of channels in thier pac,k costing almost the same. RELIANCE is a big master as far as squeezing money from customers with no commensurate benefit is concerned. I tried Reliance with hesitation for the first time & never a Reliance service again. I doubt whether the subscriber numbers they project are correct, while I hardly find any of my friends & office colleagues use their services, esp mobile & other phone connections.
My advice is stick to your cable guy as long as he is providing all the usual niche channels including newly launched channels with good signal quality & donot go for DTH. And never a Reliance . At best try a Tata Sky DTH that too after seeing feedback of the users in your locality & your friends and aquantances.
Keeping my personal problems aside, for a person who wishes to go for DTH for various reasons, the attraction as on date in reliance is only on two scores
Item 1. Cheaper & better channel line up as compared to others even after the free subscription period, which comes to Rs. 220-260 for the usual feed of our channels , assuming you take a movie plus & Kids plus pack & also one sports pack (min. 240 for 6 months). You get the premium lifestyle channels in Reliance which you miss at this price point with the competition. But the competition & may be reliance themselves may change soon in this area for cheaper rates.
Point no: 2 is MPEG-4 where I failed to see any appreciable difference in Video/Audio as compared to MPEG-2 (audio was prone to lot of disturbances even with moderate rains even without ligtening etc, specifically the audio, though it is OK during normal time). But it may be supporting HD/USB connectivity in future though STB has an USB. But sooner or later even others will swap the old STBs with MPEG-4 as & when things unfold.
Updated status of my complaint even after 15 days: No action from Reliance, ultimately I paid extra vouchers for Kids pack as my children cannot wait for ever for their usual channels not offered with popular pack.
I DONOT RECOMMEND RELIANCE DTH AS PER MY EXPERIENCE

neo001

very good review and a eye opener too for all who are looking for big tv. Good review and appreciate your pataience for the writting the same.

gardencityboy

It is indeed a good review
Reliance has also been money suckers and low on quality and service

thanks for detail description and the experience

Bigboss

A point to demonstrate the indifference of all the channels of Big TV customer support.

To start with I received all the channels on Big TV on installation from 01.09.08 & once my option form has been punched by the local ISP all my channel pack options were messed up on 10.09.08 (who filled up popular pack instead of premium & someother regional pack,). I started chasing the issue with the ISP (half a dozen calls) from then, backed up with (1 dozens) calls to the call centre & an e-mails to the support info@bigtv.co.in. Infact they were so reluctant to take a complaint & issue a complaint number; and eager to just give empty assurances, sickening after experiencing various call centre handling including the notorious Credit Card call centres. "BIG HO TO AISE HO" On yelling several times I was given a complaint no (76483429) only on 16.09.08. Thereafter 3 dozen calls with a resolution time of 24 hrs. Till today i.e., 26.09.08, inspite of all this they are only passing time with assurances like 1 day, 2 hrs, 15 minutes etc., All the RBTV call centre guys/gals turned out to be a Pack of Liars; very well knowing that they neither have power/competent to rectify things nor they see to that nagging issues are resolved by taking them up first with thier attached seniors instead of taking another call, more worse than a politicians promises. 'sab kuch bhul, par apni Avkaat mat bhool' - my message to them whenever they try yet again to assure me on resolution time. & none of them pass the calls to their seniors inspite of requests. The standard reply is that they are busy on other customer calls. Its all Bull ****. I never knew things are so horrible with Big TV., "BIG HO TO AISE HO"

Inspite of all this I donot hesitate to say what is good even.

1. The Video is good (same MPEG-2 quality display) but audio is very poor in case of weather disturbances & slightest rains. One more important thing is there is 2 level volume boost, one on ur TV & the other on STB. Use almost max. vol on STB and Keep TV volume as low as possible for audibility, this cuts down any disturbance that originate from TV. You can see the poor video quality on some channels like Hungama (Kids) with patchy colurs etc.

2. Channel pack options provided are cheaper & better than the competition.

NIL REPLIES IN RESPONSE TO THE COMPLAINT E-MAILS. NOT EVEN AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WITH A TRACKING NO. "BIG HO TO AISE HO"

Admin

I can understand your frustration I had to go through somethign very similar with tata wimax when my connection was down the very first day they installed it and it took a few hundred calls to get them to sort out the issue.

These companies who treat their customers like dirt have no right to be in business and shout shut shop and sell samosas and pakoras in some busy market..

Imagine Anil and Ratan both having their shops adjesent to each other and both of them shouting and screaming to woo customers.... Pakore le lo samose le lo... Anil : Reliance ke samose le lo Reliance ke pakore le lo... And then Ratan in an even louder voice even beating Mamtas pitch in the process... Pakora ho to tata ka ho varna na ho... Tata ke pakore le lo Tata ka naya samosa... duniya ka sabse sasta aur chota samosa... singur se ban kar aya hai tata ke samose le lo...

Close your eyes and imagine and to b honest If Indian market opens up completely for forign players I wont be surprised if this becomes a reality.

All in all both Reliance and Tata suck in customer service.

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Preeti_20

too funny

just4kix

:lol: Man, you are too much.

smoothvibes

this is funny admin and for a nut like me its laugh buster :lol: :lol:

just4kix

Smoothvibes is banned because he has nearly 1700 posts, not one of which makes sense.

arpit_316

thanks ... it's an eye opener ... i would now not even consider BigTV