Thread: Sify Broadband Review

The Connectivity

The mode of connectivity has remained the same. We still have hanging wires and switches with power supplies that keep on burning and frying. It rains, and the entire network goes down. Recovery period ranges from a few hours to two full days.
About my personal network. It so happened that most of my initial problems were due to a faulty power wiring that the CTO had done initially. It led to overheating of power supplies, which led to frequent failure of connectivity. It took them 6 months to realize this. Moreover, they disconnected me for a whole week just to get that fixed. Some days later, they found that their own power supply was not reaching at optimum capacity at the switch powering my home. I had to give away power from my house to compensate for that. I am not sure how many more switches I am powering from my house… as they take away a power cable from my house to a pole 100 meters from my house. Let us hope, it does not power someone’s AC or something!
Installation is still very expensive. Something that would be coming down in the coming months with competition getting hotter. Just milking the helpless customers while they can.
Local CTO Support

None comes to mind. They fired the only guy I had in my area that comes to my help. I still do not have a CTO in my sector. The nearest concerned office is like 5KM from my house. None of the owners picks up the phone. There is no central number. Only one guy responds and mostly he has either expletives for the Sify people or excuses. Most of the time I have to call the guys in Chandigarh office to get the responses from the CTO himself. Other times someone from Chandigarh office has to come to Panchkula to get my net fixed.
Local Sify Support

Weekends are again nothing. No one is in office on weekends or after 8PM. So, if you have a problem in these times, you are helpless. Other times, they are polite and responsive. However, with little coordination with the CTO, it takes a hell lot of time to get problems solved.
Sify Broadband Call Center

From an earlier average of 60% success rate to just get through to them, it has now reached around 20%. Therefore, I get through to some kind soul in 1 out of 5 tries. Most of the time it happens to be some dumb girl. One or two times, I got hold of some rather helpful guy. However, sitting in the call center, he is as helpless as I am at my house. The best he can do is forward the complaint to the next concerned person. As a result, problems can take 6-10 hrs to be heard. Solution even more so.
Sify Broadband Customer Care

Earlier, it was good. I used to get responses. Just that actually. Nothing actually helped me most of the times. Just false promises and claims. Now, it has gone worse. Many times mails just bounces due to overfilling of their mailboxes. Rest of the times there are no responses. I am myself waiting for replies to mails I sent 2 weeks back.
Sify Broadband Packages

Bad packages. None that suits me at least. They are targeted either at uncle and aunties wanting to call their NRI kids occasionally, or at users who are upgrading from dialup considering they feel low prices a blessing. Also, for people who surf at night and night only. Considering most of the packages are hours or data transfer bonded. The packages with unlimited limits are labeled shared and are only available in speeds of 32 and 48 kbps totally bastardizing the term Broadband in the process. Moreover, considering it is labeled shared, you can get speeds that are much lower than labeled speeds. Also, if we consider TRAI’s recommendation Sify Broadband has only one package that provides actual broadband speeds. On these packages, they charge around Rs. 2.50 per megabyte. So, what they are doing is milking the customers while they can, considering there is no real broadband competition they have in most of the markets. I happen to live in one of them.
Speeds

People on the night package of 128kbps seem to be very happy. But I am stuck with the shared plan of 48kbps+. It manages to touch that speeds during the nighttime. But at daytime, it ranges from 16-24kbps. I complain, they say since it is a shared package I would be getting speeds like these. But the fact is that the package shows 48kbps+ on their website with no indication on what Shared means. What I heard from the Sify Customer Care is that no minimum speed is guaranteed. So you are practically being screwed.
Technical Facts

Their new broadband client is a mess. Uses 7-8megs RAM. Logs off randomly. Does not let me login automatically on boot. Takes 2 clicks to logout and 3 to login. Does not use Windows own components.
No port is apparently blocked. I have used Kazaa and Torrent clients without any problem. But pings to external sites are blocked. So are trace routes. So, if you are a network administrator you would hate it.
Network reliability is crappy. 3 days and my local network have issues with dropping data packets and they still think it is not a big deal. If you ask for better reliability, you are told by the CTOs and Sify Representative to go for BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY which bypasses the CTO and cost INR 50,000. I find that really funny and unfortunate.
Conclusion

The only reason to go for Sify Broadband is if you desperately need a net connection (notice I did not mention broadband connection) and do not have any other alternative.

If you planning to get new broadband connection, steer clear of Sify Broadband.

While their tariff plans may sound very attractive compared to other ISPs, their business model is purely based on cheating customers & unreliable service. The network keeps on going down every now and then & the customer care number “mysteriously” stops responding during such occasions.

Also, the tariff plans are not what they seem to be. Sify does seem to offer some ‘Night Unlimited Plans’ that should allow unlimited downloads from10 PM to 8 AM. However, you will be amazed to discover your plan abruptly expiring earlier than its stipulated duration. When asked, Sify customer care will give you stupid reasons, never accepting that this is a problem with their billing system!

My personal saga with Sify Broadband

My Sify plan- 400 MB with Night Unlimited unexpectedly expired after just 15 days, despite the fact that I always downloaded after 10 PM. When I contacted Sify Customer Care, I was told to write to customercare@sify.com.

They kept on sending me automated replies, giving me details of my plan, without even bothering to read my mail! After I sent them a strong mail demanding an explanation, an executive from Sify called me & told me that I had logged in at 9:59:40 PM instead of 10 PM (20 seconds earlier!). Therefore, the entire session was considered as “before 10 PM” session & deducted from my 400 MB limit!!

After hearing his “irrational” explanation, I asked him if the opposite of this situation would also hold true. If I connect, let’s say at 10:30 PM & do not log out till 11 AM the next day, would that entire session be considered as “10 PM to 8 AM” session, allowing me to make unlimited downloads till I have logged out. He categorically replied “No” & told me that MBs will start getting deducted from my account as soon as I cross 8 AM in the morning.

So why does the same rule not apply at night? As soon as person crosses 10 PM (which was 20 seconds away in my case), MBs should stop getting deducted from the account.

To summarize, Sify Broadband can go to any extent in trying to make extra money, even if it means indulging in unethical billing & making a fool of their customers. One thing still remains to be seen, how long can such devious business practices continue! Probably, till the time when monopoly of such ISPs in specific areas ends & people have better choices.

Originally Posted by vishaltayal

My personal saga with Sify Broadband

My Sify plan- 400 MB with Night Unlimited unexpectedly expired after just 15 days, despite the fact that I always downloaded after 10 PM. When I contacted Sify Customer Care, I was told to write to customercare@sify.com.

They kept on sending me automated replies, giving me details of my plan, without even bothering to read my mail! After I sent them a strong mail demanding an explanation, an executive from Sify called me & told me that I had logged in at 9:59:40 PM instead of 10 PM (20 seconds earlier!). Therefore, the entire session was considered as “before 10 PM” session & deducted from my 400 MB limit!!

After hearing his “irrational” explanation, I asked him if the opposite of this situation would also hold true. If I connect, let’s say at 10:30 PM & do not log out till 11 AM the next day, would that entire session be considered as “10 PM to 8 AM” session, allowing me to make unlimited downloads till I have logged out. He categorically replied “No” & told me that MBs will start getting deducted from my account as soon as I cross 8 AM in the morning.

So why does the same rule not apply at night? As soon as person crosses 10 PM (which was 20 seconds away in my case), MBs should stop getting deducted from the account.

To summarize, Sify Broadband can go to any extent in trying to make extra money, even if it means indulging in unethical billing & making a fool of their customers. One thing still remains to be seen, how long can such devious business practices continue! Probably, till the time when monopoly of such ISPs in specific areas ends & people have better choices.

This same thing has happened with me also very recently.
My 449 Plan (400 MB Day, Night Unlimited) expired within 4 days.
They did not tell me I need to do fresh login after 10 pm.
Please suggest me if there is any way to get out this mess.

Is there any way I can make Sify compensate me for this ?

Originally Posted by vishaltayal

One thing still remains to be seen, how long can such devious business practices continue! Probably, till the time when monopoly of such ISPs in specific areas ends & people have better choices.

Of late, i have come to see so many complaints about sify in our forum alone. I really astonished as to how the company still survives and why the government is not takin any action against them

Oh You think govt would care ? just take a look at BSNL ....

@Shadow

Our politicians have it in them to NEVER accept their pitfalls or mistakes. Whereas they are ALWAYS game to put the blame on others IF given enough STIMULUS... what d'ya say ?

Originally Posted by newprouser

@Shadow

Our politicians have it in them to NEVER accept their pitfalls or mistakes. Whereas they are ALWAYS game to put the blame on others IF given enough STIMULUS... what d'ya say ?

Agree to that

i am an ex-sify broadband user and with my wierd experiences i really hate sify bb

God Sify only equals to problems and bad bad customer service!

Originally Posted by siddharth

i am an ex-sify broadband user and with my wierd experiences i really hate sify bb

same with me bro......it got dot DC for 7-8 hrs in every 3-4 days in my area......nd when i ask the local operator for the problem.....he alwasys says that ki kabhi squirral ne line tod di kabhi kisi ne roof par se line jala di nd bla bla bla reasons.........

i was also in the Sify BB hate club..........

I know some of the top guns of Sify Broadband, maybe its hightime i directed them to this subsection of the forum.

Raju is in ... bring them all on will try and push then in the same cell with raju... The kind of service I recieved from Sify was bad enough to be called criminal and sinful act by sify.

Raju is paying off for his companies deeds My best wishes are with him... for him... always

Originally Posted by Admin

Raju is in ... bring them all on will try and push then in the same cell with raju... The kind of service I recieved from Sify was bad enough to be called criminal and sinful act by sify.

Raju is paying off for his companies deeds My best wishes are with him... for him... always

true !

i gt their ul plan and the whole month internet used to disconnect daily :sad: (i am not exaggerating )....evryday i used to call cust. service...(costed me around rs.300 itself for calling them )...those ppl r so pathetic that i was nt even able to understand the way they spoke !!!

this was the month wen they crossed all their limits and i finally decided to quit sify....

and nw i am a satisfied MTNL user

Dear sir,
I am one of your unfortunate clients who had to go through frustration, anger and fear over last few days.

1. Sify people have been giving me false commitments everyday.
2. My complaints status is being changed to "resolved" each time without confirming the same with me.
3. Sify tech support guys threatened me at my home.
4. Sify customer care people are not able to answer any questions.
5. Promise for callback was never fulfilled from sify .
6. Sify tech support and customer care contradicting each other.
7. Sify tech support guy talking on phone while he is drunk.

Instead of many words, i would say "the control is in the customers hands".
There are many other providers.

Originally Posted by mvs sarma

Instead of many words, i would say "the control is in the customers hands".
There are many other providers.

I have already changed my providers MVS but dont you think that sify should be brought to justice? should we just forget about money we have paid them and harassment we have got in return?
Regards
Nik

More often than not, its local operator's fault.
If your local operator is providing any other option besides Sify, i'll suggest use it for a month and you will find the same level of service there as well.
From my personal experience, Sify rarely goes down from the backend. Largely the issues are local, like cable breakage, computer issues.
But yes, If you rn't gettin good speed, then for sure its ISP's fault.

i have taken this connection and the experience was very bad. The connection always gets disconnected. Customer service is pathetic. Never go for sify.

The connection i took lasted for 1 month. And in this one month the connection did not work for 20 days. The remaining 10 days are full of torture with frequent disconnections.

If u called-up customer care n have ur complaint number with u, then u can get all the money u paid, back.
For that u'll have to send an email to head of customer care.
Honestly speaking, Sify never goes down for that long from the backend. It must be ur cable operator's fault. So i'll suggest get ur connection from some other guy.

Its informative one provides a lots of information on topic also provide more information on topic.

sify will go down at least once a month for sure. But my personal experience in central Delhi is so far not that bad as expected. I am from old rajendra nagar area and here the cable provider of sify is good and you'll find him on your door step within 15 minutes of problem reporting.One more thing is good about this service is that there is no fair usage policy i.e. unlimited truly means unlimited.
I went for this service because they were taking zero money for installation.
The problem with sify is of LAST MILE CONNECTIVITY so two things i would suggest if you are going for sify are
# never call customer care for any problem straight away call the local guy dealing with your connection if you want quick response.
#take sify only when you make it sure that local provider is good or you will suffer.

Originally Posted by ASHU

sify will go down at least once a month for sure. But my personal experience in central Delhi is so far not that bad as expected. I am from old rajendra nagar area and here the cable provider of sify is good and you'll find him on your door step within 15 minutes of problem reporting.One more thing is good about this service is that there is no fair usage policy i.e. unlimited truly means unlimited.
I went for this service because they were taking zero money for installation.
The problem with sify is of LAST MILE CONNECTIVITY so two things i would suggest if you are going for sify are
# never call customer care for any problem straight away call the local guy dealing with your connection if you want quick response.
#take sify only when you make it sure that local provider is good or you will suffer.

I'm extremely sorry for what i have written here the above is the experience of five days only and to write this current review i have to sit in internetcafe
Now after 3 months of torture by sify which includes more than 100 calls to customercare in a single month only , I feel like killing these persons.
It's been 5 days and there is no network that my computer shows when i connect the ethernet cable. To check if my computer is not working properly i plugged it in 3 other laptops but the condition is same. The local linemen MANOJ is the biggest a**hole i have met. He pre-assumed that the lan card of my laptop is faulty and never cared for giving a visit to see if there is any problem with line.
In the mean time i lost my interview on skype from USA.So not having a proper internet connection is much more worse than it looks like.
I have found a link to file complaint against such poor services and if you are a victim of sify then please visit
www ccccore co in
and file a complaint.

Hi Folks,

around 1 month back i have taken Sify wireless broadband connection with one MBPS plan for three months.

From the day i have taken the connection i am getting speed issue.at eve time i.e. after 7:00PM i got only 20 to 30 kbps and downloading 3 to 5 kbps.

daily i log a complain and even till this date i did not have a resolution from sify side..

HELL Service from Sify never chose thi ISP.