India Broadband

arnabsen

Hi friends,

This is Arnab - am a UNIX admin in an MNC in Bangalore. After my marriage (6 months back)i had to shift to a bigger house and unfortunately after i settled down i found NO other connection other than TATA (just a side note - that is exactly what TATA targets - providing connections at places where users dont have an alternative). I need to have Internet 24/7 for my work as i am oncalls sometime. I took the 2Mbps 5 GB limit - after 27 phone calls the cables were installed. I didnt know what i was stepping into. The person showed me the speed was more than 1.6 Mbps - wow i was so happy at that point of time

Next week the speed went down to 12kbps - that is in the month of June 07 and it has remained till 12kbps till the time the connection was active. I called the customer care 100+ times in a span of 3 months and NO response - everytime the CC people told me "they will get back to you within 1/2 hr"

I could still live with that as i could still get my work done. In the month of August from 8th till 14th, i started seeing huuuuge downloads on my account
I called the CC immediately and told them about it. As usual no actions had been taken - the logs showed i downloaded 2+ GB of data everyday - imagine - at a speed of 12kbps, when i was NOT at my home, TATA claims i download 2-3 GB data everyday? Also the downloads were at the time when i was not at home (i was in office) or after midnight. i thought the connection got hacked - but then the sales rep told me its bound to my MAC id. Also it was not a case of hacking becase with that speed it was not possible to download 2-4 GB within a span of 11 Hrs. They sent me a bill of 18500 and made my connection inactive.

In short:From 14th august till yesterday i have made 100+ calls and everyone told someone will come to your house and check it - the connection is still inactive, i have a pending bill of 18500, no one has got time to come to my house to check it for the last 62 days

On 3rd of October, 2007 - someone called me from TATA and said and i quote "i suggest you pay the bill or we will have to make you pay"

I called up the customer care again and went to the VSNL office travelling for 15 Kms and spoke to a lady who called the number back (from where the threatning call came) but the person acted as if he never even called me

Oct 23rd Oct, 2007 at around 4:00 went to TATA office in Jeevan Bhima nagar and spoke to a person there who said it has to be a backend problem and the TATA fellows started laughing listening to my bill amount (lol imagine)
Also i found that they automatically activated the connection and raised my bill to 19799. gosh!


On 23rd Oct 2007 i went to TATA office in Woods Street, Bangalore at 5:15 - but the office was empty - everyone already left for home (on a tuesday by 5 the manager left - no wonder their service is superb)

I called the Manager on 24th oct,2007 (today) and asked if he can check the server logs and let me know whats going on - he said he does not know all those things - all he knows is the bill came to 19799 and i have to pay that. Also he assured that he will take out that extra 1200 that they added "by mistake" (another false commitment)

We are forming a group against TATA and going to put them up in court for all this - please mail me if possible and lets start the revolution
INDIA NEEDS TO IMPROVE - NO LONGER WILL WE TOLERATE THESE HARRASMENT AND INSIGNIFICANT LIES

DO NOT TAKE TATA - its a nightmare - i m now getting THREATNING CALLS FROM TATA to pay 18500 which i have not used. I have been to VSNL office in bangalore too still no actions has been taken

We are forming a group against TATA and going to put them up in court for all this - please mail me if possible and lets start the revolution
INDIA NEEDS TO IMPROVE - NO LONGER WILL WE TOLERATE THESE HARRASMENT AND INSIGNIFICANT LIES

Mail me at sen.arnab@gmail - i can also pass you my number if needed

m.gururaj

Arnab we are all with you. Your story is really threatening. I am using Tata indicom connection Upto 2 MBPS 7.5 GB data transfer. I am in Rajaji nagar, Bangalore.

I am using this connection for the last 20 days and I am happy with the performance of the connection. There is no downtime reported till now. The honey moon is very much on so I don't have much experience on how the TATA's customer care respond.

While I understand Arnab's case of 2 GB plus in 11 Hrs is impossible with the kind of connection he has, with my connection its very much possible. So it so possible that hacking has happened at a time where the connection was doing pretty good.

I have a query for of you guys in the forum. The guy who installed the router at my place told me not to change the password and if the password is changed then connection wont be active as the password is set in the router itself. Is that how all you guys are using it?... Is it not possible to have our broadband account password changed and the connection ask for the user name and password instead of connecting automatically when the system is started.

If I am not doing that then I think I will be in the same position as Arnab is today.

Your response appreciated.

arnabsen

Dude you are in for a very big surprise

TATA wont give you any problem for the first 2-3 weeks
Then the misery starts
You can pretty well change your IP

Ok now for the hacking thing:
Before I begin
I have been an UNIX and network admin for past 5 years and my fav topic is security - I have audited security of many networks and websites

Since you have a static IP a person hacking your system needs to do just two things
1) Tap the wire you are using cause your router's external IP is connected to their switch port which is bound and cant be changed without flushing it or sending a new ARP request
2) Change his MAC and IP address to that of yours - he can find that out by sniffing
and he is in

In my case that has not happened, what has happened in my case is that the switch exploded (look for switch bursting in google) and gave false data and that reflected in my bill.

try and understand - the person hacking your account DOES NOT need to know your username and password
Do u enter any username or password to login anywhere?

TATA's security sucks- anyone can hack them anytime
But what i said above is just Proof of Concept, i have never tried it though but am sure it will work

-Arnab

m.gururaj

Hi Arnab,

Thats a good info for me. I am not as informed as you are in IT security. I think people like me shud better go for unlimited plan compromising on speed. Atleast the worry will be more on connection uptime than usage.

Its shame that the IT services in India are taking ppl for granted. Not sure about a legal body which will make the customers heard. Pls do keep me informed about that... who knows in weeks to come I will need them all.

mksinghal007

hey pal ...why don't u just inform the CNBC AWAAZ they were dealing with kind of problem of customers....and when a news Chanel asking them they automatically respond u......
may this info could help u....

aslihero

I had a Tata Indicom connection in my wife's name and recently I got a
lawyers notice to pay up or face consequence!!
The story goes like this ..
I am had been a subscriber to Tata Indicom's broadband connection from
August of 2007 to October of 2007. Due to dissatisfaction with the
service, I had requested to disconnect the service in the Month of
October 2007 and I have also paid my dues till same date. Inspite of
the fact that I canceled, the field staff did not come to pick the
equipment for a few months. After repeated call's to there call
center, they picked the equipment from my place in the month December
2006, but I continued to get the bills. Again, I had bought this
matter to the Tata Indicom's call center many times. In fact, I also
made a complainant through the internet in the Month of June 2007. I
got bills till July, and now they want to give me a bill for services
I never used!!
Please let me know if you are planning to take further action. I want
to join in.

blogspot

Watzzup just going through lot of blogs with ref to the matters related to the TATA indicom broadband consumers suffering and wanted to create a unified voice for all of us.
Hence you are requested to provide your vsnl/ tataindicom email id and user id complaint no.
Please drop me a mail at my email id dinaaz10@gmail.com

Blazer

But i dont think that they are this much free that they would listen to some one problem that much fast. If you call them you would see that they have a lot of problem from other people in list already and it would take some time before they would do anything about ours.

Technology

May be they already have a lot of problem to show in their shows but some day our turn would also come and i am sure then it would catch TATA's management eye.

Rohit

Yeah. I think you are right. Something like this should be done so that TATA high management notice this problem and do something about it. Like if they cant satisfy the present customers then they should not target for more customers.