My experiences with Sify

Being accustomed to decent 24 hour net access back at campus, the one of the first things I did on reaching home was to go in for a broadband connection. I chose Sify and went in for one of the base packages on offer. While there were initial hiccups in getting the connection up and running, they were hardly a bother. After finishing up the allotted 400MB in a single week, I went in for a renewal. Thereby hangs an interesting story ….

I paid Rs.230 on 04/04/2008 (around 2 pm) to the local Sify representative (Mr.Shankar) for renewing the 400 MB - 256 KBPS package that I had bought a week back. I also requested him to change my login id to “abhinandan” from “abhinandin” (which he gracefully admitted was due to his negligence). He sent over one of his deputies to collect the amount and assured me over phone that
The renewal and the change in login id would happen in a "couple of hours".
Sify did not have the practice of giving receipts for renewal
That was 4 days ago, moving to the present… 15 telephone calls (one of which lasted 30 minutes) to the Sify Help Center and 10 phone calls to Mr.Shankar later, I am no closer to getting my renewal. I might as well add at this point that Mr.Shankar has stopped taking my calls as of today.
All I have to show for my repeated efforts are empty assurances from SIFY help desk employees that I would get my renewal “by 5 pm”/”in one hour”/”in 4-8 hours”/”in 30 minutes”/”by 10 pm” over the past 4 days… none of which have obviously materialized. Worse still, I was never allowed to escalate the issue and speak with the guys who could take a decision. Surely, there had to be someone who could change my login id and give me my renewal with the click of a mouse. All I wanted to do, was to speak with that “someone”. However, I was told that “it was not possible and they were following due process”. Eventually when I still persisted, I was made to stay on hold for 30 minutes and then finally told that I would be called on my mobile number. I am still waiting for that phone call along with my renewal and my login id change. It required me to lose my patience and blow my top before I could elicit a remotely favorable response from the customer care executives. As a stop gap arrangement, I was given a one day pack with the promise that I would be given a renewal by end of today (10 pm). I was however told it was not possible to give me a new login id within the said time interval. I was now clutching at straws and was willing to accept anything that was being offered and gladly agreed to the partial solution. It is now well past 10 PM and I am yet to get the renewal I was promised. So there, all the yelling accomplished nothing and all I am left with are mounting telephone bills. Incidentally, one rather rude customer service executive refused to even consider the fact that Sify might want to consider refunding me the bills I was running up. To quote the woman – “you running up huge telephone bills in trying to speak with us is not our concern”.

So, where does that leave me? I don’t plan to give up any time soon. For me, it is now more a question of holding someone responsible. For long, I have wanted to know what it is an individual can accomplish if he sets his mind to it. Can an individual really hope to get justice and achieve change on his own? I believe the result of this ongoing customer service nightmare will help me get answers to some extent.

All I want is
1) My renewal
2) Compensation for the innumerable phone calls that I will end up making before I get the renewal
3) Apologies from the Sify management for making a customer go through bloody hell and an assurance that no customer will be made to go through such an ordeal again

I somehow feel that this is not too much to ask for.

p.s. – I have no idea about the options available to me, apart from calling up the “customer service” people over and over again till I get what I want. It would be great if you could chip in with ideas as to what else can be done.