Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Sify Customer Care is living in denial

> Dear Susubh ,
>
> While the products are provisioned to give you speeds as defined , you are
> aware that the speed experienced is a nett result of various factors
> including the site you are trying to browse and its performance / load etc
> of these variables, many will be outside Sify's purview .

So, I try downloading from 10 different servers. I try visiting 10
separate websites. Over a period of around 1 week. All of them give me
same speeds, which were less than the speeds labeled on the package.
And this lasts for the duration of the entire day time not for certain
moments or minutes. And everything automagically goes alright at 10 in
the night. Does not look like normal behavior to me.

My sample example was RedHat fedora Linux with around 15 mirror
servers being picked randomly as per speeds. During the day (10am to
10pm), the average speed I got was 2.5-2.7KBs. During the night (10pm
to 10am), the average speed touches 6-7KBs. This cannot be due to
server issues from where files are being downloaded. In fact I should
have got better speeds during daytime considering America sleeps
during day time, if it indeed was server's issue. Looks to be more
like Sify's issue to me.

>
> But , when we are committing a certain sped to you on a pack , we ensure you
> are provisioned to get that much speed . Of course the terms of commercial
> usage etc will apply whereever valid .

Already clarified. I do not run a cyber cafe from my house. I write
articles and reviews. Run few Blogs and now a forum for Sify users.
Sometimes I do some offline freelance work and upload using Sify's
package... for these uploads, if you have a problem... i can purchase
a separate package that permits commercial usage if uploading files
for small freelance projects comes under commercial usage.

>
> The endeavour in the end is to give our customers a satisfactory browsing
> experience and therefore the menu of products available cover all different
> usage patterns and requirements based on customer feedback and requirements
> .

Through my Sify Broadband Blog and forum... I have seen how good Sify
is serving its customers around India. Check mouthshut.com Sify
broadband section... If you think, I am biased and criticize you for
no apparent reasons.

http://www.mouthshut.com/readproduct.php?cid=925039547&r=1
No i am not affiliated with them.

>
> Most of our customers are able to arrive at the right mix of an economically
> viable as well as technically satisfactory product as per their usage .

See the above link and you might get a clearer picture.

>
> Do let me know if any other clarification required .

My last 2 mails were regarding your new desktop client. Which has the
habit of stopping my net to work after every few hours even if I am
sitting online or downloading something. You had made it pretty clear
in your last mail... that Sify do not have a minimum speed guarantee
on shared packages. Something that I would suggest you should
highlight on the package rate pages.

And to continue on my last mail... I was again logged off 2 times
between my last mail and now.

Also, about speeds. Today was the first day in almost 2 weeks I got
decent speeds during daytime. I am not sure, if it was a favor or the
problem on my net line was fixed... but if it stays like this... I am
thankful to you.

Regards,
Sushubh

Friday, September 03, 2004

Sify proves it is stupid and insensitive to end users need

24 hours have not passed since my last post where I mentioned that I was at last reached a stage when I can say I am satisfied by my connectivity considering the situation I am in and the money I pay. And they proved again, how inconsiderate they can be when it comes to customer satisfaction. Maybe they read the post I made on how to prevent auto log outs that their smart system is supposed to do when a user has stopped accessing the net for a particular period of time. But apparently the system sucked considering it logged me out when I was downloading files for an extended period of time and sometimes even when I was working on the computer surfing sites!

So, they came out with something that I consider totally insensitive and even stupid at times. Here is a screenshot from their login page at this moment:

Here are my rants point by point:

Dear Sify Broadband subcriber,

How difficult is it to use a spellchecker before you post on a screen that would be seen by thousands of people?

Please note : If you have an antivirus software other than SecureSynergy, kindly uninstall the same before installing the Sify Broadband client.

Stupid Stupid Stupid... First, they are forcing me to install their software which I am not sure is Spyware free. I do not know whether it tracks my key-logs. I do not even know what things it track on my system. Then they tell me to uninstall my current antivirus system before I can install their broadband client! What the hell... How do I know it does not contain any virus in it? And why should I install SecureSynergy? I do not trust it. What if it is not successful in saving my computer from viruses? Will Sify be responsible for that?

At least they had the commonsense to provide login software for 3 of the most popular platforms. But what about platforms other than Windows, Linux and Mac? The current system is platform free. I can login using Windows and then can return to any other platform. I would still be logged in. But here I won’t. I am restricted to Windows, GNU Linux and Mac.

Heartbeat feature : Senses if the connection is lost and automatically logs you out

This is the worst part. I do not want the client to decide when the connection is lost. It is broadband for god sake. If I am not on a time bound connection and I leave my computer on to keep receiving mails as soon as they come what should I do? The client would think I am not using the computer and log me out. Will I get a NEVER LOG ME OUT option? I do not know. Because I cannot install the software on the system. The installation failed perhaps because I did not uninstall the antivirus on my system which incidentally is not SecureSynergy.

Auto install of free anti virus software

What the hell again. Why would I want a crappy login client to install another software that has nothing to do with my internet connectivity. How can Sify dictate what software I can run on my system? And how can they dictate what Antivirus is good for my system? What next? They will tell me not to use Opera Browser and instead switch to Internet Explorer? Or they would perhaps tell me not to use Yahoo! Messenger because they partnered with MSN to launch Sify Messenger?

Please note that from 7th Oct 2004, your Sify Broadband account would be accessible only through the new Sify Broadband client.

So, they completely knock me out of the current system which is apparently working fine for me. They want me to play with their rules. And they have some seriously stupid conditions for me to follow. Which I totally find offensive as a customer and demand some reasonable explanations and solutions.

What do I want?

I am ok with the client as long as:
1. It does not force me to uninstall any of my current applications
2. It does not force me to install any stupid application.
3. It does not do anything that I do not want it to do. Like auto installing applications.
4. It does not log me out if I do not want it to. I want some setting to let me set it to keep me online as long as I do not manually log out.
5. Maybe they can start by asking users if they have any issues. And maybe they can post a number that everyone can call because my telephone does not connect me to: 1901443330