I’m gonna say BYE BYE AirTel.!!!
by Dush on Apr.21, 2009, under Tech Reviews
Hi guys,
All of you guys who are familiar with my previous post, which is my testimony of purchasing AirTel unlimited data connection (if not click here ) and the the great care that I had, this is the latest update.. the serivce sucks!!!! and I have decided to disconnect, Just called and applied for an ADSL connection.. hope that will at least allow me to browse peacefully… , early last month (March 2009), I start experiencing a very slow connection (slow means very very very slow ), the download speed was 4Kbps – 9Kbps (most of the times go below 2Kbps as well) ,
So as always I called the customer care (which I really love to call), so as the basic procedure, they took a complain and gave me a complain number (very surprising), though my impatient waves were rising inside me I spoke to the guys very kindly. now they were suppose to contact me, the time frame is 3 – 4 days.. (why..? they want to monitor my connection to detect the problem), ok it was 5 days after my complaing there was no reply.. I decided to call back.. (I was feeling so good .), again I kindly asked from them what’s happening..
the answer was.
They are having a cell overloading problem (Technically). the basic expansion of that word is.. because lack of towers around my area. they have expanded the signal and overloaded the user base covering other areas near to me, so in that case. (Dehiwela, Mt. Lavinia, Rathmalana, Moratuwa,) all those areas are filled and overloaded so.. simply everybody in those areas should be going through the same thing that I am going through now.
Now were these people blind, def or were so stupid not to detect these sites are overloading ..? , or were they keep selling connections greedily for the sake of money..? or both..?
now it’s almost end of April 2009. I mean if we are paying our bills in full amount, I belive we deserve a good service, when they knew that the sites are unable to handle the user base with the promised service quality , they should have stop selling connections to those areas atleast to safe guard and provide a good service to the people who have purchased it already, now nobody getting anything , I use to have a 35-60Kbps avarage download speed through out the day.. now I can’t even go on a video chat on Skype.. if I do I have to stop browsing..
And these genius people has bloked all the ports. the UDP protocol is not working.. (if anybody from AirTel reading this.. just to let you know that your clients are not stupid) non of the UDP based applications will work (Even Flash Applicaitons).. they are filtering traffic.
so far NO CALL OR REPLY ABOUT MY COMPLAIN but FOR THE LAST WEEK, 3 PEOPLE CALLED ME FROM CUSTOMER CARE TELLING ME TO SETTLE A BILL OF 1800/= . great huh..??
Anyway I am fed up.. I have already decided to move on from these jargons and get a ADSL connection. once ADSL is there I’m gonna say BYE BYE to AirTel.
April 24th, 2009 on 4:32 am
Greatings, Thanks for article. Everytime like to read you.
Charlie
May 15th, 2009 on 9:08 am
This is why Dialog has given ‘FUP’, I know FUP realy sucks, but even with FUP their speed is little lower in some places, but I normaly get a decent speed till i reach 5GB, I knew this before & dats y i did not get airtel!!
Airtel will also launch FUP very soon!!
May 15th, 2009 on 10:11 pm
I also had exactly the same experience with airtel. From the very first day I was facing endless problems. First of all it took 4 days to get activated and that is also after making several calls and 2 complaints!
Thereafter I had extremely poor speed most of the times. Quite good in early morning but then speed starts to go down progressively and by 7 – 11pm it is slower than a dial-up connection. I couldn’t even get my virus guard updated!!! Speed goes beyond 300Kbps very rarely even with good download manager software. I could never be able to watch a youtube video without very frequent buffering. And the automatic disconnection occurring every 1.5 – 2hours. I am pretty sure that this is a deliberate action to reduce their network traffic. These problems are not limited to one area but it is the same in everywhere. I made several complaints but the result is the lame excuse that their network is still in the process of upgrading.
Another funny thing happened is once when I made a complaint I told them that I am going to disconnect if the situation is not improved. Then they told me that I should handover a letter for that and can’t be done over the phone. 2 days later another customer care person called me and suggested a temporary disconnection until they upgrade their network. He told me I have to come to an airtel branch and submit a written requst. But by the time I return home my connection is not working! Then I called their customer care and told me that as I have requested a disconnection the line is temporary suspended!!! They have misunderstood what I told and disconnected without any written request(as they told early). So they are not do what they are telling!! Then I had to make another complaint to get it connected back and that also took 2 days! Then again my connection became inactive. When asked they told me that line is suspended because I have exceeded my credit limit of 2500!! But I haven’t received my bill yet. It my 1st bill for last 1.5 months and that is why the credit limit has exceeded. I had received only a sms telling that the bill is 2800 and due date is 27 of May. But even before that they have disconnected without giving a reasonable time to pay. As it is the first bill there are no any outstanding amount. And without receiving my bill properly how can I pay? Actually I have never been told by them about such a credit limit. When I told them that in front of all my explanation that bladdy customer care guy repeatedly told like a parrot ‘I am sorry your line is disconnected because credit limit is exceeded”. This is how “nice” their typical Indian style customer care! Although a pro rated rental is added to the 1st bill in other networks as well but they don’t disconnect like this. Previously with my dialog HSDPA connection I received first bill 2 months later but they didn’t disconnect just because the credit limit is exceeded. Even if it happens automatically there must be a way to override if somethaing has gone wrong. By not doing so they show their anti-customer character. So I decided to change in to mobitel and not to pay their bill. There is no point of being honest to people like this.
So if you are going to buy airtel please think twice. Check it with an airtel sim in your area. Buy it only if you can satisfy with their performance.
May 15th, 2009 on 10:39 pm
Some words about dialog FUP.
I don’t think FUP is not going to increase network performance in any considerable degree. Dialog people are exploiting it to make more money out of customers. When the number of internet users in Srilanka is considered the number of heavy users are small. And that is their usual internet usage habit. I don’t think they are not going to change their usage habit just because of a FUP is there. Other thing is most of heavy users have ADSL connections at home and no need of using HSDPA for unlimited downloads. Because of there is an option to get rid of FUP by paying Rs100 per day a habitual heavy user will anyway do it. Then why don’t you consider them as ‘unfair’ users? These additional payments ae not going to improve dialog network infrastructure or international connectivity. So what I am telling is if dialog can give full speed unlimited when paid they should also be able to do so when they are not paid additional amount. If dialog wants to use FUP to reduce network overloading they should not give the option of FUP extention.
Aittel network is failing not because they don’t have an FUP. It is because their network is still in a very primitive stage and also due to poor international connectivity. BUt as dialog network is there for a long time and have a better infrastructure they should be able to provide that band width. Other thing is there is no need of FUP for airtel as it is always pereforms like FUP applied
You can’t consider that >5GB usage is unfair. 5GB is not a very large amount. (It was a large amount about 15 years ago when computers came with hardisks in MBs). Nowadays because of availability of broadband connections most of the web sites are much complex and contains many graphics, applications. So it is easy to go beyond this 5GB limit even without any P2P downloads. IF you are watching about 10 youtube videos a day it will use up about 3GB a month!
Other thing is you can’t decide someone’s internet usage is fair or not just by the data amount. IF a researcher use about 100GB a month for research purposes can we say that it is unfair use? If some one use only 2GB but for various criminal activities can we say it is a fair use?
So this dialog FUP is just another tactic to make moremoney out of customers. They should either remove it or increase the limit if they are really customer friendly.