It takes some shame to act

It takes a large organization like Tata some shame to put its act together. A few weeks ago, a TV News channel shamed Tata Indicom seeing their customer service through a customer's eyes. All Tata Indicom customers rejoiced on that day. I am not sure if this was entirely due to the news channel's act, but my experience with Tata Indicom began to improve after that day.

First, they gave me the contact number of a nodal officer. The lady was cooperative and understood English. That she did not call me back on several occasions after making commitments is the maximum trouble I had to undergo. I could usually speak to her - one in every 5-6 attempts. What matters more is that after speaking to her, they miraculously found the root cause of the repeated failures and fixed it! Yes that needs to be read out loud again...

They found the root cause of the repeated failures and fixed it!

It was a faulty media converter that never came online after a power recycle. Its been about two weeks since I have had a stable connection. The ping times are good and the connection comes right back up after a power outage. I still cannot browse when the locality is out of power but I am too glad with what I have to cry about that for now.

So I am going to enjoy my little success for some time and be back to let you guys know if this was a short-lived dream or a trusted long-term solution.

If you are wondering why I stopped writing for so many days, its just that there have been too many tickets created in all this while and keeping this site up to date would have meant that in addition to the 3-4 hours that I spent with Tata Indicom every week, I would have to spend another hour or so updating this blog - too much pain!

On the brighter side I have built a number series that can work as an incrementing random series - its a list of all ticket numbers that I have created with Tata Indicom in all these days. The companies customer service sucks big time (ok - yes that was an understatement). The front line agents are pathetic and scripted beyond imagination, the team leaders are either too swamped to address your issue or they are simply too bored with life to take your escalation. The managers are shitting in their pants all the time - they are the wise ones, they know they can do nothing except speak to customers they ad spoken to yesterday and made shameless attempts to reinstate their faith in the "Tata/VSNL" brand!

My understanding of the core issue is as follows...

• Tata by itself does not have the technical acumen or expertise to handle the technical aspect of this business, they depend on VSNL to do it.
• VSNL does not understand the word "customer" there are only hungry, desperate members of the public who will wait for the behemoth to stir into action.
• The combined entity does have the "balls" to play against the local cable operators and in spite of their "partnerships" with local cable operators for last mile connectivity, their fiber cables keep getting snapped out of service every alternate day (at least some one keeps his appointments).

After 4 months of pain, they now act in a consistent and predictable manner. There is one way however, to keep your connection working - keep the Field Engineer happy! No, I didn't have to bribe him - just keep him happy! They know where the "fiber has been cut" and they know how to put it back in shape.

Oh! But don't you dare expect power backup! Now power backup is unheard of at Tata. So if you are in a place that experiences power cuts - you do not have the right to access the internet while your neighbors are suffering in relentless heat. A power backup system, good wnough to support their router/repeater setup would cost about Rs. 6000 (about $150). Given the romantic network design, they would have to spend about 5 times of what they would need to spend if they managed their network spread better. So for my 24X7 connectivity to be always powered up would require the company to spend about Rs. 18000 (about $450). I pay them about Rs. 1000 (about $25) a month. So you see its really not feasible for them to provide power backup.

Of course, they believe that power backup equipment will sublimate in 12 months and no one gave them a calculator that shows how much additional business they could get if they maintained their systems in "on" condition - in spite of the "fiber cuts" and the "romantic design".

Let's see if I can save this post before my connection drops again!

SR # 2697736: Internet Connection Down

Sun 17-Jun-2007 5:01 PM

Called Helpdesk again
Spoke to Hussain - no resolution
Requested escalation - TL busy - waited for about 45 minutes on hold

Spoke to TL (Sumit) - gave him the following options…
1. Call Local cable operator providing last mile connectivity and get switched reset
2. Send Field Engineer to reset switches
3. Escalate to his manager

Sumit said…
Cannot escalate because no one in office on Sunday
Cannot send field engineer - not working on Sunday
Cannot call cable operator - does not have outbound facility

Gave Sumit one hour to resolve the issue - will call back at 7:00 PM
Calling Local cable operator myself - requesting them to send someone to reset the switches in Vignahar and Shivparvati

Sun 17-Jun-2007 9:00 PM
Called Helpdesk again for update - switch has not been reset until this time
Asked for Sumit - he is not on the floor
Callback has not been made until now

SR # 2685070: Internet Connection Down - Reopen

Sun 17-Jun-2007 3:43 PM - Connection not working
Called Hekpdesk - Spoke to Aniket
Reopened SR - resolution assured in 30 minutes

No manager available for escalation
Calling Somnath - requesting him to send someone from Local Cable Operator's office to reset the switch - Phone switched off
Calling Sagar - Phone switched off
Calling Shailesh Thakkar - Phone Busy (tried after 30 minutes - phone still busy)

SR # 2685070: Internet Connection Down

16-Jun-2007 8:05 AM

PING 127.0.0.1 (Loopback) responds fine
PING 59.165.15.xxx (Localmachine) responds fine
PING 59.165.15.xxx (Gateway) does not respond
PING 203.197.12.30 (DNS) does not respond

Sent SMS to…
Sagar (Territoty Operations Manager - TOM)
Shailesh Thakkar (Marketing Executive)
Somnath (Field Engineer)

CSR at the helpdesk assured rectification in 1 hour
Callback after 1 hour if no resolution

3:00 PM
Somnath came and fixed the IP Address conflict as well as reset the switch at Vignahar.
Internet works at this time. Need to check this through the weekend

SR # 2677916: IP Address Conflict

Friday 15-Jun-2007 12:25 PM
Registered a complaint about IP Address conflict
Resolution promised in 10 working hours
No response

Saturday 16-Jun-2007 8:26 AM
Called helpdesk SR# 2677916 is open from yesterday
The ticket does not reflect any action taken by the concerned department

I was given a commitment of resolution within 10 hours
It is now 20 hours and the issue has not been resolved
Requested an escalation - CSR assured escalation, however, the escalation team starts office hours only at 10:00 AM
Requested CSR for a callback from escalation team by 10:30 AM with an update on action taken
I will call them back by 10:40 AM if I do not hear from them by 10:30 AM
No one called - I called them back by 1:30 PM and threatened to go to media and consumer court if no resolution

Somnath (field engineer) came in at 3:00 PM - found that the IP Address assigned was incorrect
Checked with NOC - correct IP address is 59.165.15.xxx
Changed IP - Issue resolved

SR # 2674482: Internet Connection Down

15-Jun-2007 8:16 AM

Resolution promised within 10 hours

PING 127.0.0.1 (Loopback) responds fine
PING 59.165.15.xxx (Localmachine) responds fine
PING 59.165.15.xxx (Gateway) responds intermittently (once in five/six times)
PING 203.197.12.30 (DNS) does not respond

Reset local cable operator's switch in B3-Shivparvati, changed ports on switch at home - issue resolved

Internet Connection Down

To say that the connection went down intermittently would be anti-thesis to the truth. The connection stayed alive intermittenly. Between 15-Jun and 28-Jun I opened several tickets with customer support and the experience during some of these is worth a read...

Note: I have placed here raw notes that I maintained while interacting with various people include customer service representatives at Tata Indicom, some of these notes may appear incomplete.

Fixed Unique IP Address - Yeah!

For a coupe of hours after my connection was configured - I enjoyed the relativel better speed this connection offered. 256 kbps was good for most browsing, but quite powerless for online gaming. Videoconferencing was jittery, and voice calls would break-up at times. The bigger concern that loomed great over me was that the switch where I was connected from had a couple of other connections which meant that the 256 kbps bandwidth was being distributed amongst multiple users. I woud tackle that with the TOM when I got to speak with him. This was ethically incorrect and I would demand a remedy - but this was later.
Suddenly, my thoughts were abruptly disturbed by a sly little yellow window that emerged out of my network icon on the System Tray. It read "IP Address Conflict"! I was jolted. I thought this was the most difficult part of the contract to breach. I called up the Field Engineer first, he was surprised too. So he came over and contacted the Network Operations Center (NOC). He discovered that they had provided an incorrect IP address. Phew! I was thinking they had started slicing IP addresses just like they were slicing bandwidth among multipe users. So we got me a new IP address from the NOC - this time unique and fixed! I was back in business by Friday June 15, 2007.

Installation

The first setback in my relationship with Tata Indicom came when I did not hear from them after they got my cheque in the next 72 hours. suspecting foul play and an unwarranted delay in installation, I stopped payment on the cheque that I had issued to them. Now, I knew they would come! Surprisingly, no one at Tata discovered I had stopped payment on the cheque and they never called!
I finally called them on Thursday June 14, 2007 and impressed upon them the fact that they were yet to install the cables from their router to my place. Ah! They recall me applying for a connection and the customer service guys commit the organization to resolve my issue in 10 working hours. Well, it was my expectation that their company, being an ISP, worked 24X7. No, I was naive, for in the matter of providing customer service the company worked a convinient 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. My fault was that I called them at 4:00 PM and they now had to themselves under the constitution of their organization until 6:00 PM on Friday to provide me connetivity. I was furious at the non-chalant manner in which I was brushed off by the Customer Support representative - but since I had held my cheque back, I wasn't worried they'd be able to charge me for it unless I was willing to pay.
So on Friday June 15, 2007, the friendly local Field Engineer walked into my place to bestow upon me the grace of connectivity. After convincing the management of my residential complex, I decided to accompany the Field Engineer to ascertain where they would connect me from. My second surprise came when I discovered that the field engineer was laying a resh wire from the switch that was precariously placed in the adjoining building. The larger part of the surprise was that this was the very switch from where I already had a wire laid right into my place - for this was the same switch that my Local Cable Operator was using to provide connectivity (however intermittent it was) throug another ISP. I chose to obtain connectivity from Tata/VSN purely because my previous ISP could not provide sufficient up-time.
I took the field engineer to my place and explained this to him. He was very understanding and explained that they had no other option since my connection came under what they liked to call a Cat-A network, where the last mile connectivity was provided by the local cable operator. I protested vehemently, but as was evident I would get nothing more than some empathy from the very understanding but powerless field engineer. I called his "Territory Operations Manager" (TOM). He did not take my calls. I called customer service, they would help only after I had a valid username and a fixed IP address, for installation I should call the TOM. I was furious - but that was all I could do at the time. So the field engineer, ever so scared of my wrath configured my connection and got going.