Failure to deliver committed service

Dear Sheena Joseph,

I've tried to reach you unsuccessfully on multiple occasions this past week (by phone at 022-65216898 and by email) to bring to your attention the chronology of events leading to my wanting to terminate the new connection as of Feb 19th :

1. To my inquiry by phone on Feb 17th, Tata Communications sales representative Mr. Mateen (Bangalore) confirmed to me that a broadband connection
a. With 500 kbps speed
b. For a period of 4 months + 5th month free
c. zero installation fee
d. zero security deposit for on-premise broadband equipment
e. plus a wireless router (with warranty for the period of 3 months)

could be availed for an advance payment of Rs.4,400 + tax.

2. A cheque payment for Rs.4,412 was made by my wife in my absence to Tata Communications representative Ameen. An acknowledgment for the payment was provided in which the Plan Name mentioned was Infinity 384. This was not what I was communicated at the time of inquiry

3. Two installation personnel from Tata Communications inspected the customer premises (814, 5th Cross, 11th Main, 4th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore 560034) on Saturday, Feb 18th and chose to install the broadband receiving equipment at the neighbouring premises (815/1, 5th Cross, 11th Main, 4th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore 560034). The reason cited was 'better connectivity' at 815/1 where the installation was made atop a water-tank that stands 4 storeys high, versus the terrace of 814 which stood at Ground floor + First floor.

4. At this point on Feb 18th around 4:30 PM itself, I expressed my concern on the lack of connectivity due to other high rises and foliage that might obstruct the reception and that the Infinity 384 plan was not acceptable given what was earlier committed

5. The installation personnel immediately called Mr. Mateen who then assured me that the Infinity 384 plan that was issued was done erroneously by Mr. Ameen who collected the cheque, and that the plan would be upgraded to the Inifinity 500 plan immediately. I was also separately assured by your customer service agent at 60607070 that I should send an email within 24 hours in case I was not satisfied with the service.

6. In view of the above and the fact that I did not receive the plan that was committed to me, I emailed customer support on Sunday, Feb 19th itself asking that the new connection be terminated and that I receive a full refund of Rs.4,400. I only received an automated response from your customer support desk that day.

7. Subsequently I received another email from customer support asking for details of the account which I provided on Wednesday, Feb 22nd. During the period of Feb 20 - Feb 22 I had not used the Tata Communications provided broadband connection after having expressed my dissatisfaction with the connection and what was originally committed to me but not delivered.

8. I spoke to Mr. Mateen again on Wednesday, Feb 22nd evening. This time he included Mr. Adbul who is your nodal officer at Bangalore. Over a conference call I narrated the above 7 points to Mr. Abdul, all of which was corroborated by Mr. Mateen. It was then suggested by Mr. Mateen and Mr. Abdul that the upgrade to a 512 kbps plan would be made and that I should try it out for a couple of days. If I wasn't satisfied even after that I could still terminate the account and get a full refund. To this Mr. Abdul intervened and said that he would have to speak separately with Mr. Mateen, after which he would call me back. I did not receive any call back for the next 3 days.

9. After waiting another 3 days with no resolution to the issues mentioned above, I went in person to the Tata Communications office on Saturday to meet with any empowered authority that could help resolve my issue. I was assured by a lady at the front desk who spoke to Mr.Abdul and said an engineer would be sent to the customer premises to assess the issue before 2 PM that same day

10. The service engineer arrived at 3 PM that day and after assessing the situation found that the connection, which was still Infinity384, was delivering download speeds of between 260 - 300 kbps. This was communicated to Mr. Abdul and the service engineer's manager. At this point, Mr. Abdul said that since this was within his 'acceptable levels' of broadband speed and commensurate with what was handed to me in writing (customer acknowledgment form) that the matter was deemed to be resolved.

11. To me this is a breach of trust and a commitment that was never denied until this point. 7 days after the original commitment to provide a 512 kbps connection, your nodal officer, points me to a wrongly written acknowledgment which was delivered in my absence and says I would forfeit Rs.1,000 in installation charges (with no written T&Cs that indicate a forfeiture of installation charges in case of early termination).

As you can imagine, the failure to get a simple broadband connection of my liking from Tata Communications and at terms acceptable to me, has left me completely frustated and not wanting to do business with the Tata group.

I'm seeking your intervention to expedite the termination and in getting me a full refund of the advance amount ofRs.4,412 paid to Tata Communications.

Sincerely,
Girish