Tikona — Improper Service

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka

I took a broadband connection from Tikona on 24th of April 2013. The connection was supposed to give me a 4mbps speed. About 3 to 4 days after the connection was activated, i started noticing very low speeds. I called the Tikona Support line and i was promised that the issue will be fixed in the next 24 to 48 hours. So i waited and nothing happened. I called them again and i was told the exact same thing. I waited patiently again for 2 to 3 days. This time issue became even more worse, it was not even letting me to login to Tikona broadband, after multiple attempts i managed to login to their broadband portal and found that i was getting a speed of 30 to 40 kbps. I called them again and this time they said there was an issue with the server located in my area and they will escalate the issue to their network team and get the issue fixed. I waited patiently again for almost a week and nothing happened. Finally i received a call from Tikona and i was informed that the issue was fixed. I checked and found that was not true. I called them back to inform the same and this time they said they send a technician home to check the wireless unit installed on my house. The person visited the place and moved the wireless unit to a different place on the terrace and said the issue is fixed. Luckily, it worked for 2 days and then i started facing the same issue.

By this time I was very disappointed and frustrated. I kept on calling them and kept of giving me the same reason that the issue has been escalated to the network team and they will fix it. One full month had already passed by this time and i did not get to use the broadband for at least a week after the i got the connection. I was really out of patience this time and i called them to cancel the connection and refund my money. They said they will process this request. The next day i received a call from another person who claimed to be some senior officer there and asked for a weeks time to get the issue fixed permanently. I agreed for it and once again waited for a weeks time. I found that it started working again as expected for two more days and i started to experience the same issue again. I called them back to the report the same and asked them to go ahead with the disconnection of the service. 2 to 3 days after that, i received another call and said they will send a technician once again to check on the wireless unit.

This time to my surprise, the moment i explained the issue to the technician, he replied telling me that it is a known issue in this area and he cannot do anything about it. He also told me that there is only one access point (server) in this area and all of the customers are connecting to the same access point. He also explained that the capacity of that access point is to take connection requests from approx. 4000 users and there are more than 6000 users connecting to it and it is overloaded.

I received a feedback call for the complaint the next day and i explained him and also informed him about the information that was shared to me by the technician. He agreed to it and said it would take one more week for Tikona to install another server there for load balancing as they are receiving too many complaints about speed issues from this area and asked me to wait for one more week. So another week passed by and nothing happened. I switched off the splitter that was in my hall and decided not to use the connection and not to keep it switched on.

I received another call from the same person informing me that it might 30 plus days for Tikona to install the new server for load balancing and gave me a choice to either wait for it to happen or disconnect the connection. I asked him to go ahead and disconnect it as there is no point in paying for a 4mbps line and not getting a speed of atleast 1mbps. Another month had passed by this time.

On 4th of June, i received a confirmation email from Tikona confirming that the connection has been disconnected and they also mentioned a full and final settlement of Rs.137.39 to be paid and also said that a technician will be sent home to collect the wireless unit that is installed at my place.

Nothing happened after that for 3 to 4 days, The confirmation email i received also had numbers to call to arrange for the equipment to be picked up manually if no one turns up. There were 2 phone numbers mentioned in the email, i called the first number and i received a switched off message. I called the second number and spoke to a person and i was told that a technician will be sent home. I also texted him my address. Nothing happened again.

Then i called them and asked for a itemised statement to be sent to be explaining how they derived at that full and final settlement amount of Rs.137.39. Instead they sent me an outstanding bill for Rs. 816.08 that was due on 2nd of June and i also started receiving collection calls. Every Time i received such a call, i explained to them that the connection is cancelled and i only owe them Rs.137.39. I replied to the email explaining the same and i received a reply from them informing me that the connection is not disconnected yet and it will be disconnected once they collect their equipment and the email also said that they have arranged for it and it should be done in the next 72 hours.

Today, i received a call from a person who claims to be a government lawyer from Delhi and informed me that Tikona has filed a case against me in the Delhi court for non payment of outstanding bill and wants to make a payment of Rs.2 Lakhs in the Delhi court. He also told me that the case is not registred yet and he can avoid the case if I can make a payment and send him the payment confirmation and he also told me that he can make the company refund the amount and also help me issue a NOC from the company.

I informed him that i need to talk to my lawyer about the same and he said in that case he will register the case against me and send a summon to the nearest local police station. This is absolute nonsense and I feel that i being cheated big time. I need help to fight against this.