This is arguably the most important judgement in recent times. Ankur Raheja has won a case in the consumer court against Sify Broadband on grounds of deficiency in service.
The case judgement was delivered on 18th October. Unfortunately, due to various commitments I could not highlight this earlier. I would like to quote diectly from the write up on the mother channel of this blog.
Sify Broadband to pay for unfair trade practises.
The case related to non disclosure of significant terms and conditions, which included hidden conditions that after downloading of 750 MB data in a month the speed would be reduced to 14 Kbps and also a new condition that if a customer downloaded more than 150 MB data in a day, then he was penalized in the form of reduction of package validity by one day, but still packages were advertised as unlimited.
It has been regarded as a landmark judgment as for the first time technical deficiency has been proved in the court of law in India against an Internet Company. And further Court interpreted the matter from the point of view of definition of Broadband as laid down by TRAI, which lays down criterion of minimum speed of 256 Kbps to be regarded as Broadband. Accordingly, Court has held providing of 14 Kbps speed instead of 256 Kbps is in itself a ‘deficiency in service’.
The case was supported in the Cyber World by hundreds of SIFY customers from all over India, who all experienced similar problems and supported the case throughout, whose testimonials were also included in the original complaint as Annexure!
The last para assumes significance. We rallied together and challanged BSNL to introduce unlimited plans. Even though it is a watered down offering, still it was a victory of all sorts for us to fight the ISP’s and demand what we want and not what they want to give.
Unfortunately, public activism is limited to Medha Patkars of the world who otherwise have their own hidden agendas to propagate. If we all take it lying down, they would F*** us royally like they all have been doing for so many years.
Another quote from Ankur’s post on the broadband forum:
“It has been held that concealing hidden conditions and not redressing the grievances of the complainant who made complaints with regard to poor customer service on number of occassions, in our considered opinion, amounts to deficiency in service on the part of Opposite Party and indulging in to Unfair Trade Practice.
We, therefore, direct the opposite party to refund the amount of Rs 1,200/-, paid for two months by the complainant along with compensation to the tune of Rs 5,000/- for causing mental agony and harassment to the complainant and further, pay a sum of Rs 2,000/- towards cost of litigation to the complainant.”
More details at Sify Case dot org.
I want to know as to how to kick BSNL’s ass. TRAI is ineffectual in enforcing it’s own guidelines and till recently they were operating from an illegal building. The Government violating it’s own rules! For the time being, this judgement can be quoted aross the nation and Sify “broadband” has a potential disaster brewing up for them. I am forwarding the details of the judgement to news organisations and I hope this gains widespread publicity. Either Sify Broadband renegotiate it’s contract with it’s subscribers or refund the money taken from them by fraudulent means. This is cheating. Plain cheating.
Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that in the recent Blog Camp in Madras, the WiFi connectivity was provided by Sify “Broadband”. Basically it was a legion of idiots milling around trying to make themselves important. Interestingly, no one mentioned about the company sponsoring their internet connection about being the target of what arguably was the first blog specifically targetting a company and it’s ill doings. It was borne out of frustration from the pathetic access speeds and their high handedness.
Screw them anyway.
Guys, it’s time to kick their assess.
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I bought SifyTalk for Rs.200 which is valued for Rs.400 as per scheme. I can call ISD calls particularly Japan for Rs.2 for 1 minute as per Sify charges (http://sifytalk.com/voip/rates.html).So, Iam eligible to speak for 200 minutes. But I spoke to Japan for 40 minutes and my Balance showed as exhausted. Instead of Rs.2 per minute they charged Rs.10 per minute. Subsequently I made complaint they through telephone and email on 13th of February. They emailed that it was there technical fault and they told it will be rectify and they will let me know. As I need to talk on enquiry to customer support department assured me that there would be no problem for second time but subsequently they cautioned me not to use the service as same problem will arise but I had already purchased another new card.
The whole ting shows the clear violation and conditions. There response to my mails and phone was irresponsible. So, I advice those who plan to use SifTalk service don’t purchase the card unless there technical faults are rectified.
If my problem is solved upto now as on 02-03-08 I will post again.
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