Spectranet Policy - No Refund of your advance subscription internet charges

[Sushubh]

It does not really matter what they put in terms of use or refund policies. These documents have no standing in courts if the judge decides that they are unreasonable to the consumer. I have been running this forum for more than 10 years now. No service provider has improved its services based on the increasing number of complaints online. There is only one factor that counts in the end. Competition. Companies like Sify have practically disappeared from most cities because they just did not bother to fix the mess on their platform. More ISPs would disappear with time if Jio ends up providing a real alternative to consumers who are currently stuck with one or two options in their localities. We need a real option that is widely available. Jio could do to these shitty service providers what DTH did to shitty cable operators.

 

[DGMum]

Ok. So what industry can we compare the broadband market with? I join a gym for 6 months and pay for six months. 15 days later, I decide that gymming is not for me. Should I expect a pro-rata based refund? I can only think of hosting companies and that too only bigger companies that have a proper refund policy in case you are not happy with their services in the first month of use.

He can continue to use his broadband service for the time he paid for. Spectranet has not taken away his connection. He is unsatisfied with the quality of service. The service exists.

His best bet is to drag the company to consumer court.

If the customer changes his mind like in your Gym example, I agree no refund should be provided.
The same applies to prepaid phone connection.

But, if the same phone connection has a repeated network crash and customers can't connect, does it still not owe them a refund?
You can't blame the user for not using a service that's not really available.

 

[DGMum]

It does not really matter what they put in terms of use or refund policies. These documents have no standing in courts if the judge decides that they are unreasonable to the consumer. I have been running this forum for more than 10 years now. No service provider has improved its services based on the increasing number of complaints online. There is only one factor that counts in the end. Competition. Companies like Sify have practically disappeared from most cities because they just did not bother to fix the mess on their platform. More ISPs would disappear with time if Jio ends up providing a real alternative to consumers who are currently stuck with one or two options in their localities. We need a real option that is widely available. Jio could do to these shitty service providers what DTH did to shitty cable operators.

That's what I'm hoping for too!
That Jio makes Aritel and Idea also offer fast wireless broadband at cheap rates. And their home broadband offering is widely deployed. Airtel hasn't really deployed fibre broadband plans to residential users aggressively and their fast plans are still rather expensive.

Only competition can make people like Spectranet become consumer friendly or disappear.

The other way is better, easy consumer protection that's actually quick to resolve issues. There was some talk of it in the legal reforms required for ease of doing business in India. If that becomes real, you'll find customer service improving by leaps and bounds.

 

[Sushubh]

I would try to repeat everything I have already mentioned in bullets for easier reading.

• Customer should have taken a shorter duration plan to check the service before paying for a long term plan.
• Companies offer long duration prepaid plans at a discount. Offering refunds on these plans mean consumers get a chance to misuse them.
• Spectranet is not admitting to deficiency of service. Consumer is. So it is on the consumer to take Spectranet to consumer court with proof and seek refund along with other damages.
• Contrary to popular beliefs, consumer is not really king when there is no competition in the internet market at present.

I am done with this thread because I am being forced to repeat the same points. Sure, in a perfect world, all service providers would offer refund if you are not satisfied with their services. We do not live in that world.

 

[DGMum]

Mostly these days they have a fiber optic routing box on each floor, the cabling of which has been provided by sterlite. All they need to do is put a wifi-router there and get a connection on their mini device for the demo.


Now, isn't this a nice trap? They put a shiny refund policy and then put a confusing clause. Problem is it can be interpreted in both ways - a non-consistent service is no service to me. For example, if I am working from home on RDP or doing online gaming and if I am getting disconnected for packet losses after every 10 minutes, there is no service that is rendered to me. Similarly, if I can't access the internet for days or at regular intervals, again its an improper and incomplete service for me.

And I completely agree that going to consumer forum is the best option but creating an awareness on social media about bad services makes other consumers alert about whats in it for them when they are planning to take services from particular ISPs. They are businesses and I am sure care about their reputation and competition, too many online complaints might just motivate them to do better.

This works only if there are really better alternatives. That needs strong competition.

 

[Sushubh]

I have been running this forum for 11 years now. Things have gone worse in the past couple of years. Jio is the last hope for someone like me living in an old sector where no private (or public) operator appears to be interested in laying down fiber. If Jio turns out to be shit, I might be stuck with 4mbps for the rest of my life.