Dear All, No refund of your advance subscription charges in case you not happy and needs cancellation even if the service is pathetic. I took a three months subscription( by paying Rs.2694) on Aug 19th 2014 and i have called the call center umpteen number of times due to the frequent disruption of service. I have today requested them to cancel my connection and to my surprise, I am told that Spectranet's unique policy doesn't allow any refund of the subscription charges. Company is a big Fraud and doesn't bother about Customer Service or satisfaction. The sales Guy Manjunath (9742267323) of Bangalore has proved that he is another *** (the same guy who is polite until you sign the subscription form) and doesn't believe in something called- "After-Sales-Service". Beware of these guys distributing Pink Pamphlets around your house - Those pamphlets could even say Internet is free at lighting speed, Beware that you are going to have a difficult time contact the rep all the time event though the IVR keeps playing - "We are always there to Help you". Big Cheaters...
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Spectranet Policy - No Refund of your advance subscription internet charges
- Thread starter Sabarish R
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Well said.
I am late but I think you need to be answered for countless people searching this thread. No mobile companies don't give the prepaid balance but the funny thing is they continue to work with the remaining prepaid balance. However, these days ISPs care less about consumers, provide broken internet access and sub-standard services; and hell yeah in that case they need to refund. Comparing mobile companies with ISPs is stupid IMO.
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.
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.
We can compare broadband market with broadband market itself. Again, GYM does not apply to ISPs, the nature of business is way too different. I have used almost all ISPs in India and I can confidently say that some of them don't work for weeks, provide broken services, customer support is pathetic or even non-existent in some, appealing to nodal officers often go in vain. You are paying for a service that needs to be consistent, a non-consistent, non-performing service is of no use. Hence the claim for a refund is legitimate.
This is why you do not prepay for months to a service provider you have not tested. I am going to guess that he went for a three month plan because it was discounted compared to a single month plan? And he did not even bother to test their service before paying for a three month plan? What incentive does a company has to offer a long term plan at a discount if customers can ask for a refund after using it for 10 days or 30 days? The mistake here was made by the consumer hoping to get a good deal out of a service provider. Unless service provider promised a pro-rata refund at the time of signing up, I do not see how Spectranet is cheating here. Consumer of course has the option to take them to consumer forum with proof of deficiency of service to seek a refund.
I kind of agree you partially with you on this one. Problem is new customers are often given a demo before a connection. During the demo, it all looks super sexy, sleek and clean. Everything works fine for a few days or even weeks. Then the issues such as cable cuts, mass outage, society problems start to come up. Each time ISPs give some excuse and restore service after a few days of outage and they don't even refund for the loss of time that they should do naturally. Besides, spectranet do have a refund policy - Spectranet. If they don't even follow their own policies, what else can be said and done other than the consumer venting his anger on social media forums and platforms or contacting consumer court.
i am not sure how spectranet give demos. but you really cannot get a demo of adsl/wired services without the actual wiring.
consumer connections do not usually come with an sla.
the link has this:
i am guessing the refund policy applies when they fail to provide a connection after taking payment. they have provided the service. consumer is not willing to avail them. his only option is to go to the consumer forum. ranting on forums is not going to help him.
consumer connections do not usually come with an sla.
the link has this:
i am guessing the refund policy applies when they fail to provide a connection after taking payment. they have provided the service. consumer is not willing to avail them. his only option is to go to the consumer forum. ranting on forums is not going to help him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This works only if there are really better alternatives. That needs strong competition.
