Sify Broadband Fined For “Unfair Trade Practices” And For Slashing Bandwidth
Internet services are closely scrutinized by consumer courts. After BharatMatrimony received an adverse consumer court judgement for failing to find a suitable match for the daughter of one of its users, here is an ISP being punished by another Delhi consumer court for some bizarre terms and conditions.
The company in questions is Sify Broadband, which has been asked to pay a compensation of Rs 8,200 (including a refund of Rs 1,200) by Delhi’s North-West District Consumer Forum for indulging in “Unfair Trade Practices and deficiency in service”. The complainant is an IT lawyer Ankur Raheja, who approached the court alleging non-disclosure of certain terms and conditions by the ISP. The ISP is alleged to have reduced the speed to 14 kbps once the user exceeded his limit of 750 MB. Also a new condition cropped up when the company reduced the validity of the connection by one day when the download limit crossed 150 MB on a single day. The court also observed that according to conditions laid out by TRAI, a service is considered broadband only if the minimum speed is 256 Kbps. So Sify’s provision of 14 kbps in itself is considered a ‘deficiency in service’.
In a related note, do we really get the speed promised by ISPs? Everyone’s refrain is that ISPs deliver half of the speed promised. Ask for 256 Kbps, then you will get 128 kbps. Ask for 1 mbps, then you get 512 kbps.
Posted In: Technologies / Formats, Broadband
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Comments (10)
Nov 14, 2006 6:17 AM
I find that I get the speed I pay for using MTNL, Hathway and VSNL in the office, and Tata Broadband and MTNL at home(Can you believe I have 2 ‘broadband’ connections at home???). But I am thrilled that one of the providers is getting screwed in the case. They over promise and underdeliver to such an extent its ridiculous. Ive found InCable to be the worst with Sify and Tata/VSNL close behind
Nov 20, 2006 6:24 AM
thats a good judgement, hope others will take a lesson and improve their services
Dec 12, 2006 12:51 PM
I am also a disgruntled sify customer and have been screwed by them for over 3 years, I have an unlimited connection of 256 kbps and get an average speed ranging from 4 kbps to 20kbps. Now I am informed by their customer support that for the last 3 months they are only giving unlimited upto 256 from pure 256 kbps. Since I was not informed I want to also take this company to court. They should publically inform the public at large what the small print means. A certain Mr. piyush pall for sify customer support has the gall to ring me up and tell me that i can go to the court but sify does not promise any speed or reliability of service. Mr. Raman Sood (Mobile 9810364456) of sify sales also told me the same in no uncertain terms. We must band together and counter the mother of all scams. SIFY must be made to pay for their cheating and unfair trade practices
Dec 24, 2006 2:30 PM
SIFY BroadBand Internet Service are the biggest cheaters…there was a scheme where you had to refer a friend and you were promised a USB pen drive..I convinced my friend to take SIFY connection, but I never received the promised USB pen drive..I contacted customer support innumerable times, but all I get is standard response that your query has been forwarded!!!! If anyone of you have faced similar issue, please e-mail me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we all will file a case against this cheating company..Such companies should be made to realize that they have to pay heavy price for using unfair trade practices…
Jan 5, 2007 5:47 AM
These people sify are bleddy bastards.i will sue them.damn slow service.plz dont take sify because in sify everything is show off but when it comes to service the amount is high but the quality is low.
Mar 23, 2007 3:25 AM
I agree with gentle men who had comented on this issue , in my case i had discontinue my connection 1 year back. they are really not up to the mark.
And they deserves what they got from Ho’ble court.
Mar 28, 2007 2:35 PM
I’m another disgusted sify customer. I knew about the 150 mb day time limit on my 256kbps connection.
Once I downloaded about 200 mb over night and didnt disconnet before 8 am in the morning (my download was complete well before 8) the 200 mb session download was counted as day time usage and I got penalty of 3 days reduced validity - sify wants its customers to login & out to help them keep track of the 150 mb limit. DISGUSTING!
I’m hoping that my cable operator will switch to tata indicom soon.
Dec 2, 2007 3:44 AM
I would l like to use this forum to share my worst experience with Hathway.
I had hired internet services of M/s Hathway Broadband Internet on Jan 16, 2007. The package was for six months with 3GB download capacity. During these six months the service was never reliable. It had lot of interruptions and the service practically came to halt in the month of April 2007. Due to these problems we were unable to utilize even 50% of the download capacity offered by the package, apart from the agony
caused by the inturrupted services.
Despite being aware of the problems faced by us, Hathway sent a
reminder for renewal of the package, for the service that was
practically non-functional since April 2007.
After prolonged communication, Hathway confessed that they are unable to provide these services in our locality. They even agreed to refund all the money that was paid by us for this package.
As I was out of India, I had told Hathway not to take away their equipment (Modem) till I return to Mumbai. Based on my experience with them, I had told them to take the Modem only after sending the refund cheque. However, their technicians visited our house in my absence and took away the modem by misleading my 80 year old mother. After taking the situation in their control Hathway is ignoring my requests for the refund as agreed earlier.
So far, I have written more than 40 emails to Hathway on this issue which should have been resolved long ago. Now hathway has stopped responding to my emails.
Jan 4, 2008 11:37 PM
After the delay of more than six months and prolonged commnication with Hathway, I have finally received the refund cheque on Jan 04, 2008.
In this case I would say that “Justice was delayed but not denied”.
Jan 5, 2008 1:06 AM
I agree withe decision of the court on this one. Its about time an ISP got grilled for lack of service and made an example in the industry. The problem is still the fine… at 8000 INR , it will make no difference to Sify, and they can happily afford these fines once in a while.
Considering that most consumers would never approach , or eventually get tired of fighting, there will eventually never be enough of a critical mass to really hurt ISP’s financially. I was glad to note that TRAI has stepped in and decided to laydown and implement higher quality broadband policies for ISP’s.