Why Airtel Broadband Sucks

10

Written on 3:23 PM by Unknown

WazzHot readers, what a tragic week it has been for me. I could not connect to the internet since the last few days thanks to the pathetic services provided by my ISP - Airtel Broadband.

It all started around Friday when my internet stopped working all of a sudden. I tried all measures but to no use. As an advanced internet user I know the basic first aid that needs to be provided to a PC (pinging, refreshing IPs etc.) in case of a irritable internet connection - which I did. Seeing no results, I used the final weapon as suggested to me by an Airtel Broadband engineer himself - to uninstall and then re-install the driver of the router (Beetel 220BX). Now this has normally done the trick in the past; but this time around I just could not install the router's driver again. Whenever I tried I got the following error:

windows logo testing failed
This is a sample screenshot to show you the kind of error I got
and not the real screenshot of the error I got


The device driver you are trying to install:
USB DSL Router Network Device
has not passed Windows logo testing to verify its compatibility
with this version of windows
This hardware will not be installed.
Contact your system administrator

I called up Airtel customer care after around 10 non-conclusive attempts to install the driver. In the evening I received an engineer from Airtel. He sat for almost an hour, trying all sorts of permutations and combinations but without any luck. Suddenly he told me that there was some problem with my Windows and that I should format and re-install it.

I was shocked!

It was one thing that he could not fix the problem, and another thing on shifting the blame to something else. My windows was working as good as a healthy 18 year old! My own deduction was that some latest updates from windows might have gone overboard to protect the users from spyware and viruses!

I again called up Airtel customer and the rep was just as unresponsive. For around 5-6 days I kept calling and getting irresponsible replies that they are looking into it or that I should format my windows first!

Anyways, today I was again trying to install the drivers when I noticed something new:




If you havent yet noticed, there is a new component in the system properties-->Hardware tab - that of Driver Signing. I had never seen it before and I guess it was a byproduct of a latest windows update. As soon as I saw it I thought my problem was solved, and I knew I was right! On clicking the Driver Signing button, I got the following dialog box:



The above screenshot explains everything. The selection of the 3 choices above is by default on blocked - and hence I was never able to install the drivers. Now I just selected the topmost option (Ignore - Install the software and don't ask for my approval) and clicked OK. Bingo! I was able to install my router's driver and the net starting working as good as new!

Now I really wonder, how do they train their technical staff at Airtel that they cant even solve a simple problem like this! And I shudder to think how much longer I would have had to wait for them to fix it...

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to our feed

10 Comments

  1. suren |

    hi

    iam aslo suffering with problem from airtel.Now if u try to browse squidoo
    it will not open up because squidoo baned airtel ip address .Have you noticed this problem

     
  2. somnath |

    Airtel customer support and Tech support is horrible! Moreover they should learn some basics of professional ethics and honesty. I have been suffering from Airtel speed problem; i'm on a 2MBPS plan and have been paying accordingly. But ever since i have taken this plan max speed i saw was 1.5 MBPS sometimes. The speed varies so widely that it goes down to 100 odd kbps. Most of the times it's horribly slow! Finally, i lodged a complain the tech support guy came to my home and tried what not! But he had no clue about the problem. Later he said it could be their back-end problem and he would check and get back. After one week, no response i call back to enquire the status of the ticket. I come to know it's very nicely closed. Tech support guy said the problem is resolved! The Back-end (tech) guy mentioned in the closing note that he called me to intimate about the resolution and sent me an SMS too. Whereas i never got a call or an SMS from them.

    So...this is what Airtel is all about! I find myself very helpless because i think nobody is sincerely listening to the customer!!

     
  3. Anonymous |

    Hey guys, I understand your problems perfectly as I am going through a worse situation with TATA Indicom, I had this 128kbps connection and got not more than 12kbps, then they inform that there is a ratio of 1:8, most of the marketing guys never never tell this, most of them dont even know!! these are very low salaried guys, who are motivated highly in meetings, those bloody stupid mentors, they should better educate them with some technicality, the same goes for them too who coach the support executives, amazing idiots who get drawn towards flashy materialistic stuffs, I have been in those environment and place is all like merry making, every topic ends with a sex joke! no concern for customer,bloody chain smokers, they are like after all whats gonna happen & chaltai attitude, most of them are newbies and the experienced ones just move off to higher level like administrations and the customer is stuck with inexperienced person, WindowsXP update was real pain, we cant expect these kind staff to quickly identify, they are just like herds of cattle waiting to be pushed to do things, new resolutions for customers problem dont excite them, if anything does then its the brand of jeans or the latest movie....being there, no life thing, it sucks

     
  4. Anonymous |

    AIRTEL customer support is ruthless poorly mannered and poorly trained. Most of their representatives do NOT know Enlish and will respond irrelevantly.

    Fed of calling them numerous times and being hung up when they din know answers we went to the Airtel Head Office here in Coimbatore.

    We met three managers who claimed to be for Collections , Operations and Technical BUT did nothing to solve the issues.

    The name of the Managers are Eeswaran , Pravin and engineers who came numerous times were Karthik , Elango , Gopi none of them who solved the problems. They gave informations like it's problem with their cable first then they told am connecting multiple systems and that so on and so forth.

    They block several competitive sites like iconnect ( Airtel provides VOIP ) and also lot of websites do NOT open with Airtel.

    They refuse to accept they block the VOIP BUT THEY DO BLOCK. If you give them properly they unblock and you can use VOIP!!!!!

     
  5. Anonymous |

    This is my updated post!!!! Hope you all read my post on September 2nd. We again went to the Airtel Headoffice and met with the Manger ~ Zonal .. His name is Ramsamandham. They spoke and assured then the Tech Manager came home!!!! U KNOW WHAT???

    He came and checked the connections and first told the problem should be with your side because the system we put for testing din have any problems. I told ok fine .. please explain and show me first how to solve it as that is what am interested in.

    So he came and switched on the PC and told PC Is NOT WORKING. I told he is using the wrong CPU and switched on myself. Then he told there is a problem with a LAN Card... I silently told OK and told him to check with the laptop. He told in that its working so its your system problem. I calmly told him ... the system which he checked first was the one used for testing last night .. so inthat case how can the LAN Card now work today ? U have signed in the wrong user and changed it!!!

    Then he told .. the modem is HOT .. thats y .. I told him ... if there is a problem with my modem not only Airtel any connection will not work ... He told no...

    Then he went on to say my system is not working or spyware or virus .. I asked him .. is he trying to say none of 8 systems are working , none of three modems are working .. including theirs !!! and that the connection from AIRTEL is fine .. he is telling .. if all the systems does not work .. he NEEDS to check.. I told that is my complaint for the last 1.5 months and you are still telling you should check?? !!!! Why did u send me the bill ??? He is telling he does not know!!! Such an irresponsible answer and the customer support lands in B'lore or Agra and they don't even know if there is a problem with the server in COimbatore or they just hang up!!!! I AM GOING TO cancel my connection on Monday. If you have lot of money enough to pay for their continuous bill even after disconnection YOu can go with AIRTEL!!!! THis is my experience.

     
  6. Anonymous |

    AGAIN NOW : They refuse to send engineers when there is a problem and if I call customer service they simpley tell that the CRM is updated stating there is a problem with my networking!!!! What kind of networking are they talking about for Wi Fi and one LAN for desktop ???? When I called the manager they told me that their server is down ..So I came to an understanding they are not competent enough to solve the issue and taking too many orders than their server can handle!!!! I have cancelled my connection and they din give me a waiver for the days their server was down which was 1 week according to their staff member!!!! Anyways if you need Airtel Managers number leave a message will give them here .... might help you!!!!

     
  7. Divas |

    Hi i've applied for Airtel Broadband Connection on 2nd February 2010 and still i dint got airtel connection and they not respond properly if i call the guy Mr Prakash (9902090106) and He uses foul language when i told i need my deposit amount back, please help me to sort out this problem and my subscriber enrollment form number is 0083160 and when i called Customer care on 1st April that complaint number is 31108322, and the much irritating thing is how can they use foul languages to thier customers .. please help me out regarding this issue and he warn me if i complaint to higher authorities he will come to my residence and create problems

     
  8. TuitionSite |

    Airtel Broadband is pathetic .They charge so much but the services provided are worst . Net surfing is always slow .Pages do not open on one go , I have to refresh it again and again.

     
  9. Anonymous |

    the most unfortunate moment of my life was when I decided to buy a airtel broadband connection . Its been 15 days ...made 46 calls to airtel customer care...8 times the installation guys visited my house to fix the problem ...multiple follow ups with sales rep and many other people ....but no luck ....i have telling them the problem is with the password they created for my account but these foolish people dont understand ...they simply trained enough to understand the problem .....im having hell time .....

     
  10. Anonymous |

    Airtel Suck they throttle your download speed, they do not give you complete download and they don't have any tracking information that what you have downloaded and how much they just say the 80% download is complete or 100% is complete, well i have a 30 gb plan and i keep a record of every download and last month they told me that 100 % download completed, IMO i've just used about 12 GB of download and uploading included. now this happens every time this also they told me 80 % download completed but in my record i have downloaded just 15GB lets add another 5GB for uploading and watching video's on youtube but still i got 10 GB left.
    Fuck Airtel i am fed up of their service's now i will terminate my connection this month. Airtel Suck's!!!!!!!!!

     

Post a Comment