MTNL may seem like a techno-freak company when you see its plans and schemes. And I am totally satisfied that it is one of the premier broadband provider in
I was using the 590NU plan. This plan had a bandwidth of 256 kbps and midnight 12 to 8 AM unlimited downloads. And MTNL came up with a mouth-watering offer where the same "night unlimited" concept prevailed, and along with that you get a speed of "upto" 2 MBPS instead of 256 kbps. All this at a meager additional cost of Rs.250 per month. As soon as I came to know about this scheme, I browsed through the forums to check if you actually get 2 MBPS bandwidth at night. The result - yes! the bandwidth remained untouched at night. This meant that I would be "theoretically" able to download around 5.4 GB every night. And I wouldn't mind even if I get half of the theoretic possibility to reality.
I called up their call center and registered for the tariff plan migration to the new 849NU scheme. This was on 21st July, 2007. They said that as it was near the month end, they would migrate me to the new plan by 1st August. It made sense, as I will not have to pay the new charges (additional 250 bucks) for just using it for 10 days. I readily agreed. The next day, I got a call from them on my cell (they took my cell number for security reasons during registration) and confirmed that the new plan will be applicable from 1st August. I was IMPRESSED!
When I thought that things might have changed in MTNL, I was kicked back to reality when my plan was not migrated to 849NU by the end of the day on 1st August. I called up the call center again and an aunty responded saying "ho jayegaa". Now when that ho jayegaa will materialize, even she did not know. I repeatedly called up the call center twice a day on 2nd and 3rd August and finally I got a reply saying that the Work Order has been sent to Malad Exchange (the nearest telephone exchange) and it will be done soon. I felt a sense of relief, but somewhere in the corner of my heart, I knew there is something fishy!
Fourth of August, Saturday - it is weekly off for me, and I decided to go to the exchange myself and check the status of the so called "work order". I met my Area Engineer - Mr. Pandey and he told me that broadband was not under him and I had to meet Mr. Mishra in 3rd floor. I went to Mr. Mishra and he told me that execution of plan change was under Mr. Rane in the ground floor. I met Mr. Rane and he said that there are many pending work orders and that my plan would be migrated "soon". I felt this nothing less than a minister's promise. Luckily, I met one of my dad's friend who works in MTNL and he said that Mrs. Jadhav is the person who actually does that migration on the computer. So I went to Mrs. Jadhav.
When I went to her, she asked me my telephone number. When I recited it, she said that my work order has not yet come. I was clueless! Back to square one again! Then she said that as I have come all the way to the exchange, I can register a fresh request for change of plan at the customer helpdesk and the work order will be generated immediately. Some Mrs. Dixit was the person in the helpdesk who would help me.
I went to the helpdesk and gave a written application for the plan change. Initially she said that this plan change was not possible. I said that MTNL is "advertising" for this plan change. Then she agreed and accepted my request. And finally the work order was generated. I went to that Mrs Jadhav again and told the new work order number. She said that the scheme would change by afternoon. I came home happily thinking that I can download lots in the night.
The scheme was changed by evening. But it was just on their website. I was still having a bandwidth of 256 kbps. I waited till 9PM on Saturday night. But alas, nothing happened! Then I decided to trouble the call center again. This time it was an uncle who attended the call. It took me 15 minutes to make the uncle understand that my scheme has been changed but the bandwidth is still the good ol' 256 kbps! And finally he decided to take the complaint and said that he would inform the concerned people in the Server Room and they would change the speed by the next day (Sunday).
It was Sunday afternoon - 1 PM and the speed was still the same. I called up again and this time a different person took the call. He took my complaint and said that this can happen only on Monday as there was no one at the Server Room to update the speed. I knew that it would not happen on Monday also. So just as a backup, I gave another call on Monday morning and they accepted a fresh request again :)
And after this entire struggle, on Monday evening, the speed was updated to 2 mbps. And I was able to download stuff and a mind-blowing 210 kbps speed!
Anyways, all's well that ends well!
