The one with Ending a Relationship

Source: http://tinybuddha.com/blog/healing-heartbreak-lessen-pain/

For the last few months I've been having relationship issues. It's sometimes on, sometimes off kind of thing and its damn frustrating. To be honest it started off very well and when it did, things were rocking. I don't remember a single instance when we ever had the slightest of disagreements nor even a feeling of "is this what we want?" kind of thing. If anything, I for one just wanted more, and faster. But in the last three months things have come to such a standstill, that I have had to do some serious introspection and finally, today, with a heavy heart, I had to call it off. 

I had to disconnect my Tata Docomo Photon Max WiFi service.

Yes, you heard it right. 

My relationship with Docomo started way back in June 2014 and at that time it was a match made in heaven. A great rental plan with super speed connectivity and a wifi dongle. No clinginess to a fixed router, worked with lots of space and had a good Data plan. Things went fine for a long time till the first hiccup in April 2015.

My Wi Fi dongle had started acting funny. It would just stop communicating in between and I for one could not figure out what the passive aggressiveness was all about. It was driving me crazy to have to stop work or whatever else that I was doing to cater to this dongle and the sudden mood swings. Things were getting too hot to handle so I had to call in support. 

Tech guys are usually great with these dongles. I have no clue how they understand all these things (something I envy, I must say) and in just 5 minutes he was able to coach me into pushing just the right buttons to get dongle winking and blinking like it was when we first met. And things went on to be super smooth after that. I was really appreciative of the tech team who were able to figure out the exact same problem without ever having to ask me ridiculous questions like "How slow is it going?" or "Do you have problems all through the day?"

Cut to March 2016. 

It was a difficult time for both of us. There was a lot going on professionally and personally which meant that we often had long hours and I was not in the mood to molly coddle anything or anyone. Of the little time I got free I needed to have quick access for a bit of relaxation, and honestly at this stage of life you know exactly what you want. I understand that sometimes you need to be a little flexible, what with options and all that, but there's a limit that neither should cross.

But on the 9th of April, I decided enough was enough. My nights had become miserable, and I decided to seek professional help for both of our sakes. I lodged an appointment with the Tata Docomo guys for some guidance. They said they would get an expert on to the problem immediately and sure enough in 1 day I received a call.

"Hello Sir, you stated you are having issues with dongle..."

"Yes, thank you. I think there's some issue which I can't seem to sort. Things are very, very slow"

"Ok Sir, let me see if I can help. Which area are you located in?"

"I'm in Versova."

"Ah. I see that there is some congestion in the area. The base of Docomo users of has expanded beyond the limit, hence we are having technical issues."

"Goodness. When can this be resolved?"

"Sir at the moment I can't tell you anything. Our Tech team has not committed to a date"

"Wait I don't understand. I am going through this because of issues on your side. When will this be sorted?"

"Sir at best you must check back in a few days."

"Well, okay. I'll do that."

-----

I was worried. This was the first time I ever had anyone tell me that they couldn't solve my problem because they couldn't tell me when they could solve it. I let it go as an aberration and decided to make a call later. My issues with dongle continued, and I held out for sometime in anticipation that Tata Docomo would call me soon. 

But there was no call. 

And dongle was getting moodier by the day. 

On 13th April, I lodged a second complaint. 

"Sir, you had lodged a complaint"

"Yes, it was about slow speeds on the dongle"

"Sir, have you checked the speed? Please log into speedtest.net"

"Oh, okay. I'm just checking it right now."

*15 minutes later*

"Sorry am using your network and it's very slow to load. It says the speed is 0.98 Mbps but it surely doesn't feel like that." 

"Oh. But sir, that's average speed. and our minimum guarantee is 512 kbps. So you are actually getting what is as per norms"

"What? Are you telling me that I am paying for slow speed internet?"

"Sir there is a technical issue in the area you are in, but we can't say when it will get resolved."

"How is that my problem? I am paying for hi speed internet, your issues at the back end is not my problem!"

"Sir I'm afraid that's all I can say right now. The rest is your call. But this is the normal speed."

---

I was mortified. For one, I was suspecting that dongle was not as loyal as I thought, and with all these new subscribers in the area perhaps networks were being "shared". Additionally, it was rather ridiculous that the tech guys had gone a complete 360 from helping me to now accusing me of lying. The audacity of them even telling me that I just had to wait for them to solve issues was unacceptable. And to ask me to be happy with just what I was getting since it was in their "terms and conditions". Sheesh!

By now dongle had become outright rigid and we were having days and nights where communication had just stopped. I wanted to get dongle to leave, but that would have been immature. I decided to do it the proper way and ask for a formal separation and called Docomo to end it.

On Apr 17th, I called up customer care and asked them to officially end our relationship. Surprisingly though, they put me right through to "Priority Services." Now I do use an expensive plan and for some reason it never occurred to me to check out others. Of late my attention had been on this nice Airtel Hotspot in my area and in the few interactions we've had, it was just superb! Anyway, what I was saying is that I never knew there was a "Priority Services" and I hoped suddenly that they could make it alright again.

Oh, how wrong I was.

At first they gave me the same spiel that there was an issue in the area and they were trying to fix it and all that, but I had to speak my mind. 

"How is it that when I am in a different location, you are the first to send me offers on roaming and data, but you can't inform me when there is a problem with your services? For three months you've had bad connectivity but you didn't bother. How is your technical back end issues my problem? Why should I pay for your inefficiencies?" I snapped, trying hard to keep my voice down.

"But sir, you are getting the normal speed.."

"DO YOU THINK I PAID FOR NORMAL SPEED? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE RATES ARE FOR A LOCAL NORMAL SPEED CONNECTION?"

The change in tone seemed to work, and they went into survival mode. All of a sudden, the acknowledgement of their problem became explicit in what was to follow.

"Sir let me help you. I will immediately change your plan to a lower rental so you don't have to pay the full amount.."

"No. You should have done that proactively. Which means you knew there was a problem. Now you just want to keep me paying."

"Sir, instead just take a low end plan, and you can later upgrade.."

"No. Please terminate this immediately. I am done."

After what seemed like a prolonged silence, the termination procedure was complete. While I retain custody of dongle, it's soul would have been gone in the next 7 days. And I will be free again. And never again will I allow myself to ever get acquainted with anything from the House of Tata Docomo, ever again.

Just to let you know, last month I had voluntarily reduced my plan on the App. I wanted to make it work, I'm not one to quit on relationships so easily. But the app shows the request was completed, but it still does not reflect when I spoke to customer care. So basically the app is a joke. Additionally, I still don't have the service request to cancel my relationship on email, luckily I made a record of the number. Thank God, I ended it. 

---

Of late, I've met this nice Hotspot Dongle from Airtel. It's nothing serious yet, but I suspect similar issues. I've seen the patterns, more popular they are at the start but they get nasty later. But there's also 7 Star modem too. Old School, but honest and quick. No fancy stuff, but I think sometimes you get what you need, and not what you want.

Cheers

M

TLDR: Tata Docomo network congestion seems to be an issue that they are not sure when they can resolve. This issue has been existent for some time but I've been paying up for a fast connection while getting really poor speeds on my phones and ipad. After a couple of complaints, they keep telling me to wait. Rather shitty if you ask me, to take my money and not give what you promise. I've disconnected the service. At the time of writing this, the speed test shows me 1.3 Mbps speed. Too bad, too late.