I was once a customer of Tikona. I had my take on poor service I had with Airtel,
After the initial major process failure and the effort they took to cover up for their mistakes, now I am a happy customer with Airtel for more than a year.
My second internet connection was with BSNL. It also did not start that well,
My first connection was with Hathway, which was crushed in a political problem.
After I had put down the trouble with all these providers, I am not being fare if I fail to document the love and hate relationship with Tikona.
By far it is the the worst internet provider I have had. I was moving back to my home and BSNL was very slow to respond to the transfer. Was without phone connection and internet in my new house for months. I needed internet for my work. After comparing the price and service offerings, Tikona was a no brainier. I applied for the connection. I needed consistent internet connection.
They had a installation feel of some Rs. 4,000 which is non-refundable. I was ok with it, provided the internet connection is good. Even when I took the connection, I told them I will not mind pulling off if the connection is not good enough to go on with my work.
The installation was neat and smooth wit less cables running out of the building as the service was from a LOS (Line of Sight) antenna, which was about 200 meters from my home. When they installed, they checked the speed, it was splendid. I was soo happy and got one variable out of the equation.
Things were going fine only for days, not even weeks, the internet speed would be pathetic. Call center calls would be very rude, unprofessional and you will know they dont want you to call them, that is the attitude.
Where are the guys who I spoke to before getting the connection who were the Mr. Nice guys.
They started blaming my laptop for slow connection problem. I was not convinced. Then there is a very good technique they use to make a fool out of you. When you test the internet connection speed on Speedtest, which every other provider uses as a benchmark, the speed will be in a few kbps. But Tikona does not accept Speedtest as any benchmark, they have their own ping server, which I guess is the antenna you are connected to, from which you will get excellent connection speed. Which means as per Tikona, speed to the servers across the world from where all the content is delivered when we browse is not a problem, if we are connected with their antenna, our need is satisfied.
I would be very unprofessional that they will try to convince you that speestest is not the right measuring gauge. I pity all those who do believe in that.
I did not have all the time to be going round in circles with a pathetic customer service. I asked them to disconnect my line. This was by 2 or 3 months. They said I will not get the refund for the installation. I did not care.
It is not done. This is the harassment that Tikona had unleashed after the termination request and holding back the installation fee.
It was after a year or so I got a call from a lawyer out of the blue. He said I did not handover the antenna and I am now liable for the cost, which was about Rs. 900. He said he was a lawyer and he is representing Tikona. I told him how can I believe he is a lawyer and why to believe he is representing Tikona. I asked him to send me what ever in writing from his official email address or mail it to my residential address.
All this after Tikona had sent me no due email after the termination and the final payment made.
I once again called the call center and asked them to remove the antenna and I cannot assure it will be safe in my terrace after a year, they again took the request. The lawyer had sent me an email demanding money and if I fail to pay, they will initiate the legal proceedings. I gave a fitting reply and did not hear back from him after that.
It has been a year or even more, still that stupid antenna is in my terrace.
There is a reason why I am writing this now after such a long time.
My office colleague had requested for a Tikona connection just 2 weeks back when I did warn him not to take Tikona, he was happy for 2 days and then he came back the third day and said I was right 🙂
Now he is dumping the connection in less than 2 weeks and going for a 3g doggle as he does not have a feasibility of Airtel or BSNL.