On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 11:33 AM, jtd <jtd(a)mtnl.net.in> wrote: I have used TataIndicom broadband when I was in Bombay. Too many problems and very bad service, Same is the case with everyone - be it Reliance, Tata, Vodafone etc. Their systems are badly programmed and man power lacks essential skills and, most importantly, their processes are flawed. Thanks & Regards, Rajendra Prasad Murakonda

On Thursday 28 May 2009 12:01:51 jtd wrote: airtel gprs only sucked in Mumbai, Bangalore and Coimbatore - rest of India it was fantastic. -- regards Kenneth Gonsalves Associate NRC-FOSS http://nrcfosshelpline.in/web/

Done that. -- Regards Pankaj On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 4:41 PM, scrapo <scrapo(a)saswatabanerjee.com> wrote:

Pankaj Jangid wrote: While he is mentioning that he is getting bills, he hasn't yet mentioned what exactly they charged him for, as the amount he mentions does not tally with his monthly rental. Anyway it is his choice. Many a times, the first bill contains an advance rental for the next month. Even with zero rental bills, the amount is deducted only after the bill + taxes is made. For eg. If a Rs. 1750/-. rental is waived off, they add the 12.5% service tax to it and on the final amount of Rs. 1968/- deduct Rs. 1750/- which means a bill of Rs 219/-. They pay our rental (For the free period) but we pay its tax as that is not free. -- Regards, Rony. GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom.

The bill was generated assuming Rs. 650 per month plan. Since I started in the middle of the billing cycle they interpolated it and bill was reduced to ~3xx. In the next month they added the previous month bill and a penalty I suppose. -- Regards Pankaj On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 11:12 PM, jtd <jtd(a)mtnl.net.in> wrote:

On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 10:10 AM, Rony <gnulinuxist(a)gmail.com> wrote: That is GMAIL. :( He told me that once the free 2 month bundle is over the plan will automatically be changed to 650 per month. -- Regards Pankaj

On Sunday 31 May 2009, Rony wrote: It does. No rental charge, No tax on rental. The bill has to mention the tax as a separate component. So zero rental = zero talk time?. No. It means you pay rental X and get free talk time = X. And you get a tax charge for X. So SMS = X Surfing = Y Local call = Z Discount on Local call z Actual charge on Local call = Z-z Tax = 10 % Total =1.1 * ( X + Y + Z-z ) Not Taxable amount = 1.1 * ( X + Y + Z ) Less discount = (1.1 * ( X + Y + Z )) -z I had a spat with HSBC (one of the worst disorganisations i have ever come across in my entire life anywhere in the world - and i have been to some real hell holes), on precisely this issue, where they tried to charge me late payment charges inspite of payment being made on time, then reversing the charge, but not the tax because they had paid the tax. Told them that they have to claim a refund, cause they cannot charge me tax on an amount that i have never paid. It is ILLEGAL. -- Rgds JTD

On Sunday 31 May 2009, Dinesh Joshi wrote: One of the HSBC cards was fraudulently transacted with. The fraud happened because attempts to block via their call center were futile as the call center was non functionaI during that period. I duly registered a police plaint and informed HSBC, and asked HSBC by fax to chennai backend (the local Mumbai zombie alongwith the rest of their Mumbai office promptly forgot about the fax ) to provide the receipts of the transactions and the addresses of the establishments where the transactions took place. Chennai backend verbally informs that it will take 40 days. No written reply till date (10 months later). As the amounts were substantial, I begin investigating my self, with substantial support from our very hard pressed police. The transactions were traced to Madan Jewellers and Subhiksha, both in zaveri bazar area. You can imagine my shock when the jeweller produced a letter from AXIS Bank (owner of the POS) stating that the transactions were reversed as it was a fraud. So HSBC had reversed the transactions about two months after the fraud. Subhkisha had wound up in the meantime. However the winding up was two months AFTER the jeweller transaction reversal. I am more than sure that the same reversal would have been done with Subhiksha. The POS receipt I obtained from the jeweller has a signature which is utterly different from the sig on the card. AND HSBC continues to bill me for the entire amount + interest + late payment and threaten me. Ofcourse I have bluntly refused to pay anything and might take them to court. They havent provided the signed counter slip till date. If any one of you have had to pay on a fraud make sure you obtain the original receipt from the bank and visit the concerned establishment. The bank is worse than the badabhais they hire, illegally collecting money from both ends. To me it looks like the bank and the recovery dept employees are on the take and recieve bribes on recovery leads they provide to the recovery agents. I cant believe that their call centers are so disconnected from their backends and recovery processes. -- Rgds JTD

Rony wrote: In India, there is a better solution. Its called netbanking. Most of the good sites allow you to debit your bank account directly (mostly through billdesk.com). The transaction links you to your own bank's internet banking system where you put in a user name and password ON THE BANK'S WEBSITE and the merchant has no control on the transaction. Once teh bank confrims your transaction, it passes a confirmation to the merchant. I have to book about 6-10 railway tickets every month for our audit teams which travel all over the country. I always opt for net banking instead of credit cards. Try it next time. Regards saswata

On Sunday 31 May 2009, Rony wrote: It's not correct. They should be doing T- Free Talktime Discount. Then charging tax. They are charging you tax on the discounted portion. True. But the point is not about a wrong fee, rather about the illogical charging of tax on charges not applicable (or waived). There was a court case many aeons ago against the excise department where the excise department would not allow a discount (which was based on volumes), and would compute tax on the maximum price. Afair the excise dept lost. -- Rgds JTD