Life as I find it

I just got this email from paypal:

Hello Vidyut,

Your payment of  $$ has been sent back to the sender of the payment.

We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.

If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows:  (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select “Goods,” and (c) provide a shipping address.

If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.

We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience.

Thank you,
PayPal

Now, this is really strange. This was payment for an online job I have already completed. More difficult are those payments to be made to web hosting providers and so on. I doubt if it is just me with this problem. There are people whose entire livelihoods depend on being able to accept payments. I am just wondering at the wholesale damage this action has probably caused. Also wondering about people who delivered based on the payment which later got reversed.

Yet another reason why paypal suchs, and still is quite necessary to have an online career

Dayum, I can’t afford this loss right now.

MTNL Triband is cheap, easy to set up, and reasonably reliable when all you do is surf. When you end up downloading a lot of data, you find that there is much to discover on the front of getting what you pay for. I just tested the regular speed I get on my modem, and it turned out to be 100kbps. No wonder my MTNL connection always seemed slow. And no, it wasn’t any slower than usual when I tested. Was running normally for it.

Now, the thing is, I have never paid for a slow connection as such. One of the main reasons for signing up for Triband was MTNL’s clear statement that cable internet providers provide speeds less than 256kbps, and speeds under 256kbps don’t qualify as broadband.

SO I signed up for 512kbps, and when it still seemed slow, upgraded to 1mbps Still, no change in performance. At which point, I tested the speeds I was actually getting. My modem shows 256kbps, while any online test shows around 100 +/- 5. So where is all this money I’ve paid MTNL for 4 years gone?

Apparently, I’m not the only one. Almost every person, regardless of what plan they choose seems to begin from slow speeds and it takes complaints about slow speeds to get them to raise your limits to what you paid for. Out of 17 people I spoke with, only 3 began their internet connections with the speeds they paid for. 4 of them complained about slow speeds a couple of times, and it was increased. 1 has a recurring problem with speed on a connection that should give him 512kbps. He complains, it goes up, and is slow again after some days. 6 others with the 512kbps night unlimited plan had never checked the speeds they got since they mostly used them for surfing and downloading when they were sleeping, but on my insistence checked and were angry to discover that they were not even getting half the speed the plan charges them for. The others were miscellaneous cases with complicated stories of plan changes/problems and not much relevant to speed.

My husband thinks I should go to the consumer courts. However, the problem with this is that consumer courts would like you to first approach MTNL, at which point they readily increase your speed – so then you don’t really have a complaint left for the court.

What I am looking at is this default “setting” that cheats people on a regular basis till they complain. If their billing system can refer to their records of my plan and bill according to that, why can’t their speed system refer to the same plan and provide according to that?

In MTNL’s own words, they are not providing a broadband service, since their speeds are not exceeding 256kbps.

Oh, they have the capacity – I’ve seen lightening fast MTNL connections. Incredible speeds, and real value for money. The thing is, you have to not just pay for it, but make sure that you test the speed you get and insist that they give you what you paid for.

What would be the electricity bill for the additional usage of the computer when my downloads took over 5 times the time they should for over 3 years? Who compensates me for this? Maybe we need a PIL.

Recently, I created a current account with HDFC bank for my business – Wide Aware. Its convenient. Yes, but there are some problems people might want to watch out for.

Using the Netsafe account for online purchases is a prime example. What basically happens with this is that you purchase a Netsafe card which is a one time thing and use the data from that card to do your shopping, so that you don’t end up sharing your real card details.

Great! Now comes the glitch. You need to put a maximum limit on your card. The maximum limit is debited from your account!!! Not your purchase amount. Your balance statement shows the purchase of a Netsafe card rather than your actual purchase. So, if like me you use it to activate your Paypal account and put a generous limit on your card in your ignorance, what you get is a loss of Rs.1000/- (for example) with the added pain that you can’t activate your account, because the 4 digit code that you should get will not come into your bank statement at all.

I see this as a horrible service, since no one tells you that the maximum limit you put on your card is going to get indefinitely debited from your account. Its 44 days since I made the payment, and I have yet to see any kind of refund of the balance. How’s that for a reliable banking experience?

I have phones the bank 4 times about this. The first time, I was told that it takes a month from the purchase for the Netsafe balance to return to the account. Then I called after the month was over. Their computers were down. Then I called again. They said they would look into it. Then I called again and was told that the baking executive would get back to me within a day or two. It has been a week since that. I have also used their contact form to email them about this, and have received a nice email of thank you for contacting them and their representative will get back to me.

I am now in the process of wondering if its worthwhile to bother with this any more or should I simply shut down my account and approach consumer courts? Wouldn’t this be fraud?

So folks, big banking names are not necessarily more reliable with your money. Be careful with your hard earned money even when it is in the bank.

Update:

It tool almost a month, but my balance WAS refunded.

Wisetechie has shared this link and information:

When does the source account get debited – at the time of creation of NetSafe Card or at the time of purchase payment ?

The amount gets debited at the time of creation of the NetSafe Card.

What happens if I do not use the NetSafe Card at all or if I use only part of the NetSafe Card amount?

For a completely unused NetSafe card created from your Credit Card, the amount is credited back at end of validity period. For Netsafe cards created from your Debit Card, the amount will be credited back in 3 working days to the source account.

In case the NetSafe Card was partially utilized, the balance amount gets credited to the source account within 7 days (for Netsafe Card created from Credit card) or at the end of 35 days (for Netsafe card created from Debit Card) from the date of transaction.

Thank you!

I have discovered something extremely alarming about the online MTNL bill Payment by Debit Card (or Credit Card). If you use a credit card to pay your MTNL bills online, please note that it is not a fast and convenient way as one would assume. Apparently, clearing up your bill will debit your card immediately, but takes 7 days to reflect in your MTNL account, so in the meanwhile, if some smart guy there decides to disconnect your phone, its a communication exercise for a week to get it started again.

From the conversations we are having with their help desk, regardless of the reason for disconnecting your phone, to restart it with negotiations and you begging every step of the way, it will take a week, and otherwise, it will take seven days.

It happens only in these government institutions where an online payment is slower than a cheque being deposited. Talk about sarkari inefficiency!!! Their whole attitude with this tone of inevitability reminds me of my nephews bedwetting problems as a child, where he was very sorry for peeing in the night, but he couldn’t help it. Luckily, with age, he grew out of it, while these institutions are only developing more and more excuses to be able to use the word “sorry”. “Sorry for disconnecting the phone, sorry for your discomfort and it will be started within a week!”

So folks, before any of you go through this pain, please remember that if you need to pay an MTNL bill in a hurry, DON’T use the online payment. It may sound instant, but it is not – the ancient organization hasn’t yet figured out about life in the 21st century and credit cards and stuff. They probably think that it is a magic trick or something and you are fooling them when you say you have paid instantly. How could such a thing be possible?

To make things work fast, you have to pay like you would 40 years ago – go to an ATM, withdraw cash, drop everything you are doing to be able to land in their payment centre in office timings, hand over cash and stand there while they immediately get your phone started again.

I read an article on the NDTV site which says there is the possibility of a hike in train fares in Mumbai, which would bring the average Rs30/- minimum fare for first class to Rs.32/-. The added funds from this hike will be used to support the loan taken from the World Bank by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation – the agency executing the Mumbai Urban Transport Project. The amount of the loan is Rs.1,300 crore which is half the project cost.

This will mean an added expense to commuters, but will help repay the loan faster. Mumbai locals are an extremely convenient and fast system of transport for the middle and lower classes, and this hike might casue some concern to people who rely on the locals for quick and inexpensive transport. However, the amounts recovered and repayed will be quite huge considering the amount of people using the service, even though the individual difference will only be a couple of rupees. Ticket sales are expected to jump to Rs. 1080 crores per year from the Rs.900 crore that is currently the number.

I had brought this up in an earlier forum, where I had suggested a hike in prices for adding security measures to the railway system. While repaying the loan is a priority, with the recent bomb blasts and overall trend for terrorists to target public transport, it is becoming a matter of urgency to increase monitoring and block access tothe system from unofficial points of entry. I don’t know how much a communter either knows or bothers about loans from the world bank, but this surely would have them happy to pay a rupee or so in addition to their normal ticket price.

Suggestions from some of the members on the discussion forum included:

• Isolation of railway tracks by the construction of boundary walls
• Blocking of all access to the railway system except official entrances and exits
• Camera surveillance on trains, platforms, ticket counters, and entrance and exit points
• Metal detectors and other security measures at entrance and exit points
• Training of all staff to handle emergencies related with terrorism

It sounds like a phenomenal expense, but I doubt if it is impossible in reality. It is not as expensive as the development of railway tracks, or rakes. I think these are all very good suggestions and could gradually be covered with a rupee or so added to the price of every ticket. It wouldn’t be instantaneous, but the funds would surely flow to tackle one thing at a time steadily and then cover their maintenance as well later.

Perhaps, even extra funds from a station could directly be put to use developing that station, resulting in the more important stations naturally being protected first through their higher sales of tickets and greater number of commuters requiring greater security. It would mean other useful things as well. Helping investigate pick pockets, eve teasing, damaging railway property or spitting/littering, etc. It would undeniable make the railway experience cleaner and safer while requiring less personnel to monitor more factors. This could get our outstanding, but shabby service to admirable standards while setting a standard for public cleanliness and security for other areas of public life.

I feel that paying a rupee or so more would be a very worthwhile investment for something like this and people would participate willingly for something that directly adds to their experience rather than vanishes into a loan they are hardly aware of, even though that money needs to be recovered somehow.

I guess this is still a distant dream, but it doesn’t stop me from wishing that a hike in fares actually meant something to ensure my safety as well, even if it means a hike of two rupees in stead of one.