Service Providers in Hyderabad

When moving to a new city, one of the first few things that needs to be done is to find all the necessary companies to give you your internet, water, gas, mobile, etc.

Finding the right one will make the stay here much easier while the wrong one can really drive you up the wall.

These are the service providers I used and what I think of them.

Reliance Internet
AVOID! There is no way I will recommend them to anyone. While there is not much issue with their internet connection or speed, it is their billing system and customer service that will have you hopping mad.

Firstly, the breakdown of their bill is difficult to understand and the monthly amount is sometimes different (always more and not less) even though it is the same plan that I have been subscribed to for months. Call up their hotline and their standard reply is "Our billing department will call you back in 48 hours". After three days, I am always the one calling them again, pleading for their billing department to call me back. As I do not want to default on the bill payment date and risk having the connection terminated, the only way is to chase them instead. Once, I called them like four to five times within two weeks and I never heard from the billing department.

Next, Customer Service. For the billing issue that took more than two weeks to resolve, I had asked to speak with their supervisor hoping for a speedier resolution but it only ended up with us raising our voices at each other. Yes, their supervisor raised his voice at me. I sent in a email feedback after that and never heard back from them.

Another time, someone else had called to do a survey. When I told her to speak slower because I had difficulty understanding, she hung up on me. That is their customer service.

Airtel Mobile
I use a prepaid card from them and never had any problems. Topping up the credit is a breeze as they have many mum-and-pop shops where it can be done instantly. Sometimes, they have promotions too where you top up RS350 and get RS50 free.

One SMS costs RS1 and the charges for calls are even cheaper. So, one top up can last me a pretty long time.

No complaints on this one!

Tata Sky Cable
Many thanks to the cable subscription here, I have been watching more television here in a year than maybe in the last 10 years combined! Channels I subscribed to ranges from news (CNN, BBC, etc) to entertainment (TLC, FOX, AXN, Star World, HBO, etc) and it has kept me well entertained throughout the year. I had caught many movies which I had missed out on before like "Julie and Julia" and also finally knew what "Gossip Girl" was all about. They were even showing the latest season of "Bones" before Singapore started screening it. All for no more than RS400 (around SGD12) a month! Now, I understand why they say cable is expensive in Singapore.

Anyway, it's easy to make payment online and their customer service hotline is usually able to handle most of my queries on the spot without having to call me back. That is what I call resolution.

Drinking Water
Water from the tap is not of drinking standard here, so you can either buy one of those Reverse Osmosis system or order drinking water which comes in 25L jerry cans that costs RS75.

I chose to order Kinley water (under the Coca-Cola brand) from their authorised distributor - Srikaa Aqua. So far, they have been reliable and will deliver the water within 24 hours except for this one time during summer when they were running low in supply. Only downside is they can't tell you what time (which is quite typical of delivery standards here), so you either are at home, leave instructions with your building watchman or miss the delivery.

Standard Chartered Bank

Had expected more from them since they are an international brand but it took almost a month for us to get our account opened. After we had changed our address, they were still sending mail to the old address and it took awhile again before they got it right.

The only bank branch was not impressive and gave the impression of being messy. Also, think they need to train their front line staff to be more professional when dealing with customers. If I were to do it a second time, I would instead try HSBC that is just down the road.