A terrible and horrible experience with Grammenphone Internet

Unfortunately, on the 6th September thief broke the door of my rented flat and took away my laptop, money, modem and gold ornaments. As a result I bought new Grameenphone modem, Grameenphone Internet SIM from Uttoron Computer, Shailakupa, Jhenidah on 8th September. After I bought the postpaid Internet SIM they informed me that within 72 hours my SIM will be activated. In the meantime they also told me they will send my information tomorrow morning and so I expect my SIM activated by tomorrow. Well, tomorrow arrived and it was afternoon. I keep trying to connect to Internet but SIM registration failed. I thought they said 72 hours, so let me see after 72 hours. After 72 hours I again tried to connect to Internet, still SIM registration failed. Then I contacted them through mobile phone. They said it should not be. They told me to go to their center with modem and SIM. I went to them and saw their center is closed.

After it is 6 days passed and EID is finished I again contacted them through mobile phone. This time to the owner of the shop. He feels hesitate and ringed to the customer manager indicating that the paper of badly filled and my SIM will not be activated. He felt sorry to me and told me to wait till tomorrow. In the meantime, I have to come back in Dhaka but still did not see any good response. I contacted to grammeenphone online help through calling 121 but they informed me the SIM is not registered yet and until it is registered they have nothing to do. Rather the customer manager told me to contact the shop from where I bought the SIM. Anyhow, this time I contacted to my agent and they told me by tomorrow my SIM will be registered. Hopefully the next day at night I am succeed to connect to Internet. So it took my 9 took to activate my SIM package!

Well, I have recharged 1000 taka and activated P2 unlimited package from Grameenphone. Note that, I always read that package P2 is unlimited that means you can download and upload as much as you can. Though Grameenphone Internet speed is not good but still they have introduced fair usage policy which is funny really. Anyway according to P2 unlimited package fair usage policy any subscriber whose monthly usage is over 5G they will be implied to fair usage policy. BOGUS AND BULLSHIT GRAMEENPHONE. But there is more pathetic news coming.

According to them,
Grameenphone's Unlimited Plans are designed for subscribers who do not want to receive a bill beyond a certain amount and for those who wish to enjoy unlimited access to their internet. However, in the event that usage exceeds the regular acceptable levels in accordance with the Fair Usage Policy, subscribers shall not be charged for their excess usage. Instead, a restriction shall be placed on their data transfer rates beyond their regular usage in order to ensure the quality of service for all regular customers.

Unlimited Plan subscribers who regularly exceed the accepted level of usage will be affected by this Fair Usage Policy. Under the terms of GP's unlimited internet plan, no charge will be applied for excess usage, however upon exceeding the stipulated volume limit, the subscriber’s speed shall be restricted for the remaining period within their current bill cycle or validity period or that particular day depending on the package they are using. Normal service speed shall be restored from the first day of the next bill cycle or subscription renewal.

Now I have activated P2 package at 17th September. As I bought a new laptop so for it I downloaded different software like xampp, filezilla, antivirus and tried to download windows operating system. But in the middle I see everything stuck. It was happened at 3rd October. After I have connecting to GP internet, I see I am not able to connect any chat system like yahoo messenger, gtalk or skype. Even I can't browse any website. After 10 hours of trying at last I have logged in to online GP customer care and no one of them able to give me right answer. Well, the pathetic scenario is after I connect to Internet, GP automatically disconnects me after 1/2/3 minutes. It sounds in a hour I get disconnect 30 times. IMAGINE!! Once again I call them to 121 and at last I have heard their ridiculous fair usage policy. According to them after you exceed 5G limit your Internet connection will be limited to 3KBS and hardly I get around 1KBPS after connecting to their system, though my connection spans at best 3 minutes.

Ok, I agree to them that I have exceed 5G limit and hence I have imposed a limit, but whenever I ask them why I am getting frequent disconnection they did not able to tell me any good answer. As GP charges daily basis on P2 package so I decided to cancel the P2 package and wish to activate P5 package. They told me to type "cancel" and send it to 5000. So I did it but I did not get any confirmation of cancellation. So I again asked them and they told me, to activate P5 package you need to recharge 450 taka more. As I have already around 400 taka in my account, so recharge 450 more and it will be 850 taka and P5 package including vat is 805 taka. As I know I am postpaid user and I have 50 taka credit limit but still I recharged said amount.

Ok, after I recharged said amount Saikat (who is one of the grameenphone online customer helper) informed me that my account has been credited and he has activated my P5 package. So now I will be able to use my Internet without any problem. After I came back from my shop whenever I try to connect to my Internet, after it connects GP automatically disconnects my connection. Now more problem comes, even I could not connect to Internet. After so much trying I saw connection exists only for few seconds. So, I contacted them and they told me as I explicitly typed "cancel" so my P2 package status becomes pending. Now they will not be able to do anything. I need to wait till 12 am in order to reset P2 and activate P5.

Well, I waited till 12 am and whenever I tried to connect the same news. It automatically disconnects. At morning I explicitly sent message to 5000 for P5 package and it said to me my P5 package has been successfully activated. Now I tried to connect but still I get horrible speed and my connection spans for 2 minutes only. After 2 minutes, it does not allow me to connect anymore. I contacted to their support after calling 121. They told me I don't have sufficient balance and I need to recharge 50 taka more to use Internet. IMAGINE!!! I ALREADY ACTIVATED P5 PACKAGE AND NOW THEY TOLD ME 50 TAKA MORE. Anyway, I went to shop and recharged 50 taka. Now I came back but same scenario I get disconnects immediately after connection established. Again I call them 121 , they told me the problem might be in my modem, so they suggest me to go to Mirpur-1 customer care. (The real thing is due to GP system Technical bug whenever I connected using P5 package it did not connect to P5 rather it connects to P1 ridiculous package and so within minutes it charged me 30 taka and I dont have any modem problem.)

Anyway, as they have suggested me I went to Mirpur-1 Grameenphone customer care. The customer manager inserted my modem to his laptop and he is getting disconnection just after connection established. He told me to go to Grameenphone service center. Note that in Dhaka there is 2 Grameenphone service center exists.

1. Agent Name: Discovery
Address: Suite 13/A, Chandrshilla Suvastu Tower, 69/1 Panthapath, Dhaka-1205.
There Samasung service center is Grameenphone modem service center.

2. Agent Name: Mobile Care
Address: 5th Floor, price plaza, 4/2 Sobhanbag, Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1207

The customer manager told me to go to Sobhanbag service center. I went to Sobhanbag but unfortunately at Tuesday price plaza is closed and so customer service center is closed too. So, I went to pantha path and in 13th floor. I saw several customers came with GP modem problem and unfortunately it seemed to me all are same problem like me and GP provided them false information about modem problem. Anyway, when my serial came, I told my problem then the customer service manager told me it is common problem for Grameenphone Internet modem model E1550. So she flushed my firmware and put a new updated version software. I did not bring my laptop. When I came back home I put the modem into my laptop. Now problem has changed and in fact it brought more problem. Now whenever I insert my modem into laptop it even can't recognize my SIM!!!

I am totally frustrated with GP as well as with their customer service at this point. At last I remember Kaosar vai about my frustration who is a member of GP employee and work in the customer service department. He informed me that it is totally GP problem and he will take care of it tomorrow because he was ill. Ok, I wait for tomorrow but till afternoon I see no good news. So I again go to grameenphone customer care and now instead of trying in their laptop they told me to go to there with my laptop! What would happen if the problem was in my desktop computer. I would go to there with my desktop pc!

Anyway, while I am in grammenphone center Kaosar vai informed me that my problem resolved and he wants me to try. I came back home and it worked really but not using this new modem driver. Alhamdulillah, I had old driver in my another laptop.