Two of my team mates Mahesh and Santosh gave us a treat today as they got promotion. after considering several restaurants we decided to go for Masala restaurant which is on Uttarahalli main road. Most of my team mates are vegetarians.
Here's what i feel about Masala restaurant and my ratings(scale of ten).
1. Ambiance : 7/10, It was a big hall. Seats were comfortable however there was no AC. There is an attached bar but we didn't order any beverages. There was ample parking space.
2. Non-veg food : 8/10, Wide variety of chicken, mutton and seafood available. We ordered hot chicken pepper soup, chicken Manchurian and prawn pepper as starters all of which were good. For main course we ordered mutton rogan josh and chicken tikka masala. Mutton rogan josh didn't had a taste of rogan josh instead felt like mutton masala. Chicken tikka masala was good.
3. Veg food : 5/10, I only tasted gobi manchurian and finger chips. Finger chips were good but gobi tasted bad. Most people who had vegetarian food had negative opinion about food.
4. Service : 8/10, servers were neatly dressed and serving was quite fast.
5. Overall : 7/10, It's good for non-vegetarian food. For pure veggies near our office, there are better options.
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Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Reliance WiMax broadband review
I am using Reliance Wi-Max broadband since last one and a half years. You can find my review at mouthshut here.
When i was looking to get a new broadband connection, i called Airtel, Sify and Hathway and all of them said they won't provide service in our area(Nagarabhavi in Bangalore). It's surprising that Bangalore is called IT city/Silicon valley of India but it's very difficult to get a broadband connection. After this I went to BSNL office in Chandra layout and applied for a new landline connection along with broadband. When asked when i will get connection, i was told i will get it within a week. When i didn't hear anything from them even after a month i went to BSNL office and enquired about my application and it was all up in the air. They didn't had any clue about my application even after showing receipt. If BSNL can't provide a connection then why do they advertise on TV?. As a last resort i took Reliance Wi-Max connection. I have 400kbps connection and i pay Rs.1100 per month including taxes.
So far except customer service, i am not having any issues with the connection. It's more than 6 months since my net went down hence i didn't find any reason to contact their customer care. It was worst when i started using it. It used to take long time to get dynamic IP. Net used go down a lot of times and when i call customer care, i used to get irritated with the same way they used to speak every time for different problems. Now i keep PoE(Power over Ethernet) on for five minutes and i get a connection. Few months back the antenna installed on top of my house was stolen, They installed a new one in place of that. I heard from the guy who came to istall antenna that many incidents of antenna being stolen has happened lately. The reason he told was since the company which used to provide Wi-Max antenna(Telsima corporation) went bust and stopped production, rival Tata group person may be doing this since they also use the same antenna. I haven't verified the authenticity of this. I have to give Police complaint that my antenna has been stolen and produce the receipt to the reliance to get a new antenna. I can tell you that it's easy to say that i gave a Police complaint, but it was really hard to explain Police what Wi-Max antenna was and how it looks as they never had seen any and refused to take any complaint initially but took it after repeated requests.
To conclude heres my observation of Reliance Wi-Max connection.
Pros
Stable connection, has improved over last year.
Download speed: 40-45kbps(stable) for 400kbps connection
Upload speed : 40 kbps
Outage : No outage since last 6 months
Cons
Pathetic customer care!!. The customer care people are like answering machines. They repeat the same thing again and again. The first person whom you speak won't have any clue about Wi-Max connection nor they have technical knowhow about how to solve your problem. They just give you one complaint number and say technical person will contact you. Many times that technical person won't contact you. If you call them again and tell them about the complaint number you had received before, they will say sorry and give you one more complaint number. This goes on and on and on.
They ping customers 15 days before the last date to pay the bill and ask them to pay. I never missed any payment but still i get calls atleast 2-3 times before due date asking me to pay the bill.
When i was looking to get a new broadband connection, i called Airtel, Sify and Hathway and all of them said they won't provide service in our area(Nagarabhavi in Bangalore). It's surprising that Bangalore is called IT city/Silicon valley of India but it's very difficult to get a broadband connection. After this I went to BSNL office in Chandra layout and applied for a new landline connection along with broadband. When asked when i will get connection, i was told i will get it within a week. When i didn't hear anything from them even after a month i went to BSNL office and enquired about my application and it was all up in the air. They didn't had any clue about my application even after showing receipt. If BSNL can't provide a connection then why do they advertise on TV?. As a last resort i took Reliance Wi-Max connection. I have 400kbps connection and i pay Rs.1100 per month including taxes.
So far except customer service, i am not having any issues with the connection. It's more than 6 months since my net went down hence i didn't find any reason to contact their customer care. It was worst when i started using it. It used to take long time to get dynamic IP. Net used go down a lot of times and when i call customer care, i used to get irritated with the same way they used to speak every time for different problems. Now i keep PoE(Power over Ethernet) on for five minutes and i get a connection. Few months back the antenna installed on top of my house was stolen, They installed a new one in place of that. I heard from the guy who came to istall antenna that many incidents of antenna being stolen has happened lately. The reason he told was since the company which used to provide Wi-Max antenna(Telsima corporation) went bust and stopped production, rival Tata group person may be doing this since they also use the same antenna. I haven't verified the authenticity of this. I have to give Police complaint that my antenna has been stolen and produce the receipt to the reliance to get a new antenna. I can tell you that it's easy to say that i gave a Police complaint, but it was really hard to explain Police what Wi-Max antenna was and how it looks as they never had seen any and refused to take any complaint initially but took it after repeated requests.
To conclude heres my observation of Reliance Wi-Max connection.
Pros
Stable connection, has improved over last year.
Download speed: 40-45kbps(stable) for 400kbps connection
Upload speed : 40 kbps
Outage : No outage since last 6 months
Cons
Pathetic customer care!!. The customer care people are like answering machines. They repeat the same thing again and again. The first person whom you speak won't have any clue about Wi-Max connection nor they have technical knowhow about how to solve your problem. They just give you one complaint number and say technical person will contact you. Many times that technical person won't contact you. If you call them again and tell them about the complaint number you had received before, they will say sorry and give you one more complaint number. This goes on and on and on.
They ping customers 15 days before the last date to pay the bill and ask them to pay. I never missed any payment but still i get calls atleast 2-3 times before due date asking me to pay the bill.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Tata Sky review
The cable connection at my house was pathetic as i was getting bad quality picture. The cable operator of our area was not at all helpful and despite calling him several times, things didn't get any better so i decided to get DTH connection. I also considered set top box but i din't wanted to deal with my cable operator again. I did research on the web, read reviews in mouthshut, broadband forum and several blogs. I also visited their websites and checked their packages.
Currently in India there are 6 DTH service providers
1. Dish TV
2. Tata Sky
3. DD Direct
4. Airtel Digital TV
5. Big TV
6. Sun direct
My package(What i need) should include all Kannada channels + English news channels + Sports + Business + infotainment(Natgeo, discovery etc).
Finally i shortlisted two of the following.
1. Tata Sky
2. Airtel Digital TV
I rejected the following
1. Sundirect (Cheapest of all but lots of unwanted channels, sports package is expensive, English news channels(CNN & BBC) were missing.
2. Dishtv (First to offer DTH in Indian, saw lot of negetive feedback on the web
3. Big TV (Best channel package among all, again lot of negetive feedback)
4. DD-Direct (I have moved on from Doordarshan era, never considered it)
My house owner had Tata Sky connection and picture quality was good but i found Tata Sky to be expensive among all. I went to Airtel office in Vijayanagar and enquired about the DTH connection. They said it will take minimum 15 days for me to get the connection. They lost one customer because of that. Why should anybody wait 15 days to get a DTH connection? phew!!.I called Tata Sky customer care and booked Tata Sky. I was told within 24 hours installation will be done. As they said two guys came to my house and installed Tata Sky next day. I took one year warranty on set top box for Rs.199 and Star Cricket as an add-on package for Rs.25. It's been three weeks since i am using Tata Sky and here are my observations.
Pros
1. Picture quality is great
2. So far i didn't had any problem with the customer service.
3. Apart from sports i get most channels i want in south saver pack(109 channels).
Cons
1. Having separate remotes for TV and STB is a nuisance. Airtel scores over TATA in this as they have same remote for TV and STB.
2. Bad business ethics!!. In these 3 weeks they already blocked all channels twice. I didn't pay for Star cricket channel upfront and it was given one day free to me. Next day when i came home from my office i was not getting any channels because i didn't recharge Star cricket.
Imagine you brought South Jumbo pack for Rs.2600 a year and star cricket as an add on package for Rs.25 a month on August 1. On September 1 if you forgot to recharge Star cricket, they will block your South Jumbo package along with Star cricket. If you call customer care and ask to discontinue star cricket, they will charge per day usage (say 80 paise) even after blocking that channel. When asked, they said it is computer generated. Computer doesn't have it's own brain right?. Everything is with the way it is programmed. The name TATA reminds me of JRD Tata and Ratan Tata and i have high regards for them but i wonder is TATA sky belongs to the same TATA group.
3. One day when it rained, it stopped working and it took 15 minutes to resume service.
What i paid?.
Set top box + Installation(1 month subscription free) Rs.1999
Start Cricket add on package Rs.25
1 year extended warranty Rs. 199
--------------------------
Total Rs.2223
Is it worth?.
If your cable connection is good, just get a set top box to enhance your viewing experience and don't go for DTH. If you have a bad connection, then you may consider it.
Currently in India there are 6 DTH service providers
1. Dish TV
2. Tata Sky
3. DD Direct
4. Airtel Digital TV
5. Big TV
6. Sun direct
My package(What i need) should include all Kannada channels + English news channels + Sports + Business + infotainment(Natgeo, discovery etc).
Finally i shortlisted two of the following.
1. Tata Sky
2. Airtel Digital TV
I rejected the following
1. Sundirect (Cheapest of all but lots of unwanted channels, sports package is expensive, English news channels(CNN & BBC) were missing.
2. Dishtv (First to offer DTH in Indian, saw lot of negetive feedback on the web
3. Big TV (Best channel package among all, again lot of negetive feedback)
4. DD-Direct (I have moved on from Doordarshan era, never considered it)
My house owner had Tata Sky connection and picture quality was good but i found Tata Sky to be expensive among all. I went to Airtel office in Vijayanagar and enquired about the DTH connection. They said it will take minimum 15 days for me to get the connection. They lost one customer because of that. Why should anybody wait 15 days to get a DTH connection? phew!!.I called Tata Sky customer care and booked Tata Sky. I was told within 24 hours installation will be done. As they said two guys came to my house and installed Tata Sky next day. I took one year warranty on set top box for Rs.199 and Star Cricket as an add-on package for Rs.25. It's been three weeks since i am using Tata Sky and here are my observations.
Pros
1. Picture quality is great
2. So far i didn't had any problem with the customer service.
3. Apart from sports i get most channels i want in south saver pack(109 channels).
Cons
1. Having separate remotes for TV and STB is a nuisance. Airtel scores over TATA in this as they have same remote for TV and STB.
2. Bad business ethics!!. In these 3 weeks they already blocked all channels twice. I didn't pay for Star cricket channel upfront and it was given one day free to me. Next day when i came home from my office i was not getting any channels because i didn't recharge Star cricket.
Imagine you brought South Jumbo pack for Rs.2600 a year and star cricket as an add on package for Rs.25 a month on August 1. On September 1 if you forgot to recharge Star cricket, they will block your South Jumbo package along with Star cricket. If you call customer care and ask to discontinue star cricket, they will charge per day usage (say 80 paise) even after blocking that channel. When asked, they said it is computer generated. Computer doesn't have it's own brain right?. Everything is with the way it is programmed. The name TATA reminds me of JRD Tata and Ratan Tata and i have high regards for them but i wonder is TATA sky belongs to the same TATA group.
3. One day when it rained, it stopped working and it took 15 minutes to resume service.
What i paid?.
Set top box + Installation(1 month subscription free) Rs.1999
Start Cricket add on package Rs.25
1 year extended warranty Rs. 199
--------------------------
Total Rs.2223
Is it worth?.
If your cable connection is good, just get a set top box to enhance your viewing experience and don't go for DTH. If you have a bad connection, then you may consider it.
