Conned !

For the past 4 days, I've been trying to restore my internet connection which got suspended as a result of non-payment from my ISP's (YouTeleCom) point of view. Formerly known as Iqara, YouTeleCom has its Navi Mumbai office located at Sector 17, Vashi. I've always considered YouTeleCom's internet service far better than the others - for home based internet connections. Their internet speed is always at a constant, uptime is almost 99% a month except for those days when heavy floods become a remediable calamity. Customer support at the call-center is good enough, though their circle of information is always within their main office (Guregaon) and seem to know little or nothing when it comes to the point where information has to be gathered from the branch office. But its their billing system thats a total mess, esp their renewal section where it can take days for your connection to get renewed. Apparently, they've outsourced the home-to-home payment collection part to various agents who ultimately are responsible for huge monthly renewals. One such agent, Skypak, that deals with numerous renewal systems for many services, had sent a person down to my place for collecting the payment for 2 months of internet service (Sept & Oct 2006). I, at the doctor's place at roughly 8:00 P.M. on the 10th of October, was not at home to make the payment and hence my dad did it for me. Apparently, the person who arrived, was some fraud since there was no one named Rakesh Kumar (by which he signed) among all the payment-collection agencies of YouTeleCom which they cross-checked. Whats surprising is, how this thief managed to get the receipts of the name-changed ISP. If he had given receipts bearing the name Iqara instead of You Telecom, it would've been understandable that he got hold of the old receipts, but no, he got hold of the newly printed receipts ! Here is the fraudulent receipt, though genuine. The best long-term solution is for us to make the payment at the office directly rather than depend on 3rd-party agents. After all, its only once a month trip to the office. Me now shopping for spy-cams !