Hutch Network gone to the dog?

Firstly my apologies to dog lovers. Am just using the phrase.

Ever since Hutch took over Orange in Mumbai, the future doesn’t seem so bright anymore!

Besides getting rather erratic signal, I’ve experienced loads of cross connection problems. And this hasn’t happened to just me!

What is even more surprising is that a full signal drops several units the moment I answer a call!

Technology usually gets better with time. Here we are actually seeing a drop in performance!

I’ve been using Hutch for over five years now and this number for two, and so am a little reluctant to shift 🙁
But, if I have to, I will!

Let me know your experiences with Hutch. I don’t think we can do much about it, but maybe some bad publicity may wake them up?

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26 Comments

  1. I doubt that will make a difference, especially here.

    The customer care people here sure are irritating right from Orange days! And they are useful only if you want to change your talk plan or similar.

  2. move to BPL, i ialways used them and it worked alrite. U sure its not a problem with your handset? this cud cause the same problems.

  3. I doubt it is a problem with the handset, because others too have problems with cross connection and signals.

    Hutch also owns BPL in Mumbai, so no use. Besides BPL network sucks more.

    Airtel seems the only option, but I would hate to change my number.
    I’m waiting for a TRAI ruling that lets you shift but not change the number.

  4. You could be experiencing the problem during handoffs from one cellsite to another…its happens to me too sometimes 🙂 I didn’t find Orange all that great either…guess we’ll have to wait till TRAI allows number portability..thats not gonna happen anytime soon 😉

  5. Yes the network of Hutch is really bad its worst ever i have ever seen go to other network its good and also the customer care of hutch is very bad

  6. The problem with going to another network is that my number will change.

    Hence the wait for the TRAI regulation, if it comes!

  7. I guess Hutch is best still in Mumbai. BPL Sucks badly everywhere! Moving to Airtel means losing the number…

  8. I am still on Hutch and I beg to differ Rahul.
    The network is extremely pathetic. I guess they are just badly overloaded.

    And the reason I am still on Hutch is because I don’t want to lose the number.

    If the TRAI allows changing your provider and retaining the number, I will shift.

    I’ve been a loyal user of Orange (Hutch) for over four years!

  9. hey Ajay….
    I was a big fan of Hutch in college days…n i just hate it now…EveryTime u try the customer care the network or the number is busy….n every time u wanna cancel the present scheme the n/w will be down…so u end up paying for the next month also…I’ll be switching to airtell soon…(tired of this sick network) …i came looking for a customer care online…Found u guys doing a gr8 job….Cheers!!

  10. Hi,

    Thanks for the email. Guess you have a much worse problem with customer care out there. Customer Care of Hutch really sucks. Where are you located?

    Regards,
    Ajay

  11. I have different problem. My hutch SIM get crashed every 2 months .. I’m using hutch for last 3 years(from the time when it was Orange). Since I used Prepaid plans it was good. The time when I shifted to postpaid it became hell for me. Network connectivity become worst and SIM started crashing every 2 months.
    I have changed the SIM 3 times. This sunday again SIM crashed and still I’m waiting for new SIM. There customer care and service both are useless. Now I have plan to shift to some other service provider. 3 years back I used Airtel, that was also pethatic. I think theres still no future for new technologies.

  12. Hi Atin,

    Unfortunately this is an irritating problem with all networks. Guess we just have to live with it. If you are having so many Sim crashes, could it be a problem with your phone?

  13. No one is perfect…but the hutch network congestion,call drops and network congestion is as close as you can get to total chaos !!

  14. Hi Ajay,
    It’s been three and a half months when I posted in your blog. Continuing … I got checked my phone twice and every retailer said phone is working fine it’s problem with SIM only. After one week I got new(4th) SIM from HUTCH and that SIM is working fine till today(God knows how long will it run.).
    Well so my SIM problem is solved and something new started … I shifted my flat on 8th Feb 2007 from Koperkhairane to Vashi. In flat I saw my phone is showing \”Limited Service\”. I did manual search and found three networks(Dolphin, BPL, Airtel) but no Hutch. I came out of society and managed to get 2 indicators and called customer care. But call dropped four times and every time when call connected I gave same answers to same painful question (customer care questions). I came out 300 mts from my den and tried and registered complain. After that every 10 days I did followup and but no joy. Their engineers did a survey and came to know there’s poor network. And they have no future plans to put any tower in that area. But they will try to Incerase gain of surrounding towers. This is 20th April and they havn’t came up with any solution and I’m still facing problem. As I reach home I’m disconnected by NETWORK. My friends, who has Airtel or Tata Indicom or other connection, can easily talk .. I even can’t get a SMS. Phewwwwwww.. I have lots of dog near my society but none of them is hutch dog.

    Sometimes for a few days I also faced Constant \”Network Busy\” errors, even customer care number 111 was unavailable. \”Call failed\” is normal message that I get during calls. \”Conditional Call Forwarding\” I have no clue why I get this message when I dial a number. I get atleast 3-4 service SMS charges in my bill without sending any service message.

    So Vasanth .. still you think hutch is somehow good (atleast 33%) .. may be in Banglore 😉

  15. Dude,
    the network in my area has definitely gone to the dog’s.However none of the dog’s seem to belong to HUTCH.

    I have the same problems here in Borivali(W).A manual search will show all networks apart from HUTCH.The tower which is less than 100 meters from my flat suddenly dies and I get\”no network\” message.If I’m lucky I can get a bar or two from towers more than a Kilometer away.I;ve been complaining for a year and all i get is,we have increased the gain of surrounding towers and hope to jave a new tower in 2 or 3 months.Well a year has passed listening to this BS and a Email to the nodal officer even failed to get things going.But a engineer visited my flat agreed to the network strength issues ,and started bitching about how a lotta customers have suddenly started facing this \”NO Network problem\”.
    That was the last straw,if a Hutch engineer cribs about his own netwrok and how HUTCH dosent have enough towers,I’ve resigned myself to a fate with zero network coverage.
    I still have the same number for the last 5 years and I fwd calls to my landline incase I’m outta coverage area……..looks like the mutt wont be visiting me anytime soon

  16. You sure are having amazing problem with hutch… why not just shift network? It makes good sense in your position.

  17. This is really something which will irretate anyone with what happens to Atin.It is definite that one will go for a different service provider.I am too fed up of the network problem.and I am sure this would make me as well as others who are living there shift to some other Service Provider.Fact is that atleast there should be network were we are living else the mobile is worth nothing.

  18. The problem I had with hutch was stupid billing, in the case of postpaid and indiscriminate advertising in the case of prepaid.
    Every now and then I would be losing 15 rs or so with them and the customer care couldnt make things any clearer.
    I quit hutch to switch to aircel, better in my region atleast

  19. Guys i just thought HUTCH was bad in smaller cities like bangalore compared to behemoths like delhi,bombay.. but readin this blog and findin out HUTCH is screwed in a city like bombay has surprised me… well in bangalore the scene is like this… there are half the no of towers in size and coverage compared to airtel (which has 3 million subscribers in karnataka) … seriously even the big towers of hutch have like 2 or 3 antenna’s on them while airtel would have about 5… this explains why there is no network of HUTCH in bangalore even if im 100 mtrs away form a visible HUTCH tower!!!!!! moreover if ur in a theatre, be rest assured that people cannot reach you.

    so obviously the network is overloaded with so many users and such less towers, leading to \”NETWORK BUSY\” \”NO NETWORK\” \”ERROR IN CONNECTION\” and im pretty sure one day a msg sayin \”UR A LOSER\” WILL COME UP….LOL…

    THE same goes for customer care who are 1st class retards, blatantly sayin \”HUTCH is best sir,really sir\” instead of tryin to lodge ur complaint and forward it to the people concerned.

  20. I was using BPL/Hutch since last 5 years but now there services seems to be very very bad even worse than the VSNL. Getting touch with the customer care is purely waste of time and even if we get reply is not at all satisfactory.
    Hutuch is giving advertisement extending various faciliies to pre-paid members but it is only cheating.
    As per Hutch advertisement stating that if we pay Rs.99/- towards rechrge we can use for one month talk time and once I paid I received a message that the phone has been re-validated. But I tried to dial I was told that there is no sufficient balance. When I wanted to talke to customer care about this I was not able to any one of the executive and after the 3rd I got reply that my phone has been revalided until now I have not received any intimation. Surprisingly, a phone valid until 30th March, 2008 is there any necessary to re-validate immediately. Executive does not have any answer to this. This is what our Hutuch service. Where is the efficiency has gone????

  21. The more startling facts about the deteriorating and useless Hutch connection.U ALL STOP LOVING YR Hutch NUMBER.Go for the better service. Airtel is not perfect but its always the best among these worst providers.

    I applied for a postpaid connection.But they ended up giving me another person’s no. which is yet 2 b activated and meanwhile he is using my number and bill has reached rs 1200/- in 3 days!!! He is above all a dirty talking and rowdy person.. Hutch is now trying to get back the money as connection is on my name.THIS EXCHANGE OF NUMBERS is now getting common in Noida.!!Avoid Hutch and stay in peace.Today I got the Airtel no. and life has been smoother….
    Thanks to this blog.I am going to xpose more grievances so that u all stop loving HUtch No. and that UGLY Dog

  22. Hi
    I have been using hutch connection last 2 and half years bangalore network is ok, but I have got connection in hyderabad, suddenly they barred my connection after I try continuosly to customer care of HUTCH Hyderabad, Their is no response. what I suggest don’t give. we never distrub after some time both are happy.

    Thanks
    Palani

  23. I am hutch subscriber from Vapi(Gujrat)cell no 99250 33681,whenever called my sons Mumbai hutch cell, hardly get through at instant.If get through,sound craking,breaking problem exists,which usually dosent exist with other cell no.s. Today on Wed,the 5th Sep.2007 in the morning called 3-4 times to mumbai cell as above.the reply was calling no. is unavailable.Therefore called on my wife’s BPL cell and checked,son was at home and his cell also works all right,nothing wrong with it,as he has been receiving calls. I made a complaint to Hutch Gujrat(attendants name Miss Urvi,time08.59 am)),they say nothing wrong from our side,check with Mumbai Hutch.I am really worried,that how the Hutch Gujrat costomers will be satisfied if such replies will be given, instead finding cause of the same from their Mumbai Hutch brother.
    Prafulla R. Churi

  24. Worst network provider HUTCH. The Customer care is so confidently saying that it will take 6 months to improve network in your area. This is so disgusting.
    6 months to improve service in proper Mumbai. & in area like MAZGAON,
    Its really a worst network providing company.
    I think they deserve a award for that.

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