Jorhat Broadband Bill: Mid-Cycle Upgrade, Outage Credit and a Shaped Customer
A broadband operator in Jorhat bills monthly in advance for a 30-day cycle running 1 to 30 June. The customer, a small travel agency, holds the Fibre 50 plan at ₹499 per month exclusive of tax with a 150 GB fair-usage cap, plus a static IP at ₹100 per month and a rented ONT at ₹50 per month. On 18 June the customer upgrades to Fibre 100 at ₹799 with a 300 GB cap; the change order is dated and accepted on 18 June. The customer's own ONT was bought earlier, and the rented ONT was returned to the office on 10 June, but rental continued to be billed for the full month. A verified NOC ticket shows the circuit was down from 12 to 15 June inclusive, four days, because of a cut drop cable. GST is 18%. By 28 June the customer has used 340 GB, has been shaped to 2 Mbit/s, and is now refusing to pay, demanding the whole month free and saying he will post about it on social media.
1. Compute the correct June bill: prorated subscription, add-ons, the outage credit and GST. Show every line and the reasoning behind each proration.
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1. Subscription, prorated for the mid-cycle upgrade. The change takes effect 18 June, so days 1–17 are on Fibre 50 and days 18–30 (13 days) on Fibre 100.
- Fibre 50: 499 × 17/30 = ₹282.77
- Fibre 100: 799 × 13/30 = ₹346.23
- Subscription total = ₹629.00
2. Static IP: ₹100 for the full month = ₹100.00.
3. ONT rental: returned 10 June, so charge only 10 days: 50 × 10/30 = ₹16.67. The remaining ₹33.33 is a billing error on the operator's side and must be credited.
Subtotal before credit = 629.00 + 100.00 + 16.67 = ₹745.67.
4. Outage credit: 4 verified days out of 30 on the base plan. Use the plan actually in force on those days - 12 to 15 June falls in the Fibre 50 period: 499 × 4/30 = ₹66.53.
(Crediting 799 × 4/30 = ₹106.53 would over-compensate, because Fibre 100 was not the active plan during the outage. If the SLA instead credits at the highest plan of the month, use ₹106.53 and say why.)
Net = 745.67 − 66.53 = ₹679.14.
5. GST at 18% = 679.14 × 0.18 = ₹122.25.
Total payable = ₹801.39.
The credit and the rental correction should be issued as a credit note carrying the same GST treatment, so the tax ledger stays consistent.
2. The customer demands the whole month free and threatens to post on social media. Set out the substance of your reply, including what goodwill you can offer within a frontline agent's authority.
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Structure the reply in four moves: acknowledge, evidence, entitlement, gesture.
- Acknowledge without admitting more than the record shows. The cable cut is real and the rental error is the operator's fault - say so plainly, and apologise for the rental error specifically, because it is entirely on the operator.
- Show the numbers. A 30-day cycle with 4 verified downtime days gives a 4/30 credit, and the customer used the service on the other 26 days. A full month free is not supported by the SLA and cannot be approved at agent level; promising it and then withdrawing it would be worse than refusing it now.
- Explain the shaping separately. 340 GB used against a 300 GB cap means the speed reduction is correct under the plan, and the cap itself should have been prorated for the plan change (roughly 150 GB × 17/30 + 300 GB × 13/30 ≈ 215 GB) - if that proration was not applied, volunteering it is the strongest goodwill move available and costs little.
- Offer something concrete within authority: waive the remaining ₹16.67 rental, add a one-time 50 GB top-up, or credit one month of static IP (₹100). State the corrected bill, the credit note number and the date it will appear.
Escalation: if the customer still refuses, log the call, offer a retention callback within 24 hours, and note the social-media threat factually in the CRM without responding to it publicly. Keep everything in writing so the customer's own record matches the one the operator can produce.
3. Later the NOC log shows the ONT had no power from 12 to 15 June because the shop's main switch was off. How does that change the credit, and how would you communicate the change?
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How it changes the credit: the SLA covers the network up to the demarcation point; it does not cover failure of the customer's own power or equipment. If the OLT port showed no LOS or dying-gasp alarm, no PPPoE session attempts arrived from the ONT, and the optical receive level was normal immediately before and after, the outage was on the customer's side and the ₹66.53 credit falls away. The rental correction of ₹33.33 stands, because that error is unrelated to the outage.
Additional consequence: if the operator's terms allow a charge for a visit that finds no network fault, the visit fee may be raised - but on a first occurrence it is usually better business to waive it and keep the customer.
How to communicate it:
- Lead with the evidence, not the conclusion: the dates, the absence of OLT alarms, and the ONT's optical level before and after. Most customers accept a clear timeline even when they dislike the answer.
- Separate the two issues explicitly so the customer does not feel the whole bill is being re-litigated: the rental error is still corrected and still credited.
- Be concrete about prevention: put the ONT and router on a small UPS or a separate circuit, since the shop's main switch also kills the router.
- Confirm everything in writing and keep the credit note for the rental error, so the customer sees that the operator corrected what was genuinely its mistake.
The judgement being tested is not whether the customer is right - it is whether you correct your own error while declining a credit the evidence does not support, and do both in one conversation.