Airtel (Dis)service
Wednesday (23rd May, 2007) morning the news screamed out loud, Airtel has 40 million subscribers! They are the first Indian company to reach that mark and the tenth company world-wide, and all of this in just 12 years. I have been an Airtel subscriber for at least 9 of those years. I would say a loyal subscriber. I have had my share of problems as well, but overall things have not been too bad. There are of course things like service quality of which Airtel has little or no idea. Being an old subscriber one would assume that in case, for some unforseen reason a bill went unpaid (like not having received a printed copy of the bill), the least you would expect is a phone call before service is discontinued. But no, its not to be. The systems are all in place, loyal or not, you miss paying you get disconnected. Its worse when one is travelling and suddenly discovers that the phone no longer works. This has happened to me in the past, I spoke to them and clearly told them that such a thing should not be repeated and that it should go down on record, that I do not wish to be disconnected without having received a call from an executive at Airtel.
On Tuesday, just before their big announcement, I decided to go out of town for a few days. Just as we were exiting Delhi, I asked Jyoti to check my mail on my PDA via GPRS. Mail came through no issues at all. But as soon as we exited Delhi, we also seem to have lost connectivity. I was a little surprised that throughout the drive, I did not get a single call or SMS, not even the numerous “Welcome to {local provider}…” but I didn’t pay attention to it. The reason seems to have been an SMS I sent earlier to discontinue my international roaming. On April 9, 2007 I decided to try the smart services that Airtel keeps advertising and sent an SMS to discontinue my International Roaming (SMS DEV IRR to 121) as it can be activated within a few hours and costs Rs.149/- per month. So in the months when I am sure I am not travelling abroad, may as well save some money. Little did I know it would create a mess like this. How this happened I do not know. All I got was “We are extremely sorry…”. The SMS caused Airtel to also discontinue my National Roaming. Worst part is they just did it without cross-checking with me. Don’t they care about their own revenues? Whenever, I travel domestic, I manage to double my phone charges, so my loss of connectivity was Airtel’s loss as well.
Apart from this current mess, some of the older cribs, I have had are related to GPRS speeds and then of course there is the website:
As a part of our continuous effort to enhance our
services we are upgrading this site so Registration will be not
available for Broadband and Telephone Services/DSL. Kindly call up our
Call Centre (121) for any support.
System is temporarily unavailable! Please try after some time.
I got this so many times on the site, that I have virtually given up using it!
40 million and counting, I just hope they start paying a little attention to all these consumers, specially before the “Unified Access Service License” or in other words number portability.
Cheers…Kishore
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Kishore, I also had a similar experience recently. And I also feel that they do not worry about old customers. And I guess this will continue till we have number portability in India. Airtel knows that you will not want to change your number and so you are stuck. You may also note that they offer you a great bill plan… provided you are a new customer. But if you are an old loyal customer…. then those attractive plans are not for you.
Here is what I faced recently.
I subscribe to their ECS service (for the last 4 years) where my credit card is directly billed by Airtel on the due date irrespective of whether I receive the bill or not. Last week outgoing calls from my phones were debarred because Airtel did not charge my card due to their system error. When I called them, they shamelessly told me that this happened because of a system error and also asked me to pay the bill by visiting their office.
Aseem, you’re so right. This is not only true for Airtel but other companies as well, get a lifetime free Credit Card if you apply for a new one, however, continue to pay the annual charge. The price of loyalty!
Cheers…Kishore
–
Aseem is right in pointing out that until we number portability, the telephone companies will not be interested in improving their customer service.
Reliance CDMA has an interesting half way number portability. You tell them your GSM number, e.g. 98ABCDEFGH. They will give you a CDMA number 93ABCDEFGH. When you call from your new CDMA number, the 93 number matches your address book entry in the callee’s phone. S/he would know you are calling.
I know they are providing this service in Delhi.
BTW .. Reliance CDMA is atleast a million times better network than any GSM network we have.
Hey Kishore, another thing is that Airtel’s NOP version of GPRS does not allow third party applications. Why – well, they have no answers.
I am decided about changing my service too finally after being with them for years – something that i didn’t want to do as it risks the fact that 1000s of people have that number but am tired finally – my low blood pressure shoots up every time i talk to them.
R
I have put my number Post paid number in safe custody, with in a span of 2 months I wanted to activate my number, but I spoke to customer case & found that my number is deactivated & send to prepaid to some other customer. I tried sending many mails for past 20 days, but no replies or no call & no status updates from Airtel. I have been promised that it will get activated on
in next 2 days, like that it has extended for 20 days, but no news till now. I keep on sending mails but no response. Airtel is at its poorest service.
Be cautious of putting numbers in safe custody with Airtel. It is hazardous to got for Safe Custody. It is similar to closing the connection.
Airtel promises Rs. 100/= per bill if it is not resolved in time. But they have not kept the words for more than 5-6 times. I have raised some 5 complaints regarding this. But none of the Airtel Customer service people have courtesy to call me back & give me the in formations.
As per the TRAI Rules, even a number if deactivated, that particular number should not be used for 3 months. Even Airtel is not following TRAI rules.
Be cautious with Airtel Services & false promises.
AirTel gprs (Nop, live, mo) sucks, its damn slow!! And they are charging 15rs/day for slow internet
Nitin, I agree its slow. I recently switched to a phone that supports EDGE and speeds are noticeably better. I manage to check mail, read a few RSS feeds, get google maps and some minor surfing. But yes its terribly expensive at Rs.499/month for mobile office.
Cheers…Kishore
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hi, the customer services are so poor that they promise to get an issue resolved but they dont have the courtesy to even sms even more even after quoting the complaint number they say the complaint is not registered . on speaking sternly and asking to put on line with the senior official you get a word on getting the issue resloved. more than 720 rs was deducted from my account
Hi, I am a foreigner trying to establish a business in India. Frankly speaking – the effort I have to put in to get something like an internet or phone connection up and running is already quite something compared to other spots on the globe… But if I need some after sales support – well let me put it this way: It seems every company has a number to decorate their sales flyers. They call it “customer care”, “customer service” and the such. But to me it seems, they have no idea, what a CUSTOMER is and they don’t CARE about a CUSTOMER at all. People, you are getting let down and ripped off permanently. I made my experience with Reliance, Airtel, BSNL, TATA. Never in my life I heard so many lies and got such a shitty service – they are all the same. The guys in the call centers don’t care a shit (well they only care about their Rupees for sitting in their time), their bosses don’t care about a shit (they just care about being the boss of somebody) and if you go up the ladder it’s not changing, until you reach the top, where they only think about new schemes (scams) and new ways to squeeze the rupees out of the people. My god, it’s one thing to go on a shopping spree with all this FDI money and buy the latest technology, but please invest a little into Human Resources Development as well, so somebady can take care of the value creation chain (no, not money creation chain, I mean!) after implementation. Sorry to say: India is not an economic miracle – it is an economic nightmare.
Hi! Michael,
Service is bad in most areas, Telecom is just one that we use so much that they do get the brunt of our complaints. But I do agree with you, training in soft-skills and HR would be more beneficial than just investing more in technology!
We can only hope, that it starts getting better. There was a time we only had BSNL/MTNL and literally had to grovel to get services at least that has changed.
Cheers…Kishore
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Hello Kishore
Yes, true, service is weak in almost every sector – I was just getting aggravated with telecom because I am utterly dependent on it and so I let off some steam when I found this thread dealing with this very issue…
Please take my apologies for my harsh words. I once learned, that as a foreigner one should not critisize a host country…But then it drives me absolutely nuts that I have to face this ever same issues and have to waste so much of my time, energy (and money) on basics that it is getting very hard to focus on objectives. Unfortunately this applies to government-, banking- and servicing institutions in general and does not stop at telecom.
(
I guess this attitude is a relict from past times, when India was a clear sellers market and one had to be grateful to be able to receive a good or a service. But times have changed and minds need to change as well, otherwise this country will go into self destruction mode. Inflow of financing might stop one day due to whatever reason and if India has not learnt to self sustain its economy (and that also means valuing its consumer base) by that time – well, then goodbye…
So in the end it is not really just the question of investing into soft skills, but also of building attitude and this might be a sociological issue rather than a corporate one.
I do not have any recipe but it would be a good starting point to publicly discuss the implications of such a fast economic growth and how it impacts culture and environment. India really has the potential to become a very decent marketplace, but only if people cooperate and do not take advantage of each other. Might sound a bit philosophical, I know, but I have learnt from Indian traditions that caring for each other is a high held value and unfortunately I see this thrown away quickly in modern times on the quest for fast and maximised earnings. My plea to the people of this great nation would be: don’t try to imitate western standards, but CREATE proprietary Indian standards! You have the potential to make it better than it has been done elsewhere…
Already on the edge of going overboard, I conclude at this point. Wishing you all the best with your blog and many happy readers!
take care
Michael
Michael:
It’s not always bad. I just fought an apparantly losing battle with my bank (ICICI) and Airtel, trying to pay my bill. Just as I was about to commit what I would have called justifiable homicide, I decided to call Airtel one more time, and vent.
What I got was an extremely sweet lady who understood the problem, solved my payment problem by sending me to visabillpay.in, then booked a complaint to airtel and icici about the issue I have had, then personally called the next level up to make sure that the complaint has registered and is being addressed, then called me back and confirmed that airtel had received the payment, and gave me the refence numbers for the complaint for both icici and airtel.
Wow!
And I didn’t even get her name, which means that I can’t send in a recommendation for what I would call the sweetest and most pleasant customer service person I have ever dealt with. incredibly patient, never aggravating, and very very helpful.
I hope they never promote her, so that more people can get to deal with her rather than the kind of ^%$$@@@ we have been dealing with.
Atul
Wow, Atul, that seems to be a person who takes her job seriously and who is competent at her task!
In contradiction to your hope, I hope she is getting promoted, so she can inspire and guide a whole team – or better, the whole company – towards this level of competence.
and … considering your experience… maybe cloning in humans would not be such a bad thing…
Best
Michael
Tell me about Airtel cheating tricks. I am convinced they do not have human intelligence manning their helpdesks. This is the only way they have become India’s largest ISP!
For past 3 weeks, I am asking them to revert wrong charges placed on International Roaming. Even after showing them email sent BY Airtel to me, confirming the start and stop dates, they merely parrot in every email— We are not in receipt of your earlier request to stop IR, the charges cannot be waived. I mean, WTF? Can they not read English or are they calling me a liar?
Escalating to Nodal officers usually gets you a “pity” waiver. After many weeks, they will waive off the Rs.99 or so that you contest (more on principle, than for profit). They will still not accept or apologize, the girl from “customer excellence” will merely agree to the waiver. The system will maintain a high level of Moronity. Customer Care is too profitable to jeopardize by injecting “intelligence”!
Great post.
Vidooshaks last blog post..Common Sense has No Nationality
Vidooshak,
The problem is not just Airtel, its with a lot of service providers. Unfortunately, the situation does not seem to be improving in any way. As of now I have no cribs for Airtel any more since they sorted out the mess they created but who knows it may be back to haunt me or any one else for that matter.
Thanks.
Cheers…Kishore
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Hi All,
I am very unsatisfied with airtel services and would advise not to use airtel services being a Mobile connection. Digital TV, Broadband. All are reacting like Hell. This is very Pathetic service provider. Even Customer care, Nodal officer or Appellate authority does not know how to talk to a customer and there is no other escalation point other than appellate authority. No one had answer to my question. I am using all services from airtel and in a process of disconnecting all of them (3 Mobiles, One landline, Broadband and Airtel Digital TV).
Thanks
Deepak Kansal
hi all,
my international roaming charges for 5 days in UAE with limited usage of my mobile is a whopping 31,000 bucks – yet to receive the official bill – but will be interesting to note the contents of the bill.
I am customer of Airtel since last 5 years. I was quote satisfied with service, but for these some months I am irritated. They start some stupid ‘FREE’ songs service, some blog service which I never use or will like to use. Then after some 48 hours they say to discontinue the service send a SMS saying stop otherwise you will be charged rs. xyz/month. what’s this? Now a days when I call the customer care they charge 50 paisa/3 minute [never experienced but they caution me before handling me to be harassed by customer care
]. They should improve other wise it’s not at all difficult these days to switch to other provider.
Hi team
this is to inform you that I unable to avail the 3g services from airtel, per month I am paying 450/- Rs. For 3g and unable to use it for more than 10 days rest of the time I am complaining in airtel only. I am very much pissed off with airtel and there technical department and also escalated to higher level, still no go. I need your help in solving my problem. I will never ever recommend airtel to anyone. The connectivity is so bad it takes 10 minutes to a load a page and most of the time getting an error message: dns server not responding. Or connection timeout in opera browser.
I have re-logged the complaint on 6-7th march 2012, still no resolution. Attaching mail wrote to airtel:-
***************************************
from: appellate.Del@in.Airtel.Com
date: 13 march 2012 2:20:39 pm gmt+05:30
to: kartikkdewan@gmail.Com
subject: re: regarding 3g connection complaint [|bal|qrc10903122303068232228|]
dear mr. Dewan,
warm greetings from all of us at airtel.
This is in reference to the email received on 09 march 2012, expressing your concern regarding the 3g network connectivity for your airtel mobile number 9818303360.
To address your current concern, we have already raised a complaint with the relevant team. For your reference, the unique service request number is 42559074. Our team will contact you by 16 march 2012 with an update on your concern.
We completely comprehend your viewpoint and sincerely apologize for any difficulty caused to you by our customer service department.
We regret the inconvenience caused to you in this regard.
We hope that we have been able to address your query suitably.
Please do write in for any further assistance.
Please feel free to speak to our call center executive on 121 regarding any query/Request and on 198 for any complaint, you can also email us at 121@in.Airtel.Com.
You can get in touch with the nodal officer with your earlier request or complaint number if it is still unresolved. You may send an email at nodalofficer.Del@in.Airtel.Com or you may call at 9818334865 from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm monday to friday. The nodal officer will provide a resolution to your complaint in 10 working days.
If you do not receive a satisfactory response from nodal officer you may send an email at appellate.Del@in.Airtel.Com or you may call at 9958444865 from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm monday to friday.
Warm regards shilpi dutta appellate office bharti airtel limited
your response will help us to enhance your experience with airtel. Please click on the link below & provide us your valuable feedback on this interaction
click here to provide feedback
https:/Ispeed.Airtel.In/Ivoicefeedback/Search/Efviewerde.Aspx?info=7b9dfb 57e9fe02869abd9236faedf2063a6e71255f561a2e32c6aafd83b5cbed83e56bcc5c6cf305abcc5&refno=qrc10903122303068232228
———original message———-
from: kartikkdewan@gmail.Com
to: appellate.Del@in.Airtel.Com
CC: 121@in.Airtel.Com
sent: 09/03/2012 11:29:58 pm
subject: re: regarding 3g connection complaint [|bal|qrc11702121902577939888|]
hi bhavna jaiswal/Minish marqus
I would like to inform you that again I am start facing issue with my airtel
connection. I am not sure why same problem start occurring on my number. I have
seen user also complaining about there 3g connection. If any person on higher
level in your department would have face the same issue then you must
have action-ed it on priority basis, however you are taking my complete very
lightly. Moreover the team of your technical department is informing that my
handset is bad, which I have check and test in apple and my other office
colleague. I have noticed the problem the signal strength is always flickering
not stable and some times 3g symbol goes more over now its giving me an error
message that dns server is not responding. I have checked with my friend micro
sim which is working on my handset which clearly means that my handset is
working and same has been tested by apple service center, because of your
stupidity they opened by handset, is airtel going to pay me for that, nope, but
you are forcing me to do such things, why don’t you understand its problem from
your end and you need to fix it why I always have to take initiative and your
staff ask me to visit our airtel relationship center and all which is most
pathetic department at naraina , new delhi, those people are very rude and
insulting among all the customer even if you pay me even though I will not give
a visit at your airtel relationship center at naraina, they are so cheap
and crabby guyz, pathetic staff. This is my final commitment to you, if you
cannot fix my problem, let me know else I am going to logged a complaint in
consumer court, I am sick and tired of arguing with you and department. Iam
paying approx 450/- Pm for 3g and other service separately and monthly rental
yearly in response I just got service for 5-10 days then no connectivity for
the entire month, this is ridiculous and not acceptable..
my last request if my problem does get fixed by morning eod, then I will
logging a final complaint in consumer court on tuesday morning. I have checked
by sim in my iphone 4g and checked in my friend iphone 4g and I have checked in
my ipad 2, still no go.
Device are not the problem, your services is damn not worthy.
Contact person name: kartik dewan
ph: 9818303360
alternate no. Na
location delhi
on wed, mar 7, 2012 at 11:32 am, kartik wrote:
hello airtel team
this is to inform you that from yesterday I start facing the same issue which I
reported 10 days back on my mobile number. I logged a complaint today morning
please check and correct it I’M tired of writing emails to you for your
pathetic service.
Regards
kartik dewan
sent from my iphone
9818303360
delhi
on 28-feb-2012, at 6:15 pm, nodalofficer.Del@in.Airtel.Com wrote:
dear mr. Dewan,
warm greetings from all of us at airtel.
This is in reference to the email received on 17 february 2012, expressing your
concern regarding the 3g connectivity for your airtel mobile number 9818303360.
As per our telephonic conversation, we would like to inform you that, your
concern regarding the 3g connectivity has been resolved as per your
confirmation.
We understand the inconvenience caused to you and regret for the delay in
responding to your email.
We hope that, we have been able to assist you suitably.
Comments
Official Response
Airtel
15th March 2012
Dear kartik dewan,
this is to inform you that your concern has been noted and our team is working on a resolution. At the outset, we apologize for the inconvenience faced by you. We will get in touch with you for further details of your concern as the need arises.
For any queries you may have you can also get in touch with us at http://www.Airtel.In/Airtelpresence
regards
rakesh ranga
airtel presence (airtel customer service team)
bharti airtel ltd
airtelpresence@in.Airtel.Com
connect with us 24×7 and we will be happy to assist you with a swift resolution to your queries on all our products and services
twitter – http:/Bit.Ly/Fkcsxc
facebook – http:/On.Fb.Me/Cecyvs
Kartik Dewan
17th March 2012
Hi airtel team
this is to inform you that I just called airtel care 198 from my cell. And I was trying to get the status of my complaint from them, however worse part they are not updated about the same. Along with that on thursday I got a call from your nodal officer and he informed that to be at home so that they can collect proof of account holder after that they will provide me the new micro sim for my airtel phone but they DID not turn so they asked again to wait a 1 day or 2 so I came early from office but no one called me or turn up at my place in the end on friday night even around 7:30 pm (dated: 16/3/2012) they told that our policy has been change we are not going to provide you new micro sim and he hanged up the call this is the most pathetic part. I dont know what kinda staff you have and how you are treating the customer, I am not sure what you are upto and in the complaint I confirmed with airtel care they have mentioned that I M only facing issue at my home place and your executive will be visiting my place to test the 3g connection, I am surprised to see airtel listening skills, I told me that I am facing issue all over the place its not the single place. I am just worried I dont know how to deal with you guyz and your misbehavior with customer. This whole month I have not used more than 250 mb I would also request you to please wave of my current bill as I am not able to use it. Please call me and update me about the status of my airtel 3g complaint else with in this week if this is not corrected I will disconnect this number and IM in process of getting legal against your company which is mentioned earlier also. I M discussing this case with my uncle who is an advocate. I have lost faith from airtel now company completely and believe I will not recommend airtel to anyone nor in my family & friends. The most pathetic service from airtel.
Regards:
kartik dewan
9818303360