Expressing Myself: Airtel DataCard -Don't go there. Review on Airtel Data Card

I had subscribed to Airtel Internet services through data card from October 10, 2005 in Pune. This was my primary Internet access channel till I opted for an Airtel broadband connection on July 26, 2006. Wireless access was logical choice when I relocated to Pune and was living out of a company guesthouse. I had had a bad experience with Reliance when I moved and Airtel was the only operator providing the service where I needed it.

Since then to the time I chose to switch to a fixed broadband service I was "locked in" to the service because of the initial cost of Rs 13000 on a data card. But there have been too many incidents and too many problems. I can almost write a short story on the experience; the highlights follow.

1. Data exchange speed: The speed of data was bad. It was lower than the speeds that I had experienced with Sify or BSNL dial up Internet access. It was certainly lower than connection speed through Reliance FWP CDMA connection I had grown used to. The software interface "GlobeTrotter Mobility Manager"(GTMM) does not include features to export data into formats like PDF to support data based complaints.

2 Consistency and quality of after sales service: Airtel does not commit to SLA’s on uptime of connectivity or quality of connection - i.e. average/minimum kbps speed. You are also at the mercy of the capacity of the local transmission tower. Most of the bandwidth is allocated to the voice usage till you create a fuss.

These days you plan to do a lot of things(online banking to organizing events using emails) using the Internet. Service outages often result in failure to fulfill personal commitments.

I have received a lot of emails from the voice care that start like this "On the onset of this mail, please accept our sincere apologies for all the inconvenience caused to you."

Resolutions were few and far in between. The online complaints and suggestions service is a joke. The last time I checked(Jan 27, 2007) there were three complaints from me dating over months that still had the status "open".

3: Technical Support: There would be days when the signal strength in the GTMM would show at 80% and the GPRS would be OK but the data transmission would suddenly stop. Getting it back to work needed endless phone calls to a lot of people and finally pure luck. I use a Gmail account with the POP service for my personal emails. So a lot of times I had to delete messages with large(6 MB) attachments so that the Airtel machinery was able to handle it. This included emails I had written in November/December 2005 to Airtel with attachments with screen shots of the 1.2 to 5 KbPS(bits not bytes) speed that the connection would frequently offer.

1. Operating model for after sales service: The service provider does not have trained personnel in the helpdesk / support setup who are able to relate to the difference between the business model for internet services through data card and the business model of other services like the mobile phone voice services. So the call center agents are never able to fully understand that you have an Airtel SIM number but you are not a cell phone user. The only help they would be able to provide would be to confirm that your connection has not been deactivated or the GPRS is still active.

The bills would show that you would run up a charge of say Rs 2700 and then would be give a "discount" of Rs 2700. So if you have a credit limit of say, Rs 2600, you would receive a SMS saying that you need to pay Rs 2700 or your services would be discontinued. That brings me to my next crib.

1. Overcharging the consumer. This is how it works. Airtel issues SMS warnings to the consumer to pay certain amounts before billing date on the grounds that the consumer has crossed credit limit. The service provider also threatens to disconnect services within 48 hrs from the SMS time in case of not payment. So you would go and pay. The invoice however would reveal that the amount demanded(and hence paid) was in excess of the amount actually due. Once it was 289% of the amount due. This incident has happened twice for me in a period of 8.5 months. In the latest instance the service provider promised to refund excess after 12 to 15 days, but finally managed to issue demand draft just before the next invoice was generated.

The beauty of the practice is that Airtel would not actually send you the invoice next month saying charges are, say, Rs 850 and amount received by untrue claim was, say, Rs 2700. They would not send any invoices at all till the time the credit balance in their books on your account was wiped off by the monthly usage charges. Is Airtel funding its working capital from the excess receipts?

1. Finally, as of March 3, 2007,  I have not received an invoice or receipt for the data card I was given on October 10, 2005. Airtel accepted the cheque payment against a purchase order from me. The warranty of the hardware expires after a term beginning from the date of purchase. As a consumer I have no proof of purchase. Neither do I have evidence of start date of warranty. I am not even sure whether I paid Rs. 13000 for an old/used data card or not.

So what have I done? I have navigated the Airtel hierarchy in Pune circle a number of times. This includes the gentleman who heads the Pune operations. At times he has been courteous enough to call me, at times he forwarded my emails to others in his organization. The basic issues remained. I had emailed TRAI and NDTV to see whether they wanted to do anything. This is too small a matter. So when recently I was again caught between two organizations Airtel and Citibank over an online payment issue I decided I had had enough.