Apr 18, 2015 01:07 PM
10217 Views
I am a customer of Airtel post paid mobile services since April 2008. Last week I had given a service request to migrate two other pre-paid connections in the family(all Airtel connections) to be grouped with mine under the much hyped "my plan" umbrella. A series of trouble followed:
The airtel relationship centre collected Rs 300 towards this grouping and sold me three new SIM cards as well(when there was no need to sell these) for Rs 90 and did not give me any receipt for the total amount of Rs 390 three days back. The SIM cards were sold under the guise of "technical requirement for pairing" when the marketing executive did not see any need for buying new SIM cards, as all connections were under the Airtel umbrella.
Post completion of residence verification, my existing service was deactivated. Upon inserting the new SIM, I managed to reach the call centre in the fourth attempt(was disconnected thrice after being told through a recorded voice about the'call being important to Airtel') and completed the mandatory verification once again(for a connection that was in existence for 7 years with no payment default history).
The service is not active yet after switching off the mobile and switching it on a few times(as advised by the customer care agent).
I guess my family members will go through the same circus with a disruption in service.
While the marketing executive promised that Rs 300 collected towards activation would be waived off as these are existing connections, the'Relationship Centre' flatly denied this.
I am also waiting for some confirmation from Airtel if the balances in the pre paid cards would be carried forward to the new connection.
Strongly recommend that people should stay away from Airtel for the following reasons:
Customer Care numbers cannot be reached
Relationship Center staff sell you more than what is required under the guise of technical requirements without receipts/invoices
Airtel cannot honour commitments made by marketing personnel that are reiterated time and again over phone, but overturned by Relationship Centre
The company cannot even migrate long standing customers to different plans seamlessly within their fold
