Feb 23, 2004 05:10 PM
2849 Views
(Updated May 25, 2004 05:25 PM)
When AirTel bought SkyCell in Chennai, much was expected from one of the best cellular service providers, but things may not be that rosy now! AirTel is the first company to bring in easy recharge options, national roaming free in prepaid also etc! but, The CSP, is brimming with complaints, which is visible from the crowd thronging the AirTel Customer care centres, especially the one in Nungambakkam in Chennai, and also from the fact that, in the helpline ''The Customer Care Executives'' are ''Always'' busy talking to someone! when the service is good or better, there is no need for a customer care support at all! with just around 3 lakh connections, if a service provider is not able to provide better services, both technically and after-sales support, then, I doubt the growth of Cellular Industry on the whole in India.
A few of my experiences with Airtel:
1) I had to call around 15 - 20 times (no exaggeration) for getting MMS activated in my mobile. And then, a personal visit to the Cust Care Centre (here after called CCC) just hecked off my nerves! and I had also sent around 5 messages to 500 (each costing Rs. 3) for the MMS didnot get activated still! for a network and service problem, I had to face so much of hardship!
2) Billing sucks in AirTel. I get smart SMSs which say this is your limit, pay some amount, and then suddenly one sms came ''we have deducted Rs. .11 (11 paise) from your account.. it took me long to comprehend such messages. I also get feedback from some of my friends that the connection is disconnected even after payment has been made.
3) My visits to AirTel CCC have to be well planned as they are almost a holiday to a horrifying destinations. it would take more than an hour or two to meet the executive, who would never let you put across your doubts, but keep telling ''it will be surely done in two hours'', ''we will take care sir''. And they also ''act'' very artificial. India, I bet can never turn the services hub with such artificial training and poor customer handling.
4) when I took up a post paid, it took me 7 days to get activated, far beyond what they said ''24 hours''. why do they have to bluff to customers?
5) International SMSs get lost in the Air while travelling across the seas! I sent a lot of messages to US and the UK, but none of my friends, to whom I sent them received it, while Rs. 5/- was deducted immediately from my balance, as soon as I pressed the send button. What a wonderful service! paying for a service that is not getting done!
6) Subscribers are not properly informed of the hidden costs involved in all the mobile transactions.. full talk time offers are not extended to sms recharges (most absurd one - I had to forego the offer just because I recharged thru sms! complete absurdity!!!
7) An executive has become my friend at AirTel CCC! I may attribute this friendship of mine to my umpteen number of visits to the CCC! anyhow, I am highly thankful to AirTel for making friendships bloom in their CCCs!!! If it wants to stay competitive, it is not only enough to offer low call rates, but also excellent customer care centres, increasing the number of CCCs and making the network redundancy free (to eliminate my repetitive requests for SMS kind off errors) And friends, don't you think Number Portability should be allowed in India... if allowed, 100% of the subscribers will keep moving to other providers...
Updated review on 25/05/2004:
Now I have moved to a closed user group and it's really great. I am getting bills far lesser than even prepaid recharge amount. So friends, please identify common friends of yours who use airtel and move to closed user groups. The call charges may also decrease depending on the number of people in the group. But, the call centre still remains a black mark on AirTel's service. I heard that they have outsourced and that's the reason for the poor performance of the Call Centre.
Executives there don't know many of the tariffs or details that I seem to be knowing. Why are they so poor in handling calls? they could get trained much more effectively. And at times, no one is picking the phone at the help line (121 or circle specific - mine 98400 12345). This makes me wonder why they have a helpline where noone is available to pick up the phone.
