Apr 29, 2007 10:34 PM
2786 Views
This is a True story that happened way back in 2003-04 when I brought an Airtel Pre Paid connection which began with 98454 series. I brought the SIM from a authorized Vendor at Palace Guthalli and after I furnished Photo Identity proof the SIM was activated in a couple of hours. On the First day of activation I was disturbed by a call around 2.30 AM which happened to be a Blank Call. The next day I got a call from someone who claimed to be a Security guard of an IT firm and addressed me as Manoj which I denied and introduced myself as the new owner of the SIM.
As the days passed by I started receiving more calls seeking Manoj and each time I vehemently denied the fact that the receiver at this end was not Manoj. During one of such Calls where the caller happened to be a Christian, asked me to be truthful and honest abiding to the holy bible & and to disclose him the details of Manoj as he felt that I was one of Manoj’s associate. My curiosity about Manoj was at its peak and I asked him who Manoj was to which I learnt that he was working in an IT firm and that he borrowed big amount of money from a few people from various walks and then has disappeared a year ago. It seems that he was acting as some agent / consultant and collected Money promising jobs in Gulf.
This was quit disturbing! I kept receiving calls in look out for Manoj and sometimes I was forced to hear abusive language and in some instances I would loose my temper and blast the caller. During one such call, I was threatened of dire consequences if I ‘Did not’ co-operate with them and the caller also informed me that there is a Criminal case lodged against Manoj at Banaswadi Police station and since I was the only source of tracing Manoj or rather Manoj ‘acting smart’ so I better co-operate with them! Those days I was running into rough weather owing to some personal problems and this problem had added a new twist in my tale.
My Friends advised me to discontinue the SIM and opt for another one to which my principles did not allow. I wondered why it happened with me and vowed to fight with it. By now this case had got wide publicity in my friend circle as well as office staff and I even started getting Prank calls from friends and colleagues where they would call me and ask for ‘Manoj’ thereby making a monkey of me!
I had invested Rs. 300 on the SIM card and a few more bucks on currency with my hard earned money and hence I was unwilling to surrender. I approached the Airtel Vendor with whom I brought the SIM and updated him with the story. He advised me to approach Airtel Authorities at Airtel Office at Jaymahal, Bangalore. I took some time out to visit Airtel office at Jaymahal and repeated the same story stating the harassment being faced by the new AIRTEL SIM that I brought a few days ago. The representative made a quick assessment of the situation and made an instant philosophical judgment stating that since I am what I am (Truthful, honest and the legal owner of the SIM) and not the fugitive Manoj, hence there was no question of me getting worried. I appreciated his words stating that I was brave enough however I was annoyed and irritated by the numerous calls which kept coming all the time sometimes even during odd hours in night! I told him that this seems to be a case of recycled SIM which was the reason and now that I am facing this kind of harassment was it possible for Airtel to give me a replacement to which he denied!
I returned back dejected and this continued for a few more days when finally my patience gave up and I decided to go for another SIM! I felt pity on all those Victims of Manoj and cursed both Manoj and Airtel for coming in my life and making hell.
I don’t really know what lessons I learned from that episode but it seems that during those days there were limited numbers available in the series of 450, 451, 452, 453 and 454 which were exhausted and hence Airtel was recycling certain numbers which were inactive for a certain period. While doing so Airtel should have anticipated problems like the one I faced and should have sensitively handled it.
After that ugly episode, I has switched to another Operator and later switched back to Airtel itself as now I see that a lot of new series have been introduced and while selecting the next number for me I was proactive enough to select the brand new series 804 which I would be the first to use eliminating a possibility of another Horror story!
Airtel has come a long way with improved services in Karnataka but there are still some issues which if addressed can make Airtel the No 1 in India. Some of them are:-
Unclear Billing in case of Post Paid.
No Manual Customer Support. Everything is IVR.
Unwanted Automated calls by Airtel introducing there products which keep coming all the time.
