Atrocious customer service - Please read. Review on Airtel Mobile Operator

Just writing to write about the horrendous Airtel customer service. I was a customer of Airtel since 2005 and have had their Post-paid mobile service since 2007. I'm including my detailed interaction (horrible experience) with Airtel Customer Support below. I hope Airtel focuses on customer service as much as they focus on marketing and advertisement. If you are evaluating a Mobile Service Provider, ==I urge you not to select Airtel. ==

Summary: Aitel disconnected my post paid service without notice. After I inquired, they claimed they discovered a bill discrepancy from 1.5 year ago, and asked me to pay for their mistake. They didn't want to solve the issue and disconnected my service again. I called and email atleast 20 times, but rudely told to pay a 1.5 year old charge or the service continue to remain disconnected. I wrote email to their CEO, but no reply. I changed providers, Airtel lost a once loyal post paid customer. I’d appreciate your comments showing Airtel that customer service does matter a lot.

Edit: Added updates till November 11th below. Got a few calls from Airtel and none of them want to address the issue. They kept on saying when I'm going to pay them the money. This reaffirms my belief that I'm dealing with a very greedy corporation.

Since Sept 12th 2010, I'm not struggling to get my number disconnected. Each month Airtel is now adding the post-paid rental and mysterious call charges, contrary to the fact that I have pulled their SIM card since Sept 14th. So, with all their mysterious added charges, now my bill is about to touch rupees 2000.

Details:

Here's the sequence of events & my worst customer experience of my life with Airtel.

My Email to Airtel>

Hello Airtel,

1) You disconnected by incoming and outgoing services on 11th Aug 2010 while I was on business travel - You disconnected my service before the due date of 21st of Aug - No intimation was given to me.

2) I had to use my colleague's number to reach out to you for support (which you charged). You informed me there's some nominal amount of around NR 1200 from March 2009 that has come into my account. It took you 1.5 years to inform me of this. (A) You should have approached me earlier if there was an issue with payment, (B) It is your fault that you have reversed the amount to my Credit Card, == not mine, (C) ==You disconnected my service without any intimation.

You have no idea how your unprofessional behavior of disconnecting my service without any notice impacted me personally and professionally, and not to mention the ==embarrassment ==I had to go through, (D) I'm sure even you, as Airtel, wants any discrepancy in billing to be brought to notice within 90 days, so how can you expect a customer to not expect the same? ==It is beyond reasonable expectation to ask a customer to provide 1.5 year old bank or Credit Card statements. ==

3) When I contacted you on 121, I was assured that this issue would be taken care of and my service was finally resumed in the afternoon

4) I continue to get SMS with conflicting reports of my billing amount due

5) I repeated ask for my revised bill to be sent to my email ID, but it was not done, despite your assurances and SMS

6) I continue getting calls from your recovery agents asking for when I'm going to pay. I have clearly told them that I need a revised bill so I could pay

7) I got a call from your service agent (9980269486) stating the issue has been resolved and I only need to pay the current dues. I asked her for the revised bill. She said she will. Later that day I got a SMS saying the bill will be sent. But nothing came.

8) On 7th Sept I discover that you have blocked my outgoing calls. I reached out to 121 to explain the billing dispute, but I was rudely told that nothing will be done as all onus of dispute is with customer and customer has to provide all proofs. This was done before the due date of 21st Sept.

9) I wrote email to your nodalofficer on 7th Sept requesting to resolve the issue by Friday otherwise I'll have no choice but to change providers. I still had a bit of trust in my long relationship with Airtel, but apart from an automated acknowledgment no one tried reaching out to me for resolution.

10) On 12th Sept I changed providers as you have filed to retain a once loyal customer. I made the payments of my current and last month's amount and sent an email to 121 with payment proof to disconnect my service with immediate effect. I have yet to hear an acknowledgment on that.

11) Today I received your reply stating you have been activated my incoming and outgoing as of Sept 13th. Do keep in mind that you disconnected my service before the due date of Sept 21st.

Looking at all this, I am highly unsatisfied as a customer and forced (pushed out) to change providers. Consider this email as my reminder to disconnect my service with immediate effect. Do inform me how you are planning to credit the security deposit back to me.

I then copied Airtel's CEO. Yet to hear anything back from him.

==Over to Mr. Kohli on copy: ==

Mr. Kohli, consider this as my exit interview feedback:

With the number portability just around the corner, your company should really focus on customer retention. I personally know 4 people who are ready to switch their multiple Airtel connections to your competition. Sure, 4-5 dissatisfied customer may not mean much of an impact upfront, but if you look at the indirect impact the negative word of mouth has, it gives reasons to have a good customer support system. I'm sure you're familiar with the direct and indirect impact of happy vs. unhappy customers, the ratio of 1:4, as they speak of in management books. I personally contribute about 25K of business every year to Airtel through my post paid and broadband connection, and that many not be a big amount to you. However if you look at it that I have been your customer since 2005 and stretch that out to to a possibility of another 5 years, now that does start to look like a decent amount. Add to that the number of other customers who would switch after they speak to me. Now things really start to add up.

After talking to your customer care reps, it seems like they have done their analysis and they feel that a few Lakh rupees per customer is not a big amount for you to miss. It's either that or they are clueless about the credit worthiness of your individual clients. I'm not sure if this will continue to remain the right attitude going forward with increased focus on customer satisfaction. So please sir, have an emphasis on customer support. Listen to your customers and try to find a resolution rather than taking drastic actions like disconnecting their service without even talking to your customer first. Do take your customer support through various scenarios on how to retain customers because for some customers a small amount if INR 1200 may not mean much, but how they are treated as a customer does. You, as a businessman already know the cost of adding a new post paid customer vs. retaining an existing one. It's unfortunate that I'm writing to you regarding a bad experience rather then a cherished one. If my language appears to be critical, do consider it's an honest and constructive criticism. I do hope that you get to read through my email and some change comes out of this. Otherwise the purpose of writing this painfully detailed letter will not be served.

I'll update this post as things progress. Thank you to all who have supported my post.