Dec 22, 2013 08:07 PM
6316 Views
(Updated Dec 22, 2013 08:08 PM)
I am an Airtel customer for the last 7 years and have a long history of facing incorrect charges being deducted and not refunding back again by Airtel. Me and my family had several such bad experiences.
Airtel has a customer service, complaints number, appellate authorities but the IVR does not offer you anything that can make you speak to a human. In case one gets through to a CCE of Airtel, they make false commitments and never fulfill them. Speaking to their CCE is a torture in itself, 5-6 times they hang up and the calls cost money, they do not accept their errors, their system is faulty-often I have incurred charges for services I never opted for!
Another such harrowing tales of experience with Airtel are below:
On 20th May 2013, I was checking mails on my cell using Wifi and not GPRS settings. Rs 30-40 were deducted from the balance of my prepaid number for no good reason.
Due to this I raised complaints under CBDMO20520570491 on 20th May and then CSPCH20525547654 on 25 May.
I tried to call to speak to appellate and nodal offices but unfortunately the IVR doesnt connect as they ask me to type the above complaint numbers on the call, which is not possible as it is an alphanumeric combination, on the dial pad only allows numeric combinations to be typed. I tried doing that on all phones to type the complaint number but could not.
So, to prevent any further hassles with Airtel I decided to convert to vodafone.
On 25 May I sent a message "PORT " for converting my number from airtel to vodafone .
After a day or two I got a call from the department which is supposed to respond to customers wanting to convert their numbers.
The person I spoke to asked me the reason why I wanted to change from airtel?
I advised the above reason that I did not use any gprs setting just used wifi at my home but still prepaid balance deducted of about rs 30 -40.
I was advised that I would be creditted the same in 72 hours.
But that never happened. IT HAS BEEN 7 MONTHS NOW. NO ACTION TAKEN.
Mails were sent to the nodalofficer.del@airtel.in but no action was taken.
I tried calling up 198 complaints, customer services, appelate and nodal offices for days together because I have kind of lost faith on airtel that my problem would be attended to.
As if this was not enough,
- Now a new kind of harassment for me and my office colleagues(some time in August -September):
I was being bothered everyday by their recovery team to get the bill of Rs 3000 paid for a colleague almost everyday.
In my office other colleagues too complained of the same thing, that they were being called up by the Airtel's recovery team and they are asking the contacts of that person to pay the bill.
- AIRTEL RECOVERY TEAM GOT OUR NUMBERS FROM THE CALL LOG OF MY COLLEAGUE'S POST PAID NUMBER
So the concerned person was made aware of that. She called up airtel, they now tell her to pay Rs 2300. and sent her the bill. The bill so generated appeared false and bogus, another dishonest approach of Airtel.
I work for a KPO where we are not allowed cells on our work places. So afternoon shifts are followed, that colleague of mine saw that Airtel has sent her detail of calls at the timings that she could possibly never make - viz. the shift timings. When the cells of the employees are kept in the lockers and there is no access to cells.
I would urge my colleague also to raise a concern against Airtel about such horrendous practises under the post paid section but Airtel is full of Hooligans. They know that in India they can fool around and make money and no one can stand up against them because they are unaffected. They have to be brought into the books, so that they behave ethchandru021y and keep their words.
