Good network .. poor customer care. Review on Airtel Mobile Operator

Three weeks back we decided to visit Vaishno Devi. In all we were 9 people... and 7 of us had cellphones . We had idea, airltel, hutch, bsnl and mtnl conncections, so although unplanned ... we got a chance to test which service provider has the best network.

When we reached Jammu... Idea was no longer available and mtnl was not available ever since we crossed haryana. Hutch and Airtel prepaid was gone as soon as we reached Katra, but suprisingly only two connections were available right through out ... BSNL and Airtel post paid... even after 16 kms of travle when we reached Bhawan Airtel and BSNL were available, and the reception of Airtlel was much better.

Even 3 months back when I was travelling form Delhi to Dehradun . All through out Airtel was there. Few Kms before reaching roorkee we took a shortcut ... and we had travel through Kachcha roads of a small village... even there Airtel was there.

Hutch coined the slogan ''whereever you go .. our network follows '' .. buts its airtel who actually brought it into practice...

You might be wondering .. inspite of all this why I've given it just two stars. The unfortunate part is inspite of good network I use the roaming facility for 5% of the time and 95% of the time I am staying in delhi only... so the network accounts for only 5 % and the service provided accounts for 95%. And for the record Airtel customer care really sucks.

I'll narrate you an incident that happend with my father. He has an airtel connection for lats 2.5 years and my mother has an addon. His monthly bill roughly accounts for Rs. 1000 and our security deposit with airtel is Rs 3000/-. He submits the bill every month on time and he did the same on 15th October.

The cheque was debited from his account 18th October from his account. But unfortunately on 25th his outgoing and the addon's outgoing as well incoming was disconnected. On dialing 121 (Customer care) we came to know that we had not paid our bill. If this was the case how was the amount debited from our bank account. My father tried to give the detail of cheque and bank account no to the customer care executive but she wont listen.. she just kept on saying you didnot pay the bill and refused to restore the connection.

After 3-4 days of regular talking with 121 executives it came out that cheque was credited to someone elses account . On asking why this happened they said that my father had mentioned the wrong particlulars on the cheque. We went to our bank... talked to the manager, due to his courtesy also managed to get a xerox of the cheque... and to our surprise all the particlulars were correct and still they claimed that we had made a mistake...in short they assumed that we made a mistake not them,

Then we sent the cheque details to Airtlel office but for 15 days no response... well I gues they dont have any kind of service level standards set. Then again started the our communication with 121 .... and they finally agreed that it was their fault... but still they cant restore.... unless we send them our bank statement... what ??... bank statements is a confidential thing... how can u even ask for that?

Then finally we set a letter to CMD office and some how how after one month of tug of war .... our connection was restored and 121 executive claimed that the issue had been resolved. But here comes the new bill with late fees... rent and the old bill attached. How can u charge rent when u didnt provide us service for one month. How can u charge late fee for a bill we have already paid??

And guess what ... the same story got repeated for one more month , but somehow this time we were a bit careful and by the end of two months we got a proper bill , but with rent and late fees. Since we didnt want the fuss to restart we decided to pay for now.... and we wrote a letter to CMD office of Airtle that we have paid all the amount mentioned in the account.... but we wont it reimbursed since we never delayed any payments nor were we given any service.

But one month since we wrote the letter we are stiill awaiting response form Airtel.

Here I ask one question if any airtel person is listtening....y did u take 3000 Rs as security deposit when u cant tolerate a fees late by one day.

Well.. I am sorry for the long review...and I dont say this would happen to you... I m only trying to show how incompetent their customer care is. Customer care is supposed to be a link between Airtel and the customer, but it seems speaking fluent english is the only thing the executives can do. I think they should be taught the art of listening.

In the past three months we have talked to atleast 20 call center executives, and every tiome we talked to them we had stated our problem over and over again. Also none of them ahave an expertise to transfer a call to there manager... (Mr Rajat). They just blankly say it cant be done ... or the line is busy or .... or he is not in office... or he is busy he will call u back.... or sometimes even provide a wrong number.

My father is patient of diabetic and was suffering from Bell's palsy ( partial facial paralysis ) during that period ... and cant explain in words the tension he has gone through over the past three months.

Just imagine u are in a doctor's clinic and lying down on the examining bed and suddenly the cellphone rings and 121 executive says ... please pay ur bill , or u want to call ur son to say '' beta I am not feeling well , can u pick me up? '' and wat u get is ... ''ur outgoing facility has been barred'' !!!!

If Any senior pro from Airtle is reading this review... just give it a thought!!!