I am an airtel gold postpaid mobile customer for the last 3 years. So far, my bills were paid by the company so I did not really bother to check out the billing details. But now after I recently made it my personal no. and started to make payments myself, I found out the nauseating tactics of this company to loot the money of its customers. My experience to resolve my concerns proved that their customer service is appallingly worst.
I switched to reliance recently (as my company opted for thefree RIM to RIM STD to all marketing guys). Since I needed airtel to receive calls from friends and old clients, I continued to use it only for incomingpurpose. I felt the current Airtel plan was high so I made a request for changeof plan to airtel 150 on 19th Aug 2008.I was hoping that it would be changed.
But to my surprise, it was not reflected in the next bill as promised. In fact the status of complaint said: Request Cancelled!
The customer care executives would call every day to remind about the payment, but when asked for clarification, they would say some senior would contact you tomorrow. Everyday a new person would call you and you will repeat the entire story again and ask for clarification. Every executive simply want to put off the call as soon as possible, they really don’t bother what is our concern. No matter how much you try to explain, you will never get to solve your issues. For two months, the same thing continued, with old bill plan.
Still I kept my cool, made payments and requested once again for bill plan changeon 18th Nov 2008. The next bill in dec is supposed to carry the new bill scheme. Though bill plan has changed, to my horror, the monthly rental was Rs. 450 in place of Rs. 150! This is the height of atrocity. I made only 15 calls and 7 SMS and I have to pay Rs. 690 incl. taxes!!
Now whenever you try to call the customer care, mostprobably, you will never get it through. When you call 121, it will say forcomplaints call 198. Then there will be automated announcement while call is transferred to agent but I never got transferred. Call drops, blank tones, wrong IVR sequences, incessant call wait, unnecessary voice promotions.. all make it distressingly worse.
In the online account access page, decoding the billing and payment details is a challenging task. Payments made recently will not be updated in account summary.
When you try to lodge an online complaint, it will ask for so many stupid details (and restricted categories not allowing you to put the complaint in right category. For eg. it will ask for bill date, due date etc which can be automatically taken from records. Added to that are page errors too.
I do not know how I would be able to resolve my problem. I am planning to reach their nodal officer for grievance redressing. But one thing is sure. Airtel sucks. This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced from any company in my lifetime. Not just about the customer support, they deceive and ransack their customers to maximum extent... money suckers!
I am not brand loyal to any other service provider, but my strong advice is to keep away from Airtel for your own good. They are corporate thieves without any ethics.
UPDATE: I had received an explanation from Nodal Officer:
_____________________________________________
Dear Mr. Santhosh,
We acknowledge the receipt of your email dated 31st December 2008.
We wish to inform you that current bill plan is Airtel one 150 which containsadvance rental. Further we wish to inform you that, you have been chargedadvance rental ( Rs150 Rental + Rs75 Clip + Rs150 Rental + Rs75 Clip ) in the bill dated 9th December 2008 due to which rental charged isRs 450/-
We appreciate your valuable subscription with Airtel and will be glad tohave a chance to be of any assistance to you. Should you require any assistance, kindly email us at 121@airtelindia.com.
With regards,
Best Wishes
Nodal Officer
Bharti Airtel Ltd.
______________________________________________________
Strange!! I have already made a security deposit of Rs. 1500 or more why they have to charge in advance? The clip charges was also not communicated to me before, when they offered change of plan. I replied to their mail, it bounced back.. To the same ID I sent a mail and got response also.. !!
Today as usual a customer care exec called me and verified my issue. He said he would waive off the excess amount of Rs. 225. I also asked him to reverse late payment of Rs. 50 if he wants me to pay. He said he will’round off’ and reverse Rs. 250. I told him I do not want any mercy from anyone, I want excess charges to be fully reversed. After bargain, *he agreed to do it. When I asked whether he is changing it right now? He said"Yes I have the authority to change it".
He then urged me to make payments immediately. I said I will pay only if the changes are reflected in my online account. He said it wont be reflected online untill next bill. . I asked WT*. If its an online updation, it should be changed immediately. I asked him if he can send me atleast a confirmation mail. He says ’I dont have that authority’. Haha He has authority to change the billing but not to send an email.
Summary: Just another proof that Airtel customer care/ billing is a farce. That fellow (Prajwal) just wanted me to make payment, so that his persuasion records becomes impressive. The changes would not be reflected in next bill. Its just an eye-wash. He knows, anyway, next time, he would not be attending to my cry if it does not changed.
Sad. Airtel hands down.