This is probably my first review in which I am writing some positive things (which definitely deserve a mention) too alongwith negative ones :-)
I have been using AirTel Prepaid continuously since August 2004. I used AirTel prepaid in Delhi as a student of IIT Delhi (MTech) till June 2006. Since July 2006, I am in Hyderabad, working for a software firm, and have stuck to my tried and tested AirTel prepaid.
I never had any hassles with AirTel prepaid in Delhi, right from procuring the connection (I just gave a copy of my student i-card, then no verification calls, no questions asked). In Delhi, I once blocked my SIM card by accidentally entering wrong phone code, but got it activated after paying a fine of 150/- (or something like that - I dont remember exactly) and filling up a small form after visiting their nearest service centre. The new SIM with the same number was activated within 1 hour.
In Hyderabad too, since joining my job in June end 2006, I have seen that AirTel has much better network coverage compared to Idea and Hutch. However, I am not too satisified with their services in Hyderabad - in Delhi, they used to have a lot of offers e.g. free 100 local sms, free 50 local calls etc from time to time. But, in Hyderabad, they rarely do have such offers.
What’s more - when I go to my suburban home town (in Jharkhand), the AirTel network works fine there too. Till 2005, AirTel had not reached my place - still I used to get very good signal from the local BSNL network. Surprisingly, my parents’ mobile which had the local BSNL SIM used to have a poorer network coverage as compared to my roaming AirTel connection - maybe something to do with the cellphone - I don’t know
*Ok, enough of praising of AirTel Prepaid.
Now, let me warn my dear friends of the fraud namely AirTel PostPaid.
My company has an agreement with AirTel for corporate plan, but I have NOT opted for it. Reason - several torturous experiences of my colleagues.
*Now, I would like to mention that some people (refer to comments on this post) have asked me to post my own experiences with AirTel postpaid, and have challenged this particular review of mine, because regarding AirTel postpaid, I have posted the experiences of my colleagues, and I myself have fortunately not been a victim of the same. I appreciate their view, and would like to present my own views as to why I posted "others’" experiences.
Well, it is entirely up to the readers to decide whether they want to experience everything first-hand, or would they prefer to seek someone’s (or someone’s friends’) advice on a product/service before trying it out.
The final decision is entirely yours - I don’t think there is any harm in posting negative reviews if you personally know 20 odd persons(colleagues) who had had negative experiences with a product/service, but you yourself have not experienced the thing yourself; and when you have enough evidence that the persons who tell you about their negative experiences are not lying.*
Here, I am listing down as many as I can recall - I feel really fortunate when I hear these stories that I never ever thought of opting for PostPaid connection.
- I have heard this from at least 20 persons in my company itself........
The person paid his complete bill on time (usually a week before due date), recieves a payment confirmation SMS, and still recieves ’N’ number of calls requesting him/her to pay the bill by due date else the connection will be disonnected. Seems that AirTel has employed illiterate persons in their customer care cell, at least in Hyderabad.
2. I personally know many persons who have faced the issue of de-activated connections despite paying their bills at least 7 days before the due date. For some of them, giving threatening calls to the customer care (?? or customer harrasment) and using the weight of my company’s brand-name, and threatenings such as uniting 50 persons, and going for mass dis-connections etc worked like magic - their data was corrected within minutes, and no further trouble. But, for the "gentlemen" (i.e.those who don’t know/want to use rough/abusive language), the problem is not rectified even after 6-7 days !! Frustrated, many of them opted for other service providers.
Such is the standard of their customer care.
- Over-billing, including false charges and sending bills late (and quite often not sending bills at all) is a habit for them.
Still, I wonder how my company is still continuing with the agreement with AirTel. Maybe none of my colleagues has made a large scale hue and cry over this - just the lack of awareness, or the typical "gentleman" mentallity - why to make a fuss over such things, or whatever ?
You can easily imagine - if this is the way Corporate clients are treated by AirTel in Hyderabad, then what would be the plight of the common man who makes the mistake of opting for AirTel postpaid ? In fact, AirTel should be totally banned from providing PostPaid services. They should be permitted only to provide PrePaid connections - I wish this were true - but we all know the widespread corruption spread in each and every department of the Indian government, all over the country.
*So, the bottom-line is :-
*AirTel Prepaid = very good
AirTel postpaid = better be without a cellphone rather than having AirTel postpaid.*