Having been with Airtel as a postpaid customer from 2005 to 2011 I switched to prepaid since I went away for my higher studies for 2 years. Even though I kept on paying my monthly rent for the first year i.e. 2010-2011, I switched my postpaid to prepaid as I felt I was wasting money since I wasn’t using the number on roaming. I finally came back to my hometown in May 2012 after my final exams. Meanwhile in my previous visit in March 2012 I unfortunately lost my mobile phone so I got my sim blocked and bought a new sim the next day. My new sim worked for a while but one day suddenly my outgoing and messaging were blocked. After numerous calls to Airtel, outgoing was restored to my number but messaging wasn’t. Since I was there only for a while I didn’t bother. The funny part is that the reason given to me for my services being blocked was the request made by me to block my sim when I lost my phone.
I fail to understand how stupid can Airtel get in blocking the new sim I just received from them. However, when I finally came back in April I was really annoyed that my messaging was still blocked. I tried in vain for the next 2 months to get my messaging service working. I finally decided to switch my number to Vodafone but as luck would have it, one needs a porting code from your existing provider which you get by messaging ceratin code to a particular number. So, I was stuck in no man’s land. I couldn’t use Airtel and I couldn’t even switch to any other service provider. However, I got lucky one day and was able to speak to some sensible supervisor at customer care who checked my account and by the click of a button (as told by him) unblocked my messaging service. Even he was amazed why was this not done earlier. I thanked him but felt really disgusted at where Airtel was going with their customer care service overall. The very same day I got my porting code to switch my provider. I didn’t want to give Airtel any chance to block my messaging service again. My love for Airtel was once and for all gone.
To add salt to my wounded heart, when somebody from the retention division called up, he didn’t even know my name. He even tried mocking me saying that ’Soch lo, agle teen mahine tak wapas switch nahi kar paoge’ (Think about it, you won’t be able to switch back to Airtel for the next 3 months). I seriously wanted to punch him in the face. However, all said and done, I am currently a prepaid customer of Vodafone. Now, let’s see how long this affair lasts. :D :)