After analysing the DTH market for days, I decided to go for the DTH Service Offered By Airtel. What follows is a review of my experience with Airtel Digital TV.
After giving a call to the Airtel agent, fixed an appointment with the installation guys. Everything was prompt, the guys came on time, did an excellent installation, were very professional and the clairty of the broadcast is just amazing - crystal clear. Settled for the one year free South Value pack, all we have to pay is Rs. 2000 for the dish, installation etc.
But the disappointment just awaits you after the install happens - well, with the Customer Service of course!
It just happened that whenver I pick the phone to call the Airtel guys, you never know what awaits you.whether its a recharge or a top up(for example topping up with ESPN Plus for Rs. 45 per month). I decided to top up with ESPN Plus, the Customer Support Guy told that I need to recharge my account. Picked up my Credit Card, did the recharge for Rs. 500, transaction successful. A Text message appears, but guess what it says?. Your Recharge with Rs. 2000 is successful.what? I only recharged it with Rs. 500.
OK never mind, atleast some recharge has been made, I call up the customer support and ask for an ESPN Plus top. Now, the support guy says I have not done any recharge at all and my balance is ZERO.oh no!. but he politely asks me to call up after a few hours which I do, and still no luck, my balance is still ZERO.So I thought may be the transaction has been a failure, check my credit card statement the next day, no money debited.ok fine I thought.
But still I need EPSN Plus, hence I have no other go but to attempt a recharge with my credit card. This time I pick up a different Credit card, do the recharge and BINGO! the recharge is successful.
Happily I call up Customer Support guys for ESPN Top up, press all the correct options but guess where the calls get routed? To the Customer Sales desk where they have no access to my information. They are just sales guys who give details about Airtel DTH Service, Offers and stuff like that. They promptly ask me to call the same support number, ask me to press a different set of numbers for the options and guess where I reach? To the same Sales Desk but to a different guy. He too asks me to try the same number, same result, same Sales desk and after I do this for 5 to 6 times I am exhausted.decided to hang up the phone and try again on another day."some days things just don’t work.
I repeat the same set of steps the very next day and same result.now am wondering whether I will ever get to watch ESPN, Star Sports etc.So I give up, go into hibernation for 2 days, try again and WOW! This time I reach the correct person. She is very polite and does the ESPN top in a few minutes. I am very happy.
But my happyness is short lived. A Text message comes to me and says, your recharge has been successful and your balance is now Rs. 1000. Guess how it became 1000? Yes, you are right - the failed transaction(old one that failed!) has just gone through and I have been debited with that old Rs. 500 which I thought had failed.hence I have in effect done the top up twice each time with Rs. 500.
The ULTIMATE question is WHY DID I WAIT FOR 5 DAYS TO GET A SIMPLE ESPN TOP UP?
Also there is a rule with Airtel - It says that I cannot change the package(from South Value to a higer package) after 15 days.but no body tells you upfront. So I asked the Customer Support Person, what should I do to get Discovery Channel as a top up? She says there is NO Discovery channel top up.nor can I upgrade to a package where there is Discovery Channel. I ask her when I can change the package? She says after 1 year! What? She apologises and is quick to say that RULES ARE RULES.
Hmmm.
Whatever has happened, I cannot roll back. And I have to say is that the people who were in the Customer Support desk were always polite, did an excellent job but they obviously had to follow the stupid rules at AIRTEL. Also we cannot complain about the clarity of the broadcast, its probably the best in its class.how ever I am very DISAPPOINTED with the overall experience.
All I can advice is that people can definitely go to Airtel but when choosing the package, choose the the best one for you right from the start so that you don’t have to go thru the Customer Support experience again.:-)