If you are planning to buy an Airtel DTH or if you own one, and plan to upgrade to their HD DVR, be warned, their service sucks big time. In fact the service call centres are perfect examples of non-functional entities. We had two problems recently, one: three channels froze after their mechanic reset the dish based on our complaint. He said that since these channels were the additional subscribed channels, on resetting the dish, the channels need to be centrally reset and refreshed.
We rang up the call centre, and our nightmare began. Even after 10-12 calls to the awful call centres at regular intervals, nothing happened, with each of the call centre employees assuring us it would be done in the ‘next half hour’. Even after 4 days, the problem, which is logically a very small one, has not been acted upon.
Second: We had also upgraded our DTH to HD DVR, and that was also to be installed. The upgrade cost of Rs 3990/- was promptly deducted on telephone through the IVR (Credit Card). However, their mechanic arrived to install the same, only after 4 days and after innumerable telephone calls to the call centre to ascertain the status of our HD DVR.
After the installation done on 8th June 2011, their mechanic in front of us, made at least 8-9 calls to their service centre or hub or whatever to get the same activated, and waited about an hour and a half, as he had to give us a demo after the same was activated. Finally, even he gave up, and told us that it would get activated after an hour and that he would come after that to give the demo. Even after 8 hours, the same has not been activated even after many calls to the call centre. During each conversation, we are assured that the ‘HR’ or heavy refresh would be done immediately and that our system would get activated latest within half an hour. We are also advised to keep the STB on during the period. Let me assure you, staring at a blank screen with the error message on it can be very tiring if you have been doing it for more than 4 hours continuously!
One very curious aspect of the service offered by the call centres is their propensity to send a ’Happy Code’ to your registered cellphone, after you call their call centre, saying that the matter has been resolved when in actuality, it has not been sorted out! Also, they give you the number of a cellphone where you can call if your grievance has not been resolved. We experienced that the cell was not attended most of the rings, and when in fact it was attended, it was a repeat of our experience with the call centre with lots of assurances and nothing actually followed up. Another thing, they tell you they will call you within an hour......DO NOT believe them. It’ll never happen.
The call centre is awfully disorganised as there appears to be no connect, no records maintained, as each time, the entire problem has to be painstakingly repeated. Then they put you on hold, and have also cut us off after placing us on hold for 15 minutes. We did not expect this from a reputed company like Airtel. So, beware….
Follow up: (Updated on 12th June 2011)
Well, folks, after a few more frantic calls to the call-centre, finally, the Airtel guys got the HD DVR device changed, after they probably realised something was wrong with the STB. Although, the same story was repeated with the changed STB regarding waiting for the service to resume, after nearly 24 hours, the transmission started. Presently, the picture quality and transmission is fine, and there are no problems. Here’s hoping I do not have to approach the call centre anytime soon over some problem!