I bought this bharti airtel DTH connection when I was in bangalore. Used in Bangalore for 4 months & then I got a transfer to Pune. I paid airtel Rs 600 to transfer my DTH to pune (mind you they charge you well in advance & wont even de-install @ ur place till the time you dont recharge & pay them the entire money). Once I moved to Pune, fixed a place to live in, I called their CC to inform them about my new address in Pune. They took the request & thereafter began my ordeal with Airtel. Repeated calls to their CC’s would only give me an assurance but no resolution. My DTH was fixed after 5 days of requesting them.
After 10 months using the DTH in pune......
The bigger ordeal began last week when mySTB just had blinking green light & nothing else, no channels ..nothing.
Day 1: Called airtel customer care. Their IVR is so pathetic. it will keep telling me my balance my user ID & everything. they also advertise about ten sports & if I would like to opt for it. there is a special menu interface for that. Only after 5 mins..i could get through a CCE & the call immediately got disconnected. I called them again & the same thing happened. After making 4 unsuccessful attempts, finally I got to speak to a CCE. The CCE asked me to reset the STB by pressing a few keys & while I cant do that while keeping the phone in my hands..I informed the CCE that I am keeping the phone down & will do the reset. I tried resetting the STB....though it did not reset but eventually when I got back to the phone, it was disconnected again.
I called their helpline again and requested for someone to come to my place & do the troubleshooting. the CCE mentioned they will charge 100 Rs for it. I agreed to pay & was informed someone will reach my place in the next 4 hrs. I waited for the entire day. NOBODY TURNED UP.
In the evening I called CC again to check what happened & they mentioned that a technician visit is planned @ your place for 9 AM next day.
i e mailed the corporate support asking for help. (e mail address is available on their website)
Day 2: When nobody turned up to my place till 10 AM, I called CC again. Went through the same torture of the pathetic IVR 3 times, before I could get to a CCE who noted my complaint. Said she will escalate this and told me that my problem will be solved by EOD. I was given an ETR of 12:40 PM.
Waited till 1, still no body turned up, I called their CC again they have the same TAG line "Sir aap nischit Raihye, your problem will be solved by today" I kept on telling them why dont you do something & get my problem fixed but no body cared I guess. ETR provided 5 PM.
Nobody still turned up till 6 but I got a call from corporate support that we are looking into this & please confirm your address. I dont know what the hell they were doing till now, they have charged me Rs 600 to install the DTH @ my home, they should know my address. but anyways I gave the address & thought if the corporate support could help.
Day 3:
Calls kept on coming on my cell phone from the corporate support but nobody turned up till 2 PM. At 2 PM, the technician came to my place & asked me ki "DISH KAHA LAGANA HAIN". I asked him who gave him instructions to install the DISH...its alreay installed, the STB is not working. He plugged in his spare STB & here my TV was working again.
They are charging me Rs 500 for a refurbished setup box ........All in all..I just wanna say that a company like Airtel could have given far much better service than what I received.
I am still paying Rs 500 for the refurbished STB......but I would have been more than happy if my problem would have been solved the same day. (It took the technician hardly 2 mins to figure out that the STB was bad & replaced it)