I have been a Hutch subscriber in Bombay and Gujarat. I thought their service was reasonably good. After I moved to Bangalore, I took up an Airtel connection through my office.
It is then that I realized that the Hutch service that I was used too was Excellent!! Airtel Karnataka should be sued for a deficient service. Some examples:
# A late payment fee is charged to the customer when the payment (made by credit card) is well in advance of the due date. Reason cited is that the credit card company transferred the funds to Airtel after 11 days. Is that my problem??
# Airtel it seems pre-determines your credit worthiness. I am a roaming customer and during a period of extensive travel, my unbilled outstanding had crossed Rs.3000. Airtel promptly stopped my outgoing calls. It was after many calls using a colleagues phone to the helpline number in Karnataka (Local airtel helplines pleaded total ignorance on the issue - so much for a company marketing telephony and net services!!) that I discovered that my credit was good only upto 3000/-
# After enabling Airtel Online - GPRS service - It took about 8 calls and a weeks time for helpline to give the correct settings for my nokia handset.
# They enabled mobile office on my number without my asking for it and without my knowledge - I discovered this only when the bill came. Upon asking them why this was done - no satisfactory answer was given. They agreed to stop the service but demanded that I pay the full amount of the bill. The extra charges would be reversed in the next bill - is what was promised. They did not stop the service for another 2 months inspite of reminders - regularly charging for a service which I was incapable of using with my handset!
# Finally when the service was stopped (the reversal of charges is still not done!), they also stopped Airtel Online!! It took another 6-8 calls just to get this service started again.
There are many more miseries that I could share... but it would go on and on...
What they need to understand is that to attract a customer is easy... but to retain a customer... now that’s an art.
The day the legislation is passed where a subscriber can move to any service provider retaining his/her original number ( this is in the offing).... the telecom sector will see a a major churning....