Why do reputed companies like Airtel treat customers like fools?

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
frequent disconnections in any telephone line based internet indicates problem in line quality.unless the line is entirely damaged(very rare) all it takes is a visit to local exchange,talk nicely with line man & give him Rs.100-200 after he is done.sometimes even that is not required if problem is within the portion of line inside your house.just check for any cuts/joints & rejoin them properly after cleaning.
 

Nipun

Whompy Whomperson
frequent disconnections in any telephone line based internet indicates problem in line quality.unless the line is entirely damaged(very rare) all it takes is a visit to local exchange,talk nicely with line man & give him Rs.100-200 after he is done.sometimes even that is not required if problem is within the portion of line inside your house.just check for any cuts/joints & rejoin them properly after cleaning.

He also has problem of wrong bills :|
 

CyberKID

In search for Tech Gyan!
^^ their Quality of service for say internet and GSM network .. like stability/speed etc is really great.. The issue is their ethics and business practice.
Rightly said. The issue is with their ethics. There are thousands of such things happening with us irrespective of the service provider.
There are many such incidents which happened with me using airtel for the last 7 years. Once, when the DoT overhauled the DND thing, asking the consumers to select their choice of messages. I had before that too registered for DND, but at that time, it was disabled, and I started getting messages and calls. I again registered for DND which got activated in 45 days, as said by them, and imagine, on the 46th day too, I got a marketing message. Angrily, I shot a complaint over to the CC, and to add to my agony, I got a complaint reference number and assurance that the issue will be resolved within 7 days. 7 days passed waiting, and on the 8th day, I got two marketing messages. I again called them up, and this time too the person offered to register a complaint. I angrily refused to register a complaint and demanded to talk to someone superior to him. He told me to hold the line while he transfers my call to his manager, and I waited.... and waited.... and waited......... The wait stretched over 20 minutes, and no one ever came up on the line. I disconnected, and when I again tried contacting their customer care, I found that they had modified the code to reach the customer care, and forced me to hear their adverts.
This was too much for anyone to take up. I decided to go upwards. But to whom? Had no contact details to file a complaint. Neither TDSAT had anything. Then, I stumbled upon the National Consumer Helpline. Filed a complaint detailing them about the whole issue, and imagine what was their reply? I got a docket number to track down the status of my complaint, and after that nothing happened. Got no acknowledgement, or anything from them too. They say Jaago Grahak Jaago... and they sleep themselves. So, couldn't do anything about that. After sometime, the messages stopped themselves.

One latest incident. I was travelling out of delhi, and by chance my 3G data pack had expired the last night. Suddenly, I felt need to access internet. Since, the area was not covered by 3G data services, I opted for the Rs. 10 daily GPRS rental pack. Used it that day, and when I came back that day, I just forgot to deactivate the pack, and the next day I got a message that Rs 10 had been deducted from my balance. I suddenly recollected that I had forgot to disable the internet pack last night. I tried doing it, but their application wouldn't allow me to do that. I tried for the next two days also, and tried all sorts of things to do it myself, as I didn't want to go to their pathetic CC, but failed. It didn't showed even in the VAS packs for my number. On the fourth day, I called up their CC and demanded to know the VAS packs active on my number, and to my surprise, the CC told me that the Rs. 10 GPRS daily rental pack is active. When I explained him the whole issue, and asked him to deactivate that, he told me that "OUR SERVERS ARE BEING UPDATED AND YOU WILL NEED TO CALL US BACK AFTER 4 HRS TO GET THIS DEACTIVATED." When I said that do you want me to call you up at 11 PM, as it was already 7pm, he said yes. This got me frustrated even more, and I just asked him to deactivate it right now and also refund the 20 rupees which were deducted from my account, but he replied in negative. I asked him to file a complaint regarding this, and straightaway stated that I want a refund of the balance deducted from my account, and disconnected the phone. In a few minutes, I got a message with the complaint reference number, and the next day, I got a message informing me that Rs 20 were credited to my phone's balance. What I paid for this was, that they simply disconnected my 3G data connection. The next day, when I activated a 3G data pack, I couldn't connect to the internet. I waited for this to get sorted out, as I felt there was some sort of problem with the cellphone tower in my location. 15 days passed by, and one fine sunday, I called them up again to complain about the internet and to my surprise, the CC told me that the connection is active and working. He offered to send me the connection settings, but I declined as I already had them as I regularly used internet on my phone. He asked me to turnoff my phone and turn it on again and the issue would be gone. And this happened too. Just after disconnecting the phone I tried using the internet, and I was able to do that. If this problem would have been sorted out by just switching my phone off and switching it on again then it would have been resolved on the first day itself when I switched my phone off before going to sleep.
There are a few more I have to share. But right now I thinking to get the number I'm using with my data card ported to some other operator, just to make them realize that they will lose a fixed Rs. 750 (for data) and Rs. 50 (worth of talktime) monthly from me.
 
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Pavitre

Right off the assembly line
I live in Noida and have been using Airtel connection for more than 5 years now, their CC has been good in this area till now, my friend also uses airtel for 5+ years so whenever we call they come rushing within a day itself but I'm looking to change the connection due to their fair usage policy, recent increase in payment and that they have shifted their response centre regarding modem problems to some local company, which once create a huge communication gap between me, airtel and them..

So Does anyone know a good ISP in Noida plz?
 

Naxal

Little Kid
Talking about business policy or ethics, here is an example of carelesness !!

Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists:

nodalofficer.kol@uninor.in
The recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages now. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please try resending this message later, or contact the recipient directly.

Simply not been able to reach them in a time where free operators too give unlimited storage :p
 

RCuber

The Mighty Unkel!!!
Staff member
This happened yesterday. I visited my uncles place yesterday and he asked me if I can check why his balance was getting deducted.. he is 68 yrs old.

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they don't even know what a service is. all they can do is make and receive phone calls and read SMS. its very sad to see this cause they are living on pension money. even Rs30 is expensive for them .I deactivated those services. need to put their phone on DND.
 

CyberKID

In search for Tech Gyan!
Today, I've lodged a complaint regarding against Airtel regarding non redressal of DND complaints at Consumer Online Resource & Empowerment Centre.
I've been receiving unwanted telemarketing SMS's on a daily basis, and everyday I lodge a complaint regarding that, and till now, I've lodged numerous complaints, but Airtel has informed me of just one outcome, that too I suppose around 6 months back that the unregistered telemarketer has been issued a show cause notice. Just an hour ago, I got an SMS, and this irked me to an extent that I've taken this step. Everytime I get an SMS, I register a complaint, and most of the time Airtel fails to even provide a complaint registration number, leave alone informing me about the action status.

Complaint Text.
Please enter further details with respect to the complaint. (Maximum 2000 characters) *
Non redressal of DND Related Complaints


I am a consumer of Airtel Prepaid Services in Delhi circle. In order to get rid of the pesky and annoying telemarketing calls and SMS's, I registered my mobile number (9********9) in the DND fully blocked category in July, 2011. The DND Registration Number is S1*******0. But, even after registering for DND, I've been getting unwanted SMS's on a daily basis. Everytime I get an SMS, I lodge a complaint and till now, I've lodged numerous complaints via airtel's website as well as the via the complaint registration procedure on 1909, but to no avail. In this regard, a few months back, I contacted the customer care of Airtel, but they didn't want to solve the issue (except filing a complaint), instead they added to my woes by blocking access to customer care, when I demanded to talk to someone, managing the customer services team.
The main problem is no redressal of the complaints. The telecom service provider is required to provide a complaint registration number and inform the consumer of the complaint redressal status and the action taken on the telemarketer, but most of the time Airtel fails to even provide the complaint registration number, leave alone informing me about the action taken on the complaint. If the complaint registration and redressal is in such a pathetic condition, where the telecom service provider neither provides the complaint registration number, nor informs the consumer about the action taken on the complaint, then, it's better not to have one.
Consequences.
Describe the economic or physical damage that resulted.(Maximum 2000 characters)
Till now I haven't suffered any economic or physical damage due to this issue, but why should I wait for one to happen as a result of this?
What relief do you want.(Maximum 2000 characters)I would like to request the CORE team to kindly follow up the matter with Airtel as I am fed up of registering complaints everyday with no results, or else, kindly let me know if I need to do something else in this regard.

Though, they too are expected to take an action in 3 months. So, hoping to get rid of this. afterall उम्मीद पर दुनिया कायम है ।
 

CyberKID

In search for Tech Gyan!
Seems like lodging the complaint worked. Got a call from Airtel's CC apologizing for the inconveinence and assurance that the issue will be resolved soon. So, in the last two days, I haven't received any promotional message.
 

CyberKID

In search for Tech Gyan!
Update..... The complaint has forced them (Airtel Customer Care) on their heels. The CC people are calling me up since then to get my feedback on the pesky SMS issues, to ask whether it's resolved or not.
 

RCuber

The Mighty Unkel!!!
Staff member
This happened just an hour ago.

I had recharged my mobile with Rs 249 3G plan for 1GB data on 26th dec 2012. Today I observed that my main balance was getting deducted, as I was watching some videos on youtube and after some time I notice call cost message popup on my screen (~Rs 17 for last call blah blah) . I checked my last 5 transactions and came to know that ~Rs. 30 was deducted.

Obviously being pi$$ed I called up their CC. Asked him why my main balance was getting deducted. he said it shown in that way only :facepalm: and it would not affect my main balance. He asked me to check again. As I didn't know what my original balance was so I could not say much. Later tested and saw my balance was not getting deducted.. and Last 5 didn't show the recent data usage. I sensed something was fishy and call them up again. Now another guy picked up the call. and I went into "Totally Dumb" avatar.

Me: hi, lot of my balance is getting deducted from morning :S .. I don't know what is the problem.. can you check ??
CC: sure sir...
Me: [Interrupting] I used internet .. is that because of that?
CC: yes sir.. I see you have used internet at so and so time.. That's the reason for the deduction.
Me: Can you explain me why my main balance is getting deducted when I am having a active 3G play which was activated last week and the balance is ~950 MB+ on that.
CC: :blink: :unsure: (he checked and realised I had a active 3G plan)
Me: Hello
CC: Sir, I'm raising a issue. this will get resolved on 3rd Jan 2013. Will send your the detailed SMS.
Me: The deducted charges will be refunded?
CC: yes.
Me: thanks.
CC: Anything else I can do for you?
Me: Yes.. connect me to your Manager..
CC: Why sir?
Me: I need to register a complaint regarding the previous agent for giving false information.
CC: :confused: :???:.. okay.. let me put you on hold sir.
CC: My manager will call you back .
Me: Fine...


This is the state of Airtel and their cheating agents.
 

Nipun

Whompy Whomperson
They throw messages many times on mobile as if I demanded a callertone or something. On cancelling it says USSD code cancelled. How unethical it is! If a key gets pressed accidentally, the callertone will get active and balance deducted. They'll also have excuse "Sir you enabled it". :x
 

Vyom

The Power of x480
Staff member
Admin
Happened with me yesterday.

I had about Rs. 67 as balance. I put some apps to download via play.google.com. Next thing I saw after an hour, there was a popup message something like: "Last Internet Usage: XX MB for Rs 67. Current balance is 0.01". I was shocked, lol.
Called CC, and demanded my money back, since it had 2G plan already activated.

They had to refund. Today afternoon, I got a call from a lady, confirming that my money is refunded.

But the experience was a bit frightening. :|
 
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