VaiduS World

What would you do when your calls and internet on phone get over charged by the company and if they don’t even allow you to switch into prepaid from postpaid because they are getting more money from you? Confused? Well, this is what Airtel India is doing.

I am using Airtel’s postpaid number since 2010 and this is not the first time that I am facing this issue. Airtel is a very smart company that fetches their money from clients’ pockets in a tricky manner. They put you in a situation where you are left with no option apart from paying them. I am currently facing this issue with them. I have dropped ample number of tweets, mails, calls, and even involved nodal team but still waiting for them to respond.

I am a blogger, content strategist, and completely understands the value of social media. So, I am trying my luck here as well. This blog is just one more effort from my side to get justice and a thorough action against the most corrupt telecom company. I have drafted my issue with all facts below and would love to have suggestions from all my readers.

On Nov 5, I received my ebill. Screenshot of mail attached below:

I immediately contacted customer support team. Some customer support person (Mr. Siddharth) received my call and when I discussed the issue with him, he informed that plan is changed because 3x plans were removed by Airtel’s internet plan list. When I asked why it wasn’t informed to me before making the changes in my plan, he told that sms was sent to me by the company, while I never received any sms. When I further asked him for sms details on my email, he simple refused saying it is not possible from my system. When I said I will not pay a single penny if information is not given to me, because you are saying that Airtel sent me a message while I didn’t receive it, he simply replied, ‘If you don’t wish to pay then it’s your choice’. This is the attitude of customer support team.

Also, I further had an interaction in this regard from his supervisor (Mr. Shobhit) who after listening to the complete matter assured me that the complaint raised by me on the issue will be solved on priority and their team will revert me within 24 hrs while on 11th Nov, I received sms that compliant has been closed (Screenshot attached below)

I dropped the same issue to appellate.ncr@in.airtel.com and nodalofficer.del@in.airtel.com on 6 Nov. Screenshot of mail attached below:

After all this, Mr. Saddam from national escalation team called me and understood the complete issue. He was a real help. He took my issues on priority and remained in touch and finally, helped me in getting a waiver of Rs. 2700 (approx), which was charged from me out of extra 0.9 GB internet and late fee. After getting a confirmation mail on waiver from nodalofficer.del@in.airtel.in on 11 Nov (screenshot of their mail attached below), I paid my outstanding bill.

Now after all this, I had a word with Mr. Saddam again and asked how can I change my plan to prepaid. He told that all I have to do is to go to Airtel nearby office and have to get duplicate sim. They will put my request for the same and within 48 hours it will be activated and my current sim will stop working. He said whatever bill will be outstanding for this month and till the time I used postpaid, for that I will again get ebill next month and I have to pay for it. I said that is fair enough and I will surely do that.

I then, called customer support team again that evening asking for Dwarka’s nearest Airtel centre for the same. Customer support team gave me sector 4 office address and informed me about the documents, which I was supposed to carry. Customer support team also told that office is open till 8 PM while when I went to the said address, there was no office of Airtel and people of that market gave me another address. I visited there and it was 7:30 PM. Concerned person in Airtel office said it is closed and asked me to come next day. When I told him that customer support team said it is working till 8, he said, “No, you have wrong information. Airtel offices are open till 7:30 PM only”. He refused to take my request.

I again called customer care but no one received this time. However, concerned person in Airtel office found that I am trying to get connected with Airtel team, so he helped me by giving me the form for prepaid request and asked me to bring all documents with filled form next day. He also told me that my unpaid bill was 486 Rs and I have to pay it first then only my request for prepaid will be generated. I then told him the complete case and he said he don’t mind sending the request but it might get declined. I said ok I’ll speak to customer care again and will get my documents submitted by tomorrow.

I then again tried calling customer support team and this time my call got answered. I asked customer support to mail the process as they were also saying that I will get ebill for remaining no. I just asked for a mail and they refused. They assured me that once I will submit my documents and once I get another sim, then my current sim will deactivate. I, therefore, followed their instructions and submitted my documents.

All this mess started on 5th Nov and now it is 23rd Nov. No action has been taken yet. Again they will ask me to pay the bill and indirectly not allowing me to switch to prepaid. I am fed up of Airtel and please consider this as my last reminder. After this, I am going to visit consumer court and will not entertain a single call from Airtel team. I have been doing regular tweets and Airtel team have been promising that they will call back but there was never a single follow up.

I am not paying a single penny for this month and if again, I don’t get a call within 24 hours, I will switch off my no. and will approach Consumer Court. I would not prefer wasting anymore time on a useless company and their useless support team. After 24 hours, my lawyer will approach Airtel.

For further references of my communication with Airtel team, one can look into my tweets and replies.

Credit: Banner image is taken from Google images while all other images in blog are from author’s personal accounts.