Airtel — Complaint about false promise made and lack of resolution from customer service

Address:	Gurgaon, Haryana, 122017
Website:	Airtel.in

I am a user of the Airtel Mobile number [protected]. This number was activated in April 2013 and the data plan was added on around August 2013. At the time of the addition of the data pack, I was informed that there is 1GB data with high speed and post that the speed will be reduced, but there will be no extra charge for the data usage ( was told that will receive unlimited data).

However, on the invoice for the month of November 2015 (Bill Number:[protected], I was charged 875 + taxes for the data usage and was told the plan (add on data option) includes 1GB of data and post that there is a charge of 10p/10kb. (I will be honest here that I have never checked my invoice to see these details as have never received any unexpected charges).

So, I contacted the customer service (at 121) and spoke to someone (don’t remember the name of the person) on November 15, 2015 at around 7:30 - 8:00 PM and was promised a waiver of 570 as a courtesy (500 + 14% service tax) and was told to wait for 24 hours to get the request reviewed and approved.

I waited for the confirmation till November 20, 2015 and called the customer service once again (spoke to Vishal, name given to me over the call) and was shocked to know that the person I spoke with on November 15, 2015 has neither entered any details about the interaction we had nor forwarded the request of promised credit. Vishal told me that he has arranged a Supervisor call for me to discuss the details and get the issue resolved. I was told that the Supervisor call will be made in next 24 hours -(no mentioned that it may be business hours).

I kept on waiting for the Supervisor call and not received the same. I contacted back the Customer Care on November 22, 2015 and (spoke to Umar, name given to me over the call). He apologized for the delay in getting the issue resolved and assured that has escalated the call back request once again and assured me that I will receive the call back in next 24 hours.

I still waited for the call back (not to mentioned that not received it) and called the customer service once again on November 24, 2015(last day to make the payment), (spoke to Rohit) and provided the details of the issue once again (which was discussed over the call on November 15, 2015). Rohit once again gave me the details that there is no mention of any waiver promised to me. He told me that he has escalated the request for the waiver now and told me to wait for 24 hours to get a confirmation. I asked him to make sure that everything discussed over the call is noted on the account so that I would not have to repeat the details of the 4 calls made to customer service once again when I will call again in next 24 hours to confirm the credit request approval. He also assured me that has noted down everything and I can get back to customer service and confirm the same.

I made another call to customer service on November 25, 2015 at 6:14 PM and spoke to Rajat. I repeated the issue once again and was told that the amount of waiver was not mentioned by Rohit Kumar and was told to stay online and he is connecting me to a Supervisor. I was on hold for 7 minutes and was told that all the seniors are busy with other calls and cannot take my call right now. I insisted to speak to a Supervisor even if I have to be on hold for few more minutes. I was connected to one of the Supervisors Ratan Chand and he again asked me to repeat the issue. I requested him to go through the notes but as always in the absence of proper notes, he has to go through the account for around 8-10 minutes to get the exact details of the issue.

While discussing the details with the Supervisor I did came to know that Rohit has noted that I will not be eligible for the late fee waiver on the next invoice as I have not made the payment on time. However, over the call, I was promised a waiver for the late fee on the next invoice due to this billing issue. Ratan told that the approval for the waiver request is not yet updated and told me to wait for the resolution to be updated. When I asked him on the estimated time for resolution, he again put me on hold for few minutes to check the details and came back after few minutes and was very rude and was not able to provide me the status of the request. But he again kept on telling me that the charges are valid and no waiver can be given.
After receiving this response, I had made a request to port the number to another provider.

This is just to let the Airtel know about was the level of customer service, I have received even after being with the company for more than 10 years (would also like to mention here that I am using 3 other Airtel numbers and not expect this kind of false promises to a loyal and valuable customer) knowing that there is competition in the market. Along with the loyalty a customer has never been late on payments with no questions (even after being charged for some of the unauthorized charges on the one of the account [protected]). I have made the payment of what I am agreed to every month, even if I have not used the services completely.

I would like this complaint to be looked upon and want to receive a call back from someone who has the authority to resolve the issues over the call (expect the technical issues, which needs to be investigated and take some time to get resolved).

Not a happy customer due to the services received.