[Resolved]  Airtel India — Poor QoS

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka

Hello.

This post is another step to ensure that consumers are not deprived of what they are promised and hence in persuasion of "consumerism" as our Economic ideology.

A copy of the same will therefore be sent to government authorities and concerned associations.

This is not a complaint as a complaint by nature is an issue addressed with the intention to resolve. However, since I've switched to vodafone now, I don't intend to get these resolved for myself. Nevertheless, am writing this mail pro bono publico with the sole intention to bring it to your notice the quality of service that customers are being provided with and harassment that they have to undergo to get their issues resolved.

Accordingly, the set of issues in light of circumstantial facts are being reiterated below:

1. Poor Network Quality

I reside in an apartment in Thaverekere main road, bangalore and while I was in the lift, I lost access to network and my phone was always on "search mode".
Also inside my office premises, the network strength used to be very poor and hence call quality was below reasonable and acceptable standards. I had complained of this at various occasions to the customer care executive both over phone and in person at Relationship centre, Koramangala but in vein.

2. Short Messaging System (SMS)

On an average basis, I send around 60 texts a day to local as well as National inter network/intra network numbers. On more than 30 times a day, SMS sending failed, thus out of the 60 texts that I sent, I had to re send 30-35 texts twice or thrice. For each of these texts, my phone returned a response that said, "Sending failed, network out of order". This certainly indicates a flaw in packet radio connectivity and on repeated complaints, the company refuses to respond to it and resolve the same.

3. Value Added Services and Tele-Marketing

I had opted for DND (Do Not Disturb) registration in my application form despite which, in gross neglect of that choice, I continued to receive about 5-6 promotional offers through text messages and phone calls each day. I had to register myself yet again on the DND list via the government portal of India.
As for the VAS, subsequent to my registration on DND, though I did not receive any promotional text messages or calls, some "promotional and Value added packs" were activated on my number and in pursuance thereof, a certain amount of balance got deducted from my prepaid account. I had to file several complaints and request customer care executives to credit the deducted balance to my account and to de activate such value added packs. Though the latter part was resolved in as much as my value added services were de activated, the company failed to credit that balance to my account.

4. Customer care

While it is mandatory vide the TRAI rules and DoT directions to provide to the customer/subscriber with the option of instant 24*7 customer care connectivity option, the company has defaulted in doing so because as a subscriber/customer I could not connect to the customer care three out of the five times I called the helpline number. It should not be disputed that poor connectivity to the help line number tentamounts to failure on part of the company to comply with the aforementioned rules. In addition, I was charged for calls to 121 that were not even attended by a customer care representative.
Also, at occasions on which I spoke to the customer care representative/executive, they seemed to be incompetent, less informed and failed to resolve petty issues (not listed herein) that I had. They did not even know of recharge denominations and seemed to have a standard response of "Your issue is escalated..it should be resolved soon".

5. Activation of BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS)

This was the major highlight of all issues that I experienced with Airtel. On 17th of November, 2010 when my number was activated, I tried to activate BIS immediately thereafter. However, I was told by the operator representative that I can not activate the same before the elapse of 24 hours post activation of a new number. Subsequent to a patient wait, when after 32 hours of my activation, I tried activating BIS, I got a text message response that said, "New customers please wait for 24 hours". To my disappointment, I had to wait for another 24 hours for activation but despite the wait, the operator still refused to activate my services. Thereafter, to resolve the issue, I spoke to a representative at the Relationship centre, Koramangala and was told that, "it will take 5 days for activation of BIS on new numbers". This was quite clearly different from what the company website stated. Since I was in urgent need of BIS to access my official mails while being out of office, I had opted for Airtel BIS on the sole basis of the information provided by the website: that on new numbers BIS will be active only after 24 hours. Nowhere otherwise is it provided that BIS cannot be activated before 5 days. This highlights the discrepancy within the company's internal domain and is unacceptable.
However, after I had the privilege of BIS, I continued to use it for two months when on the due date of rental for the fourth month, the service was deactivated due to insufficient funds in my prepaid account. In order to re-activate the service, I recharged my account the next day to ensure that I have more than required balance fund for BIS. To my utter shock and disappointment, Airtel failed to activate the same despite the required balance.
Thus, there was an issue that warranted immediate attention by the service provider. However, to bring it to the notice of service provider, I had to call the customer care number (7070 - BBerry customer care) to which I could not connect. I tried calling the standard customer care line on 121, but they did not have any "idea of BlackBerry services". When after several trials, I connected to BlackBerry customer care from my phone, a representative told me that the issue was "escalated to the pre paid department" and will take time. On asking how much time should it take to resolve the issue, I was told 24 hours, though the representative made it clear that he could not "commit anything"! Yet again, I was left with no other option but to visit the relationship centre at Koramangala, where I was told the same thing. I waited for two days thereafter before switching to another operator.


The above issues clearly makes it evident that Quality of Service is poor. It is one thing to have issues with the service provider, but to not have a solution to it is an escalation thereof.

I hope that by this mail, voices of large number of subscribers would be heard and the company takes initiative to cure the disease that would soon lead to its downfall because in Indian Economy where consumerism is the ideology, brand loyalty would not negate poor service for long.