[Resolved]  Airtel Landline — STD locked / CLIP inactive

Address:

South Delhi, Delhi

After attempting to call 6 times and being told that "the Nodal officer is presently busy...pls call after sometime "attending to other Complaints, it struck me that the quality of service provided by Airtel is so poor that the Nodal officers office is alwyas flooded with calls and I would not stand a chance as the IVR always drops me off after making the above announcement.

The poor quality of service is also highlighted in the following service failures :

my landline connection's STD facility has been locked for over a month. and the Caller ID list does not record.
on 9th June I called 198 at Airtel and was told by Mr. Wasim (ref call recording at 1945hrs) that the problem would be solved in 4 hours and i need to reset the STD after 4 hours had elapsed....I was given a reference number [protected]......but unfortunately this did not happen.....I kept treying for the next few days hoping this shall come through.
as for the caller ID issue I was told that the batteries needed replacement......only I discovered later that all these years we have operated this phone without any batteries and Caller ID was always recorded without any problem......I realised that I had been taken for a ride by Wasim.

finally frustrated with no results in unlocking the STD for several days I called 198 again ( ref call dtd 14th june 1930hrs) the agent was unable to explain why I was made a false promise 5 days back....he could not explain any difference between what wasim did and what he would do differently to resolve the problem. I got another reference number 758263.
I faced extreme difficulty in having the call escalated to Mr. Khan who finally agreed that there had been deficiency of service on part of Bharti Airtel and he promptly sanctioned a credit of rs.100/- to my account.
While I appreciated the credit, a) I thought this should have been offered by Airtel proactively and the customer (i.e. me) need not have to beg for it.....and b) . I was promised that the connection would be fine after 4 business hours starting 8am next morning (distinctly different from what was told by Wasim on 9th June), and that I should try to lock the phone after 12:30 hrs next day. I clarified that that this credit was being accepted as compensation for deficiency of service from 9th to the 14th June and should the std service not unlock based on teh steps dictated by Mr. Khan, further compensation shall be due.
Lo and behold, is has been 15days since and the STD on my Landline still does not lock/unlock and the instrument still does not record the caller ID for last 80 numbers, as it used to till a month back.

Yesterday I had the most unfortunate call that lasted NINETY TWO MINUTES, that displayed :
a. how inept your customer service agents are in handling customer issues
b. how poorly trained they are, both in Process knowledge, as well as in command over basic English
c. how they are unwilling to take responsibility
d. how everyone is only eager to pass the buck around
e. how contact centre leadership is conspicuously missing for such a poorly trained workforce
f. how difficult it is to escalate an issue that has been pending for over 20 days
g, how eager all your staff are to confuse the customer and mislead and misinform the customer
h. how the customer service basics are missing and the customer is asked to repeat the entire history of the case 4 times beacuase one CS agent does not have the time to relate the full problem to the next one before transferring the call.
i. how your agents conveniently close complaint cases irrespective of genuine resolution

The following people attended this 90 minute call
Bharat
Praveen was missing from the floor
his manager Varun was also not present on the floor
His manager Bhatnagar was not on duty

Ashish who was too busy to attend the call so he sent Gaurav to attend the call without complete understanding of the case
Mr. Morey who could not understand the gravity of the situation till I mentioned "CHAIRMAN'S COMPLAINT" to him.

Finally I was misled to believer that[protected] was Mr. Gurpreet Sandhu's number.....I had to repeatedly highlight that this number was short buy one digit.....and finally the correct number was given to me.
On my insistence I could also obtain the mobile number of Mr. A Bhatnagar.

your agent Bahart has extreme difficulty in understanding English.
he could not explain why the technician cannot come at 8.30 am
he had a standard phrase that the problem would be solved by 1330hrs next day (i.e. today 29th June), expecting the customer to stop all work and office work and stay at home waiting for an AIRTEL technician.

his supervisor had the same problem, and found it extremely difficult to understand that customers have a life beyond waiting for service from an AIRTEL technician......according to them customers have to available when technician arrives HOWEVER they are unable to predict approximately when the technician may arrive.....as though customers have no other work in their life.

Mr. Gaurav came to the call unprepared and did not have the foggiest about the case.

Mr. Ashish finally escalated the call to Mr. Morey, who also needs lessons in primary English urgently.....No, this is not about Voice and accent.....this is about basic simle everyday colloquial English, which we use in every day life......In addition ALL your officers desperately need training in LISTENING SKILLS.

in the process I was given yet another reference number : 48230630

Having been convinced that a technician would be at my home by 0830am, I was about to retire for the day when a I got a call from one Mr. Pandey at 10pm, who was trying to tell me that the nature of the problem was such that it could be solved from the back end and therefore there was no need for him to pay a visit at 0830hrs, and so I he need not visit at all !!

I was SHOCKED at this and immediately called Mr. Bhatnagar, explaining the entire history for a 5th time.

RESULT :
A. NO TECHNICIAN VISITED AT THE DESIRED TIME
B. THE DYNAMIC STD LOCK IS STILL JAMMED AND WE CANNOT LOCK / UNLOCK IT

DISGUSTED WITH SUCH POOR FOLLOWUP I FINALLY DECIDED TO CALL UP THE NODAL OFFICER ONLY TO BE TOLD....the Nodal officer is presently busy...pls call after sometime

PLEASE ADVSIE WHY SHOULD I CONTINUE WITH AIRTEL SERVICE AND NOT SWITCH TO A BETTER COMPETITOR.
or else why should I not move the appropriate appellate body / consumer court for compensation for deficiency in Services.

Joy Patra
SFS 420 Mandakini Enclave
Alaknanda
New Delhi - 110019

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