[Resolved]  Airtel — Not providing service after charging well in advance

Address:

Chandigarh

Sir,

Complaint Of Airtel - Non Activation of International Roaming on Mob [protected]

I paid Rs. 3000/= in cash, Recpt No.39473 dt. 20.06.2012 at An Airtel Connect, Sector 22 B, Chandigarh (franchisee : Three Vee Communications Pvt. Ltd.) for activation of international roaming(IR), I was told that it will be activated within 24 hrs. and I will get a message to that effect. When even after 3 days the IR was not activated I was worried. I Talked to VIvek at 121 and to Naveen at 198, besides talking to Cheenu many times at [protected], i.e. where I had paid the cash. I also sent three emails at [protected]@in.Airtel.com . I was told not to worry IR will start shortly. With fingers crossed I took the flight to Bangkok early morning of 24th June, 2012, stayed there for a week and came back. The IR was never activated. Abroad I faced lot of problems for contacting anybody in India, also had to pay much more for calls than normally I would have.

Once back I rang up 198 on 2nd July, many times to find the reason of non activation only to get funny answers e.g. we have your money, when you go abroad next we will activate IR, you should have deposited the money in advance for IR, when I asked how much no answer and many more such replies. One gets irritated while talking to anybody at 198, because they keep repeating few lines which they know, whether they are relevant or not. Any how after many enquiries and struggle of more than 2 hrs finally I was able to talk to Ms. Surbi, Appellate Offr. who asked for details, checked in the system, and told me that I will be contacted by the Head Office within 2 days. But nothing happened. On 6th i.e. that is after 4 days I again was able to talk to her. She said that System is down and that I should talk to her later. On 9th June, after struggling for lot of time, I was able to talk to her again and she said that now Head Office will contact me after 3 days. When I asked about anybody superior to her she said she is the highest authority here and she can not give number/name/address of anybody in the Head Office. Then I sent an email to whichever address I could find on the net. Then one Mr. Gagnesh contacted me saying that he is the boss here in Chandigarh and whatever he decides will be final. Anyhow even after a week he was still conducting inquiry, as he told me after I managed to speak to him. Then Ms. Rajinder Kaur called me from Delhi Mob [protected], 2-3 times only to say that though there has been a lapse on somebody’s part, I should forget about it. In between Ms. Deepa & Mr. Rahul cropped up from Chandigarh office they also promised a lot but did nothing. To rub salt on my injury, On 9th July Airtel sent me a SMS that International Roaming has now been activated on my phone and they started charging me rent for it whereas I was fighting for refund since 2nd of July. Besides I have received many confusing calls/SMSes from Airtel even saying that my complaint has been resolved to my satisfaction even gave me ref. no. for that : F [protected] whereas on ground nothing had been done. Airtel has gone to the extreme to frustrate all my efforts in getting a proper redressal of my genuine complaint. Then searching the net I found Ombudsperson’s email. I sent this complaint to him on the net. After couple of days Mr. Praneet Arora contacted me. He talked to me few times, admitted that their has been a lapse on Airtel’s part and that I have faced lot of inconvenience but offered me a waver of Rs. 500/= only, which is too little and too late. I must have spent much more in terms of efforts, time spent, telephonic calls etc. Whatever I have written here is briefly, my harassment and the apathy of Airtel you can not imagine.


In view of the aforesaid I humbly request you to kindly see that Airtel refunds my security deposit of Rs. 3000/= along with interest and suitable compensation. Airtel should also be fined for not providing a service for which it charged well in advance and for deceitful intent of charging me rent for IR when I was asking for refund.

Yours faithfully
Capt. G. S. Ghuman
690, Sector 8 - B, Chandigarh.
Mob[protected]