[Resolved]  Airtel Broadband Services — Grievance regarding poor customer service & harassment by AirtelBroadband Services.

Subject: - Grievance regarding poor customer service & harassment by AirtelBroadband Services.

Intended To :- The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India, Airtel Broadband Customer Service, Airtel Broadband Services,
Telephone Number:[protected]
Account Number: - 14162443
Bill No:[protected] dated 24th January 2009 &[protected] dated 24th February 2009.

Dear Sir/ Ma’m,
This is to bring to your notice that I have had the poorest experience of my life with Airtel Broadband Services. My grievance is about the quality of treatment I had with Airtel Broadband after being a brand loyal customer for over an year. I always maintained high level of integrity & transparency with Airtel by paying my bill always on time.

Incident 1:- Dated 26th December 2008, interaction # 539013
I called in customer service to seek information about Wireless Broadband service; this was because one my friend recently bought a new wireless connection for Rs-800/- only. Referring to the offer I also intended to have my connection upgraded to wireless. Moreover 1 year back when I bought this connection I was never informed about wireless connection. Executive over the phone informed me that up gradation was possible by paying 1500/-, I rather insisted on having my connection upgraded free of cost as I already had paid Rs.800/- & new connection was available on same rate. I suggested executive to disconnect my connection so that I may purchase a new one. I was later transferred to some other department, where executive offered me a wireless connection for Rs.500/-, considering the temptation of wireless I agreed to pay Rs.500/-. This was all mutually understood & I was given a interaction no: - 539013.

Incident 2:- Dated 5th February 2009, interaction # 63324152
I called in customer service as I intended to pay my bill online & to my surprise it contained a wireless charge of Rs.1500/-. I complained about the discrepancy and wanted help on the same. I was informed by representative that there on such information available for waiver of Rs.1000/-. I alleged and complained about the poor communication. Representative offered me a TAT of 3-4days & promised a call back on same. I was given an interaction # 63324152.

Incident 3:- Dated 12th February 2009, interaction # 64431799
As I have had no call back & response from Airtel Customer Service in regards to the complain, I called back in. I had assistance from Sushma (customer service representative). She completely had no information about my complain and told me that I had called in previously to seek information on wireless, which by no way was the scenario. I asked for supervisor above her & then I was transferred to Gunjan (supervisor customer service). Supervisor listened to complete case & offered me help by telling me that she will personally listen to the first incident on call recording and would get back to me with response within next 3-4days. I had no other way round then waiting for another 3-4 days.

Incident 4:- Dated 27th February 2009, interaction # 66915693
I again called in as I have never heard upon my complain since 12th February. I had to again describe my whole situation & agitation to Sarita (customer service representative). Further to which Sarita again escalated the case. To which I had a response in 1st week of March. I was called up by some retention department representative, who heard my whole case & promised a call back with proper arrangement. But representative seemed to have little or no knowledge about the case.

Incident 5:- Dated 9th March 2009, interaction # 17666412 & 68326840
I again called as I was receiving lot o[censored]nwanted call where representative were calling in to inquire about the payment. They seemed completely unaware of my issue & arrangement. I called in and spoke with Nitesh (customer service representative), he was the very first person to acknowledge that he was able to see that I was promised for an waiver on 26th December. He was the one who told me about my interaction number & complaint. He sounded promising & assured me resolution very soon.

Incident 6:- Dated 9th March 2009, interaction # not given
I received a call on 9th March from one of representative (Puneet) in retention department stating that he was completely aware of the case & he had a resolution to it. After a long exchange of issues & concerns he finally apologized and promised that as a courtesy to me he would wave off all charges & would resume my services at his earliest. He persuaded me to pay a sum of Rs.1300/- as the only charge on my account to have connection back up & running.
After having a final discussion with Puneet many a times on 9th march, I finally paid a sum of Rs.1300/- online. I was taken away by confidence that Puneet showed in pursuing my case.

Incident 7:- Dated 10th March 2009, interaction # not given
I again called in early hours so that I may have my connection back up & running, I called up on 121. By this time I was an irate customer & was very agitated by the service. Customer representative stated that he could see no documentation or arrangement made by Puneet, to which I gave an obvious response by turning volatile & furious. Representative asked me for Puneet’s number, I gave him the contact number for Puneet[protected]. Representative suggested that he would call Puneet & discuss the case with him.

Incident 8:- Dated 10th March 2009, interaction # not given
After hanging up with the representative I personally called up Puneet to seek as to what was going on & why was I a victim of across department affairs. Someone named Aaditya answered my phone on[protected] and informed me that there were NO adjustments to be made by paying only 1300/-. I by now had complete trauma and feeling of being cheated. Aaditya admitted that because of some confusion Puneet might have promised me a sum of 1300/- but now to have my complete service resumed, I needed to pay the total outstanding & the only possible waiver was for Rs.750/-. I abruptly hanged the phone & told the representative before hanging to have connection disconnected & I intended to pay nothing anymore.

Incident 9:- Dated 10th March 2009, interaction # not given
I after a while was contacted again by the same guy who called in Incident 7. He suggested that the department which promised the only outstanding of Rs.1300/- was from retention and they by mistake had made a wrong arrangement. He later added that the only possible waiver was of Late fee & Rs.750/- against my WiFi Router. Now that I was all decided to have my connection disconnected no arrangement made any happiness to my response. I turned neutral & suggested that he could do whatever he intended to do. After a while in evening my internet connection was working properly & a representative from customer service called me to assure if everything was working fine.

Losses I had for being a customer with Airtel:-
A feeling of not being a truthful man and agony due to type of personal treatment by Airtel.
Repeated harassment calls in regards to collecting payment although I was on a roaming & was apprehensive about the fact.
I was unwillingly forced to repeat my issue & tragedy a many times.( Above mentioned incidents are the only ones that I remember and notated, where else I had many other interactions too.)
I wasn’t able to complete one my projects in office for which I am being kept under scrutiny & have 100% chances of having being expelled from services.
The amount of time I wasted in resolving one simple promise which was made by Airtel & which to everyone’s surprise in end was found documented in Airtel Customer Care Database.
Its been exactly one month that connection isn't working.

Resolution offered By Airtel:-
I was never offered the resolution which was promised on various incidents.
At last the resolution that I was offered contained a waiver of Rs.80/- + Rs.750/-. This waiver didn’t suffice any of my efforts & time that I have invested.
As a mockery Airtel offered a total waiver of Rs.830/- and at the other hand they had a service tax of Rs.450/- added to my total outstanding bill. In all Airtel only made an adjustment for Rs.400/-.
Representative had little or no courtesy at all with the whole situation & they always offered resolution as if it was a clemency to me.
As a customer I am paying more for the sort of connectivity & service I have from Airtel ( when compared with their nearest competitor BSNL/Reliance)
On various occasion in the past I inquired to have better plan but representative were never reasonable while offering and in spite suggested that I was free to approach nearest competitor.