| Address: AirTel, Sacred Heart Town, Jagtap Chowk, Wanowarie, Pune 411040 |
My name is Raj Kumar Daw, 406 Sun City B Building, NIBM Road, Pune 411040. We have AirTel Cell Phone Postpaid subscriptions, [protected] (my phone), [protected] (my wife's phone) and a fibre modem. Till Oct 21, these bill for three services were paid through an ECS instruction to our bank.
In Oct. 21, from this ECS payment arrangement, we converted the billing to AirTel Black, which was to consolidate our billing in to one bill for all three of our services. In Dec. 21, since we did not receive our bill, I settled our bill by Credit Card at the AirTel office in Sacred Heart Town, Wanowarie, Pune.
In Jan 21, my bank statement showed an ECS debit for my phone ([protected]) and AirTel sent me a bill (on AirTel Black) for my wife's phone ([protected]) and our modem. When I inquired at AirTel Wanowarie, they informed me that I needed to give my bank a separate instruction to stop the ECS deductions for my phone.
I wrote to my bank, talked with them on 10 Feb. 22 and they have assured me that the ECS will be discontinued. By a copy of this letter to AirTel, I asked them to ensure that future bills for phone [protected] should be through AirTel Black.
When I visited AirTel Wanowarie to give this copy of my letter to my bank letter, AirTel refused to accept and acknowledge it. The lady at the AirTel service counter, Ms. Renuka Chavan, stated that she was not authorised to accept and acknowledge letters and spoke to her manager of the phone, who was not in the office at that time. I too spoke to this manager on the phone, explaining what my letter was about but she, the manager, was inflexible.
My complaints regarding AirTel are as follows:
After subscription to AirTel Black, why did AirTel continue to send my bill (for [protected]) to my bank? AirTel Black is supposed to be service by which all services to a subscriber are supposed to come under one bill. Yet my phone bill went to my bank but my wife's bill was made under AirTel Black. Our AirTel Black subscription was clearly for both our postpaid cell phones and our modem.
Why did AirTel refuse to accept a copy of my letter to my bank, asking my bank to discontinue ECS deductions for AirTel and asking AirTel to ensure that my phone’s billing was done through AirTel Black? Is it reasonable that only the manager of AirTel Wanowarie can accept and acknowledge a letter, that too a copy of a letter to my bank?
In this case the manager of AirTel Wanowarie was not in her office. Does this mean that the office stops functioning in her absence? Do managers not delegate their responsibilities if they are out of their office? Do the financial and other routine transactions of an office stop in a manger's absence? And why was she absent? And why were other staff in the office not authorised to accept and provide acknowledgement for a letter? Does this office refuse to accept any postal delivery that requires acknowledgement in the absence of its manager?
This is an entirely arbitrary situation that requires redressal. The concerned manager should be reprimanded and penalised. And AirTel is not meeting its AirTel Black obligations.
Raj Kumar Daw
Airtel customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
