I am airtel customer since many years. Never before, I have been more harassed by airtel broadband but now I am facing severe harassment from them especially the field team senior personnel. My phone is dead since more than a week - there have been several commitments made on Aug 25 2021, Aug 27 2021, Aug 29 2021 and Aug 30 2021 to me over phone, sms that engineer will come and rectify but still no person has even visited since Aug 25 2021 and my phone line remains dead.
Also, have written to airtel appellate and they committed to respond within 24 to 48 hours but no response has come.
Fiber installation team made a request by themselves for fiber conversion of my line but accepted my request that I do not want fiber via company official procedure of cancellation otp.
Before, they were saying it is local problem in the box in my premises due to rain which can be easily rectified but now they are making up stories and refusing to even visit premises to see possible solutions. It seems field team seniors are pressurising the juniors to not work on the copper line faults even though customer care said customer can refuse fiber installation if he wants.
Before few months, when my line was on ADSL, they were saying that copper is the best and converted my line to copper by themselves, now they are saying copper is worst and pressurising me to convert my line to fiber.
I will list out detailed history with time line below -
On Aug 22 2021, I lodged a frequent disconnection problem - engineer came and said that it is local issue due to rain, it can easily be rectified - I requested connection to be under observation to be sure that engineer has done work properly. Engineer told to give code to put it under observation - but that code closed the complaint. Then, I got a sms asking whether issue is resolved, then send back sms as "1", otherwise send sms as "2" . Since I was not given time to observe, I send back sms "2" and the complaint got reopened.
On Aug 23 2021, I received call from fiber installation team - Mr. Lalit saying that there is a request for conversion of my copper line to fiber. I said that I did not place any such request. I said to him that on enquiry from customer care, they told me that I can refuse fiber installation. Mr. Lalit replied that fiber conversion request was lodged by the team themselves and that I can cancel that request as per company procedure. For that he gave me number of his senior Mr. Krishna. Mr. Krishna said that I will receive cancellation otp and to give that otp to cancel request. Then, Mr. Lalit called and took the cancel otp and this request got cancelled.
On Aug 23 2021 night, phone went dead - on complaint engineer came on Aug 24 2021 morning and on checking engineer said that the connectivity is there until the box in my premises, from there there is no current - in few minutes the engineer brought the dial tone and internet also started working- I again requested for complaint to be under observation so to be sure that the problem in the box has been properly rectified. Engineer said that it is minor local problem due to rain, if any problem, to call him and he will visit.
The landline and internet worked until Aug 24 2021 night when it went dead. I called engineer in the morning Aug 25 2021 when he said that he is working on a complaint in fiber connection and will come shortly but did not come inspite of reminder call. Then, I lodged a complaint with customer care regarding phone dead on Aug 25 2021 afternoon. I was given commitment over phone and sms that engineer will visit and will rectify but no one came.
I called on Aug 26 2021, asking why no one visited inspite of commitment given got the same .They said they talked with field people who are now saying that whole line is not working and it cannot be rectified since there is no drilling permission. They again suggested me to convert my line to fiber. On asking how they will maintain any line be it fiber or otherwise without drilling permission, they refused to give any reply nor they gave any details regarding who refused the drilling permission. This whole story seems fabricated.
On Aug 27 2021 evening, I received call from Mr. Hawaldar, team leader of area and he committed that visit will be done by engineer within an hour. But no one visited.
Then, on raising issue with customer care, call came on Aug 29 2021 evening from Mr. Suhel Khan, escalation department that next day, engineer will visit and the time when the engineer will visit will be communicated next day morning. Next day, Aug 30 morning, I got call from Ms. Aarti who said that there is a 8 hour window for the visit and visit will happen in that time. I even got sms that engineer will come between 1:30pm and 2:30pm but engineer did not visit.
I have call recordings and sms records supporting my above statements.
Since multiple times I have been given commitment that problem is local due to rains and that it can be easily rectified by visit - phone and internet connection can be restored easily, I would request the same immediately and not to pressurise me for fiber conversion when company has clear-cut procedure that customer can choose whether to take fiber or not to take.
Airtel customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
Sep 07, 2021
Updated by kashyap arora Received call that although the company officials are ready to rectify complaint, senior of field official stop them from rectifying copper lines - even though company has given option to customer to opt out of fiber conversion of their line
Attaching the August 23 confirmation showing company sending me code for cancellation of request for conversion of line to fiber which was initiated by the field team themselves.
After giving the code to field people, the request got cancelled.
