Airtel Complaints & Reviews

Airtel postpaid connection advertisements clearly claims that GPRS or DATA SERVICE is available if we have a postpaid connection in the north east india telecom circle. I had applied-got the connection-tried GPRS and there was a negative response. I immediately consulted the customer care and I got a reply that this service was removed from North East Circle due to Law and Order Problem. I ran around the government estd and ask and enquired with every single department including the Chief Ministers Office and their is no intimation from the government about GPRS to airtel as a matter of fact there is no communication at all between the Government of my state and Airtel at all till date. I called the customer care again and fired the executive on line about law and order thing... and now when I call them they say that the channels are exausted and at times I still get this law and order stories from them but its a bit rare now. Their latest answer for not providing GPRS to NE Circle is that They(AIRTEL) are in the pocess o[censored]pgradation of the data service for this areas and when they get any information from the technical department they will let us know----and that is 18 months ago. Please lobby on behalf of the poor NE Indians and throw airtel away to Myanmar (burma)--they may like it because the models in their advertisements looks like burmese.

My Post paid Mobile connection was converted to prepaid on 22.02.2008-thereby discontinuing any VAS services.The recharge Voucher for 495 Life time was purchased by me by kepping the same No [protected].
However the Company -Airtel Debited 2 times for VAS there by reducing the Balance by Rs 198.The Company had confirmed that the service of VAS was deactivated.I have sent SMS to 121 on this issue and have received SMS from 121 saying that the forceful debit will be credited - but so far not done.
Please stop such loot on Prepaid connections.

I am a airtel prepaid user. My mobile number is [protected]. An unauthorised deduction was made from my airtel balance of Rs.99.They activated a VASPACK99 without my permission.It was also activated in previous month which was discontinued on my complaint .But in this month they renewed it again.I have complaint against it many times but my balance is not refunded.I request you to help me as i can not afford it.
Thankfully
Rishabh jain

This is to bring to your kind notice, the issue regarding my Airtel Mobile No.- [protected], [protected]
As regards phone no.[protected]
I have been using it as a prepaid life time connection for the last 1 yr.and I paid extra money for life time. but when I checked it was upto year 2015 only .even then I remained quiet it is o.k but I am amazed to see that from 30th of march its sim has become inactive.and when any one phones me it sounds that this no is not existing. Similar is the case with my phone no, [protected] which is the new connection I got in January 2008, when on 31st march I enquired from customercare on phone [protected] they said life time charger needs to be recharged after 6 months as I did not charged they have inactivated but I tried to told them that I got it recharged in January 2008 and the phone no [protected] was new connection taken in January 2008 only about 2 months back. Whereas when I had the connection I was told nothing about it they could not give satisfactory answer.their reply was every thing is deleted from their system they have no records the only thing possible is take new connection.
Again I visited the airtel head office indusrial area MOHALI on 1st April at 3.30 pm and talked to Subha and Rupinder singh but they did not talked properly and could not answer our quiry why our phones were disconnected and when we asked to meet their seniors they said they are the senior most there. after that i talked to them so many times and posted my complaint on this site also. on 8th april evening shubha told me that they have not my papres with them and by 9th morning i must deposits all the relevant papers which are required to be deposited at the time of taking connection .i did the same after that i phoned many times what reply is register yourself on 123 i did it but it is showing my credit is nil and incoming to phone is temporarily disconnected . I phoned so many times to customer care and to Shubha but reply is she is trying to take my balance back and it willstart within 24 hrs but even after 4 days nothing has happened


VIDYASAGAR
Email address Vidsagus @yahoo.com

Respected Sir/Mam,

I have taken a sim card of coimbatore and my number is
[protected] (6 years incoming scheme) and it was working when i was in bangalore..
now i am presently in trivandrum and i have charged for 50 rupees...

still it shows me CHECK OPERATOR SERVICE...
pls advice me what to do

kindly do the needful...because it is necessary for me have this connection live...br...

sir/madam,
my no [protected] is now disactivate from last 20 days and i want to activat this now. and plz give me region why they disactivate .

Sir,

It is hereby regret to inform you that even after 2 complaints from my side at your this site and making numerous calls/complaints at your Airtel Helpline Customer care Centre I did not receive any reply/instal broad band till date after lapsing of 10 days of applying for broad band and depositing a cash payment of Rs. 500/-.

Whenever I made a call at your Customer care centre, every time they said "Sorry, we are unable to trace out your record as our system is busy for upgradation". Only 1 time a customer care executive told me that she had found my form and is under process, someone will call you or come to your office next day before 10.57 am. But till date nobody has come or any call from your side.

Hence you are requested to kindly inform me whether you or Bharti Airtel Ltd. is able to install broad band at my place or not. if no, then why u people promised in public what u cannot deliver.
if yes, why the above said connection is not installed till date even after 10 days.

Please reply asap.

Naresh Verma

I am Veena S. I had to travel abroad and wanted a mobile with international roaming and took a prepaid connection from Airtel. Firstly, Airtel callcentre gave me wrong info that it will work with any mobile instrument but while enquiring for the 3rd time, they said a triband handset is required. In the last miniute I bought it but once I landed abroad, the connection did not work. Prior to departure I had checked with the call centre twice to ensure international roaming is activicated and they confirmed it is. Through a family member I filed a complaint while I was abroad. This was done in early Feb 2008 and on my return I kept following up but never had response from Airtel. They always promised to call me back but never ever called me back. I made a huge issue out of it and they finally told me when I called them that they had some issue and international roaming was not activated for me. I wanted to be compensated for the mobile expenses and the agony of being unreachable in a foreign land and was given the NODAL Officer's mobile number. It is now April and I have still not heared back from Airtel on what happened to my issue. This is so disgusting because I have a postpaid connection with Airtel and they meticulously call for payment of bill but Airtel cannot do the same in response to a customer complaint. They are also charging me late payment fee for my postpaid - how much shall I charge them for what they did with my prepaid? AIRTEL is FRAUD. I wish someone helps me with this mess.

Airtel often activates some or other subscription services by sending an SMS without my consent and starts to deduct my balance . Apart from reducing the balance amount, it's useless SMSs keeps disturbing me all the time.

I am using airtel SIM for long and faced this kind of problem numerous times. It takes lot of time and effort to unsubscribe as they do not clearly tell how to.

All me friends and clooeagues through out the country have same complaints, but Airtel continue such practice without any consequences.

I request the Telecom Regulator to please look into it and advise Airtel Company to stop such malpractices and conspesate their subscribers.

Srishti Raj

Produced below is the mail sent to the Nodal Officer - South of Airtel, looking for a resolution to my problem. To my utter dismay, after a lapse of more than 24 hours, I have not even got an acknowledgement for this mail / complaint. The website states on one page about customer grievance being addressed by Nodal Officers who would respond within 48 hours with a resolution. On another link in the same website providing the contact information of Nodal Officers, there is an underlying statement that a minimum of 10 days time is required for resolving any complaint...

Not sure if Airtel really understands CUSTOMER SERVICE...Height of sickening is speaking to any person in the Airtel Call center for customer care...they neither understand the customer's problem and come out with a resolution nor allow the customer to escalate to some other level for getting the problem resolved...GOD ALONE CAN SAVE THE CUSTOMER WHOEVER HAPPENS TO CALL UP AIRTEL CUSTOMER CARE FOR SOME COMPLAINT / SUPPORT.

Mail Text of the complaint sent to Airtel :

I had been using a Broadband connection at my home, through BSNL for over the last couple of years. Quite recently, I started running into frequent problems with the same and on enquiries from the market, got very promising feedbacks regarding the services and connectivity of Airtel Broadband. Becoming quite ambitious, I wanted to explore the possibility of getting an Airtel Broadband connection at home.

After lots of initial exploration, I landed up at one of your centres through telephone and on giving my initial details and interests, they took a couple of days of their sweet time in understanding the feasibility of this installation. I was given to understand that formal applications are entertained only after this feasibility study. To my fortune or rather I would like to term it as misfortune for now, they confirmed feasibility and one of the Sales Representatives came into contact.

The Sales representative's name is Mr. Elamurugan[protected].

He came home and got my application filled up on 30th March 2008 vide your Application / Bill No. 699713 and also gave me a receipt for the Rs.500 cash taken towards registration charges vide receipt number ZA 15273. Though the formalities got completed on 30th March, since it commenced with his previous visit on 29th March, these documents are dated 29th March 2008.

When he left after completing his documentation formalities, he assured that he would get the connection installed ASAP - max. 3 days and even committed out of the usual Salesman's anxiety level that he would go all out for getting it installed even before Monday 31st March evening. Nothing actually happened over the last week. Having already paid the money and looking eager to go online, I started following up from last friday. Even last friday evening, when I spoke to Elamurugan, I was assured that latest by the weekend, he would get it installed.

The weekend passed and Monday morning, I spoke to him and again got evasive responses. In a bid to escalate and really understand as to what exactly is going on, I tried reaching your Customer care number. Spoke to a pleasing gentleman by name Mr. Venkat, who registered a complaint on this vide reference 5417324 with an assurance that the installation would happen either on 7th April itself by evening or latest by 10 AM on 8th April. Had to keep waiting because I had no other options.

As usual, nothing happened on 7th / 8th April and finally on the evening of 8th April, I tried reaching Customer care referring to this complain for following up. I spoke to someone whose name I forgot and he was again giving round about replies without any clear commitments. Infact he mentioned that for any complaint lodged, the redressal time was 48 hours for closure and the Technical Team starts actually working on complaints only when the deadline of 48 hours is being approached. PATHETIC WAY OF HANDLING CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS - all the more mysterious was when the service level committed is clear being 48 hours, how did the first gentleman go ahead and promise me that this would be looked into within 24 hours - AS A CUSTOMER, WHEN WE REACH AIRTEL CUSTOMER CARE NUMBER, ALL WE TRUST AND BELIEVE IS THAT WE ARE SPEAKING TO PEOPLE WHO ARE VESTED WITH THE RESPONSIBILITY O[censored]NDERSTANDING AIRTEL's PROCEDURES THOROUGHLY AND BALANCE THE SAME TO THE CUSTOMER NEEDS SO THAT EVEN IN THE EVENTUALITY OF A GRIEVANCE, TEH CUSTOMER IS NOT TOTALLY IN THE DARK - seems all these Customer Satisfaction theories are myths with Airtel.

I wanted to really understand the situation and basically speak to some responsible official from Airtel, who could also understand my plight as a customer. The second gentleman was neither giving me an understanding response nor was he cooperating with my request for putting me across to the concerned person. Yet another excellent advantage of a Call center because the Customer never has the option of talking to the same officer again and the Customer will also not be able to get the phone numbers of responsible and senior officials for any escalation to resolve pending issues. ONLY THE ALMIGHTY KNOWS HOW YOUR INTERNAL METRICS ON TEAM PERFORMANCE REALLY WORKS AND HOW SATISFIED YOUR CUSTOMER BASE IS, IN TERMS OF REALITY.

After a long resistance from my side to be put across to someone else, I was put across to Mr. Bhoopathy, who introduced himself as the Floor Supervisor and as being a responsible person. When I explained him my plight, he again gave me an assurance stating that the complain would certainly be closed by 9th April 2008. But even after these calls, no one from Airtel has even bothered to give me a call back or visit my house for going ahead with the installation proceedings.

Your Sales representative is no more interested in talking to me because he is done with his job of bringing in one application along with the registration fees, basically adding up to the Company revenues and also his incentives.

I am no more interested in speaking to your Customer Care because I feel that no better than me going and wasting my time simply even to get through to someone who will really talk sense corresponding to the reality of the scenario.

One last hope I still carry is that I might get some attention by this mail being addressed to an esteemed Nodal Officer, but do not take me wrong, I am not sure as to what sort of response I will really get from you. Whether this mail gets your attention or just gets into your trash or junk. But without jumping into any conclusions, I am making this last attempt to see if someone in Airtel really cares about a Customer.

All along over the last 10 days, I had been hearing different concoctions / stories / imaginations from various members in the Airtel Team - your Sales guy told me that since from the nearest junction box, my home connection will require laying of 100+ metres of cable and it would be better if I could do some active marketing within my apartment complex to have someone also subscribe for an Airtel connection - I would have lost face with my neighbours too had I really gone into some stupid activities based on this. Without getting a responsible answer from Airtel, I would also have ended up squeezed to provide a reply to my neighbour who would have got into this proposal based on my advise. I THANK THE ALMIGHTY FOR SAVING ME FROM THIS.

One day the Sales guy says 100+ metres cable laying needs to happen - but the other day, he comes up and says that he is waiting for approval from ICICI Bank or the apartment behind ICICI Bank but in reality my apartment is road facing and is just on the other side of a 40ft road which houses both ICICI Bank and my apartment. NOT SURE IF HE HIMSELF FINDS ANY SENSE IN SUCH MISLEADING STATEMENTS TO A CUSTOMER, JUST FOR THE HECK OF SAVING HIS SKIN FOR AN UNJUSTIFIED DELAY IN INSTALATTION OF A NEW CONNECTION.

Can I look forward to any responsible person jumping into the fray to address my plight????????

To

The Compliance officer
Bharti Airtel Limited
D-184, okhala industrial area
New Delhi-110020

Sub:-Complain related mobile no-[protected]

Sir,

I H.P. Gupta was the consumer of Mobile No.-[protected].Actually I was using your two years rental plan start on (near about) 10 oct. 2005. The validity of this plan was expired on 09 Oct 2007.hence I make a call to your custmercare center on 04 Oct 2007 to stop the plan and disconnect the mobile no.

(Request no[protected], dated-4/10/2007)
Your custmercare executive assured me that my mobile no. will be disconnected and also tell me the I will received the cheque of balance amount Rs.112.38 after deducting the previous bill amount of Rs.137.68. he suggest me to destroy the chip.

After that your agent had collect my id proof and residence proof from my residence.

(Request no[protected], dated-07/01/2008, time-20.55 p.m.)
Mr. Narender also assured me that my mobile no. will be disconnected and also tell me the I will received the cheque of balance amount Rs.112.38 after deducting the previous bill amount of Rs.137.68. but I have received recovery letter as on 06/02/2008.

There after I have made many calls to your cusmercare center (dated-06/02/2008, 21.16 p.m., dated 11/02/2008, 10.03 a.m., dated-1802/2008, 19.30 p.m.) but every time received only and only fraud from your.



Now I am sure that you are the best cheater and fraud of world. And now I am going to complaint against your company and your compliance department to TRAI and CONSUMER COURT, I think this is the Wright way to talk with you.

Your company has not any word and not any custmercare policy. You are cheating with your clients. If you have any humanity remains then send me my balance amount cheque of Rs.112.38 and solve my problem ASAP.

Hi,

This is Navin Srivastava. I am airtel postpaid mobile connection user for the last one year. I have never done any default in the payment. This time I am out of India on my business trip and missed to pay the last 2 months bills in time.
Now the airtel execuitves from call center are calling people from my personal caller list and calling them and harashing them always to make the payment.
I am here to raise the concern that this way they are misusing my personal information. Without my concern they are pulling the numbers of my people from my detailed bill and calling them. I am scared if they would have distributed all the numbers to may be whom all.
Pls let me know the place where I can file a case against Airtel for stealing my personal information and harash my people using them.

Any suggestion would be highly appreciable.

Thanks
Navin

Dear Sir
I had got a message of getting a discount of Rs30 by applying for a 3 months pack of hellotune. Yesterday, my 60rs balance was cut. According to the process given in the offcial website of Airtel, I got the song code. I rang for the code, but I couldn't recieve my song, again my 6rs was cut. Then I asked the costumer care on the matter. They told me that, that method was removed. They asked me to go for the other method i.e. using song catcher, but this time also a handsome balance was cut. I didn't get the song. They, inspite ask me to search the song among the list of 60, 000 songs. I now requested to return my 60rs alongwith the money I lost due to website mislead. Please help me out.

Sincerely yours
Rohit Kumar
S.I.T., Tumkur
Karnataka

One fine morning i started recieving SMS's from service provider no 3333, which contained news updates and mentioned the name of Headlines Today.Firstly i thought that this might be a mistake, i called up customer care of airtel and put a request to stop this.They asked meto send an unsubscribe messege to the no. 53333 and the service will automatically be stopped in 48 hrs time.I did the same and in reply recieved an SMS from the same no that I am not subscribed for any news services.I thought then that the problem has been sorted out.But the SMS'sdidnt stop, infact it also started to give me cricket updates and the incoming SMS frequency scaled to almost around 25-30 SMS's a day.I still waited patiently for 3 days for the service to stop, but it didnt. I complained again, this time i was given another new number which was 650 and told to sms 'STOP', the representetive of airtel assured me this will stop all service provider messeges in 48 hrs.I waited again for almost around 3 days, stil nothing happened.The SMS's kept pouring with the same frequency.I again called after afore mentioned time and this time airtel representative told me that she has put an online complaint and the SMS's will stop in 4 hrs.Today its almost 2 days to that and still no change.It is quite harrassing, every 10-15 minutes their is an SMS, it not onl disturbs me badly during my work or rest hours but floods my message box with unwanted information.Kindly let me know what can i do about it.

I HAVE PURCHASED A SIM CARD OF AIRTEL AND ALL THE DOCUMENTS HAS BEEN SUBMITTED AND VERIFICATION IS ALSO DONE AT YOUR END. THE SIM HAS NOT BEEN ACTIVATED TILL TODAY. THE MOBILE NO OF AIRTEL IS [protected]. YOU ARE REQUESTED TO KINDLY LOOK INTO THE MATTER VERY SERIOUSLY AND ACTIVATE IMMEDIATELY. I AM STAYING AT AIROLI.

WAITING UR RESPONSE IMMEDIATELY.

I have been using airtel service since last 5 years with different make mobiles, now the network interrupts my calls in perticular area, I had registered several complaints on 121 and by meeting personally since 2 months, but still problem is unresolved.. on asking they says, it will take at lest 6-7 months to solve the matter..!!! yah, ofcourse i am receiving their calls once in a day but not for my problem but, to pay the bill.. I am not going to pay a single rupee unless and untill my complaint is resolved.

I have taken 2 Connections of Airtel FWP[protected] /[protected] Since begining I was having problem but somehow we managed... Later on We Cancel One connection[protected] on 3rd January and continued 1 connection of[protected]... I was also using Mobile No.[protected] but that was prepaid... later on I shifted from prepaid to post paid..

On 17.03.2008 my[protected] incoming and out going calls were barred due to non payment of[protected] and [protected] (As per the company Call center), that time I went to Airtel Gallery at Thakur Village for making payment of[protected] /[protected] ???? they checked in the system and said NO NOTHING IS PAYABLE ON [protected]... and line got started. Today (20.03.2007) I received call from the same office and asking for the payment of 950.00 (DEC.2006 HALF AND JAN 2007 FULL MONTH) I told them that that day (18.03.2007) when i inquire you said that nothing is balance on [protected] Now today how you are asking for the payment ????? they said that actually we have already paid your 950.00 to the company that is why it is not reflectiong in the system. but if you will not make the payment of 950.00 we will disconnect your mobile line [protected]... though I have letter from the company dated 08.01.2007 when I surrendered my instrument of FWP... Please advice what do I do??????.

Dear sir,

During my last billing cycle, I came to know through an SMS that my Bill Plan has been unilaterally
changed by AIRTEL to Call at 1 plan, there after I lodged a complaint and get the orignal bill plan reinstated. Then again I have to lodge complaint to get my bill changed according to my existing plan.

Surprisingly again during the current billing cycle my bill plan has been changed to AIRTEL Call at 1 plan and bill also raised accordingly.

CAN YOU HELP ME TO TEACH AIRTEL A LESSON FOR SUCH UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES.


Regards,

SANJEEV AGRAWAL
[protected]

DEAR SIRS,

I HAVE BEEN USING THE MENTIONED NUMBER [protected] SINCE LAST 1 YEAR & MORE. BUT SINCE LAST 3-4 DAYS MY ACCOUNT BALANCE HAS BEEN DEBITED WITHOUT ANY USAGE. THE FOLLOWING AMOUNT HAS BEEN DEBITED FROM MY ACCOUNT :

1) 18TH MARCH NIGHT 10 P.M MY BALANCE WAS 175-200 & NEXT DAY MORNING THE SAME SHOWED 109 & A CHARGE OF RS 65-90 WAS DEBITED FROM MY ACCOUNT WITHOUT ANY USAGE.

2) 19TH MARCH MORNING 10.30 MY BALANCE WAS 109 & BY 1:00 PM IT SHOWED AS RS 1.60 & A CHARGE OF RS 105-108 WAS DEBITED FROM MY ACCOUNT WITHOUT ANY USAGE.

3) ON 20TH MARCH BALANCE WAS 26 & IN AFTERNOON IT SHOWED 11.60 WITHOUT ANY USAGE & A AMOUNT OF RS 15 WAS DEBITED.

SO IN TOTAL A AMOUNT OF RS 200-220 HAS BEEN DEBITED FROM MY ACCOUNT WITHOUT ANY USAGE.

SO I REQUEST YOU TO KINDLY CHECK THE ABOVE DETAILS & REVERT BACK MY BALANCES OF THE ABOVE OR ELSE I WILL HAVE TO CHANGE MY CONNECTION.

HOPING FOR A QUICK & POSITIVE RESPONSE FROM YOUR SIDE.

THANKING YOU

KULVINDER SINGH BACHHER

I was having a mobile connection [protected] since last two year under advance rental plan. The connection expired in October, 2007. Without my written or verbal consent it was changed to monthly rental plan. On my calling customer care centre, I was given a commitment that the call charges will be ruppes 1 for mobile to mobile calls. I agreed to continue with advance rental of Rs.999 for 3 years. However, on receipt of first bill, i noticed that the call charges were different from the commitment made. Since it was a case of wrong commitment, amounting to cheating, I immediately called the customer centre with the request to disconnect my number. After much pursuation, the number was disconnected in January, 2008. I kept calling the airtel with the request to levy the necessary charges and close my account. However, instead of listening to my genuine request, airtel kept sending me bills for advance rental for 3 years, even after disconnection of telephone. Later a legal notice was also sent to me. On 8.3.2008, I could contact to Mr.Rajiv Choudhary ([protected]) who informed me that after payment Rs.800/-, I will have nothing outstanding against this number and I will get a NOC from airtel delivered at my doorstep. I immediately deposited Rs.800/- at malviya nagar centre on 8.3.2008 (Receipt No.[protected]. However, till date no receipt has been receipt. Again, vide bill No.[protected] dated 4.4.2008, I have been sent bill for Rs.308.95 (that is the amount paid minus the initial bill for the advance rental for 3 years). This is really too much of harassment to the customer. I have always been paying my telephone bills in advance which were used to be adjusted by airtel in subsequent bills. But instead of listening to the genuine request of its old customer, the customer I am being harassed continuously. The amount sought to be paid Rs.308.95 is a petty amount but it is difinitely a case of wrong commitment/ misleading the customer by the executive by airtel and then putting a sincere customer to undue harassment. On one occasion, even private collection agency man came to my residence in faridabad, all the way from delhi and thretened me to pay the bill amount or be ready for dire consequences. This attitude of the company is a shocking experience for a customer like me who never holds dues of any agency, be it private or government. I was earlier under the impression that airtel is the only service provider in India which the country and the consumers and boast of. However, my experience with airtel has shaken my faith in the company and I feel that once private companies start harassing their customers, nobody is going to help the customer and each and every executive, right from the one sitting at customer care centre to the top levels are working with only one motto to earn profits for the company at any cost and the customer can be put to any amount of harassment and mental agony. This is my last hope to get justice. Otherwise, I am going to deposit the rest amount demanded by airtel, though the number has been disconected and the amount demanded is undue. Please help me.