[Resolved]  Airtel — Bad customer support experience(still unresolved) for LTE/4G internet service

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka

Folks, Wanted to share a pathetic(refraining stronger words that better reflect my present experience) with airtel's LTE/4G service. Sharing this to both to find from other users about their LTE experience and also to escalate to higher levels to get not only a proper resolution, but also an explanation if this is how the service would be in LTE so that i can decide on continuing with them. I am particularly talking about LTE/4g service and i have been fairly satisfied with 2g voice/data and also 3g data, although late 2013 i was a little dissatisfied with a few CC interactions. I have been using LTE service(wifi router option) in Bangalore since October 2012. I have been very happy about the speed. However, on a very few occassions i have had to interact with their customer care in the past, it wasnt great compared to 2g/3g/voice customer cares that i and my wife have been patterns for nearly a decade. Here are the specifics: Original Issue faced: bad LTE signal for the last 2-3 weeks resulting in internet connectivity loss that forces me to restart airtel LTE router, which restores connection for a few minutes. Essentially, when LTE signal is good a green "internet/data" indicator glows. It turns off, when internet is disconnected due to lack of signal. This was happening every few minutes requiring restart. First complaint date: 9/6/14 Complained about the issue after having confirmed that there is indeed a connectivity issue and not a one off issue. A case was deligently opened. However, the following day, a support guy called and said a few steps to verify(some of them were not even related, which makes us feel if the complaint was firstly captured properly by the CC agent). While these steps were being verified by me and my wife, the support guy said he would call back after some time to confirm. He also gave his mobile number, when we insisted. He neither called back nor did he pick the call for 1-2 hours when we tried several times. Upon calling the customer care number, i learnt that the case was closed as the support guy had informed that the problem was resolved. Extremely unprofessional. I requested CC agent to reopen the case and not create new one as it would impact SLA for case closure. But to no avail with a standard reply : "our process doesnt allow us to reopen closed cases". Second complaint date:10/6/14 When the second case was filed by CC agent after the first one was unprofessionally closed by the support guy, within few hours, the same support guy called and started giving some excuses after intially arguing that "indeed we had confirmed that internet worked!". He started off all the way with some irrelevant troubleshooting steps over phone when i stopped him and said the relevant problem i was facing. He offered to send some technical guy. Within few hours another guy from his office called(looks like they are franchise of airtel and a different colleague of the initial support guy called this time). He agian was talking all over without knowing/attempting to understand the real issue. When i stopped him and told him the issue with lte signal going off on the router panel, he offered to send field engineer and upon insisting, he said he would come the following day(11/6). On 11/6, no one turns up or calls. I followed up with CC on 12/6. I even escalated to karnataka escalation number, when i was promised a "speedy" resolution. Within 2 hours an engineer did turn up at my site. He checked the router and acknowledged that the LTE signal indicator was going off because the signal may have been weak and eventually the internet(indicator) goes off. He upgraded the router software, claiming that software update would ensure that even if LTE signal is not found router would revert to either 3g/edge signal and internet would continue. I had requested him not to "close" the case until i call and confirm to the customer care. He agreed and left. Rest of the day(12/6) and good part of 13/6 i observed that the internet was slow and not stable. Upon noticing the light on router, the internet light was green only intermittently(LTE signal, which is what i am paying for) and blue for rest of the time(90% times - blue indicates that LTE is not available hence 3G/HSPP is being used). I again called the customer care escalation number, they heard my problem and promised to followup with the field engineer who visited my house(Mr.Abhishek, who was actually professional unlike the other support guys who spoke on phone, except that he closed 2nd case without confirmation from me about resolution). I followed up on another call to the CC escalation to provide the field engineer's mobile number and was promised due deligence. However, when i logged into my airtel web account, i saw that the second case was closed too. I again called up escalation team, and they said following(in summary: - the case was closed because the earlier case was about device issue. and now it seems like its a network issue - they cannot reopen the case, what so ever once closed. I asked/requested to be put in touch with Airtel's customer care's management who can provide a proper reply, but the lady was arrogant saying that it was the ultimate escalation point and cannot be forwarded further and the problem would be looked into 3rd case on 13/6/14: - The escalation team lady, offered to open another case saying the issue would be closed in upto 48hours. i refused to accept a new case being opened but it was in vain as she said, she doesnt have a choice. I vociferously discussed that, to me as a customer, its one issue " internet not working at LTE service level" and this series of cases being opened/closed should be their internal organizational stuff(like passing the case from one device department to a network department etc). For me its one problem, one case with one SLA(its a different issue that they come back on the same case and request more time, if there is a serious problem). Only on saturday, someone called up once to talk about the issue but neither did they visit the site nor did they followup. Again, I called up CC escalation team on monday(16/6) which is well beyond offered 48 hours resolution from the start of 3rd ticket, but the lady committed that someone would take care of the same on Tuesday(17/6). No one has called me till date today. My specific dissatisfaction and frustration is this: 1) cases are being closed unprofessionally(atleast thats how it looks to me) without engaging the customer 2) from 9/6/14 to 17/6/14(today) i have 3rd case open for the same issue. Airtel CC explains this as the only option because a) earlier cases were closed and cannot be reopned b) earlier cases were tagged as device issues and the latest case is markaed as network issue This has in effect, moved my "not able to use stable LTE service" resolution time to multiple days spanning across week with 3 cases, with each case having about 48 hours timeline. Even in that case, the 3rd case is open for more than 4 days. 3) Why should i as a customer care about which departments in airtel fix my issue(like device team, network team etc). For me, as a customer, i need to get my 4G/LTE service up and running. "period" I am hoping to hear from senior folks of airtel for an explanation, if they care at all for a loyal/long-term customer(with 2 voice subsciptions with 3g data, 1 3g data subsciption, 1 LTE/4g data subscription). If this is the level of service on LTE front, in my view i think a great brand seems to be falling short of it(atleast in this case).