[Resolved]  Airtel — Airtel SCAM Exposed !!! Extorting Money during Cancellation

Address:

Karnataka

Hi,

I have been using the Airtel Broadband connection (#[protected] since January 2011. My

plan was 1200 /- (8 Mbps) and my billing cycle was 11th to 10th of next month.
On 12-May-2013, I shifted from Koramangala to Bannerghatta road and contacted the apartment

agent (Shibu) for transferring my existing connection. He suggested, Sir, do NOT transfer

your connection, because it may take a week time, instead please take a new connection and

cancel the existing one [may be for his own benefit, his target for that month would be

achieved]. So I paid 500/- for new connection (out of which 250/- is refundable according

to Shibu) and got my new connection[protected] activated on 14-May. Also I had

contacted the Customer Care and raised request for cancellation and got the request id. Few

days later, and as expected, got a call from retention department and I patiently explained

them the scenario and they said ok, it will be taken care of. (By the way, for bill cycle

11-Apr-2013 to 11-May-2013, I received the bill for my old number, which I paid immediately

to speed up the process)

And the story begins now !
In June I got a bill of 1348/- (period: 11-May-2013 to 11-Jun-2013) for my old number and

another bill of 1223/- (period: 14-May-2013 to 11-Jun-2013) for my new number. I paid the

bill of 1223/- as this is the new connection that I am using now. Contacted the customer

care (agent)...
Me: I raised a cancellation request last month for my old connection and have not used it

since 11-May-2013, as I got a new connection to work with. How come its not yet processed

and still I am getting bill?
Agent: Do you have the cancellation request?
Me: Yes, here it is <request_no>
and Voila...
Agent: This is NOT a valid request id. It starts with 4 and our current running number

starts with 3.
I was like WHAT !!!!
Me: Can you change the first number and check.
He did that (with several permutations and combinations, but no result)
Agent: Sir, you have to raise another request.
And a NEW request was raised.

July-2013,
I got another bill of 2015/- for my old connection and 1405/- for my new connection. Being

the active connection I paid 1405/-, again contacted the Customer Care, explained them the

overall story, this time I was quite pissed off. Agent replied, ok sir, we shall take care

of this.
Now, last week I got a call from so called Collection Dept about the payment of 2015. I

told them I can not pay for two bills. The (new) one I am supposed to pay is already up to

date and for other (old) one, the request was raised 2 and half months back and this is not

my fault. They said OK and they will speak to Backend team to rectify the issue.
Yesterday I got the LAST REMINDER email from Airtel, which says about court/forum and legal

proceedings, blah blah blah, if you do not pay your current outstanding !!!

Perplexed....Shocked !!

I heard lot of complaints on this (almost all the forums have similar complaints

registered), that as long as you are using their service, they are OK (only thing is Airtel

will keep on increasing your tariff at the eleventh hour). But the moment you cancel your

connection, Airtel will try to extort as much as money as they can. Its like (loot lo, last

minute mein). People, out of fear pay the amount to get rid of this and Airtel takes the

undue advantage of looting their customers by sending threatning emails. I have forwarded

my complain to my current and previous company HR and other friends in my Network so as to

not to entertain Airtel any more. And today I have raised another cancellation request for

my 3 months old new connection[protected].

Thanks to Artel...

Now, I tell you what will happen? A spam mail like below will be sent by Airtel:
This is to inform you that your concern listed on 13 Aug 2013 has been noted and our team

is working on a resolution. At the outset, we apologize for the inconvenience faced by you.

We will get in touch with you for further details of your concern as the need arises.

For any queries you may have you can also get in touch with us at

www.airtel.in/airtelpresence

And I shall keep getting calls from Customer Service..