[Resolved]  Airtel Broadband — illegitimate bill amount

Airtel — Illegitimate/Wrong Billing

Bharati Airtel Limited Date: February 12, 2009
(Formerly Bharti Tele-ventures limited) Sumit P Paricharak
7th Floor, Bldg.No.7, interface A/701 Bhakti Palace CHS LTD
Link Road, Malad (W) Kanderpad Dahisar (W)
Mumbai – 400064 Mumbai 400068
T +[protected]
Kind Attn: Sunil Mittal

Sub: Refusal of Illegitimate and/or wrong bill raised by Airtel

Hi Sunil,

I am addressing this letter directly to you with the assumption that at least a person who is responsible for setting up the giant organization still would have not forgotten the basics of customer services and would be having respect towards every customer and an individual.

I Mr.Sumit Paricharak who unfortunately became customer of Airtel for just two months really had bad time. It started from delay in activating the services and till date despite of discontinuing services through an email to Airtel’s customer service desk saga continues.

Here is the brief background of issue faced by me. In the month of October I took two connections of Airtel from Mr.Pradeep/Manmeet, sales representative of airtel. The connection was taken because the price plane seemed to be relatively good. It mentioned Rentals as 199/- and other tariffs as applicable

While giving the connection as I mentioned there were two sales representatives (SRs) of airtel. I had all other required documents except for photograph. Now the one who got my forms filled asked me that if I will provide photos he can give me the connections on same day before 8:00 PM. trusting on the person I got the instant photographs immediately from nearby Photoshop. Then I called on given mobile but this person informed that as he had some other appointment at Bhaynder and asked to give the photographs to his colleague. Based on the instructions have done the same. Immediately this other SR gave me the two numbers. Believe it from this point trouble started. Some time after I received call from the person If I remember hazily the name of this person was Mr.Manoj and he called him self as team leader of SRs and told me that the Numbers given to me by other SR should not have been given and he then provided me two fresh Nos. This was at around 6:00 PM and he still kept the promise that by 8:00 connection will be activated. At 9:00 PM I checked my mobile but connection was still not active and hence contacted the person immediately he told me that by 11:00 PM same will be activated. I kept following and still connection was not activated on the day promised. At last some where in late evening on the next day it was activated

Well then I started using the number every day out of 24 hours I found that for minimum 6-8 hours the network not available. People were unable to reach me. Call used to get disconnected in between
I even tried calling call centre few times and briefed them on the Network issue but no body understood the issue so there is no question of resolving the same.
Obviously all these thing irate me as a customer and to top it I received two bills in the Month of November, Dt. November 06, 2009, for my two connections with Monthly Charges as 391.58 each. I was shocked as I was promised that the Monthly Rentals would be INR 199/- and then how come I am being billed almost double. This was the penance of trouble that this company could have given to a customer and I clearly found this as cheating with me. I immediately worte on November 28, 2008 to your ‘[protected]@airtelindia.com’ and in this mail I clearly stated the immediate disconnection of both the connections given all above mentioned problems.
Now the reply I received on this was absolutely confusing and which did not address my query. Post this I thought that there is no point in contacting such an irresponsibly organization.
Till this time my connection was not disconnected. I remember in last week of December this connections was disconnected which is quite illogical to understand. I did not pay this bill as there was no satisfactory resolution of problem. Again in the month of December your company which was zero on customer service aspect has promptly billed me. Here the rental was 199 but for the period 05/12/01 to 04/01/01.This just can not be explained the it is height of company’s irresponsibility. Here I also developed a sense that Airtel is trying to dictate the terms may be because of there market position and completely lost the customer service essence.
Here I was not sure to whom to speak. Also as bill amount became outstanding company’s all centre staff, which always does not remain updated with the customer’s earlier interactions, started calling the registered Landline no. I was least bothered about these calls as the company did not bill me properly also did not bother to reply me correctly without ambiguity.

Then company has sent me the two letters dated[protected] Sr_No-8124 and 8127 which mentioned as Legal letter. This letter asked me to pay my dues and also threatened me that if same are not paid the action will be initiated as due process of Law. This letter also mentioned name and numbers of three officials which can be contacted for amicable solution. I thought that some body from these three people would be matured enough to understand customer problem and would take my opinion as feedback to better the customer service for other existing customers. But this assumption of mine also proved wrong when not a single officer bothered to pick my calls. I clearly remember only on the first occasion the gentleman named Ninad picked my call at that time as conversation was breaking to network disturbances he told me to call letter. Post this I tried many times on all the given numbers but no body bothered to picked the call.

Well I as customer is very sensitive and do not like to keep any dues for the services that I avail from any of the service providers unless and until situation warrants. But at the same time I can not pay the false claims of service providers.

Now at this stage I again thought that there is absolutely no point in wasting the time behind irresponsible officers of Airtel and whatever services I utilized will pay it and things will get sorted out. Hence I made payments of these two connections vide two cheques, details of which I am furnishing in annexure below, and also would like to make a mention that post this payment I gave the SMS to all three official Nos giving details of payments with reason for short payments. I also mentioned the hope of not having any trouble in future and if so I will have no choice but to initiate action as per due process of Law.
Now this hope also proved futile when yesterday i.e. on February 11, 2009 I received bills for these two connections which I am no more using and even requested on November 28, 2008 itself to disconnect. With this irresponsible act of your company I really lost my control and immediately called on cell of one of the three officials at night itself who fortunately answered my call. This was heated argument as I was already in bad temper and hence it was obviously not to yield any results. Also I lost faith on all the employees of Airtel and do not want to talk them any more. Hence through this letter which is directly addressed to you I am sending both the bills back to Airtel still hoping this matter stands resolved.

If you also do not agree to this then I can’t stop Airtel from acting non sense and they can keep billing and keep playing but I clearly signal that do not try troubling me else Indian constitution has given me all those wrights which Airtel has and I can very well use them.

Regards

Sumit P. Paricharak

















Annexure 1


Mobile No
Total Bill Amount As per your letter SR_no-8127 and 8124 Dt[protected] Amount Paid Cheque Details Reason for Difference

[protected] 1124.58
850.58 Ch#982648 Dt.14/01/09 199/- not paid as this rental was for the Period of 05/12/08 to 04/01/09. The period for which services were not at all used
75/- Late Payment charges. The delay was due to non cooperation from Airtel
[protected] 724.03 450.03 Ch#982647 Dt.14/01/09 199/- not paid as this rental was for the Period of 05/12/08 to 04/01/09. The period for which services were not at all used
75/- Late Payment charges. The delay was due to non cooperation from Airtel


Enclosures

• Letter to Sunil Mittal explaining the problems
• Wrong bill sent for the period 05-Jan-2009 to 04-Feb-2009 for Mobile# [protected]
• Wrong bill sent for the period 05-Jan-2009 to 04-Feb-2009 for Mobile# [protected]
• Mail by Sumit P Dt. 28/01/09 regarding disconnection of both the nos mentioned above
• Annexure giving payment details and explanation for difference