[Resolved]  Airtel — Unfair Trade Practise

Fed up with the increasingly terrible service from Airtel -- and after 2 months of registering complaints about network coverage in Marathahalli area -- I went and took a new GSM connection from another service provider (BSNL).

Why? For the past 2 months, my Airtel phone cannot be reached almost 60% of the time. For the past 1 week, there is no signal whatsoever from roughly 6.00 AM to about 9.00 to 9.30 AM. When contacted, the Airtel Customer Care will blandly say that there are "some issues" with Airtel Digital (what on earth is THAT) and that this will be rectified "soon."

Anyways, the unfair trade practice part...

I was trying to do a selective call divert to my new number. Feeding the new number (from the handset) results in an error message of :

"Cannot save your changes to the network. Try changing settings later, or disconnect data connection and try again."

Neither was the data cable, or GPRS connection, active on my handset.

Calling the call centre was absolutely no use. They tried to get rid of me by saying these:

1. The call divert has to be done from the handset only.

2. Since I had Voice Mail activated, I should first disable that, and then try to divert.

Finally, a very assertive tone and a raised voice resulted in the Call Center agent admitting that AIRTEL WILL NOT PERMIT DIVERSION TO BSNL NUMBERS as they do not have an “interconnect agreement” with BSNL. Bear in mind that "interconnect agreeemnts" have nothing to do with call forwarding -- they have to do with roaming !!! The call centre is deliberately giving fales "pseudo-technobabble" to confuse and drive away customers.

I asked for a complaint to be registered and a docket number given, as I wanted to complain to TRAI.

Airtel initially refused to register a complaint. Again, a raised voice and an aggressive request to escalate the call to an on-duty manager -- followed by a 5 minute hold (I timed it!) -- resulted in a very reluctant registration of the complaint.

BTW, the manager did not come on line -- in itself, a serious service lapse by Airtel Customer Care, since I had specifically asked for the on-duty manager.

1. Does any lawyer here know if Airtel is legally right in refusing customers to divert calls to another operator?

2. Does not denying call diversion to only BSNL numbers amount to an unfair trade practice by Airtel?

3. Can customers experiencing bad QoS (Quality of Service) demand compensation from Airtel – for example, a waiver of the monthly fixed fee?

Anecdotally, I have heard that Airtel has offered upto 20% reduction on monthly bills to customers who have taken them to court in Bangalore. I do not have positive proof though. The reduction was just so that these customers would withdraw the cases filed against Airtel.

Why am I continuing with Airtel? Only because I have had this number for the past 9 years, and I cannot switch it off overnight. The transition will have to be done over a period of time.

And Airtel is making very sure that the "exit barrier" is set so high that only a very determined customer will indeed walk off from the Airtel network !!

Inputs on my questions are eagerly awaited.

And if any senior person from Airtel is reading this -- your company is rapidly becoming a management case study on HOW TO IRRITATE CUSTOMERS AND DRIVE THEM AWAY PERMANENTLY.

Menon