Airtel — Harrasment by Customer Care

While talking to someone, my call got dropped, the signals disappeared and the mobile phone screen read "Sim card registration failed"

I sent the phone to the nearest Airtel Store, F - 5, East of Kailash, New Delhi. The executive there said that the SIM got damaged. I said "OK, give me a new SIM". He asked for Rs. 60 for a new SIM issue. I said that I am not at fault if the sim got damaged, that too when I got the SIM only about 2 - 3 weeks back and that I can't help it if AIRTEL issued bad quality SIM Cards, why should I bear the cost of their ignorance. To this the executive replied that it is an electronic chip and that to continue the service, I would have to pay up.

I paid the money along with a new proof of ID and also paid the bill which was still much before the due date.

I was told that it will be activated in 4 hours. This was around 1:00 P.M.

Till 6:30 P.M. the SIM was still not activated.

I called the customer service. I was told that the SIM shall be activated in an hours time.

Nothing happened till the next morning, i.e. today.

I called the customer service number [protected] today morning ffrom 10:00 a.m.

It is as it is a pain to reach the executive who can listen and talk, eventually I reached the customer care executive and explained the whole problem and then he put me on hold. I kept waiting for quite some time and then I realized that the call has been disconnected. This smae thing happened 3 times.

The 4th time when I called, the customer care executive kept telling me that he has forwarded the request and that for any further assistance I would need to visit the Airtel Store. I told him that when I talked to the people at the Airtel Store, they say that I need to speak to customer care, you tell me that I need to speak to the people at the Airtel Store.

Should I not concentrate on my regular work or should I just keep visiting the Airtel Store, while I am missing important business due to the mobile phone not working.

The customer care exdcutive kept repeating that I should go to the Airtel Store.

I asked him what is he doing in customer care. He is supposed to help me out and not kick me around.

He still repeated the same thing.

I asked him are you stupid? (who would not get aggravated in my situation when for an hour i had been explaining my problem and 3 times the call was disconnected and then I get what the executive is saying, that too after the phone being down for a whole day)

The customer care executive replied "Are you crazy?"

I said "What the [censored]?"

He said same to you.

The call must have been recorded. It can be accessed in the database of Airtel, my mobile number is [protected].