[Resolved]  Airtel — Wrongful deductions & change of plans without informing customers

Address:

Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Dear Airtel,

I am a FRUSTRATED customer of your PATHETIC telecom company!

I have been facing issues of wrongful deduction of balance for so long that it seems that it is a regular policy of your company to harass its customers. The instances have been outlined here for your perusal:

Instance 1 - One day out of the blue, I received an sms saying that my free caller tune has been activated which was followed by another sms saying that I have been charged Rs. 30.00 for the same. Then after several unending & torturous hours of trying to contact your customer service, I got through to one guy only to be hanged upon. Several attempts & explanations later I could finally talk to someone after which the money was refunded.

Instance 2 - Again I received an sms saying that some sms subscription service has been activated and for that Rs. 5.00 have been deducted. Again I had to go through the never-ending process of calling your "world-class" (full of sarcasm in case you didn't realize) customer service. When I finally got through, I explained the whole issue and again got the refund. I also got DND activated.

Instance 3 - This is the incident that happened today i.e. 16/12/2011 around 6:00 PM. I got a recharge done for the sms pack. I get a monthly recharge done for Rs. 36.00 which gives 1000 local + national sms for one month. I opted for the same again. Before getting the recharge done I confirmed with the shop-keeper about the plan and he also confirmed that this sms pack was for local & national smses both. After getting the recharge done, I received an sms from airtel which i quote verbatim; "Recharge Successful on[protected] at 06:17 PM. Talktime Rs. 1.00. MRP Rs. 36.00. TransID[protected]. 1000 local+national sms, 100 per day."
Post this I tried calling your tedious customer service yet again wherein your service rep transferred my call to the supervisor. The supervisor told me that this particular pack had been changed from today i.e. from 12 AM in the morning and that now it includes only local sms.

I take this service pack only for sending national sms, so what the heck am I supposed to do with the local sms balance. And this happens without the company even bothering to inform the retailers or customers about the change in the product (even after 19 hours of the change being in effect). And to top all that, the company is still sending recharge success sms with the old details.

All the above may be menial amounts to you but for the common man they aren't. And just because Rs. 36.00 is a small amount does not justify your stupid company to con its customers. People had faith in your behemoth telecom company but it seems that it is slowly dwindling away now.

And in addition to all my woes, your customer service is just plain pathetic & obnoxious. Whenever I try to call your customer service, instead of the options of what number to press, I get to hear about your stupid promotions & new plans and at the end it just mentions that to repeat the menu I should press 0. How the [censored] am I supposed to know what key to press if I do not even get to hear the options??!!? Same is the case with your customer complaint no. (198).

I have 4-5 airtel connections in my family but if this is the kind of service that you guys are gonna provide then I seriously would consider switching to another service provider.

Please refund my money else I have extremely valid grounds to sue your company and claim damages.

Let me know the way forward. Although I am not even sure if I will even get a reply considering your company's past record of failures in providing even half decent customer service. These days when all the companies are trying to woo customers, the oldest and the most trusted telecom company (Airtel) has been consistently letting it's customers down. Its not just me who is frustrated but several of my friends & acquaintance toos. If this is the way your company is gonna be, the way forward, then you will surely lose your trusted customer base (or whatever is left of it).

Regards,
Anushree