[Resolved]  Airtel Landline — Airtel Landline Bill Issue

Address:

Uttar Pradesh

Hi,
We have fixed landline connection of airtel from last few years with three numbers(4233834/35/36, Account Number:[protected] registered under company, Satyam Software Solutions Pvt Ltd. One of the line[protected] went dead on 13th January 2011(due to some technical fault at airtel's end) and inspite of regular complaints(for which various reference numbers were alloted by customer care department); nobody from airtel took care of it for next two months. I even stopped the February month bill payment in March 2011 for few days so that somebody from airtel will pay attention to my plea and fix the problem so as to get the bill cleared from our side. But on the contrary, they stopped the outgoing services for the rest two numbers also. In late march 2011, airtel's collection department talked to me regarding the bill payments and convinced me that the dead phone lines will be activated in no time & the bill amount for malfunctioned line will be waived off if I pay the bill instantly as it was airtel's year closing and if the case stretched further, they will not be able to help me out as per airtel's "some" policies(Never heard of such policies before). Instead of hearing my grievance for loss of business due to malfunctioned phone line and corresponding unactivated phone lines, they told me that we will not be liable for even the waiver if I didn't pay the bill immediately.

As these are my business numbers and I need to continue with the same numbers in future too, I sincerely gave cash payment to airtel on the same day(29 March 2011) and got the "waiver letter" which stated an adjustment of Rs. 1400/- to be reflected in the invoice generated after adjustment date i.e. 29 March 2011. Now the situation is that airtel is asking for the payment of 1400/- as balance from last months bill(February/March 2011, the waived off amount). Even after explaining them the whole story and providing scanned copy of the so called "waiver letter" to airtel's representatives via email: [protected]@airtel.in on 09-04-11 & [protected]@yahoo.co.in on 21-04-11, services to my landline was discontinued from 15-04-11, reason being, non-payment of due amount of Rs. 1400/-.
I kept requesting to the airtel representatives that my lines should be activated as the waiver was provided to me last month but to no avail.
Even today, I had interactions with representatives of airtel for the issue to be resolved but they again started playing the same game, insisting me to pay the bill amount for last month(March 2011) & then only my request for waiver will be logged and my lines will be activated. I have clearly told airtel representatives that this waiver should have been logged immediately after issuing of waiver letter and my phone lines should not be down just because of this silly reason. I have also assured airtel that I will be paying the bill amount but not before my lines get activated and a suitable compensation provided for the loss of business. On this, the representative at the collection office of airtel said that he will not give any assurance for loss of service & the corresponding compensation and clearly told me to pay the bill so as to log the waiver and activate the phone lines.

I hereby want to put this request to the concerned authorities that this service provider is manipulating the consumers on its will. The various departments meant for consumer support and grievances are just to misguide, compel and fool customers at various level so that the consumer doesn't have option other than abiding to airtel's rules & policies which the consumer has no idea. I would like to bring in notice, as these phone numbers are my primary business numbers and due to discontinued services from last 14 days and in the past months, I have incurred a substantial loss of more than Rs. 1000000/- in my business. Pain & suffering due to loss of peace of mind, time and energy in explaining airtel's executives at various levels are of no count and match.

Will certainly ask this forum that my request should be heard and proper legal action along with penalties should be levied on airtel. Airtel should also be advised to remove this conspiratorial behavior from its various departments which are meant for customer support and not for fooling & looting people.

Thanks & Regards
Sanjeet Maity
General Manager
Satyam Software Solutions Pvt Ltd
C-262, Sector-63, Noida-201301, UP