[Resolved]  Bharti Airtel Postpaid — Surrendering a connection

Hi,

I have been using Bharathi Airtel Post Paid Connection since long time. I have 2 connections with me one of which is not being used much during the recent past. I therefore decided to surrender this SIM Card.

I went to Airtel office in NR Colony, Bangalore to surrender, but they did not accept giving varieties of creative reasons for not accepting the SIM. When I made repeated visits, I was told to send a mail to [protected]@airtelindia.com requesting them to cancel the connection. I got reply from this email stating they will get back to us in 48 hours time without even mentioning if they have accepted my request to inactivate the SIM. I did not get any response from anyone in the next 48 hours. When I gave a call to one customer service executive through 121, he informed me that the request was still open and no action was taken on this. He had no reasons to explain the cause for delay. He then told me that the connection may be inactivated in the next 10-15 days time!!

When we have a post paid connection, every day counts for the billing and this is a cheap trick to increase the bill amount. When I ask them about the refundable deposit of Rs.400 they collect when we take a new connection, they bluntly say, it will be adjusted. I do not understand what adjustment here means when we have zero outstanding amount.

When I enquired with my relatives and friends about this, I was shocked to know that Airtel does the same to all its postpaid customers when they surrender their SIM. My friend had also approached the NR Colony Airtel showroom for cancellation. He was given an assurance that the connection was cancelled. After several months, Airtel people from various offices have bugged him to make the payment saying that the connection was not at all cancelled.

How can a reputed organization like Airtel play such cheap tricks to make money. This is a completely illegal and objectionable attitude of Airtel. When it takes just 1 day to get a new connection, why should it take months together for a customer to surrender and deactivate a connection? The way they talk makes anyone sure that they won't return the refundable deposit amount they collect from us.

Is there no single responsible and sensible official in the Management level in Airtel who can look into such issues and stop their executives from looting customers like the way Airtel has been doing currently? Who can teach Airtel the basic business Ethics they have to follow?

Regards,
Karthik