[Resolved]  Airtel — Recovery Agents Obscene & Indecent Talks

Address:

Delhi

Hello,

IN SPITE OF BEING A GOOD CUSTOMER FOR SUCH A LONG TIME WITH CLEAR PAYMENT HISTORY, THIS ENTIRE EPISODE HAS MADE ME LOST TRUST ON YOUR SERVICES AND HENCE I WANT JUSTICE. REQUEST YOU TO PLEASE LOOK INTO THIS WITH THE HIGHEST PRIORITY AS NOT ONLY MY DIGNITY AS A LADY BEEN THREATENED BY THE RECOVERY AGENTS, BUT MY RELATIVES HAVE ALSO BEEN HARASSED FOR NO REASON.

I have had an Airtel cell number ([protected]), Broadband & Landline[protected] since the past 7 years and had always been a prompt payer without issues. In December last year (2012) I relocated to Mumbai and hence I closed down my landline and broadband connection after clearing all the dues. I made the last call at 15th December and later travelled out for vacation. I came back in February 2013 and on 18th Feb had gone to an Airtel collections center (Kharghar branch) to pay the dues and request for closing the account; however I was informed that they did not have a facility to collect the payments through credit cards. I was asked to make the payments in cash, which I wasn't carrying at that time. I went home deciding to make online payment. Incidentally, out of sheer coincidence, the very same day I got a call from a recovery agent. He immediately started abusing me the moment I answered and asked me to make the payments. He made lewd remarks at me and disgraced my character. I was shocked and I didn't understand why he directly started abusing me without even asking for my intentions to pay the dues. Not bearing his rude and disgusting remarks, I told him that I will make a direct police complaint and will ensure that he pays for dishonoring my dignity. He realized what he had done and profusely apologised for his indecent behaviour. He pleaded me not to make any complaints against him. To make up for his behaviour, he told me that although my actual usage bill till December 2012 was Rs. 7,516/-, he will settle the account for Rs. 6,000/-. I told him clearly that I never asked for a settlement and I always had the intention to pay the entire amount, to which he insisted citing my long loyalty with Airtel and prompt payment customer. I agreed to make a payment of Rs. 6,000/- as he assured me that with this payment my account will be fully closed and that he will personally take care of the request. I promptly made an online payment of the same (believing my account will be closed).

Everything was calm and quiet for a month and I had the least hint that my account was still open. I again got a call somewhere in the mid of March by some other recovery agent this time and she mentioned that we have to clear the dues of over Rs. 4,000/- that are still pending with them. I refused as I told her clearly that I had made the requested payment just last month and they promised to close my account then. I was surprised hearing the amount as just last month I had made the payment of Rs. 6,000/- and knew for a fact that I never used the phone since 15th December 2013. I refused to talk that lady as she was talking no sense about the dues (that was supposed to not exist anymore). I checked my bill and was surprised to see that even if I consider the waived off amount by the first agent, the balance would not amount to Rs. 4,000/-. By this time, I lost complete trust of recovery agents as they quoted any figure they liked. I felt cheated and dejected that a service provider like Airtel practiced such wrong methods to just extract money from their customers.

The harassment doesn't end here. This week (13th April) I again got a call from a recovery agent and he started talking abusively and threatened me to make the payments. I refused to make the payments because I lost my trust on recovery agents. The first agent had quoted a different figure and promised to settle the account and the next one was talking about an absurd balance amount pending to be paid. He repeatedly threatened to make my life miserable and also threatened to harass each of my relatives/friends. After his call I called up Airtel customer care and narrated the entire incident to them. The customer care executive (Deepak) readily made notes of the complaint (Reference No. [protected]) and he also placed a request to disconnect the number[protected]. There was no request to disconnect my number as promised by the recovery agent. He also promised a callback from someone to take care of my issue.

The next day on 14th April, I got a call from a lady saying that she cannot do much on this case and she told me that she will get her supervisor to call me back. I never got a call back from anyone after that. The recovery agents now started harassing each of my relatives and friends and every time they made a different story and threatened them to make the payments on my behalf.

Today (17th April) has been the worst day in the history of my life. Since I didn't get a call from the so called supervisor since the last 2 days, I called customer care. The representative requested to transfer the call to his supervisor but disconnected the call while I was on hold. I made more than 15 calls to customer care but each time they offered to transfer my call to a supervisor and each time they disconnected the call while I was on hold.

Then someone by the name of Mr. Rajkr Parmar (Raj Bisht - [protected]) called me today and he (as has always been with all the previous calls) directly started abusing me and threatened me to make the payments. I told him clearly that I am sorting this issue out with the help of customer care as I didn't trust recovery guys anymore. He kept insisting that we will have to make payments only with him. Out of frustration and sheer disgust of hearing all the abusive words I put his phone down. Instead of calling me back he immediately started calling all my relatives and friends and started harrassing them. He even went to the extent of calling my relative and cooking up a story that she was using my number secretively and now she will have to clear the entire dues herself. They also called my 65 year old father-in-law and used abusive language and in fact went to the extent of telling him that they got the worst daughter-in-law who steals money.

MY QUESTIONS TO SENIOR MANAGEMENT ARE – Why was I made false promises by the first recovery agent? Why did the second recovery agent NOT take any responsibility of what was committed by the first recovery agent and just quoted a random balance amount which is false? When I lost the trust on recovery agents and called customer care executive they didn’t give me any resolution and kept disconnecting the calls by promising to transfer the call over to a supervisor each time. THE BIGGEST QUESTION IS – If I can make prompt payments for 7 continuous years and recovery agents knowing which number I am available on, why are they continuously harassing my relatives and friends with false stories?????

HOPING FOR A PROMPT ACTION ON THE MISCONDUCT OF YOUR RECOVERY AGENTS AND A CALLBACK BY A RESPONSIBLE PERSON WHO CAN RESOLVE THE ISSUE AMICABLY.