Airtel review: customer id 518

This is Vijay Kumar Ch. from Bangalore. And my mobile number is [protected]. I made a request for Regional Roaming in 2 months back. Still it is not getting activated. I have called to customer care many times but every time they told my address verification has to be done.

I don't know how much time they will take to activate. I made the deposit 1000/- Rs. for this activation. And 2 weeks back one person from Airtel came to my home for address verification. Still this customer care people said my address verification has to be done. 2 times in last 2 months I have faced this problem and I lost my important calls also. Could you please cosider this as serious issue and take proper action on this. If possible make them to activate that Regional Roaming with 8 hours atleast now.

Thanks & Regards,
Vijay

One Agent contacted me about the connection and offer of broadband services. I replied positively that I would only take the connection only if it would be installed immediately. He promised that it will be installed by one week.

I enrolled and paid Rs999/- through a cheque. After that the whole painful story begin.
All the time I followed up and the Airtel never bothered to call me back or update me about the progress of the new broadband connection.
I managed to speak to their technical person and technical person informed me that it would take months because the cable is not laid here.
After hearing this, I requested to cancel my order and immediately refund my money.

But, I yet to receive my Money back. I could not believe that AirTel services could be this bad.
My Application number is: BLR-0155533
Booked on 29th April 2005.

To Whomsoever who has the guts do do anything, I bought a Nokia mobile in September 2004 followed by a prepaid connection with AIRTEL. The phone number is [protected]. The number on the SIM card is [protected] 7. On the 17th Feb 2005, I recharged my phone with the Easy Recharge system of Rs 335/. In 4 days my balance was down to 4 Rs. On the 22nd I recharged my phone again with 335 Rs and overnite my balance dropped to 4Rs. I then got a call from a stranger who complained to me that his mobile number had changed to mine ([protected]) overnite and all my calls were going to him. When I approached the super dumb Customer Care centre in Habshiguda, Uppal Ropad, Hyderabad, India, my complaint was met with total disbelief. Then I asked them to block all outgoing calls for I night. Neither did they bother to block the calls nor did they refund the cash I had lost. They didn't even offer a solution. Additionally the AIRTEL chaps tell me that I had activated some F&F topping for 2 phone numbers that haven't been used by me. Thus 90 Rs just got deducted from my balance. This, I know was done by the stranger (he told me that). So although I cannot stop this guy from making his calls and thereby using my phone money, I think the computer that has all the information got hacked, because even when he recharges his phone (which has the same number as mine), the money does not get deposited.

What I have lost is 335 Rs and a complete faith in AIRTEL. I will shortly be registering my complaint In Deccan Chronicle a local newspaper, as well as getting a new connection with HUTCH.

For address verfication 2 weeks back itself one of your executive has come and spoke to our house owner, as am bachelor am wont be available at the office hours at home. Last wednesday(12-01-05) suddenly without any intimation my connection has been blocked and I called up your customer care center and I've been told its blocked due to non availability of person at home at the time of verfication, how come I will be there at come at the office hours, if your comming for verfication means before hand you must inform me so that I can make arrangements, and also he told the re verfication will be done only on
17 Jan 05 by 9am, but no one has come for verfication and again i called up the customer care and they told by tuesday(18-01-05) afternoon verfication will be done and number will be activated but esterday also no one has come for reverfication.

Now almost a week over no action has been taken from your side. If I am not resifding at the given address means, how come i received your bill, bill dated 06-jan-05 and also i paid the bill amount.

If the number is not activated by today morining, there is no way I AM GOING TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGANIST AIRTEL.

Because every fault is on your side, for the past one week without connection i had been disconnected from the world.

I never expected this kind of service from a reputed concern.

Lastly I would like to say one thing to AIR TEL. Let how great your AIRTEL Technology may be if the CUSTOMER was not cared , you will be OUT.

I am an old client of airtel but aprox 2 months back- i observed that I am unable to send mails from my laptop. Error message shows that AIRTEL IP: http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?203.145.128.6' is blocked due to heavy spamming. I contacted airtel and customer care make me dance for good one month.Customer care people did not knew about this issue and they keep on asking that issue will be solved within 24 hrs. and then again within...24hrs.

Issue never get solved and I decided to quit.

MY COMPLAINT:

1. Even after giving written and lot of requests on 121...they are not disconnecting my phone. I will be forced to pay rental with taxes.

I would strongly suggest to everyone-NEVER NEVER be an airtel client.

I am sure someone will hear this!

yes airtel has played marketing stunts by a intial good service turning to become the worst service now. if you call the customer care at 121, hard to find get them further. for prepaid mobile complaints they will ask you to message 121. promising they will call back in 24 hours which they never do.

I recently put currency recharge of Rs 100 from an agent of Airtel called

Planet Communication,
chapel lane, nera akbarayllys, stall no 3, SV road, Santa Cruz (W) Mumbai-54

I asked him beforehand, if I recharge for rs 100 how much talk time I would get, and he replied for Mumbai customer there is a service tax deduction of Rs 12, for outside numbers it might be same or little more. When I actually recharged for Rs 100, I received a talk time worth Rs 9.99 - TransID713572045 (can you imagine?). This is how the premiere telecom company of the country is looting its customers.

Not only that, when I protested to the agent, he feigned complete ignorance, and in fact even mis-behaved using threatening language. So much for customer care.

I wish the company to further pursue such high levels of customer care, so that all customers in India and abroad know the real worth of the company... and how it has made its millions.

I have been trying to get my Airtel telephone and broadband line shifted within the same city since the last 1 month now. While, my telephone line was shifted 3 weeks back, my broadband line is yet to be shifted. Initially, I was informed that the request for shift of telephone only has been received by them, and was asked to send another request to shift the broadband. But, even after 3 weeks of sending the request again, I am yet to get the connection, and made to suffer for no fault of mine - or perhaps it is my fault to have trusted them to do the job quickly in the first place.

Each time I call their helpdesk, I am attended to by a different person, and I have to first do an explanation, and then the reply received is that 'someone will get back to me, soon' and thats it. No one ever contacts or bothers to get back as promised, and as far as redressal is concerned, all I get is mere assurances. I fail to understand the delay in attending to a simple thing as mere shifting.

I have a LG B2050 Set and wanna activate Mo in this Mobile for internet use but when ever I get WAP setting in My mobile it's shows a error message which is "Error in receive Profile Docs."

I had gone to Coustomer Care Office of Airtel there they Have done some changes in setting and on Google page in My Mobile and even they they have not able to start Interenet in my Laptop.

I have taken Postpaid & Prepaid Both of SIM the No. of That is [protected] & PrePaid [protected] In Both SIM MO is activatied but I am unble to receive the settings of MO.

Please, somebody give me Full Details to Getting Settings of MO and Full Procedure to Install MO in My Laptop with LG B2050 Handset.

I would like to inform Airtel that I would be taking serious action against this continued billing when i have repeatedly asked the company to stop my connection, more than an year back. Due to possession of my HDFC credit card number, Airtel continues to bill me EVERY MONTH DESPITE REPEATED REQUESTS ON PHONE AND ON MAIL TO STOP THE SAME.

I am extremly frustrated by this and WILL NOT continue to take this lying down

Not being a defaulter on credit card paymens, I have EVERY MONTH BEEN paying a sum of 600 rupees towards airtel for the past one YEAR as the credit card company tells me it is helpless if airtel keeps charging

Such daylight robbery is not done and I would be taking the issue to CONUMER COURT if someone does not contact me regarding this ASAP.

Regards
Pallavi Chari

I am using airtel connection from past 3 years, till now i was satisfied with its services. But from 27.10.2006, i am not able to send messages to any number. I am registering a complaint at customer care every 72 hours. Because every time i call they simply say we have registered your complaint sir, within next 48 to 72 working hours your problem will be solved. Now i feel i am getting harassed for this, they did not bother about any complaint, neither their executives could satisfy the customer nor their complaints.

Now i am not finding any way out but to change my mobile connection. I never wanted to change my number but airtel is forcing me to do so.

I have closed my AIRTEL connection (AndraPradesh circle) [protected] on Nov 2 2006 after paying back all the dues in cash. The original connection was a postpaid and was payed through ECS past two years + . These idiots after closing the connection for paying the cash they have withdrawn the amount again from my ECS bank account on Dec 2nd. In spite of repeated mails and communication, there is no answer from airtel till date. no one is really bothered to reply to my mail 121@air**** . The customer service is so pathetic trust me. Never ever take an airtel connection in the life.

Interested in the new opening of AIRTEL in America,I bought a 10$ card to call to India.Immediately after entering all my credit card details they didn't hesitate even a second to take my 10$ from my account but they didn't even care to respond to my 'n' number of e-mails for not sending my PIN number..I think my 10$ is lost in bay...Even though it might appear a very small amount, people should be careful in buying their airtelcall home cards.I would appreciate if anybody could clear this problem.Interestingly,their customer free service number and their e-mail address is only for their staffs I suppose...I am tired of hearing the engaged sound whenever i call the toll free number..Will my problem be solved?

I was so excited that a company which has a good name is started the service of calling cards to India with a decent rate. Except to tell that this rate is good:

1. When i try to dial the [protected] number, this never gets connected the first time for me in my experience. I shall need to dial this for 3-5 times and sometimes i don't even get this.

2. Customer service no that they have given [protected], i don't think this exists.

3. I am not able to access the site with the user id and password given by them

Request everyone not even think about getting this service. I feel that my money that i have used to purchase this card is gone.

Airtel recently launched a 'Airtel call home' feature in the US. This is a scam. If you sign up for the service, you end up paying US$ and then never get any service. I have tried to use the service for the past 4 weeks and till date have not been able to connect to India. Their customer service is the worst in the world, no live being answers the phone, there is no proper customer complaint tracking system. If you send emails to customer service, they send back standard messages asking to call customer service...which never answers phone calls.

Please don't fall for this scam. Do not use this service. These folks are big time con artists.

My Mobile Number : [protected]. I have GPRS activated in my mobile and I have been using this for past 6 months. By 1st of this month I have recharged for Rs.1200 for talk time of 970 approx and 6 months validity. On 19th December 2006 night by 10 PM when I dialed *123# I got my account balance of around 800 rupees. Then after some hours my mobile started receiving messages from “[protected]” and the message are as follows.

Message from “[protected]”:

“Thanks for using Airtel Live!Featuring Christmas Celebrations,New Year Zone,Bollywood Elections, Cricket Zone and salaam-E-Ishq all on Airtel Live“

I didn’t notice that my amount is getting deducted when I received this message. This message is like a normal message as of how I receive message from my friends. So I just read and deleted that message. Then I started getting this message more frequently and I got around 10 messages approx.

Next day afternoon when I dialed *123#, I happened to see around 130 Rupees got deducted from my balance and that was about 678 Rs. Approx.]
I have Called Customer Care on 20th December 2006 afternoon.

When I enquired about my amount deduction I got response like I have downloaded some thing that’s why I got that amount deducted from my account.

But actually I got only messages in bulk but I dint receive or I dint find any option to download also. So how can I download that. I explained the same to customer care people. Then she said like she will be informing me after she checks within 34 hours.

Then Patiently I called Customer care again on 21st December 2006 night.

When I explained him the same and got a cool response he just simply told me “because you downloaded many things that happened I again started explaining what has happened” I again told him it was like a plain message and I just opened it. But still he keeps irritating me with those same words. I got bugged and just cut the phone.

22nd December 2006 Afternoon again my mobile started receiving that message from the same number by 2 pm. When I received 1 message I was worried and I checked for the balance it was around Rs.668 approx. Quite after some time I started more messaged I dint use my mobile and I was busy with my work. I checked for the message may be after a min that was from the same number and again I checked for the balance I saw it was Rs.580 approx. Then I got fed up.

I dialed 121 and called customer care I explained what ever had happened but again she repeated those familiar words and one more word added that is message is from yahoo and also the following word.

“because you downloaded many things that happened”

Then after explaining to her she said she will connect me to PL mean while connection got cut.

I dialed *123# and really got angry and frustrated and I lost my temper. To my very disappointment my balance had come down to Rs. 200 approx.

I called customer care again when I spoke to customer care chief executive he just repeated the same as other did. I felt no point in talking to them and I asked for the Airtel show room to him at Coimbatore. He at least got a courtesy to give me the address. Then on hearing my friend’s advice I just switched of my mobile.

I went to Airtel office when I switched on my mobile and I showed them the message what I got. And how many messages I got. At that time when I was speaking to the customer care people I got the around 36 messages and my account came down to 128 exactly.

I gave them the return complaint. But I still thought of mailing you.

I thing by tomorrow my account balance will be down to 0 to even goes on in-100 and so on.

I really appreciate even now if you refund my money back as soon as possible. I am ready to bring my mobile and show you the proof. And even you can cross check the time when I was speaking to the customer care people my amount got deducted. Now I have around 34 unread messages exactly like normal messages.

And Airtel Live got activated without my knowledge. Now seriously I lost hope on Airtel and their services offered and I guess everything is out of control.

As airtel is growing day by day, their customer service is just getting poorer and worst day by day. also their front desk people at lower parel, mumbai gallery are very rude and not at all fit for front desk.

Airtel should think seriously on it otherwise they will lose lot of customers immediately and airtel will find it suddenly in sinking sand. Airtel pls improve your customer service, it is the world of customers.

Hi all,

I have moved to Karnataka from Maharsthtra 9 months ago. Thinking as Airtel is doing good in Maharshtra I went with a New Connections (FIRST MISTAKE). Later it went on i had to apologize on my mistake i had done... I am begging still for the Bills and its not been given. They never try to understand what exactly customer wants. Customer Care has common answer SYSTEM UNDER MAINTENANCE.
Their UNIT MANAGERS give FAKE COMMITMENTS.

After visiting to their Main office they say that u can't do anything more than this and u have to believe us that they are working. My Request was to STOP SERVICE as I was very much happy with their DELIGHTFUL TIMELY ACCURATE SERVICE on 27th March 07 for MY POSTPAID CONNECTION. They have not disconnected till now and they have taken my request as on 5th April 2007. They want to deduct money from SECURITY DEPOSIT.

Finally i concluded

Airtel features in:

Worst customer service
Worst management
Worst admin
Fake commitments

So i believe that airtel will not survive for more than 1 year and its better to move to any other service providers (hutch-essar)

Hi guys,

Be happy that Airtel is going to close all their shops soon... by their service.

A person from Airtel came to my office at the end of March for address verification and he gave a call from my office. I informed him that this entire month (March), I would be in night shifts, so u can come at any time in April for that purpose. I was roaming in Tamilnadu from 01/04/07 to 06/04/07. But my number has been disconnected from 02/04/07 to 09/04/07 stating the reason that “Address verification was not completed”. I was unable to receive or make calls during this period). I registered a complaint from Tamilnadu to the customer care on 02/04/07. To resolve this complaint I had to struggle a lot even after coming to Bangalore.

After that my mobile services has been again disconnected on 24/04/07 stating the same reason that “Address verification was not completed”. The funniest part here is that I had received my current month’s bill to the billing address that is not verified and I had even paid that on 24/04/07. I contacted Mr. Pradeep from Customer care around 9PM on 24/04/07. He informed me that my services would be activated within 4 (four) hrs. He also fixed an appointment with me for address verification on 27/04/07 at 10 AM. As the problem continued I again contacted Priya from Customer care at 11:45 AM on 25/04/07. She also sang the same song that “Ur services would be activated within 15 minutes”. At that time I was wondering about their commitment. But they have proved that they would never follow ur words. Again I contacted Mr. Abdul from Customer care around 8 PM on 25/04/07 and he put me on hold for nearly 20 mins to re-connect to Manager. But that call was disconnected from their side.

Finally I came to conclusion that it is purely waste to speak by phone and I decided to meet the Manager, Customer relations at Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore. When I was entering I was given a token number 365. I was waiting for my turn. But my bad luck continues there also. The counter number was also bypassing from 358 to 369. When I enquired about this, he was responding that ur are not available while calling.

Finally I met Mr. Rinesh, Manager. He was listening to my complaints and informed that “ur service would be re-activated within 30 minutes”. As the problem was not resolved, I met him after 1 hour. He was casually telling that ur account has been deleted completely and it would be re-activated within a day. The worst part is that he asked me to adjust with the problem. Till now my service has not been restarted.

#2) I activated Hello tunes on 27/03/07. Within a month I had made 3 complaints for disruption of this service.

There was 0% commitment in their service from Manager to Executive and there was no mistake from my side at any instance. Im having all the necessary documents with me. If I did not get apology letter or compensation or refund from you, there is no other way instead of going to the Consumer Court.

If they are continuing with this type of service, very soon they will see ur end.

I am using airtel service since 3 years. i recharged with 100rs through Ebanking 4 days back. But my number never get recharged, but money reduced from my account. Whom should i complain about this. That stupid cc executives never connected thru phone.

1. I had activated SmS 49 pack and i was using it happily. On 24April i received an SmS stating that my pack would be updated.I did not understand the message and called up on 936. I was told that i will be getting an extra month for my pack.Instead my pack got deactivated on 28 and that too one day early.I had given a complaint but no action was taken.

2. In the month of december amount of Rs.21 was deducted on account of using GPRS service which i had not used and neither i had given a request.I got a refund of Rs.7 only

3. I am a demo card user. I receive hardly any sort of cooperation from my agency (indu). I had given some roll backs a year ago and i have still not received it. There is no territory manager to help us out.

4. The commission given to the retailers compared to the risk borne by them is very small. It should be increased at least to 5%.It is just my personal opinion.

5. The 123 service has not been brought to proper service since december. I am not able to change my family nd friends nos. neither the agency is helping out.

6. My SmS pack does not get activate on time. I have to give complaints at least 4-5 times.

I am a subscriber to Airtel Mobile Service. I use a prepaid card service and my no. is +[protected]. First of all let me tell everyone that Airtel sucks big time. They have no respect for their customers peace. I receive unwanted calls and sms from Airtel at least 10 – 12 in a day and that too at any damn time. I am working and it becomes so annoying to receive such useless calls at time. Airtel Co. has never asked me for my permission to send such sms or for any promotional calls. I expect the company to stop this practice of sending unsolicited messages and calls respecting the customers peace of mind.

I am using this airtel card for last 4 years. The card is on my cousin brother’s name (Kapil Kulkarni). I am trying to get it transferred to my name. I have submitted all the necessary documents, including ID proof, address proof ect. along with Airtel Form, To Ankit Communication, chinchwad, Pune. The documents were submitted to the outlet on 22nd of Nov 2006. The Airtel form no. which I had submitted is 1883014. Since then (last 6 months) there is no action from the dealer or company in this regards. I have followed up with the dealer for at least 10 times. Each time I was given some absurd answers like system down, Company is verifying the documents etc. But nothing has happened till now. The dealer is taking no responsibility of this matter.

Same is the case with the company Help line. I called up to 121 for the same reason & launching a complaint against the dealer. But even the company call centre is giving no response. They are not even ready to give the request no or complaint no.

As a customer I have suffered a lot due to this. Every body in the company is same & not a single responsible person is there in the company. Is this the way company treats all it’s customers. Airtel is growing at a very fast pace but the end-user is being given the least importance. Company is taking no steps towards improving the service.

Now the mobile is transferred but the dealer has still not submitted the documents because of which the Service is barred.

Very poor Airtel service!

I receive a lot of messages and calls on my cel. daily from Airtel about their schemes. Also it disturbs me when I am at work.

I am (was) an airtel Suscriber since 2004, Gujarat, Bangalore respectively. I was so impressed by the service of Gujarat and Bangalore. therefore, when i started job in Hyderabad with my present company, I intended to take Airtel connection. I am very sorry to say that service in Hyderabad is below average, i mean very BAD.

My connection has been disconnected without prior notice . when enquired, they stated that due to lack of relevant proofs, house address. I had submitted all relevant document to the Airtel official who came to our office and initiated for the connection.

After disconnecting the line, I have contacted the Airtel official several times, even I have personally handed over my residence proof (House Agreement) to the Account Manager. He assured me reactivation of the connection, till date it s not been activated, apart from that the so called officials are not attending my call too. till date no action has been taken from their side.

This made so much inconvenience in fact big trouble to me; Officially and personally. Therefore I am forced to disconnect Airtel connection and go for some other connection.

Please do not negelct any customer like this! You do not treat customers properly!

The complaint is extremely genuine. Airtel now a days ignore their customers and running behind to get new customers.

I was having airtel prepaid connection from last few years. From cus care i was getting calls for the services provided by airtel and out of that i went for 199 rs full talk time postpaid connection. One person mr. Ajay ([protected]) from airtel gallery came to my house and given all the details about the plan. According to him 199 rs can be taken as full talktime , calls including std. Again sec deposit 500 rs, will get back after firat three bills. I agreed for the same and taken the postpaid connection of 199 full talktime plan. But now after 4-5 months i got to know that above all the informations were false. They r not ready to refund 500 rs sec deposit and 199 rs for only local call.

I have been facing a lot of problems in making outgoing calls to my friends and relatives as well as incoming calls. My sons and daughter in law are unable to contact me many times as the phone is not reachable. My mobile no. is [protected]. I am a resident of mumbai, Goregaon west. Prior to this I was using BPL prepaid card and I had no problems whatsoever. I had selected airtel just because I wanted a post paid connection. I think i have made a big mistake by selecting airtel as a service provider. I don't know whom to contact so am posting this on the complaint board.

Regards,
P. Narayanan

Hi

I Jeevan Sodhi Purchased an airtel postpaid sim almost in 2002-03 on my sister name Harpreet Kaur. It was a govt. Plan. Finally in Nov-Dec-06, I decided to withdraw airtel services because of other companies were giving the same benefits in cheap rates.

I visited to airtel show room situated in 3B2 Mohali, SCO No-56, in november for the deactivation of my number [protected]. They asked me to give them application in written with Id proof. I gave them all the required documents and also told them i have called on the helpline also for the same and they told me to visit show room. Then they told me wait for 7 days it will deactivate.

But after a month there was nothing like that i again went to their showroom, when i again briefed the new agent for the same, Then the front executive dialed number to retention department there and told him here is customer who wanted to deactivate the connection, Then the retention deptt. tried their level best to retain me, she was a lady. But i didt want to continue so in the end front end executive named Rajesh told me to deposit unbilled amount. I made the payment of rs 600 and he said your no. will be disconnected soon.

After a week i again visited the show room on and told till now i have not received any confirmation and my number is still working, i also created scence in the showroom there. Finally Mr. Rajesh at once made a request for deactivation and within a minute my outgoing got barred and he promised me that your incoming facility and rejection will take 48 working hours. After that i didt insert my number and i found the very next month they sent me the bill amount of rs 4000 approximately.

When i went to the showroom to inquire this, they said we only can provide you the details on which you have called upon, rest we dont know and we are helpless. I asked them if my outgoing was barred then how it possible that i made call worth rs 4000, where as my credit limit is aroung 2500. They were very rude on this. instead of having system and softwares in front of them they were unable to provide me this very much information.

I told them that i wont made payment as i didt make any call since month. And sim also i handed over to your executive only.

TELL ME HOW CAN I MADE THE PAYMENT FOR WHICH I DIDN'T USE.

My father has a airtel prepaid connection on his name. He is a businessman and uses mobile only for making few personal calls. He never uses net on phone or never subscribed to hello tunes, MCA alert. He is being constantly disturbed by unwanted messages and calls from airtel for which i had already made a request of Do not Disturb. I also requested to unsubscribe all those services which my father never subscribed, but without any success, money is constantly deducted from our balance. Today morning i got a message of deduction of Rs. 99 for net-on-phone which we never subscribed. Our all efforts with customer care executives have been in vain, so i have decided to move to Consumer Court for which airtel will be going to face problems which i have been facing till now.

I dont know whats going on at Airtel. I had given written request for broadband disconnection at Airtel noida office on 7th Mar 2007 ( 3 months back ), but they never disconnect my number.

Every time i requested and remind them, they changed my request from disconnection to transfer case. I am getting bills in thousands without using connection. I thinks nobody is able to hear in Airtel.

Customer Care in Airtel is hell as they every time just listen to you then never follow till ur next call, on ext call they will give u a reference number, this time i have 5 reference number, but still waiting for disconnection.

I received a mail from Airtel, that i will be getting 30 free SMS for 3 months from effective 5 May2007 which will reflect in my next invoice dated 7 June 2007. When i received the bill there was no discount added to it, after calling to customer care they said that it will be effective from next month. Then he put me on hold to check & suddenly after 5 mins disconnected my call.

This is the kind of false promises AIRTEL gives it to his customers, highly unprofessional. I suggest HUTCH & IDEA are far better service providers.

My advice is to all you people not to take AIRTEL connection in future.

Regards,
Manish.

I took lifetime validity card last month during my visit to India and since then I have faced most of the problems listed in this site. Apart automatic activation to some funny features such as ringtones, easy recharging (varies from state to state while roaming), airtel live, etc you get silly irritating SMS and POPups on the mobile that needs to be acknowledged. The network is also not good as claimed in there advertisement and when checked they say some work is being done and will be ok in few days and nothing happens this was noticed while roaming in India as well. One incident I would like highlight which is totally unacceptable, while in roaming in Bangalore I could not do easy recharge with any of there dealer hence went to there HO (head office) and to my surprise they first told me that they can not recharge as they have exhausted the topup limit. This can happen to an agent as his credit limit is reached, but to state HO is not clear? Finally after waiting for an hour they started accepting the recharge but I having purchased my SIM in Bombay was still facing the problem hence lodge complaint with the manager and lady requested me want value do you recharge in Bombay, since this was my first recharge I was not aware of the details. I said this being regional office you should have the details and was told that they do not have the details upon insisting to lodge a complaint they checked with customer care in bombay with no use. The complaint was lodged and till date have not received any call.

It is purely a cheating business as there is no transparency in the charges they collect. The customer care service is the worst this not because lack of efficient staff but I believe it is the COMPANY POLICY.

I m a regular airtel customer. In 8th april 2007 i had taken a new airtel sim for Rs.100 which offered me 2 years of validity and a talktime of Rs.50 on recharge of Rs.986. Since i am a student i immediately took the offer. I submitted the documents required immediately on that very day. it was working fine for a few days. On the 15th of april i had to leave for Assam for vacations. (North east does not have the facility of prepaid roaming). after i returned from my vacations i found that the sim was deactivated. when i contacted them they told me that they did receive the documents and so hey deactivated my sim. After repeated complaints and submission of my documents for the second time i was told to take a new sim card so that my previous account could be transferred to my new number. After i did this i was told that only my Rs.50 talktime would be transferred. Please help!

I am pasting the conversation I had with Airtel Customercare below. This reveals the quality of customer service Airtel is providing. The executive replying to my complaint seems to have done a clean Copy & Paste job wherein he has given my mobile number as "[protected]" which is not so inspite of my mentioning the correct mobile number in the subject line of my original complaint. He also overlooks my main complaint and gives me GREAT advice on Airtel's Net-on-Phone service. Read on to understand the pathetic condition of the customer care quality of Airtel.

*******************************************************************************************
Dear Ms. Jana,

Thank you for writing to Airtel.

This is with reference to your email 14 June 2007 regarding Net on Phone (NOP) not working on your Airtel number [protected]. We regret the inconvenience faced as a result of delay in responding to your email.

We wish to inform you that Net on Phone (NOP) service has been activated on your Airtel number with effect from 12 June 2007 and the same is properly working from our end.

We are again sending you the settings. After you receive the settings, switch off and switch on your mobile.

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience faced by you.

In case you face any problem in using the Net on Phone service; please write back to us with the following details:

1) Error message

2) Handset details

3) Alternate contact number.

For any assistance, please feel free to contact us using one of the following options: SMS on 121 (toll free) or email at 121@airtelindia.com.

Assuring you the best of our services.

Regards,
Pranab Sarkar
Customer Services

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---- Original Message ----

Dear Customercare

I have purchased the above postpaid connection from your ARC at PVR
complex, Saket, New Delhi on 11th June. I had called up 121 from this phone
on 12th evening and spoke to the executive Pintu Kumar regarding email
services on my i-mate JAQ3 handset. I was told to sign-up for Net-on-Phone
email services @ Rs 49/- rental per month. After doing so I found that this
is not working on my handset. Yesterday evening ie on 13th June I spoke to
the technical support services of your Customer Care and was told by the
executive, Devinder that my handset does not support Net-on-Phone and I
will have to sign up for a higher value airtel GPRS service @ Rs 499/- per
month. I did so by dialing 121 through an automated voice based service. I
still have not received any confirmation about the activation of this
service.

My second point is that I would like to know whether the charges for
Net-on-Phone that I had requested for on 12th evening (due to the wrong
guidance of Pintu Kumar) would be reversed as I have signed up for
airtelGPRS service from 13th evening.

Thank you.
*******************************************************************************************

Till date there is no action from Airtel. I have not recd a confirmatory SMS regarding the interactive voice based registration of GPRS service after calling 121 on 13th June. Nor have I recd a reply from Pranab Sarkar or anybody else from Airtel regarding the total goof-up.

Airtel customer service has the most unorganized and undisciplined organizational set up that I have ever come across. I suggest that the class down. I have registered a complain for the network problem that i face in and around my residence area for almost a month now and haven't got any feedback. The last time I spoke to a guy named Vicky, who told me that he would get back to me in 2 hours time and never got back. Neither do the customer service staff is skilled enough to handle the calls.

Airtel is a disastrous service provider. I suggest customer to never use Airtel services ever in their life!

One day i got a call from Airtel office regarding the post paid connection... i found it good so i applied for it... they asked for necessary documents so i provided and also paid 2.50 Rs as connection charges.

The lady who use to call me Chetna (her number [protected]) said to me that your connection will be activated within one week. now it has already been 15 days but the card which they have given to me is still not activated. When i use to call that lady her number seems to be out of reach or switch off... i don't know the fu***ng reason.

I am bit frustrated and promise that including me n my family will never ever use Airtel connection...

What the hell...

Regards,
Vidhut.

I have airtel connection in my mobile from past 2 years. On 25 May 2007 I got a sms from airtel that today you will get full talk time on E-recharge of 77 Rs/- .
So I have taken that on same day, till date I doesn't get full talk time. My complaint No is [protected].

And in last week there is deduction of 30 Rs/- my account for hello tune, I don't know why it is deduction because there is no request from my to activate the Hello tune on my no!

People beware!

I am using airtel since from 2002. I trusted my friends to get airtel. Now the problem is my connection is blocked. I have payed my bill last Thursday. Still they dint activate the sim. I went to complaint near by airtel (karur)TN. They are saying address verification for the past one week.

I tried selecting caller tunes from Airtel home page and i could not even see the full list of song. its so time consuming that i ended up not selecting anything. if at all they are providing such a service why don't they make it a consumer friendly and easy to search for a song. The second thing is that, airtel never dispatch my phone bill on time meanwhile they will be sending me SMS again and again that my bill is over due. I call customer care told them i will not pay my bill until i have the hard copy of my itemmised bill. They say it will be delivered in one day. I waited it didn't come and all of a sudden my phone wasn't working anymore, Fortunately i had another HUtch connection otherwise i would had been incommunicado! I went to airtel office they told me i had to call up customer care 121 number and requested for duplicate bill for which rs.50 will be deducted... I got so piss off, I told them "just for you Airtel people to do your work i.e. doing what you were supposed to do, I had to pay for more? it sucks! really... Could finally solve the problem after few days... pathetic! The next time if it happens again, i will not pay my bill also i will throw away my sim.