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 "9910021219" 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.

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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 9910021219. 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 [email protected].

Assuring you the best of our services.

Regards,
Pranab Sarkar
Customer Services

DISCLAIMER AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE:

The information in this email is confidential, and intended solely for the addressee. Access to this e-mail by anyone else is unauthorized. Any copying or further distribution beyond the original addressee is not intended, and may be unlawful. The opinions expressed are those of the sender, and do not necessarily reflect those of BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED. The e-mail has been successfully scanned for presence of virus. It is recommended to scan the attachment before launching.

---- 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.
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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.

Last month my bill amounted to Rs 1613, and the details given to us in DSL (Downloads)call ,gave us the details of the timings which made it clear that the bill wasn't ours, we contacted the call centre to counter our problem, and by looking our previous bill the matter was cleared and they asked us to pay Rs 625.

This amount was given by cheque and the cheque got cleared by 10 june but for 2 days our connection was put on hold saying we hadnt payed our bills, though the check was already been cleared. To make the matter worse the next bill clearly mentioned that we had an opening balance of Rs 988, which means my earlier problem regarding the bill was not cleared. The most severe problem is regarding the timings shown in the detail section of downloads seem to be completely wrong. during the morning hours when generally the PC is switched off since we all are working.

I tried to contact the call centre many times , each time I got a new reference number but my problem is still not solved, I gave them my cell no: , my landline no: but none of them bothered to contact us.

I had an Airtel mobile connection & everything was working fine. I purchased a service (friends plan) and I was suppose to get 3 of my numbers absolutely free.

I paid for that service for almost 8 months (thinking that Airtel is a great company and never bothered checking my billing statement as billing statement itself is very complex if you are using Airtel connections - as compared to other vendors) and suddenly one day, when I thoroughly checked my bill, came to know that they are charging me for the service but guess what, Vie also been charged for the supposed to be free numbers.

I immediately filed a complaint and initially, the cuts service was good, they listened to my complaint but unfortunately, they just listened and never did anything.

Then, because of frustration and considering that Imp out of my lots of money, I didn't paid that months bill and stopped using Airtel.

I received many calls as reminder to pay my bill but their customer service then refused to listen to my problems and almost threatened me to pay the bill.

When I said that Imp going to file a complaint against them, they turned the turtle and a supervisor (Rachel) called and said that he can waive off the charges from last four months bill and will apply it as a discount, but I was charged wrongly for 8 months and he had no response to this request and said that they cannot view the bills older than 4 months hence cannot help me.

Then I requested to give me an average adjustment for the remaining four months and they denied of doing that as well.

I cannot imagine how irritating it can be, dealing with their customer service... Every 10-15 days a guy calls me up, first in threatening tone, asks me to pay the bill, then when I explain everything, assures me that he will take care of everything and then call back.

I never receive a call back but guess what, I receive another call from another sales person and again the story begins.

No one is taking the owner ship of resolving this issue and it has been a mental harassment for me from the last 6 months.

Frankly, Imp fed-up off and tired of this stupid service I opted for and will never use any Airtel service.

I work in service industry (as a supervisor) and hires 80 associates for my company every year. Feedback as such matters a lot. Now a days, I make sure that everyone I know buys either Idea or Hutch but no Airtel...

Good bye airtel, you lost almost 55 customers as of now and I will make sure that you loose more customers in future, courtesy me... numbers are increasing.

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!

For the last few months Airtel services has become so bad that i had to get a new Hutch connection. Now airtel services have become so bad that i think i have no other option then to surrender this connection instead of learning from other people that i keep my phone switched off.