Airtel Customer "Care"
Before I tell you how wonderful Airtel customer service is, I would like to point out that they have a wonderful slogan, "Go wherever, do whatever." To me, that effectively means, I dont care what you do , or where you go. Translate it to Kannada and you will know exactly what I mean. Now for an example of tthe brilliant customer care service that Airtel has come to be known for.It all began one night, on the way back fom the movies, when some poor thief decided that it was worthwhile stealing my mobile phone, an old Nokia 3310, in a crowded bus. I am sure that later he would have realized that it was a waste of a days work. This happened in Bangalore and my sim card was purchased in Chennai. Since I had one more month there, I bought a new mobile and for the simcard, I thought of getting a duplicate simcard. I could have saved all the trouble that I was to face by just buying a new sim card, but for some strange reason, I wanted the same number I had before.
As soon as I got home that night, I had called up the Airtel customer care and asked them to block the number. That done I asked them if I could get a duplicate sim card. The female on the phone said that mine being a prepaid card bought in Chennai, it would be tough for them to arrange for a duplicate sim card in Bangalore, and that I would have to go to Chennai and get the duplicate. That I would also have to register a police complaint about the loss. She also said that it could have been done if I had a post paid card, and cleverly asked if I wanted to convert to post-paid. I told her I wanted to "stay pre-paid" and tried to convince her that I would be in the city for a whole month, and that I would really like to use my phone, and that I would also pay extra charge, if necessary, for the service. She said that she would talk to her superiors and get back to me by email. Next day I recieved an email from her saying that it would be possible to get the duplicate at the airtel head office and that they would not charge for it at all. At this stage I was very impressed by Airtel, and went to the head office the following day.
The service at the Airtel head office was extremely slow. It took three hours for my turn. Thankfully they had nice sofas there and I was able to crash for an hour. When I got my turn, and when I told that my card was bought in Chennai, the guy at the counter took me to some office there. After sitting there like a piece of furniture, completely ignored by everyone around, somenoe asked what I wanted. Then they tell me again that I would have to go to Chennai and get the card, and that they dont have duplicate sim card for "out-station pre-paid customers". Having expected that I told her that I had talked to the customer care, and they had said that it could be done. They wouldnt even call up and ask if such a thing was possible. I told them that I could show the email they sent me regarding it, but the floor manager kept saying that they didnt have such a service. I agree that I was asking for something unusual, but what pissed me off was the fact that the manager wouldnt even call up their customer care, nor did she make an attempt to see if she could do something about the situation. She kept saying she cant do it, she cant do it. I mean, "Go anywhere, do whatever!!!!!" YA RIGHT!!!!
But at the end of that I wasnt very angry. After all, I was asking for smoethign out of the ordinary, and would have taken an exceptional customer care executive to get it done. So the only thing that was proved was that Airtel customer care was not exceptional. What happened next proved beyond doubt that it sucked.
After a month, when I came back to Chennai, I went to the Besant Nagar Airtel Office to get the duplicate sim card. On reaching there they tell me that they didnt have stock of duplicate sim cards and that I should go to the Saidapet Office, which is not that far from where I live. I go there, and there was already some commotion there. Some guy was shouting at a female sitting at the counter. I went to the next counter, gave all the requiered things. They asked for a proof of identity, for which I gave my IIT Madras ID card. She said that they could give the duplicate simcard, but for activation they needed proof of address like a driving license or something. I told her that I live in hostel at IIT, and asked if the ID card couldnt serve as proof of address too. I told her that to get the sim card I had used only the ID card as proof. She wasnt convinced. In no mood to put up a scene, I asked if it was possible to get the card activated at Besant Nagar Office itself. She said it could be done from anywhere.
I come back to my room, and realize that the address on my driving license is my home address at Bangalore. Thankfully, I had my hostel address as current address in my passport. So, I took my passport and when to the Besant Nagar Office. Here again I tried to get it done with my ID card, but they said no here too. I was put off immediately by their attitude there. It looked as if they thought they were doing me a favour and were totally disinterested. Then I gave my passport, and apparently even that wasnt enough. He claimed that since my passport had a hostel address, I needed to get a letter from the warden. This is the point where I completely lost it. I tried to tell him that passport was the ultimate proof of address, and that if I had given wrong address in passport, I could be jailed, he just didnt understand. I call up the Aritel Customer Care Service, and they tell me that it was upto the dealer to get relevant proof and that Airtel as such had no say in it. NO SAY IN IT!!! Isnt he an AIRTEL dealer? How can AIRTEL have no say in it. After a half an hour more of arguing, I gave up and went back to the Saidapet Office. There she activated my card without any questions. I wasted a whole day in trying to get all this done, and all for a foolish whim that I wanted to keep my number.
I tried to register a complaint against the dealer, but when I called up the Airtel Customer Care and was telling my "story", the call got disconnected. I tried again, and again the call got cut when I was telling what happenned. What a co-incidence!!! So, with no venue to vent out my frustration with Airtel, I turned to my blog. Obviously Airtel wont undergo a massive change after this, but for the Time's Person of the Year, its the only way to express dissatisfaction.
posted by Mahesh.R @ 5:14 AM
43 Comments:
as I said before .. you should have gone back to that besent nagar dealer and told him that passport was accepted by the main office .... and waited for his reaction :)
U can alwaz switch to another carrier..
Welcome to the club. :-( Sometimes I think their callousness and total irreverence for the customer comes from having too many customers out there. And don't even get me started on the moronic reasons the Custome Care gives for not being able to do something, drives me nuts.
(here via Desipundit)
the angry young man, mahesh... expected more masala from u...
Hmm...Nice kettle of fish this is...thank god I haven't lost my mobile or anything else untoward. They didn't accept your passport as proof of address because the passport could have an older address...surely you realise that. They could have been a bit more civil about it, but that's probably about it. Also, "Times Citizen of the Year"??? That's a new award...I think you mean "Time's Person of the Year". :) Shows what a little punctuation can do for you eh?
@shankin
TNR for u, as if it would have changed him.
@semi
sorry da, will try to live up to expectations next time.
@bus
change duly noted and corrected :P
@thanu
wanted to change, but for some reason I wanted to keep the number. Hence all the effort.
I want to go that Besant Nagar dealer and gen pain him with problems that don't exist. We can make some very good plans.... Muhuhahahaha
coming?
@gandhe
COME MAN!!
Dude, tough luck! But seriously if you expect anything else from the phone companies... ;-)
I wrote about my problems with the phone companies about a year ago. take a look (http://unjustly.wordpress.com/2006/07/02/phone-companies-bah/)
Also do read Aishwarya's post on the subject (http://bluelullaby.blogspot.com/2006/06/in-which-aishwarya-controls-herself.html)
It just goes to show that as long as they are making profit, customers are just like cattle to them. I hope u atleast shouted at them a lot.
Now at least the next time we have those debates u won't say that private companies give better customer care :-)
S.Manohar
i misplaced my phone in goa. so i called up my family in delhi and told them to get that sim disabled and ask for a new sim.
airtel disabled the sim and delivered a new sim to my home, free of cost. guess you might have had some bad luck with customer care.
Is the "besant nagar" office you mention the one on MG road, Shastri nagar (near LB road, opp. Adyar Ananda Bhavan)? They're a very unfriendly place, take forever to attend to you.
In my case, my wife (who couldn't go in person at the time) wanted a new Airtel prepaid; she doesn't have any proof of address at the moment, but we do have a marriage certificate (which contains our address) and I have other, acceptable proofs of address. They said fine, bring those over over. I did, and they said no, it's not acceptable. Moreover, they said, it's not up to them -- the Airtel head office needs to accept it, and if they don't, they'll be in trouble. They asked me to get the connection in my name, though I already have one in my name.
Ah well, Hutch (my wife's current provider) is even worse.
I did find that the Airtel "nodal officers" respond to email -- I wanted them to stop spamming me with automated calls and SMS, and they did. It took a while though. You could try complaining to them -- you'll find the email address somewhere on Airtel's site.
As airtel is getting bigger probably they are losing customer focus :)
One of my friend was in a simlar situation, he got the duplicate SIM within 2 days, however it was a post paid SIM.
I guess dealers are more careful when dealing with post paid SIM's, it has to do more with the way a post paid SIM can be bought.
I empathize. If airtel were a person I would have had it subject to the third degree.
Such insensitive bastards really.
You are absolutely right, I have airtel broadband connection and it gets disconnected at night after 10:30 pm till morning.
When I complaint to airtel at daytime they say that since it is working right now, you complaint at night when it is now working. We will examine it then.
And at night when i call them they never pick the phone, instead they play Kaun Banega Crorepati's promo on phone!!!
@maggu
TNR FOR U!! communist fellow would make you wait in queue for months together then ask for bribe to even look into problem.
@coward
u just got lucky i guess, just see the number of cribs juntha have posted.
@rahul
will do that, have to make sure that he loses his license
@venu. aishwarya, pawandeep
i guess the big boys will always be bullies
In some sense, a mobile is a pain in the pocket, and like Hutch, "Wherever you go, our network follows."
hi..
this is ramprasath
mob no is 98948 66602
i complained many times regarding my bal on nov 1 2006
more than 25 times i called to cust care about the same reason..
on 1nov 2006 i have bal of Rs.350..
i was in out of station.(so switched off my airtel mob)
so a week after i checked the bal..it shows Rs-14. -ve bal..
how come it happens.. with out using my mob..
i spoke to cust care on jan 15.. on that time they told u have bal in u r mob as Rs.354 and wil be credited with in 24hrs.. but still no updation..
while speaking to cust care people some times they disconnect line..
so kindly check my complaints and bal
totally agree to your point boss...since today morning i m goin thru same story...calls got barred due to some bloody reason...called customer care 5 mins back....& 4th time today....again they say it will be done in 15 mins...just waiting for those 15 mins-1 hour since morning....
& this is the story with every compnay almost...so sorry to say....in India...nobody cares...& we cant do anything as cant go without a cell phone these days :(
Sidhu
my number is 9975090231 from morning it is showing sim card registration fail and no netrwork from morning please do needful..
This post has been removed by the author.
@ram, sameer and gary
I dont know why you are referring to me as an airtel customer care executive!! I hate airtel, and i never have and hopefully never will work for them! if you read the blog, i am pissed with their service too......
Good one Mahesh. I reached your blog when I was searching for the Airtel customer care address as I got completely frustrated by the attitude of a woman (Airtel) in a job fair in Delhi! And I wanted to complain, and couldn't find a thing! Thank Google for their wonderful invention and smart crawler which helped your page rank higher than Airtel's :p
Good one Mahesh. I reached your blog when I was searching for the Airtel customer care address as I got completely frustrated by the attitude of a woman (Airtel) in a job fair in Delhi! And I wanted to complain, and couldn't find a thing! Thank Google for their wonderful invention and smart crawler which helped your page rank higher than Airtel's :p
Good one Mahesh. I reached ur page wen I was searching for the Airtel customer care email address. Thank Google for their wonderful innovation and expert crawler that ranked your page higher than theirs :)
I tecking the recharge card from 200 Rs. when it has got scratch its number also be scratch from my side so please i request you to give me another card, or give me another no. of card on e-mail i give you my old card no. for your reference (Card No. 60000018198280).
I am new to Chennai I would like to know the Head office(centra web world) of Airtel to go for a tariff of my choice.
I m fedup with airtel promotional calls in every 2 min.
please block these calls on my number 09871349756
i am a airtel postpaid customer my mobile no is 9810669704 in ghaziabad u.p today i switch off my mobile and after one hour when i ON my mobile nokia 6085 it is saying sim card registration failed
please help me
email id : vineet.bhusan@sheelafoam.com
this is narayan gupta , i m a postpaid airtel consumer , but my sim was issued to girsh wandile.
my request
1. i have to get change the owner of the SIM by narayan gupta
2. get converted from post paid to prepaid .
what is essential document is required. please suggest me
Narayan Gupta
9901508618
narayan.gupta@wipro.com
Hi,
I am really very fed up with ur airtel "top up ",please change according to the poor customer.
please think about the customer.
Sir I leave in Delhi. Our Village in Distric Azamgarh U.P. Sir I recharge in my home mobile thats no. 09963205197. Recharge cupan in Rs. 98 time of recharge about 12:40 in the date of 12.02.2008 but recharge is not success sir please checke my complained and send my recharge on my mobile
Guess what!!
- I had Rs.6 balance when I started from my home, when I was about to recharge, I checked my balance as everyone does and it was Rs.-30.00!!!
- I had three years validity plan and my validity reduced by a year!
- Whenever I call 121, 9840198401 i get redirected to the automatic system which tells balance and accepts recharge coupons!
- And GPRS is not supported with old windows smart phones which can display this blog when connected to the internet via pc!!
- Airtel Broadband is equally bad.
"Express Yourself" should be replaced with "Never seen any satisfied customer"
Guess poor Rehman used airtel!
Dear sir,
I have sent Fax on date [06-07-2007] to surrender my all airtel lines . Response for my fax Mr satish barnad contacted me and made a request to me not surrender the lines , he inturn offered a Best scheme , so i agreed to his offer and decided not to surrender my lines. The offer was
1.Waved 1000-00 rupees in the bill
2.One airtel mobile number free from your Land line
3.No modem rent for life long
He waved only 500-00 rupees and free one mobile number from my Land line,but remaining 500-00 rupees and modem rent were not waived and after next month he resigned .Again i sent Fax on date [ 29-07-2007] ,this time Mr vignesh contacted me and made a request not to surrender the airtel line. He commited that what Mr satish Barnard had offered u ,he will fulfill it.
He said that he will waive the remaining that 500-00 rupees and modem rent from date [ 06-7-2007] to till date but every month he assured me ,sir i wiil do it but till date he did not waived the amount and when i contacted before three days on the number-04442100699, i got information that he resigned .
I have so much problems from airtel.Iam thinking why i surrendered my all BSNL lins besause it was so better than AIRTEL .
BSNL PEOPLE DON'T USE TO GIVE COMMITMENT BUT AIRTEL PEPOLE GIVE ASSURANCE AND COMMITMENT TO GIVE SERVICE TO COSTUMERS ANYTIME BUT THEY NEVER DO SO . THIS IS VERY PAINFUL FOR ME AND I AM VERY UPSET SO MANY TIMES FROM AIRTEL SERVICES .
NOW I REQUEST U TO KINDLY WAIVE MY 500-00 RUPEES AND MODEM RENT FROM DATE [ 06-07-2007] TO TILL DATE.IF THIS REQUEST IS NOT TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION I WILL SURRENDER ALL MY LINES.
Awaiting for your response as soon as possible.
THANKING U
JAYANTILAL
PHONE -04442333708
04442758174
mvery bad network in gorai area, not taking any steps for that
geez folks!!! what makes u think this blogger is an airtel exec???? If you aint literate enuff to figure this out...u pply dont deserve availing benefits technology offers...namely...cellular phones...telecommunications...and the rest of the blah!
BTW Mahesh! got here while I was lookin for airtel customer care telephone numbers...just like the scores of them before me reached you...Airtel has me on the verge of a nervous breakdown ...as always.
Interesting to know.
Ha... now its the Airtel Digital TV. I've tried calling the 800 number listed on their web-site. Man, I tell the guy I'm calling from Chennai and he asks me which state Chennai is in! Since then I've called that number a few times to get the phone number to their Adyar center - call center is super efficient, they are not able to provide this information to a customer who is ready to buy their service. Thinking what would happen once you become a customer... and call them expecting some answers. Anyways, got into the web looking for their adyar address and stumbled on this site.
pl send ur rep to rectify the problem in DTH
pl send ur rep to rectify the problem in DTH
N no of times I had contacted ur freetoll no but its all waste of time
pl do the needful to rectify the problem
For the last 20 days my prepaid airtel roaming is not working at all. After reaching my home town first three days was working and after that it is not working. After complaining many times[ more than 5 times] not activated my airtel roaming. This i would like to bring to your notice.
Natarajan Sangar
Calicut.
natarajansangar@gmail.com
My God, this is hilarious. You take so much effort to blog about the pathetic customer service, and then you are hit by a flurry of Airtel service complaints! Don't people even read the post before commenting?!!!
Btw, I landed here while trying to find the Airtel head office in Chennai, for a duplicate Sim myself! Lets see what Airtel has in store for me!
Post a Comment
<< Home