Airtel’s plan to be a most-admired brand is downright silly!
Let me explain: I had to use Airtel’s pathetic mobile service for 8 long years of my life: for the most part, it was a professional obligation rather than personal.
I later got my subscription with them canceled and permanently done away with it for good. I chose Vodafone’s “ZooZoo” mobile service instead, and I am one of its happy customers now: as happy as a laughing Buddha himself would be happy! I may be exaggerating here but so be it.
In my opinion, Airtel is ruthlessly conscious of the “late payment fees” (if you happen to incur any amount even if it is due to a valid reason that you couldn’t pay up) and if your mobile bill is an inflated one for the current month and you could not pay up within the last payment date then Airtel will trouble you, night and day: it’ll keep asking you to pay up, even if you are not in the station and vacationing somewhere where you are hard put to pay the amount.
I mean Airtel might have the legal right to ask for your payment, but then it adopts as if stupid gumption - which is hoary enough in every respect to push you into abject misery and irritation at the same time - with almost all its customer care executives put to use to clinch a useless argument with you as if doing us mobile users a BIG international-type favour! Apparently, they never wish to patiently wait for you to pay up whatever outstanding amount in the next billing cycle.
Resolving not to take any more bull from them, I went ahead and canceled my subscription with Airtel in the month of March ‘09. And thank God I did. Again, Airtel’s crazy-witted customer care crappies replied back “promising” that my refundable registration fee of Rs. 300 /- would be “promptly” returned back to me. (This registration fee was used by Airtel as an initial subscription starter fee.) Believe it or not, the fee was returned to me only in the month of June ’09; that too after I wrote them numerous emails!
Taking up my case with a renewed interest, I wrote to their Appellate Authority, even to their Nodal Officer, but sadly they all chose to sit on my umpteen requests! Holy Mackerel, it took Airtel over 3 long months to return a refundable amount! I finally got my refund back and a reply too from their Appellate Team, as follows:-
Utterly sickening and extremely blatant as it were on their part to keep calling me on my mobile-only in order to cuss n no. of times to press for the amount incurred, in spite of the fact that my payment records were always straight.
Look, they can ask me for all the late payment fees that might legally be their prerogative! In fact, to put your protest into the right perspective let me impart this to you: yes, if my salary gets delayed by one day or even by a month (which is what is happening with Air India/Indian Airlines presently!), never would I dart out to an Airtel counter to pay up from my nose! I might jolly well pay up the accompanying “late payment fees” that I may incur by not paying them within the stipulated time, which thankfully do not run into hundreds of rupees but something generously paltry. But the bone of contention is not about being unable to pay any “late payment charges”; it is rather about their customer servicewallas’ hard-nosed adamantine attitude that troubles you, night and day.
Even if you emphatically assure them that you are going to pay up along with the “late payment charges” in the next billing cycle, most often than not they don’t understand it and rudely disconnect their phone!
No, for 8 years I wasn’t “happy” using Airtel. I just had to officially use Airtel for 5 years; for the remaining 3 years, it was a personal choice because of the lack of other mobile operators in town. In the year 2000, one didn’t have Airtel, one had JTM Mobile, which went to Airtel’s command. IDEA and Hutch (now Vodafone) were just beginning to show up on the horizon wanting to command operations in India, but they still were not operating as full-fledged mobile operators in the country. So I was hard-pressed to use but Airtel only; even if my company stipulated Airtel for my official spending!
Thank God I bought Vodafone for my personal use as Airtel had always managed to wage exploitation and maltreatment on his ill-fated customer base.
I say chaps, Airtel’s customer executives turn out to be such wicked fools that they relentlessly perpetrate a hoodwink-type attitude towards their own hapless customers.
By Arindam Moulick
In my opinion, Airtel is ruthlessly conscious of the “late payment fees” (if you happen to incur any amount even if it is due to a valid reason that you couldn’t pay up) and if your mobile bill is an inflated one for the current month and you could not pay up within the last payment date then Airtel will trouble you, night and day: it’ll keep asking you to pay up, even if you are not in the station and vacationing somewhere where you are hard put to pay the amount.
I mean Airtel might have the legal right to ask for your payment, but then it adopts as if stupid gumption - which is hoary enough in every respect to push you into abject misery and irritation at the same time - with almost all its customer care executives put to use to clinch a useless argument with you as if doing us mobile users a BIG international-type favour! Apparently, they never wish to patiently wait for you to pay up whatever outstanding amount in the next billing cycle.
Resolving not to take any more bull from them, I went ahead and canceled my subscription with Airtel in the month of March ‘09. And thank God I did. Again, Airtel’s crazy-witted customer care crappies replied back “promising” that my refundable registration fee of Rs. 300 /- would be “promptly” returned back to me. (This registration fee was used by Airtel as an initial subscription starter fee.) Believe it or not, the fee was returned to me only in the month of June ’09; that too after I wrote them numerous emails!
Taking up my case with a renewed interest, I wrote to their Appellate Authority, even to their Nodal Officer, but sadly they all chose to sit on my umpteen requests! Holy Mackerel, it took Airtel over 3 long months to return a refundable amount! I finally got my refund back and a reply too from their Appellate Team, as follows:-
"We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to you. We assure you that the necessary steps are being taken that a similar situation does not recur.
"We at Airtel, use stringent measurement and control applications to ensure that the service you receive is error-free. On rare occasions, like experienced by you, we fully recognize the shortcomings and assure you of all measures to provide you with error-free services."
- Airtel (Appellate Authority, Hyderabad)
Utterly sickening and extremely blatant as it were on their part to keep calling me on my mobile-only in order to cuss n no. of times to press for the amount incurred, in spite of the fact that my payment records were always straight.
Look, they can ask me for all the late payment fees that might legally be their prerogative! In fact, to put your protest into the right perspective let me impart this to you: yes, if my salary gets delayed by one day or even by a month (which is what is happening with Air India/Indian Airlines presently!), never would I dart out to an Airtel counter to pay up from my nose! I might jolly well pay up the accompanying “late payment fees” that I may incur by not paying them within the stipulated time, which thankfully do not run into hundreds of rupees but something generously paltry. But the bone of contention is not about being unable to pay any “late payment charges”; it is rather about their customer servicewallas’ hard-nosed adamantine attitude that troubles you, night and day.
Even if you emphatically assure them that you are going to pay up along with the “late payment charges” in the next billing cycle, most often than not they don’t understand it and rudely disconnect their phone!
No, for 8 years I wasn’t “happy” using Airtel. I just had to officially use Airtel for 5 years; for the remaining 3 years, it was a personal choice because of the lack of other mobile operators in town. In the year 2000, one didn’t have Airtel, one had JTM Mobile, which went to Airtel’s command. IDEA and Hutch (now Vodafone) were just beginning to show up on the horizon wanting to command operations in India, but they still were not operating as full-fledged mobile operators in the country. So I was hard-pressed to use but Airtel only; even if my company stipulated Airtel for my official spending!
Thank God I bought Vodafone for my personal use as Airtel had always managed to wage exploitation and maltreatment on his ill-fated customer base.
I say chaps, Airtel’s customer executives turn out to be such wicked fools that they relentlessly perpetrate a hoodwink-type attitude towards their own hapless customers.
By Arindam Moulick
[The repartee was written in June 2009]