Please beware of the Airtel Broadband fraud done by the company in the pretext of collecting undue non-payment charges.
I had a Airtel Broadband connection (022-40033576) in my wife's name, in my old residence in Malad West Mumbai, for which i had given a shifting request to my current residence in Goregaon (W) in the month of August. After a couple of days, Airtel informed me that the connection is not available in the new location, and hence, i gave a Disconnection request to them. After this i got a few calls from them informing me about the service non availability again and again. On every occasion, i informed them that i had disconnected the service already, and they must take back the instrument and send me the final bill. The following month, i got a call from the billing dept asking for the pending payment. I promptly made a check payment, which their personnel collected from my place. The lady in the billing dept categorically confirmed that it's the full and final payment for my account, and henceforth there wouldnt be any bill against the account.
Suddenly, after a gap of six months, on 26th Feb, i got a call from someone named Devanshu Patel (9935521313) - claiming to be a Munshi in a Delhi Civil court - who informed that there was a legal notice being sent to me for which we didnt respond. When asked, he confirmed the address, i.e. my former residence address, where the notice was sent. He also told me to get in touch with the lawyer NK Singh, who it seemed, sent the notice. Mr Patel insisted that i resolve the issue with the lawyer or else a Civil case would be registered in the court. Shocked and absolutely clueless, i got in touch with the lawyer. Mr. Singh told me that I had Rs.1485/- to pay to Bharti Airtel Broadband service, and the company had sent out the notice to recover the amount. Despite telling him that I was being wrongly billed for a month, and i already made the final payment, he wouldnt listen. He told me I had to pay the amount immediately if i want to stop the legal proceedings. And he gave me a legal id-14439423. Both Mr Patel and Singh asked me to make the payment within a hour or so to avoid the proceedings.
Feeling so helpless, i had no option but to go to the nearest Airtel shop in Lokhandwala, Andheri to pay the amount. After paying, i called up Mr Patel and Singh both to confirm the payment, and provided them with the details. I asked Mr Singh to send me the documents pertaining to the closure / settlement of the case. He took my address and assured that he'd send the 'khareej-nama' (out of court settlement) to me via courier as soon as possible.
After all these, I called up Airtel customer care (121) and complained about the wrong billing, and the harassment i just had gone through. They esacalated the case, and one Mr Raghavendra from the escalation dept got in touch with me. After seeing all the records, he admitted that it's a mistake from Airtel's side as they took 15 days to process the shifting request for which the account remained active despite me cancelling the same. hence i was charged for the month, and the company kept sending bills to my old address, even though they were fully aware that the i had shifted from the address. In 6 months, the amount, with recurring interest and subsequent fines, went upto Rs 1485 from Rs 900, and then they had sent me a legal notice to pay the amount. He assured me that i need not worry, and it would be resolved by March 1st week, and all the needful would be done; they would get in touch for the same. But, unfortunately, they never got in touch, and nothing had been done!
In the mean time, i found out that there are many similar cases being reported on several internet sites. There are several posts about how the customers were trapped by the company in exactly the similar manner i had experienced. You can search google with "Airtel lawyer NK Singh" to see those complaints. Meanwhile almost 10 days went past, and there was no document from Mr Singh. So, i called up Mr Patel and NK Singh. After many attempts also, i couldnt contact Mr Patel, who simply doesn't pick up the calls, or the number is switched off. However, I was able to reach Mr Singh. but, to my surprise, he simply denied such calling ever took place at all. He refused to send me the necessary documents, and was extremely rude. I spoke to several persons in that Law firm that Mr Singh claims to work for Airtel -- Naved Khan, Nk Singh, Prashant Verma, who keep denying any such incident, and tell me that they give a damn.
I feel extremely dejected and annoyed by such malpractice being adapted by such a reputed company like Airtel. While i am exploring all my options to bring them to justice, i want to warn all of you who are reading this to be fully aware of such fraud/scam that Airtel is doing to collect undue amounts from their customers.
- Regards,
Amit Bhattacharya
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