Airtel
Poor Airtel Customer Service - Unfair charges levied

2-Mar-11 I had gone out of the country and when I came back in Jan I

requested for retention of the same number I had earlier in 2009. It took

several weeks to get my old number back (9880653530). Before going abroad, the

connection was in my employer¿s name (Wipro Technologies) but now the

connection is in my name after the reactivation.

The connection I got reactivated already had `Airtel Live' feature already activated

with it. I was not aware about this feature nor about the charges associated

with this feature. The handset I had initially was a basic one without any

advanced features so it did not matter to me that this feature activated.

19-Mar-11 I purchased a smart phone around March 19th. With the help from

the dealer, I got GPRS enabled for my handset. I was told it would be a Rs 98

plan. But still there were some settings which had not been done w.r.t

MobileOffice on the handset. So whenever I tried to access internet, the

access was actually happening through `Airtel Live feature that had been

already been activated in my connection.

19-Mar-11 At that point I was not really aware about various plans and their

variations available with Airtel regarding internet access.

25-Mar-11 As usual I was getting many SMS from customer care about the

approximate unbilled usage. I immediately noticed that the outstanding balance

was increasing by hundreds of rupees on a daily basis. I contacted the customer service on 25th and expressed my concerns. I was told till the bill is generated, they

will be not able to find out why I was getting these SMSs on the heavy bill

amount.

29-Mar-11 I was still getting SMSs on a daily basis with hundreds of rupees increase in the billed amount. I again got really concerned and contacted Airtel Customer support on 29th March and expressed my concerns. They told me to wait till the bill gets generated on 19th of April,

which was 20 days later. They have recorded in their system about this conversation.

9-Apr-11 With help from one of my friends I came to know how to set up the Mobile Office feature properly installed my equipment around 2nd week of April by contacting the customer service. Even after this, Airtel Live feature was still active on my handset.

19-Apr-11 I have got a bill of 3360.32 for the month of March- April

26-Apr-11 I spoke to the customer service and explained my situation.

Customer Service rep told me that I have to pay the entire amount as I

had actually used internet through 'Airtel Live' via WAP_ALL (Web Application Protocol through Airtel Live Login) gateway. I got the Airtel Live feature inactivated from my phone.

27-Apr-11 I escalated the issue to the Nodal officer and Apellate officer at Airtel as per the advice from Customer Service

7-May-11 Apellate office responded back telling that "We wish to inform you that the 2 GB GPRS Free @20KB/30Ps With Rental Rs 98 is active on your Airtel mobile effective 26/03.

As per the above Mobile Internet pack activated applications has to be browsed through Mobile Office only.

We would like to inform you that based on your complaint, we have investigated the possibility of the same. Post the investigation we have found that browsing was done through WAP_ALL (Web Application Protocol through Airtel Live Login) gateway. The GPRS plan offers will not be applicable for browsing through Airtel Live. Hence we would like to inform you that the charges are valid.

There is an out standing amount of Rs. 3283.19/- we request you to make the payment at the earliest."

I had specifically called twice to find out why my unbilled amount was increasing by hundreds of rupeees every day. The customer service were not able to give me proper reasons and failed to advice that internet browsing was not happening through GPRS because Mobile Office settings were incorrect.

They failed to tell me that Airtel Live charges through WAP_ALL gateway was hundreds of rupees for every access unlike 98 Rs for GPRS.

Please advice on my next steps.

Mobile number : 9880653530.

Account number: 1023016968

Thanks

Guru

Company: Airtel
Country: India
State: Karnataka

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