Airtel has been a headache for me since day one of my association with it. Some of the troubles I have faced are given below.
1. Porting Issues (status – solved as of now)
I have submitted my application to port to Airtel on 4 June (with Unique Porting Code VA528695).. The maximum time to port is 7 days. It took 10 days for me (from June 4 - June 14). Vodafone says that they received the porting request on 9 June. In that case, Airtel, might have submitted the porting request to Vodafone after 5 days of my submission of application. No Service Period is limited to 2 hours (and also should be in the night). However, I had been effectively in no service period since the night of 14 June for about 24 hours. These were clear violations of TRAI regulations
2. Change of Plan without my consent (status – solved as of now)
I got a message on 16-06.saying that my plan has been changed for two months. This happened without my consent. I have contacted my customer care several times and they asked me to recharge again with Rs 27. I have recharged on 21 -06 with Rs.27 (Transaction ID – 388371002) and still I did not get my original plan. I had to follow up various people like customer care, nodal officer, appellate authority etc., and for more than one week, to get it done.
3. Rude behavior of customer care officer (status – no action taken)
I faced very rude behavior from the in-charge of Airtel Relationship Center at Begumpet (Address - No1, White House, 6-3-1192/1/1, Kundan Bagh, Begumpet, Hyderabad 500016) on 18 June. I have given a complaint to the nodal officer on 21-06. However, as far as I understand, no action has been taken.
4. IVR getting blocked (status – pending)
The IVR facility to speak to customer care executives is getting blocked if we speak more than three times a day using this facility. Airtel says, this is because of TRAI regulation. But, I fail to understand whether TRAI has made it mandatory or has just given an option. My previous operator did not follow this practice. The IVR will be released only in the next month. My IVR got blocked last month as well as this month. Whenever I called to the customer care, my call was put on long hold and getting disconnected at the end or getting disconnected while speaking. If the customer has to call to the customer care more than thrice for resolving an issue, that shows the quality of the Airtel customer care. Instead of improving efficiency, they are using short cuts like blocking IVR so that no more complaints will be there from the number.
5. Charging exorbitantly (status – pending)
I have called to the number 18601803474 on 19-06 and for 10 minutes and 28 sec, I was charged Rs.22 (i.e. Rs.2/min) instead of Rs. 6.28 as per my plan. Airtel customer care executive says, this is a service number. As far as I understand there is no concept of service numbers and non-service numbers. In fact, this is a universal access number (UAN) and all calls to this number will be charged at local call rates. This system is, in fact, for effective routing of the call, especially for business customers. Moreover, Airtel does not mention anything about call charges to the so-called ‘service numbers’ under the tariff section of its website. This way of charging is just an unhealthy business practice followed by Airtel, which is detrimental to the interests of consumers. It is noteworthy that other operators (I know at least about my previous operator) do not charge like this on the calls to UAN numbers. I am wondering now whether Airtel would charge calls to toll-free numbers as well (They start with ‘1800’ and as per the definition of Airtel, they can be the so-called service numbers)
Sincerely,
Jibin
9985477490
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