Airtel Sucks
It started off with me changing my handset to Nokia E-51 somewhere at the end of March. What followed was an endless complaining and cribbing that I did. That’s all that airtel allowed me to do.
Having got a brand new phone, I did what most people under such unfortunate circumstances do, call up their service provider for assistance! I called up your Customer Scare number and asked for the airtel mobile office settings and mms settings. Turned out it was too much to ask for. Just because I was an Airtel Customer that didn’t give me the right to ask for the settings right?
I know its good to surprise the customer with your service and stuff but that doesn’t mean you don’t do what I ask for and keep doing something else! I kept asking for the Mobile Office and MMS settings and they kept giving me airtel live settings. And my MMS didn’t even function for many days. Even if they activated it in between for small intervals they would activate the wrong schemes. Schemes which I asked for were never activated. After loads of complaining to the airtel customer centre they BARRED my 121[customer care] calling! That was actually very considerate. This way I wasn’t getting anything done but at least nothing wrong was happening!
Even visits to the gallery were about as helpful as calling 121. They assured my GPRS, MMS and 121 being barred issues will be taken care of. But even after two weeks of literally stalking them, they kept shifting me from one scheme to another.
The worst was when I asked for the nodal office number from the airtel gallery. They gave me a WRONG NUMBER. A number that didn’t exist. I was given the wrong nodal office number TWICE. Nope I didn’t make up this number, I didn’t get it from an imaginary friend, but your Airtel Gallery people gave it to me from a poster on the wall there.
Finally after calling customer care from my friends or dads cell [since my customer care was barred] I managed to get the correct nodal office number. I spoke to a nodal officer who assured me that all my problems will be solved within a few hours.
It’s been three weeks now and my prayers have been partly answered. Buddha had smiled and my 121 was started just yesterday. My mms is still not functioning even after for the 50th time asking them to
activate the said scheme. I guess I will have to pray to another God for that one.
Specifics-
GPRS- Wanted mobile office 249 rental plan. Airtel live was activated.
After which mobile office zero rental was activated. Why do I pay for airtel live or a mobile office plan that I didnt want?
MMS- Was activated for a limited period with 0 rental scheme wherein I would have to pay rs. 5 for per mms [I must have sent a few during that interval]. Whereas I wanted rental 99 scheme. Also in the period that it was activated it was so moody. It would send mms to mobile phones but not to email ids.
Customer Care- Was barred for nearly two weeks. Which service
provider does that. I was told it gets barred for maximum a day if a
customer CALLS FOR TIMEPASS.
Gallery- wasnt of any help with activating customer care.
Also GAVE ME THE WRONG NODAL OFFICE NUMBER.
Retention department- since I got so bugged after the way I was troubled that I asked them to discontinue my number. I got more calls from the retention department than my mother calls me during a day to check on me. All calls were to ask me why I wanted to discontinue and every time I had to explain to them right from scratch why I want to discontinue my number. And they behaved like complete you know what when they BARRED MY OUTGOING WITHOUT INFORMING ME because I wanted to discontinue my number.
Nodal office- as I mentioned earlier I was given the wrong number. Finally when I got the number I spoke to shital from the nodal office who solved only my gprs problem and nothing else. I suppose it was more than a week back. After which whenever I have tried to call them the number was busy. Isn’t nodal office the last resort and isn’t it supposed to solve my problems within two hours.
All this happened in a month when I am extremely pressed for time and have a lot of work stress. Contrary to what impression you may have from the amount of time I had to pursue this issue, I actually do have work to do and and a life to live.
I am told I am a valued customer which I think I am as I generate a decent amount of bill and pay it regularly too. If management would pay less to saif and kareena and spend a little more towards improving their service I would really appreciate.
Also I DO NOT WISH TO PAY THIS MONTHS BILL. If they charge me despite troubling me so much I would be more than willing to move on to another service provider.
A VERY VERY troubled customer
PS- I am sure I have not been able to express my frustration in this write up. I have definitely been troubled more than what it appears on the blog.
Yea.. These telecom companies in India just suck.. I don’t know what makes them not provide service to their customer.. They are just hospitable when you have to pay the bill. Even I was an AIrtel user, but they gave me some similar problems so even I shifted to Vodafone, and I don’t say they are perfect but I can surely say they’re better than Airtel.
If this is torture, then you just cant imagine what Reliance customers undergo every month.
Be happy and say thanks this is Airtel, it could been worse than hell if you were with Reliance.
Looks like i gotta send this link to the top guys at Airtel! thts the only way things get sorted out I guess.
I remember, I once went to PVR to watch Dark Knight’s morning show, but since there were only 3 ppl to watch it, they said sorry we cant screen it. they needed a minimum of atleast 10! how unfair.
i raised this issue wid the boss of PVR when i was interviewing him (at PVR phoenix). and he clarified, there’s no such rule abt a minimum of 10 ppl required. even if one person turns up for a movie, they HAVE to screen it for u.
power to the common man! (and woman!)
@arcopol can u pleassseee do that
I faced a similar problem last year. Just google “airtel gprs sucks” and you will find links to my endless/useless screaming on the net.
See throw that sim to fire ! best solution ever !!
Airtel has always been known for it’s bahd service…
I have used Vodafone & BPL(now loop) here in Mumbai, and their service is much better than what you have mentioned here, with loop mobile on the better side..
Airtel has one of the worst customer care service tat i have ever seen…better u just through tht sim..go to change other service provider..
Been there done that
Finally i left them with a pending bill of INR 7340 .
btw shudnt u have asked around for the white dog called Vodafone ..
They are way tooo gud
Vodafone is the best….
u should post this on mouthshut.co
Thank Pavi… did that
http://www.mouthshut.com/diary/iiidrulqn/Aritel-Troubled-me-to-death
I do not think even the administrator of this website will be holding all these grudges true by now. Cummon guys, stop it now and for a change just appreciate what Airtel has done for telecommunication spread in this country. In just a span of 13 years, this company is providing services to 100 mn happy customers (World’s 6th largest unified Telecom Operator) all across the country having pan india footprint an the first telecom company to explore hinterlands like Leh, Kargil, Andaman and Lakshadweep. Come out and support the organisation which has broken the barriers of distance for the people of India.
I salute the spirit of bBharti and -’m proud to be a Bhartian.
^^^ That is the chesiest comment that I have ever read. Well not exactly but still.
Whoever you are that is seriously not going to bring the image of a company up, we need proper customer service. Indian companies will do whatever they can to sell stuff and then totally ditch their customers. Sorry doesnt happen, people do get fed up.
Presence in every state and remotest part of the country should not be the sole criteria for appreciating a company! There are lot of the factors which are and should be considered while giving such honor. And for a telecom company, what matters most is the customer service which it is supposed to give! If the reach is the sole criteria, BSNL is the only company which deserves laurels, isn’t it? But that is not the case, considering the fact that even though they are doing their jobs in the best possible manner, you still will face a lot of trouble in case you come across a problem with you connection.
So, Believe it or not, Airtel’s customer service sucks big time. I have had many encounters with them and I can never appreciate the company coz for me end-service is what matters!
Airtel live:
Connection Name> Airtel Live
Data bearer>gprs
Access point name>airtelfun.com
User Name/Password>(leave blank)
Authentication>Normal
Homepage>live.airtelworld.com
IP Address>100.1.200.99
Connection Security>Off
Session mode>Permanent
Mobile Office:
Connection Name>Mobile Office
Access Point Name>airtelgprs.com
Homepage>www.google.com
IP Address>0.0.0.0
Rest all similar to Airtel live as given above.
for all this type of query .. u can easy search in google … i dont know y people waste soo much time in customer care ….
Okay Kamlesh, I don’t usually reply to things cuz it’s just too much work and I’d rather say “Dumbass” than spend my precious time telling someone at great lengths why they are one (not that I do not enjoy it, but because once I start, it’s difficult to get me to stop.. as you see here). So, to start things off, you are an idiot. Now I shall discuss why, point wise (because indentation is fun).
1) Come on, read your post again. You can’t be serious!
2) Airtel is a company. Capitalists. Period. They are not here for social change but to earn money. If they really were all about social change, they would not charge you or I a rupee for an sms that costs them a couple of paise (I’m guessing it’s lesser, given economies of scale). If they were all about betterment of India, they would give the lakhs of rupees to NGOs instead of giving them to Shah Rukh, Kareena, Saif, etc. They set up those towers in remote places because they know that reachability can earn them more customers, can enable them to charge hefty prices to people using Airtel over roaming in these regions and can earn them $$$ from other mobile operators who use their network for roaming.
3) Do you know India’s Birth Rate? I didn’t either, so I looked it up (this is how much fun I’m having fun writing this, I’m actually researching!). India’s Birth Rate, dear friend, is 25.6 million people per year. So, when you say that they managed to get “100 million happy customers in 13 years”, that doesn’t really sound that big a deal, does it? (considering it took us less than 4 years to make that many people). All this discussion, is obviously to mock your use of the word “happy” and an excuse for me to explore the awesomeness of Wolfram|Alpha.. check it out, it makes humans intelligent, yet obsolete
4) I’m all out of things to say, but I’ve been told three is not a good number (numerology crap)
Okay, so in conclusion, thank you for making my night with your post. Also, I would like to thank costa coffee for the bucket of coffee that they served me resulting in this level of hyperactivity.
No hard feelings <3. Have a nice day.
- Vodafone (hehe!)
Hey Kartik, dude r u an american or an Britisher for that matter ????
If no, then since ur childhood have u been using products / services made, sold & marketed by companies who are non indian in their origin ????
Boss, i can bet, it certainly would not be the case, so better we stop commenting on what Indian Companies do. By doing this u r not only degrading Indian Products / Services but ur own country, system & every fellow coutrymen who are out to serve you more than ur service worthiness. Please understand, u r also a part of the same service system which is prevalant in country today so by saying this directly or indirectly u r accusing urself of being good for nothing. Buddy, my purpose of writing that comment is niether to improve company’s image nor to be a face saving grace for them, but the soul motive was to give out a positive thought for an indegenious organisation which has revolutionised telecommunication in this country.
I completely agree with Ankur that service footprint cannot be the only sole criteria for any company to win all the rave reviews but certainly the awards & accolades triumphed by this company all across the world says something very profoundly about the services they are providing. Just to throw a light on this, putting across some of the awards won by Bharti Airtel in recent times - Top honours at MIS Asia IT Excellence awards for Best Bottom Line IT Company & Best Knowledge Management. CNBC TV-18 India Business Leader award for year07′08. ‘Best Content Service’ for the Airtel IFFCO Farmer Information Dissemination platform and ‘Best Project Management’ for the Gujarat E-GRAM project at the World Communication Awards held at London. ‘Best Mobile Carrier in India’ for year 08′09 in Telecom Asia Awards. ‘Service Provider of the Year’ award in the 2008 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards, so on & so forth…… the list goes on & on but the most telling award of all is the trust & confidence of 100 Mn users in the country. I understand ur point that what matters to u is the end-service but have u ever thought of appreciating this company for all first timers in the country like - E-recharge, Mchek, Mobile Banking, Mobile Messenger, High speed Internet on phone, Job search on Mobile & what not.
My point is very simple - we should come out of this Criticise, Condemn & Complaint mode to actually see the things in a larger perspective. Am not blaming any one of u here for this coz’ we have become like this with time that we have started taking things for granted. Just think, we always ring a bell at Pizza Hut (As it is an MNC & it will be an insult if we do not appreciate them for their work/service) to appreciate whatever they have served but do we ever walk upto our mother & tell her that whatever she cooks tastes best in the world.
Hey Saurabh,
Shut up.
Regards,
Fartmachine.
Guys all here complaining as if they are born in some f*ckin developed nation and have got all riches of good service, etc. ROFL …
Thanks Saurabh, i take it as a compliment that i could some how provide some food for thought for a ‘Lazy Dumbass’ like you who compares birth rate with telepentration. Any ways i respect ur way of looking at things in the best possible way u can, bitch & bark without any back up. Am happy to know that u searched internet to gather the facts & figures u do not have any connection to, just to prove somebody wrong. Can just say, spend some time surfing the internet about what Airtel is doing instead of finding the birth rate, u’ll be surprised to see more results than what u got for searching the later. Enjoyyyy
I don’t think Saurabh understands how the economy works.
I doubt he’s read anything by Goldstein and sincerely question his ability to use the English language. How did we as a society allow such dolts to even live, speak and breathe among us?
If he was educated then he’d know about oligarchies and equestrian politics as well as the supply and demand ratio equating the curve of economical peddlewares.
It’s this sort of philistine pig-ignorance I’ve come to expect from such non-creative garbage like him and I say it’s time to chase such people down the street with flaming forks and metal hammers.
Regards,
Fartmachine, the Third, his royal Highness of Norwegia.
And furthermore I applaud the efforts of Kamlesh. It takes real guts to be a corporate lackey, licking clean the boots of his masters. You don’t see that kind of dedication these days and I believe this kind of sublime worthiness deserves recognition.
I suggest the bosses at Airtel use strawberry flavored bootpolish on their shoes tomorrow so he can have a rare treat.
Regards,
Fartmachine, Communist Sympathiser and Drug Addict
I dont understand what you mean Kamlesh. Are you trying to say that since I am an Indian customer I should put up with bad service? That is not going to happen. Its because of the stupid mentality of “Chalta hain” that we get such service. Whenever I do any work I make sure the person I am doing it for has no problem whatsoever later. I dont mean to demean my country but people who think that just because I was born in India and live here that they can give me crappy service then sorry I am going to bitch.
Hey Fartmachine, u r doin a damn good job mate, carry on with what u do the best…. Keep farting. Believe u me, u’ve made the entire topic stink………….
Hey Karthik, i can’t stop u from what u love doin’ (i mean bitchin’) the most, so carry on with it. Just see if u can do it for a better cause, good for u & good for others too.
@kamlesh
man whateva but seriously airtel rocks! its def better than vodafone,spice,bsnl I’ve tried all these but finally stuck back to Aritel, and no complaints about MO from my end, once they had messed up with the balance thingy and the customer care guys sorted it out!
@topic
And guess what I seriously find bsnl customer care “CARELESS” and spice I never got the connection to thecustomer care guys! “clever devils” no matter what ankita has to say on airtel, I will stick to it
better then customer care, i prefer internet.
Here is the deal… Select a service provider which cares about customers from the list below:
Airtel - I see they are Happy providing “service” to their 100 million + customers. (It’s just that the customers are not happy, so what, f@#& them, they are giving the revenues).
Vodafone - They are happy to help and they did it faster than Airtel. (so what that their connectivity sucks even in urban areas, forget about the rural and roaming stuff…and yes, we all LOVE zoozoos as they help us in remembering days, fashion tips and what not, I bought my phone only for these services….how does calling my friend matter to them?)
Reliance - I sometimes wonder whether I should put them in Telecom service provider category or “time hoggers and money eating dinos”. I think they believe, sending BILL for non-usage is part of their CUSTOMER SERVICE. No matter if your service works or not, they will send you the bills. Biggest F$#@s
Tata Indicom - Oops they are setting up more towers to have the best crystal clear network.(No more hello hello issues). So what if they don’t have network in ur area yet…buy their service now and use it when they setup their service in your area…oh yes…they also think sending BILLS for non-usage is Customer Care (delivered).
Idea and Spice - No personal experience but here is interesting reads on the same http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Idea_Cellular-167065-1.html
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Idea_Cellular-164682-1.html
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Spice_Telecom-144600-1.html
Aircel — Anyone?
@Kamlesh
Not that I was expecting a better answer but a lack of one clearly shows that people who have suffered are seriously huge in number and they have genuine reasons to bitch about it. And we havent even touched the fair usage policy brought in by Airtel since well its not relevant here.
Oh yeah forgot about BSNL and MTNL in my service … their you get Bhaisaabs and Bhenjis delivering the best customer service whenever they get time to work on the issues… they always resolve your issues… (even courts resolve it … sometimes it take a few years though)….
Also I forgot to tell I was in Bangalore for 5 yrs and had Hutch–> Vodafone with (Orange, Pink and Red colours) though what didn’t change was connectivity in my home after multiple complaints and calls from customer care.
I am a Airtel user… and for the past 2 months (since I have discontinued my fast speed GPRS) plan I being charged Rs. 600 every month … Yippie
Happy to party of the 100Million + PAY (ing through my nose) customers!
And the best part is I get calls from Airtel telling me that sir you what’s your prepaid billing usage? Want to upgrade to postpaid? (oops I forgot I took a postpaid connection and have been paying my bills
) thanks for the reminder!
Cheers
- Happily Self Helped
Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart.
Regards,
Fartmachine, Upper East Quadrant under the blade of Damocles.
Well, all I can say is Airtel has the WORST customer care. Agree totally. I too lost my 250 Rs balance just because of a customer care representative sent me WRONG settings. And he said, ’sorry sir, Refund toh nahi milega’!!!!!!
As far as Vodafone goes, in my state Gujarat, they are THE BEST. No matter they are heavy on charging their customers, but the customer care and connectivity both are gr8. Even in White deserts of Kutchh, I was getting their clear signals. Also at a place, which is the ‘West End of India’ [Karachi is just 19 kms away by sea], Vodafone was ringing [and all others were sleeping :D]
da best. Keep it going! Thank you
hey all you people out there….i want you to invite to a flickr link wr we can continue are airtel sucks service http://www.flickr.com/groups/airtelsucks/
anita i want your help in this lovely hate campaign…..to twit me….im following you in twitter my username is robin1870