This is really an eye-opener! I’m glad customers like you bother to pay attention to such things, AND bring it to other people’s attention. The issue of them charging two calls even it cuts at 59th second…is disturbing.

Indeed an eye opener! I swiched from Hutch (when it was Hutch) to Airtel because I had heard that their tariff is better and service is satisfactory… Alas! I now reallize that I was better of with Hutch.. Airtel has given me unreasonable and pathetic service! Their customer service agents do not know what they are talking about, are extremely rude and thats certainly not the way to treat a customer.. They lack adequate training! The SMS service used to offer 500 msgs for Rs 51 and now they have slashed it to 300! Well.. should I call this Inflationary pressure on us? Call charges after power recharge was 0.30p and now they are charging 0.35p (Airtel to Airtel) and no notice was given! Airtel has given me a very tough time with its calls, SMS’s and also Broadband… and complaints dont help either! Its we - the customer’s at the loosing end always.. Thats customer service in India!!!

its an amzing article and a complete eye opener. i am student in pune and an airtel consumer, we have been facing some really bad times with airtel. it is the net work which is creating a rucous. i am glad an article has been written on it. its an amzing effort. GREAT JOB DONE.

Even I am an Airtel customer, and I must say I have been facing some trouble from their end recently. First, they change my bill plan without notification and I land up with a huge bill, then when I try to call them up and reach the Customer Care executives, it takes me 20 minutes to first listen to their offers, my unbilled amount etc. etc. before I can finally get through to their Customer Care Exec and when I do, the connection just goes off and my call gets disconnected! It took me three days to speak a Customer Care Executive! And all he tells me is that we messaged you about the change in Bill Plan (which, by the way, I never received.)

insightful. i was unaware of the 59-seconds minute issue before.
nice effort.
perhaps a copy of this page’s URL be sent to some senior Airtel manager responsible to attend to public grievances.
hats off!

Hi,

I was an Airtel customer till Jan 07. In non-dec 06 i got to know of a good tariff plan and got my plan switched. As per the new plan i had to pay a higher fixed rent but my call rates were suppose to drop. What happened was that the fixed monthly rental increased but the call rate didnt go down. I kept complaining to there call center but nothing happened. I even complianed to their nodal office again nothing happened. Finally i stopped paying my bill to get their attention everytime a Telcaller use to call i told him my issue and get promised to rectify and get back but nothing of that sort happened and eventually they cut of my phone and started harassing me and my family/friends through some lawyers (who also were not listening to what i was saying all they were interested were in getting whatever Airtel felt was the amount to be paid).

Finally i had to pay whatever they asked and cut my relation with them. Its sad that they treat there loyal customers like this and spend millions on useless ads & marketing programs.

And since yesterday another new problem has started. When I dial my friend’s number, it connects to some random number resulting in a cross connection, and I too, get loads of calls who fight with me and say they are sure they dialled the right number. Also, i don’t know whether Airtel had a tiff with MTNL or what, whenever I dial my number from my MTNL landline or as for that matter any Airtel number, it says does not exist!

wow loads of responses…and i am just so happy that i am not alone in this..very nice article….its high time the people responsible for this get to know about it.in kolkata too the service is horrible, I switched from bsnl for the attractive offers which are a sham, and now every call i make gets cut in the middle, i can hear almost nothing from the other side. there is full network when i am not making a call , it just vanishes when i am on one. and their offers should come with an instruction manual. voice clarity is much better with the local vodafone connection, and i end up using my moms cell more than mine.

its really nice to see that fellow airtel consumers are speaking up ..its high time that these firms understand that if ppl unite against bad services, they will lose their reputation as well as profits.

Surbhi, even I have faced this problem. I guess MTNL and Airtel are really not the best buddies…!
Personally, what affects me most is bad connectivity. In the first try, I always need to hang up mid-way because I cannot hear anything.
But I was wondering, does this problem arise with only Airtel or other service providers also harass their customers like this…?

bad connectivity is a major problem in kolkta as well…in fact vodafone’s and bsnl’s connections are much better..and another problem…whenever i send an sms ..i get this delivery failed report… (so that i resend it) and my friends end up getting the same message a number of times, and they make money. how much more blatant can cheating get?

i just ask the other person to call on my landline. Airtel’s tricks end up benefitting MTNL and me.

well i did it today! got myself a new connection of vodafone

i guess sarkari stuff is best in such cases!

I too face the problem of poor network inside my office.

i feel that bharti is using devious means to shore up their profits. an independent enquiry will throw up some startling facts.

i have passed on this url to the ceo of airtel by mail. hope it helps.

This is from about 2 years ago, when I had a postpaid plan. I got a message saying if I play a sum of Rs 30 monthly, i can call any one Airtel no. at 10 Paise a min. I sent d required message but didn’t get a confirmatory. I sent it a second time and d situation didn’t change. I decided to call customer care, and d guy said it was already done. Worst bit came when i saw my bill, which was at about 1700 bucks, whereas by my calculation shud have been just about 300. When I called dem up, all dey had 2 say was dat dat plan dey offered me is for a much higher monthly rental plan and not mine, and d person i spoke 2 must hv made a mistake. I ended up having 2 pay d amount, burnin a huge whole in my pocket. Oh, and also, der prepaid tarrifs are starting 2 go through d roof.

hey guysss my badluck m also a airtel cunsumer it provides very bad services and finally m decided i m changing my connection at last i m saying its really very pooooor………

My father just lost his cell [ he has postpaid number] so i called up airtel care to know how to cancel out his sim card. And what did they tell me ? If u have a prepaid u cant get connected to postpaid helpline and vice versa. Now thats purely illogical. There shld b separate helplines for both. If u r a prepaid customer u will not b allowed to get to postpaid helpline ? Thats rubbish.

its been a while that i started using vodafone alongside airtel … well its not too very good either but its certainly better than airtel in signal power n schemes… main point is that its schemes r not ambiguous.