Airtel appellate or senior level manager contact details?

[airtel_bb_bengaluru]

Hello all

Does anyone have contact number of email of a Senior person at Airtel who I can reach out to with my problem. The normal people are just playing games, calling everyday and wasting my time for a resolution that I have been waiting for 6 years. Each time they call and say sorry there is no proof of our commitment and I'm tired of explaining the problem again and again to them (This has already been clearly sent out by email).

They want to cherry pick things that are easy to say no from the case and just completely ignorant about the underlying problem of wrong billing!!!

I want to go to the consumer court, but before that I want to see if I can reach out to some senior level person at Airtel to address my issue.

PS : Already called Appellate and have been receiving calls from them

 

[pothi]

I hope you are referring to the problem mentioned at Airtel broadband/landline billing scam!!! Read on!! | Airtel Broadband . Again, I am truly sorry for what happened. But, know that it isn't easy for anyone's capacity to refund 20k without a valid reason. Currently, your reasoning is that the extra services were added without your consent. Even in this case, part of the problem is on your end. You could've checked the bill and reported the issue much earlier so that the amount to refund is lesser than what it is now. I was in a similar situation where Airtel removed my safe custody without my consent. I got 500 + GST as refund (the same amount that I paid for safe custody). It took only a couple of calls to get such small refunds. In your case, it is 20k. So, my guess is that there is no one (in Airtel) who has the authority to refund such large amount. You may probably threaten to cancel the connection that may lead to a better plan. I was offered a better plan too, with INR 100 less than the existing plan. But, I already decided to migrate to a higher plan when the safe custody ends. So, I declined their offer. I wouldn't mind paying the full price, as their service is good.

Anyway, get an alternative connection (assuming your area has an alternative broadband / fiber connection) and submit a cancellation request via 121 and get the ticket number too. The customer care executive would usually ask the reason. Just say, it's personal. Then, your cancellation request would reach the retainer department or higher resolution department. From there, you can negotiate a better plan with at least INR 250 less than what you pay now. In this way, you can get the entire 20k in the years to come. Good luck.

 

[pothi]

Also, if you have friends who have lots of influence in the social media, you may write a long blog post that exposes Airtel and share it effectively. I'd still feel that you may not get the full refund, but may negotiate a better plan.

 

[airtel_bb_bengaluru]

@pothi thank you for your response. I partly agree with you on the billing that I should have checked. But with my bill being 4k a month and also going for automatic payments the 85 INR + 99 INR + 30 INR completely missed me. To be honest, I got to know of this only after reading on the internet about others who faced this. I agree with you 20k is a lot and it might be beyond someone's capacity to refund. But the basic question is how can they just activate these, imagine how many people would have got ripped off by such tactics.

The problem does not end there:
You do mention smaller amount might have got refunded, I was promised a 4k waiver by the appellate team in Jan 2018 after that there was no response. I asked them to email their commitment to me, they didn't do that either. They just closed the case without a resolution, how can they close the case just like that? They also did not reply to my email (appellate)

2nd issue , I posted on Social media (Facebook and Twitter), they called and said they are looking into it. I followed up 15 times and every time the reply was, our team is working on it and like before they just closed the case without even a reply.

3rd issue, when I figured out that I'm being charged for VAS, I asked all the VAS to be cancelled in Dec 2017. The appellate/billing/customer support guys said everything has been cancelled and there is no active VAS on my account. Now, after raising the issue again, I was told that there is still 1 VAS product on my account(internet backup for 99 INR). I was shocked, I was told that everything has been removed, but almost a year later I see there is this 99 Rs still on my account. What would you say for this?

Also note, that I don't live in India for a long period of time. I check these when ever I come back and these services are for my home, the main users being my parents.

 

[pothi]

It's alarming to know more details and how pathetic Airtel has been towards your broadband connection.

Since you have been using Airtel for a long time, your billing may be following the old billing standards. I remember seeing something similar to virus protection when I used Airtel ADSL approximately 10 years ago. These days, I don't remember seeing internet backup for broadband services. There is a similar service on mobile services, though.

One immediate alternative is to cancel the existing connection and apply for a new connection (within Airtel), even if they don't refund all the charges you mentioned including the latest ongoing extra charges. In this way, you don't get charged for the VAS services going forward.

Going to consumer court would be easiest way if you want to recover money. You would definitely win the case. But, the time one has to spend to recover those charges is simply unimaginable for middle-aged persons. For middle-aged persons, time is the most precious factor. If you were above 60, I'd have advised to go to courts, as one'd have a lot of time at that age. Being a senior citizen has its own benefits in the courts too, especially to close the case faster. For someone who spends little time in India, you woudn't want to spend some of that time in the courts.

I used Facebook too whenever the local sales / marking / service team fails to do their work. In all such cases, an angry but professional message via FB would resolve the issue in a couple of days. I had to be patient during those days, though. Mansi from retainer department (or something similar) usually takes care of it whenever I had issues with the local Airtel team. Btw, the local Airtel team here in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) is bit of a mess. Unprofessional, arrogant, always blame the customers, etc. So, try pinging Mansi via FB. Just send a message to be Airtel account and ask them to pass the message to Mansi and wait for a couple of days. It usually takes a couple of days for the messages to reach her.

 

[Aakash Malhotra]

just go file an FIR citing fraud or go to Consumer Court.

what are you waiting for? they did not resolve your complaint for the past xyz year , so its highly unlikely that they will resolve your complaint now.

you shouldve filed a complaint to appropriate authority a long time ago.

file a case of fraud along with mental harassment that they have caused you and seek compensation.

tbh if i were in your place and hypothetically cost of my legal charges were more than what i was seeking as compensation, i would still go ahead with the proceeding just to teach these airtel scumbags a lesson.


edit - you said that you dont live in india, assuming you have the money, i would advise you to hire a good lawyer that will carry out the essential legal working for you.

you yourself said that this has happened to alot of other people. if you guys , you are on the receiving end of these malpractices, dont fight back , then these companies will never stop doing these shitty practices and keep on banking cash on account of gullible consumers.

 

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[airtel_bb_bengaluru]

It's alarming to know more details and how pathetic Airtel has been towards your broadband connection.

Since you have been using Airtel for a long time, your billing may be following the old billing standards. I remember seeing something similar to virus protection when I used Airtel ADSL approximately 10 years ago. These days, I don't remember seeing internet backup for broadband services. There is a similar service on mobile services, though.

One immediate alternative is to cancel the existing connection and apply for a new connection (within Airtel), even if they don't refund all the charges you mentioned including the latest ongoing extra charges. In this way, you don't get charged for the VAS services going forward.

Going to consumer court would be easiest way if you want to recover money. You would definitely win the case. But, the time one has to spend to recover those charges is simply unimaginable for middle-aged persons. For middle-aged persons, time is the most precious factor. If you were above 60, I'd have advised to go to courts, as one'd have a lot of time at that age. Being a senior citizen has its own benefits in the courts too, especially to close the case faster. For someone who spends little time in India, you woudn't want to spend some of that time in the courts.

I used Facebook too whenever the local sales / marking / service team fails to do their work. In all such cases, an angry but professional message via FB would resolve the issue in a couple of days. I had to be patient during those days, though. Mansi from retainer department (or something similar) usually takes care of it whenever I had issues with the local Airtel team. Btw, the local Airtel team here in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) is bit of a mess. Unprofessional, arrogant, always blame the customers, etc. So, try pinging Mansi via FB. Just send a message to be Airtel account and ask them to pass the message to Mansi and wait for a couple of days. It usually takes a couple of days for the messages to reach her.

After they promised the 4k waiver over the phone, now they claim there is no proof. Easily washing off their hands from the problem. Ever since, I have started recording any conversation that I have with them.

I'll file a case at the consumer court. Lot of us think yeah it is a small amount and we leave it and this is exactly what these big corporates feed on. I'll fight this out at the court for sure. The sad part is the consumer rights are not very strong in India and these people take advantage of this.

I have spent close to 50 hours of my time on the phone talking to these various people from Airtel who keep asking for 3 days time everytime and in the end close the case. I've to start it all over again after coming back to India once again.

Any ideas on on what would be the best step?
1. Serve a legal notice first and then go to the consumer court
2. Go directly to the consumer court

Does anyone on this forum have experience with these matters? I would really appreciate your valuable inputs.

 

[airtel_bb_bengaluru]

just go file an FIR citing fraud or go to Consumer Court.

what are you waiting for? they did not resolve your complaint for the past xyz year , so its highly unlikely that they will resolve your complaint now.

you shouldve filed a complaint to appropriate authority a long time ago.

file a case of fraud along with mental harassment that they have caused you and seek compensation.

tbh if i were in your place and hypothetically cost of my legal charges were more than what i was seeking as compensation, i would still go ahead with the proceeding just to teach these Airtel scumbags a lesson.


edit - you said that you dont live in india, assuming you have the money, i would advise you to hire a good lawyer that will carry out the essential legal working for you.

you yourself said that this has happened to alot of other people. if you guys , you are on the receiving end of these malpractices, dont fight back , then these companies will never stop doing these shitty practices and keep on banking cash on account of gullible consumers.

@Aakash Malhotra I waited patiently, maybe more than I should have. You might even call it being lax. Now I have more energy to pursue this case strongly. I'm going to fight this out. Please see my previous post and share your thoughts, if you have any.

I'm not sure if I call file a case of fraud at the police station. Any legal experts around here?

 

[airtel_bb_bengaluru]

Here is an update that I want to share with everyone. After 2 years of torture and harrowing experience, so positive developments. Please see the email below from Airtel Appellate. Atleast now they acknowledge that they did bill wrongly.

"Warm greetings from Airtel!

I am Santosh, your Airtel experience advisor.

I am writing in response to your email expressing concern over billing discrepancy related towards your Airtel fixedline connection bearing account number 1163xxxx.

Thank you for sharing the concern. As per our telephonic discussion on 98458xxxxx, we are looking into the matter of processing the waiver for the wrong billing towards PC Secure, Online Desktop Extra Storage and Hello tune Charges levied on your account since 2012. The same was in the process and will get back to you within 72 hours.

Further discussion regarding, the request for upgradation and availability of Fibre technology at your location we will do a feasibility check with our concern team and will get back to you with an satisfactory resolution.

Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[farhat ali]

I have been facing a net issue for the last 13 days and daily call customer support to fix the issue.
Each day they give the explanation to resolve the issue in 24 hours but no one takes action.
Please request that you coordinate with the support team to resolve the issue.

Ticket No : 10490112569.