I stay in Sarvapriya Vihar in South Delhi and have been paying Rs. 2222 for an 1Mbps Freedom Unlimited plan with 100GB in the fair usage policy. The same plan has been available for Rs. 1699 for the last 6 months at least, and is displayed clearly on their website, but nobody at Airtel has ever called me about it, nor have they brought down the charges automatically in their bills.
On 30th of April I called 121 and requested a migration to the Impatience plan of Rs.1799 with 4GB and Fair Usage of 50GB. I was told it would be done in 5 days. 3 days later I got a call saying it would be done the next day so I should switch off and switch on my modem for the plan to kick in. Nothing happened the next day so I called them and they said being Good Friday it was a holiday and it would be done definitely by Saturday. Saturday I called again to be told that due to distance from the nearest node or hub or some such, this plan is not available to me.
So in the heart of South Delhi, Airtel is incapable of giving me 4Mbps.
I spoke to some help desk guy and then to his manager who first asked me for the names of the people who told me my plan would be migrated when the feasibility was not yet checked. I reminded him about the automated message which says all calls will be recorded and asked him to check out the recordings against my ticket number. SILENCE! He then gave me the name and number of some nodal manager whose phone is continuously engaged.
I then asked them why I was being charged extra for a 1Mbps plan as a long-standing broadband customer while simultaneously advertising shamelessly about much faster plans at a much lower cost and they had no answer.
I told them to immediately migrate my plan down to Rs. 1699 and he puts me back to the first guy I spoke to who tells me he will log the request and their backend guys will get back to me after they study the feasibility. WOW! So even the Rs. 1699 Plan may not be feasible in my locality while it is possible to get the very same plan by paying Rs 600 extra...
This is the problem with big companies in India. They have no shame and no ethics.
The best part is, I asked the guy I was speaking to for his name and he gives me only his first name. He says he is not allowed to give me his surname. So I tell him that his manager just gave me the full name and telephone number of the nodal head, how come I am not allowed to know his surname??? Then he sheepishly tells me his surname.
If there are any journalists reading this, I would be grateful if this story can be published while Airtel is still proudly advertising 4Mbps plans for as low as Rs 899. Do contact me through this forum for more details of this ridiculous story.
The nodal manager's phone is still engaged as I post this.
Part of the issue is that all the companies create new plans in their billing systems rather than simply changing the price. As such, a 1mbit/s plan from 6 months ago will technically be a different 1mbit/s plan now - or at the very least the SKU will be different.
The feasibility thing is basically a crock IMHO.
If they can provide any form of
ADSL service to your location now, it should be technically possible to bring the line speed all the way up to 8mbit/s without any change in equipment or cabling.
Agreed to watever u said abt customer service......Customer service at one point of time was the best in its category no other provider wud ever come near it......but today its the same as any other provider.....
Fair Usage policy again , they think....they can withstand with this forever.....really hope MTNL shows the way.......and really i was speakin to one of my friends he had MTNL for a long time now and confirmed me that MTNL's Customer service has improved fairly....
i hope some provider comes up and kill the fair usage policy thingy......
Personally I don't understand the Fair Usage Policy from Bharti, Reliance or
Tata since they own all the freakin' cables.
Wooo. Surprise to see Airtel responsfing officially! Hat tip: Admin!
This is the "meat for blogs". Care to present your view point about why the whole damned broadband access is SO expensive?
Because wholesale bandwidth can cost easily rs15 per GB, or rs25 per GB at NIXI. I expect the former price is significantly less for MTNL and less still for Bharti etc because of the aforementioned owning of the cables.
---------- Post added at 03:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:22 AM ----------
Actually the customer care executives are not employed by airtel, they are outsourced. So you cannot expect them to know more than Sunil Bharti Mittal in Airtel, if you ask his brothers name, I bet they will not be able to answer. So please stop bugging them with names
Also the announcement was in a newspaper, and all the customer care executives work in a call centre, which they work in night shifts so can't expect them to read newspapers. Internal company announcements don't spill over to outsourced work. A CC is there to help you if there is a system problem but not for updating future company policies
A CC Exec can help you only if his/her system is updated with plan offerings...and that happens only when the plans are active not before that Stop troubling these tireless CC's please. Talk to a friend if you want to time pass, don't call up CC to get news and chat up about the employees
Really? Airtel outsources their CC facilities? I simply can't believe that. After all, they would be in the best position to have a properly staffed and equipped call center. So I wonder what were the cube farms I visited?
small note circulated to "outsourced CC" before announcement is made to the public..cant understand why it is such a difficult thing for these big corporates..after all when u make a public announcement its but natural that people will call back to make enquiries.and CC is the only interface that they have with the co...
They have announced speeds would be upgraded by June..iam sure they are doing it in a phased manner according to a set schedule..wats wrong in letting the customer have this info by updating the CC/putting it up on the website?
I would agree that Customer Care should be made aware of all plan changes, especially significant announcements like bringing all plans up to 512kbit/s and doubling the speed of other plans.
The CC reps are, after all, the front line and primary interaction between customer and company and as such, should be required to know the details of *current* plans (though old plan details should probably be noted in an easy to find place).
