Airtel SCAM Exposed ! Extorting Money during Cancellation

Hi,

I have been using the Airtel Broadband connection (#080-40913933) since January 2011. My plan was 1200 /- (8 Mbps) and my billing cycle was 11th to 10th of next month.
On 12-May-2013, I shifted from Koramangala to Bannerghatta road and contacted the apartment agent (Shibu) for transferring my existing connection. He suggested, Sir, do NOT transfer your connection, because it may take a week time, instead please take a new connection and cancel the existing one [may be for his own benefit, his target for that month would be achieved]. So I paid 500/- for new connection (out of which 250/- is refundable according to Shibu) and got my new connection (080-41288896) activated on 14-May. Also I had contacted the Customer Care and raised request for cancellation and got the request id. As expected, got a call from retention department and I patiently explained them the scenario and they said ok, it will be taken care of. (By the way, for bill cycle 11-Apr-2013 to 11-May-2013, I received the bill for my old number, which I paid immediately to speed up the process)

And the story begins now !
In June I got a bill of 1348/- (period: 11-May-2013 to 11-Jun-2013) for my old number and another bill of 1223/- (period: 14-May-2013 to 11-Jun-2013) for my new number. I paid the bill of 1223/- as this is the new connection that I am using now. Contacted the customer care (agent)...
Me: I raised a cancellation request last month for my old connection and have not used it since 11-May-2013, as I got a new connection to work with. How come its not yet processed and still I am getting bill?
Agent: Do you have the cancellation request?
Me: Yes, here it is
and Voila...
Agent: This is NOT a valid request id. It starts with 4 and our current running number starts with 3.
I was like WHAT !!!!
Me: Can you change the first number and check.
He did that (with several permutations and combinations, but no result)
Agent: Sir, you have to raise another request.
And a NEW request was raised.

July-2013,
I got another bill of 2015/- for my old connection and 1405/- for my new connection. Being the active connection I paid 1405/-, again contacted the Customer Care, explained them the overall story, this time I was quite pissed off. Agent replied, ok sir, we shall take care of this.
Now, last week I got a call from so called Collection Dept about the payment of 2015. I told them I can not pay for two bills. The (new) one I am supposed to pay is already up to date and for other (old) one, the request was raised 2 and half months back and this is not my fault. They said OK and they will speak to Backend team to rectify the issue.
Yesterday I got the LAST REMINDER email from Airtel, which says about court/forum and legal proceedings, blah blah blah, if you do not pay your current outstanding !!!
Perplexed....Shocked !!

I heard lot of complaints on this (almost all the forums have similar complaints registered), that as long as you are using their service, they are OK (only thing is Airtel will keep on increasing your tariff at the eleventh hour). But the moment you cancel your connection, Airtel will try to extort as much as money as they can. Its like (loot lo, last minute mein). People, out of fear pay the amount to get rid of this and Airtel takes the undue advantage of looting their customers. I have forwarded my complain to my current and previous company HR and other friends in my Network so as to not to entertain Airtel any more. And today I have raised another cancellation request for my 3 months old new connection (080-41288896).

Thanks to Artel...

Now, I tell you what will happen? A spam mail like below wil lbe sent by Airtel:
This is to inform you that your concern listed on 13 Aug 2013 has been noted and our team is working on a resolution. At the outset, we apologize for the inconvenience faced by you. We will get in touch with you for further details of your concern as the need arises.

For any queries you may have you can also get in touch with us at www.airtel.in/airtelpresence

And I shall keep getting calls from Customer Service..

E-mail request are the best when you are cancelling your connection. It will work as a proof.
This is what I did last month when I cancelled my broadband connection.
P.S. Please remove your landline numbers from your post.
Also, Airtel didnt send me the bill for the last month when the account was not active. It was me who had to email/tweet them to send me the final amount which I need to pay!

always record calls when u dealing with any people like airtel or even with banks. u can sue it as a proof if things get out of control later on. get a call recorder app.

Just go to the nearest Airtel relationship centre with a cancellation letter.Get it stamped and signed by them as received.Next time you get a call from them tell them that your connection is cancelled and you have proof of it and they can move court if they want.And remember any summons of.the court are hand delivered.

OP says he registered a termination request in the first place. I mean, that's how airtel retention team tried to retain him/her. Else why would they take the trouble of retaining an already active subscriber? Most probably the request number given to OP was wrong in the first place. Tell them to check your account and look for the first termination request. If you indeed terminated it, like you said, then you don't owe airtel shit. Tell them to F off.
Crooks and bastards everywhere.

Best idea is to try government portal

Airtel keep generating bills after my cancellation request email & their confirmation:
I have been using Airtel 4G data card for a while but the Dongle software does not work every now and then, so I decided to buy 4G hotspot device which costs 2400. I went to Airtel store (Bommenahalli, Bangalore), airtel person told me that I need to take a new connection along with 4G hotspot device. So I took new 4G SIM with WIFI hotspot device on 2nd June 2015 (Came to know later that it is not mandatory to take new 4G SIM while purchasing WIFI hotspot device, useless Airtel store). On the same day, I emailed 121 customer care to cancel my old 4G SIM & I got confirmation email from them the next day that old SIM will be terminated on 12th June 2015 (do not know why they take this much long time for deactivation). My billing cycle is 12th of every month, so I got the bill on 19th June 2015 & I have cleared the bill amount as well. Later, shockingly they generated bill for nest month 19th June 2015 to 19th July 2015. I have been contacting them over email & phone to ask why they generated bill after my cancellation request, they keep saying that I have agreed to retain the service for my old SIM as per their record, but I did not get call from them at all about retention. Also if they have an intention to retain customer, why are they confirming in email that connection will be terminated on so and so date? I have been arguing with them to provide the proof which says that I asked them to retain the service, they do not seem to listen and they're on target to making me pay the amount. By the time, I got call from some advocate that I need to visit my civil court that I did not clear the outstanding amount. I am not going to clear the amount generated after my cancellation request. Guys beware of this Airtel cheating customer care and the company. They are on target to cheat customers. Be careful folks especially after cancellation. AIRTEL is nothing but FRAUD

Standard scare tactics. OP, fear nothing!

Don't waste time on CC. Call Nodal office and appellate authority.