Weird mistake by Airtel

[rohitks]

It’s a matter of perspective. There is monetary loss to me. Bcos I wanted to port from airtel to vi. but bcos of these arrears I have to wait for one more month or if I want to port now as per my wish, then I have to forgo those excess. Airtel is not ready for any refund or transfer, so I paid BB separately as i started getting calls from the recovery dept. So I wait until it's exhausted against my wish. My intention to port has been communicated to them separately. They are just buying time and nothing else as they know there's nothing that I can do.

Nevertheless my main purpose of this thread was to make others aware of such mistakes so that such issues do not happen to them. Thank you all for your inputs and support. Regards.

 

[mikrotik]

Since you are a postpaid customer, you will receive a cheque of the excess amount that has been paid. Port now!

 

[rohitks]

121 cust care said there won't be any refund!

 

[imdarkray]

@Chip @mikrotik I do not agree with you.
I see no mistake from the OP.

When you communicate to your customer anything via email it's legally bound.
In this case, it could be a silly mistake of a URL link. But the consequence could be a lot bigger.
Commerce sites lose millions of dollars on this kind of small textual mistake.

@rohitks You can follow these steps if you have time and put some effort:
1. Raise a complaint to Airtel through email, and have the correspondence logs/screenshots ready for the next step if they fail to resolve your issue.
2. Raise the complaint with NCH with proper evidence.
3. If Airtel Thanks bank is involved in the transaction you can raise a complaint to the RBI ombudsman.
4. If you didn't receive a proper resolution you can e-dakhil your complaint and pursue this matter legally. You can also take help from a consumer court advocate.
P.S: you can raise a dispute as an unauthorized transaction/ service not received because the intention of your transaction was not fulfilled by Airtel.

 

[Chip]

@imdarkray there's been a programmatic error in the bill generation process at Airtel's end and that's definitely their fault. But at the same time it is also sensible to for us customers to check the URL, amount, bill purpose and other details before making a payment. What he's trying to point out is that it is their fault which it certainly is. What I am pointing out is that it was inadvertent and it can happen even with automated systems so we should do our own checks before making a payment. Also, while an apology from Airtel would be certainly nice to have, given their recent change in attitude, they are not going to fall over themselves to do this. Trust me I have experienced it for myself. The customer focussed Airtel of even 18 months back does not exist. They have a simple take it or leave it attitude towards their customers. And we know what to do when we are displeased with their service. Jio is not much better either. Neither are Vodafone or Idea when they existed as separate entities when I was a customer. These guys are cut from the same cloth.

@rohitks You can certainly port out even now. I had a credit balance in my account when I ported out from Vi, then Idea Cellular and Vodafone respectively, back in '17. In fact it is better to have a credit balance so they cannot deny your port out. A small negative balance is very frequent reason for denying a port out. Let me give you an example. Say your bill date is today and you decide to port out in 2 days. In the meantime you have continued using the service so any usage charges for the 2 days will accrue to your account and unless those are cleared a denial of porting is possible. So what I do is give them extra cash and wait for a refund. Vi refunded my money via cheque some 2 months after port out was complete and included the deposit amount for ISD/intl. roaming too. A refund is compulsory. Should that not happen you can take it up with their nodal team and inform the TRAI.

 

[Chip]

@rohitks it may seem that some posts on this thread aren't supportive enough of your PoV. But factually speaking the only thing me and some others are trying to point out is that if a provider displeases you just port out ASAP instead of waiting for niceties or apologetic emails from companies who will NOT do it. The only thing that hurts them is a loss of revenue. Take your business elsewhere.

 

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[blueman24]

@rohitks I fully agree with you on this but you are wasting your time. This "don't care" attitude seems to be the standard for a lot of companies these days.
Products and services which are actually good and a joy to use are getting rare. Any mistakes on the part of consumers is "well you should have known better than making mistakes" and any mistakes from corporations is "it happens", "everyone makes errors", "just use it to pay your postpaid bill", etc. Basic decency, gratitude for your customer, and any "Customer support" are past concepts. /Rant

 

[tyrannosaurhex]

Ha! You are griping over this goof-up. I have a better story to tell.

Back in 2018, I was using Airtel Postpaid Mobile(lets say 9xxxxx) and a Jio Prepaid(lets say 420xxx) in separate handsets. I had just bought a new OnePlus and decided to use both the SIM cards in the same phone. No big deal, things went on as usual, until I received the bill for the Airtel Connection. The subject line of the e-Bill said:

"Your Airtel Mobile Bill for 420xxx for 24-08-2018 is ready to view"
(Remember, 420xxx is the Jio number)

I read the subject and was almost bamboozled, and then I opened the email where it stated Airtel Mobile number as 420xxx. I was utterly confused if I had ported that number from Jio to Airtel and somehow forgot about the whole process involved incl. changing SIM cards. But the network on my handset still said Jio. WTF was happening.

I had never given airtel my Jio number either as an alternate number or elsewhere. I am particular about it due to spam calls and sms. Even if I had, there should never have the Jio number in the ebill email.

After going through all the permutations, the only way airtel knew about that mobile number was through handset/network shenanigans when some information was taken out of my handset without my consent. (No I did not have the Airtel app installed till much later)

I did chase everyone from pillar to post, writing to the CEO, appellate, nodal even TRAI about this breach of privacy. Not once did I receive a reply. The crux is they are customer oriented only if the issue is resolvable/addressable within their comfort zone. Outside of it, you can cry havoc all you want, if they don't want to resolve it, they just won't.

P.S. I still have the e-bill email in my inbox, if someone wants to see.

 

[havoc]

🙄

 

[rohitks]

A fake apology mail has come now. But as I was expecting
1. The issue exists in this months bill as well. Looks like the data entries pertaining to my account are corrupted in their database. This shows no one looked into the matter for last one month
2. Airtel has now charged me late payment fee for last months bill in this month.

 

[pachabhut]

Points learnt

1. There was a time when consumer was the king in Telecom but now its practically a duopoly and both Airtel and Jio take the attitude "my way or highway" - customers be damned
2. Its the customers responsibility to rectify mistakes of service providers, by paying extra money if necessary
3. Always initiate payment either from inside the app or from site or even better, pay from 3rd party apps or bharat billpay but never ever trust links sent by airtel
4. Unless you need office reimbursement or business expenditure claims, stick to prepaid

 

[havoc]

That's why... That's why I always try to avoid these big giants making the duopoly... That's why guys support other small operators too like Tata Play, Excitel, ACT, You Broadband etc. Because if we don't stand with them today... Tomorrow nobody will be there to stand with us. Same goes with Sim segment... Support Vi & BSNL (although BSNL is the last option).

 

[Chip]

@rohitks you're lucky you at least got an apology. 🙂 Albeit after a frustrating experience. Another reality check for Airtel and Jio subscribers.

 

[mikrotik]

I had been fighting with airtel for almost a year now to add my GST Number in the mobile postpaid bill. Network complaints have fallen deaf ear.
Blockage at the SMS Gateway was also not resolved. But Delhivery resolved it for me.

 

[rohitks]

I continued to follow-up on this matter with Airtel and finally the executive who understood the whole story waived off late charges.
The revised due amount is now correct in Thanks app which I have promptly paid online.
At least there’s some consideration!
Still the wrong link issue remains which is not fixed but I will be 200% more careful before making any more payments. I will now not use links or QR codes in the bill but directly login to airtel website, access my bb acct and make payment from there.