[Resolved]  Airtel Postpaid — New SIM activation

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka

tl;dr; Airtel's incompetence in issuing a new connection to an existing customer

Hi,
I recently moved to Bangalore from Chennai and applied for a new Airtel connection in Bangalore on 02-jan-2013. Being an existing Airtel postpaid customer for the past 4.5 years I was hoping that things would move quickly with Airtel. And they did intially, I got a SIM card and on the same day the verfication call to the local reference person was completed. The Airtel relationship officer claimed that there has been a change in the process and the SIM will get activated only after verifcation was completed but, assured me it will not more that 4 days.

For the next week there was no activity from the verification team. When I inquired with the Airtel relationship officer stationed in my office he conferred with some colleague on the phone and replied that verification had not happened as my mobile was not reachable. He inquired if I had left the city during the duration, which I had not. He said he'll raise an issue and noted down preferred timings for office and home visit.

Two more days pass and still I receive no call from the verification team. I go back to the Airtel relationship officer and we have the same conversation as 2 days ago. This time he has a list of people who are having problems with activation. He remarks that my current mobile number is a Tamil Nadu and dutifully adds a 0 to my mobile number in his tracking sheet. He assures me that he has indeed raised an issue with the verification team and they will be contacting me.

The next day (on 15-jan-2013) I call up the Airtel relationship officer and remind him that I have yet to be contacted by the verification team. At around 12PM I receive a call from a verification executive inquiring directions to my house. Soon after I receive a call from home confirming that the verification executive has indeed reached home correctly. I began having a faint hope that after all the initial delay I might get the number activated.

15-jan-2013 being a friday and the general lethargy one comes to associate with any large service provider I was hoping that the number would get activated by monday. Monday comes and goes without any change in the activation status.

So, today I go back to the Airtel relationship officer to inquire why my connection has not been activated even after successful completion of the verification. The officer surprises me with the information that verfication has been rejected. I press for details and he tells me that the home verfication was successful but, office verification failed as the verification officer (who incidentally is not the same as the one who verfied the home address) tried calling my number and was unable to reach me. I intelligently point out that how the person verifying my home address was able to reach me but, not the person verifying my office. To which he shrugs his shoulders and tells me it is a different team and he is not aware of such details.

So, I asked him if he can ask raise a request to redo the office verification (assuming that one verification was successful so, all he has to do is come to office and meet me on a any weekday as was agreed upon by the Airtel relationship officer). Well, that was not the case and the Airtel relationship officer informed me that the SIM card was useless and I had to apply for a new connection again submitting all documents and photograph again.

All this while the verfication team has been claiming that my number was unreachable I was regularly receiving and making calls. So, I'm mystified how a telecom company's verification team was unable to reach me during that time (incidentally my existing number also happened to be from the same network!!).

I'm really surprised by Airtel's total incompetence in issuing a new connection to an _existing_ customer. Having dealt with the nightmare that is Airtel customer service I do not want to get into a conversation with them anymore.

Regards,
Shyam

PS.
I'm not claiming Airtel customer service is a nightmare without basis. 2/3 months ago I got a call from an Airtel executive informing of a new iPhone-600 plan which they were offering for Rs.300/399 with 3G data included and asked me if I would be interested. I told them I was, and gave my consent to switch from my existing Turbo-249 plan at the end of that billing cycle. At the end of the billing cycle my plan was duly changed but, 3G failed to work. I spent the next 3 days contacting Airtel customer care and technical support about the issue. After spending numerous hours on hold and being disconnected frequently, till one kindly soul in the technical support acknowledged that there was a problem in the 3G rollout for the iPhone-600 plan and allowed me to switch to another plan. I wanted to go back to my original plan but, surprise!! it was no longer available and I had choose another plan. It was classic bait-and-switch executed to perfection. The experience has tempered my approach to Airtel customer care.

PPS.
I actually tried to post to the Airtel complaints page at http://www.airtel.in/airtelpresence but, my tale of woe did not meet their requirements of 300 characters to describe how they can assist me :(