My problems with Airtel never seem to end. A few months back I had changed my broadband plan to the 2 mbps. Though the speed was good but I did not like being limited to the bandwidth of just 2 GB. With surfing, checking emails and occasionally watching videos on youtube my upload / download is way more than their plan limit. So after keeping the plan for a month, I got it changed back to my original 699 unlimited plan.

Thats when the problem started. I started getting 2 bills with 2 different account numbers. I kept paying the bills as I did not check the account number (I just have one Airtel landline) assuming nothing could be wrong with it. What ticked me off is that as soon I would pay a bill the next one would come within 10 days. After doing this for 3 months I sat down one day with all my past paid bills and realized that I was paying double.

Naturally I called the customer care and explained the situation to them, the rep on the other side said in a sarcastically way, don’t you check the bill? I told him point blank, till now I trusted Airtel but from now on I won’t and will check every bill. He gave me a reference number and told me the problem will be solved by the next day 5 pm. Of course that was all bullshit, the problem was not solved and nor did I get any calls from Airtel. So I called the customer care again and they gave had to explain everything to another rep all over again. This guy assured me and gave me another reference number. Needless to say that I never got a call and the problem was still unresolved.

A few days later I called and was told that the issue was resolved and that I will not get 2 bills from now on but then I asked them about the bills which I have paid already, “you need to adjust them to my current bill as I will not pay it this time.” The rep very casually said, why don’t you pay the bill this time and we will adjust the prepaid amount later. WTF! What kind of customer service is that?

After 6-7 calls my issue still remains unsolved, the current situation is that my phone line has been disconnected and I have got at least 8 calls and 4 smses asking if I have paid the bill. Today I have escalated the issue and called the Appellate Authority and they have assured me that it will be taken care by the evening. I have my figures crossed.

For the benefit of tortured people like me, below are the contact details of Airtel’s Nodal Officer.

Dinesh Daryani
Email: nodal.ncr@airtel.in
Phone: 011 41614777
Fax: 011 41613579

If you did not get a satisfactory reply from the above, you can call the Appellate Authority.

Deepak Srivastav
Email: appellate.ncr@airtel.in
Phone: 011 41614690
Fax: 011 41814394