subject: Problems with Airtel by:Francis Regan [print this page] I am a housewife from Delhi, currently living in Chennai. My husband is a businessman and I usually use skype so I can constantly keep in touch with my husband. But due to frequent robberies in my area, we decided to shift our house to a much secure location in Chennai. I was using Airtel Internet connection for several years. So I wrote a letter to them stating that I am shifting my residence in two months and so I do not need the internet connection.
An Airtel staff came to my house to collect the modem and collect the outstanding bill for the particular month. I told him that I would need the internet connection at my new place which I'd be shifting in two months. I also gave him my new house address. He gave me a receipt for the money I paid him and told me that there were no more outstanding dues to be paid. I was really very happy with their service.
The next month, when I was getting ready to shift the place, I received a bill from Airtel asking me to pay it for that the particular month. It also mentioned that I have an outstanding bill to be paid. I ignored the bill and continues with my work. After 2 days another staff from Airtel came to my place and demanded me to pay the bill.
I clearly explained him in English that I had already cleared the bill and I have even given back the modem. When I asked the person about this he started shouting at me in Tamil and told me sternly to understand him. I asked him to talk back in English or Hindi, for which he sternly replied back stating that I have to learn Tamil so that I can understand him. I walked back into the house, completely ignoring him.
I called up the Airtel customer support people and explained them my situation. But they kept on insisting me that I have to pay the bill. They wanted me to pay the bill for using the internet connection; I repeatedly told them that I do not even have a modem because I had already given it a month back. They did not have a proper answer for that but they wanted me to pay the bill.
Keeping my packing work aside, I went directly to their branch office in Guindy, Chennai. I told the receptionist that I wanted to talk to their branch manager. I had to wait for more than one hour to talk to the manager. I explained the manager the problem I had with their employees and my current situation. He immediately responded stating that he will look into this issue and will personally call me to get this issue solved.
After that incident I did not get a call from them. I shifted my house to the new place and got everything set. After a month, another collection agent from Airtel came to my new house with three months bill amount. He came to my house and started shouting at me in Tamil that I did not even inform the authorities that I am shifting the house and that I ran off from the place without paying the bill. Thank God! My husband was back in town for few days. He immediately involved himself into this issue. I explained everything to him. He immediately made a call to the police station regarding this issue. The police immediately took the collection agent away from our place.
My husband launched a consumer complaint against Airtel, since I had all the proof. Within a month an executive from the Airtel head office came to my house and negotiated with us. I explained him all the things which were happening for the past several months. He personally guaranteed me that all these issues would not happen again and it was a system error which led to all these problems. He was trying to solve this issue without any legal action and told us that all the outstanding payments would be waived off. I was not very much interested in getting any compensation from him but all I wanted was this problem getting solved.
Anyways I received an Airtel internet connection free for first four months after which I had to pay the regular charges. They also sent me a letter of apology for all their mistakes. Well, this issue ended only after going to a Consumer Court.
About the author
Francis Regan authors numerous articles on consumer related issues.Francis Regan works for consumerdaddy website. Together, their mission is to spread consumer awareness. Consumerdaddy provides India's largest consumer awareness portal with consumer reports on 40000 companies and 200000 products.
