After my dream run with BSNL with whom I have not had any problem at all, I had to choose a private operator at my new house. After hearing a lot from friends, I decided to go for Airtel thinking they had the most reliable service. Right… reliable is a word that cannot be found in their company handbook.
As expected from a private operator, I got the connection within 3 days of applying. I was happy that I took Airtel. My dad and wife kept telling that they felt internet was slower than with BSNL whereas I didn’t notice anything. With BSNL I had a 2mbps line and with Airtel I took a 512kbps unlimited connection. So I expected it to be slower by had the unlimited badge to keep me happy. After 3 days of uninterrupted internet service started my nightmare.
The broadband was not connecting and I had to call the customer care to make a complaint. They have one of the worst customer care setups that I have ever come across. I have used the customer care services of Reliance, Tata Indicom and BSNL among other, but never have I come across something like what Airtel have. I think they have changed the IVR(what they call that stupid recorded voice menu that you have to grit and bear before you hear un-recorded human voice) without informing even one of the call center staff who use it on a day to day basis. Following is a summary of my experience with the call center. I think I can clearly remember each and every call that I have made to them thank to the horrible experience that I have had with them.
- Navigated through the IVR to reach some guy and raised the issue to him. He checks something and tell me everything is fine(using a stupid tool which I will talk about later) and asks me to go back through the IVR and press 2 then 9 after entering the telephone number to reach technical support as he is the non technical staff.
- I disconnect and call back and go through the IVR all over again. There is no menu option as was mentioned by the previous guy. After entering my phone number, if I press 2, I am asked to re-enter the phone number. If I press 1(to confirm) and then press 2, I am taken to the call center. So where is the opportunity to press 9? Should I press 9 when the call center guy says ‘hello’?
- Obviously I get back to the call center and tell them that I can’t reach the technical staff. Again I am advised to 2..9 and I tell them that it is not possible. The call is being transferred to the technical staff but the call is dropped midway.
- IVR all over again and this time I have memorized the menu path. I ask for the technical staff and I am rerouted this time after the 2..9 nonsense again.
- Finally technical staff. They check some software, grumble that everything is fine on their end and reluctantly take down a complaint. So do I pay them Rs. 1100 each month just so that everything is fine at their end? Are they the internet users or have I paid for the goddamned internet at my location? I had to control my frustration while I explained the problem.
- The same day a person Kiran came over and did some stunt on the modem and got it working. Basically he set up the ASDL options so that it runs at a lower speed(but still supports my required speeds). He also said that there could be a problem with the line and said he would raise a complaint for that.
- The same day two other people came, checked something at the junction box (DP as they say) and said that there was some line problem at a totally different place that was told by Kiran. Yeah right, like I am worried about where the problem is, just fix it I say.
- The next day morning again the internet went down taking the landline too along with it. This time I was in office and I call up the call center from my office phone. Now it went to the Corporate Customer Care and after a few random moment with the call center guy I was told that I cannot use my office phone to contact the ‘home’ customer care and that he couldn’t route it out of corporate services. Why the bloody hell do they have an outside line to their customer care if it still gets rerouted based on which number I call from? He asked me to call from my landline and after I almost screamed at him for the 100th time that my landline was dead, he asked me to call the ‘outside’ line from my Airtel mobile and go through the IVR.
- I did that and again the dreaded 2..9 topic started up before I got myself routed to the correct department.
- Of course they as usual confirmed that my line is working fine. Do they even understand the fact that I would not be calling them up if my line was fine? And this time the line too was actually dead along with the broadband and if their software cannot detect this, then was use is their software? I think the only time their software would detect that a line was down is if their server shut down and the software didn’t work. I wonder how much they invested in such a defunct software? Too bad I can’t use RTI on a private company, or can I?
- I had enough of this and I shot off a mail to the nodal officer thanking Airtel for having me mad 10+ calls to the call center and raising at least 3 complaint requests in just 3 days of getting the connection.
- After 3 days there was a lot of follow up from the office of the nodal officer and a few technical staff and linesmen looked at the problem. Unfortunately just when they were having a look, there was never a problem, but the line still used to not work at least once a day. The data transmission rate was definitely slow and there was most definitely a line problem, if you looked at it by the book. However the technical guy said there was a problem at the DP, and the linesman said that the DP was behaving correctly and the ‘copper’ was fine everywhere. Now whom do I believe?
- Today for about two hours the broadband didn’t connect and started working even as I was writing this post. The link was down for 30 mins, then the link went up but the data never connected for the next 30 mins. Again the link went down for about an hour. Finally now the link and data are both up and working. As usual, I couldn’t reach any of the technical people while nothing was working and I am sure they will check again when everything is working and close the complaint saying there was no problem.
- The highlight of the day was the 21 minutes call that I placed to the now famous Airtel call center and its hot IVR system. I think this incident deserves its own blog post. However, at the 21st minute I just plonked the phone down, frustrated at the setup of Airtel and deciding that I have had enough with Airtel. The moment I finish my three months for which I have already paid, I am through with Airtel. That was when I started writing this post.
Sponsored Content
These Related posts may interest you
Tagged: airtel, broadband, bsnl, call center, IVR, problem, working