[Samurai]

Just got a call from Airtel customer care:

CC: Sir, your 3G zero rental plan is now active.
Me: What? What does that mean?
CC: That means you have chosen no 3G package. You will be charged only based on usage.
Me: You think I am crazy? Why would I switch back to the zero rental plan that is designed purely for robbing the customers? Put me back on the 600MB plan.
CC: Oh, you are aware of our 450 rupees 3G plan?
Me:

Long story short, I asked her to put me back on the 450 bucks plan. But I am not so sure she will. Now, what does this mean? I am back on getting robbed?

[T Y A G I]

Originally Posted by Mubeen

I've escalated the matter to the appellate and the government website that was mentioned in an earlier post here.

What are my other options???

Hello Sir,

You please wait and watch the response after the Govt. site complaint.In case you still want to escalate then please go to the consumer court forum and I can assure you that you will definately be relieved and all your sufferings will pay and Airtel will have to pay the fine also which consumer court can impose on them in lieu of your sufferings.

But, for this you have to contact the local consumer court first.

Regards,
Lalit Tyagi

[Mubeen]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Just got a call from Airtel customer care:

CC: Sir, your 3G zero rental plan is now active.
Me: What? What does that mean?
CC: That means you have chosen no 3G package. You will be charged only based on usage.
Me: You think I am crazy? Why would I switch back to the zero rental plan that is designed purely for robbing the customers? Put me back on the 600MB plan.
CC: Oh, you are aware of our 450 rupees 3G plan?
Me:

Long story short, I asked her to put me back on the 450 bucks plan. But I am not so sure she will. Now, what does this mean? I am back on getting robbed?

You can choose your desired 3G plan by sending an SMS mentioning 3G to 121. How soon it gets activated though is quite another story.

[noopster]

If its any consolation to you, all the providers are equally useless.

I got an SMS from Aircel that my bill had been generated yesterday and the due date for the amount (some piddly 700 odd) is 3rd July. This morning they sent me an SMS saying "You are VERY CLOSE to your credit limit- please pay outstanding amount 803.xx immediately to avoid disconnection!" I reached office and tried to call my wife and an inordinately cheerful loud recorded voice told me my outgoing calls had been barred!

What. The. Hell.

Since I had some free time, paid off my bill online then called 121. The lady tells me sweetly "Sir your line is not deactivated since you have already paid your bill on 22nd June"

I took a deep breath and said Yes. That's today. I just paid it up because you weren't allowing me to make any outgoing calls.

She had the grace to sound embarrassed. I asked why my outgoing had been blocked 2 weeks from my bill due date, and what on earth kinda piddly credit limit had they allocated me (1500 it turns out- this is my personal no/secondary line).

No explanation given except that they were very sorry and it will never happen again. Ah well!

[Samurai]

Airtel is simply not responding to me regarding my complaint. If I send an email checking on my previous complaint, they hand me a new ticket.

Today when the Airtel CC lady called, I thought it was about the complaint. Instead, she told my zero rental is now active.

I mean, what is point in selecting any 3G plan, if they are going to change it back to zero rental plan whenever they feel like it.

The worst part is, you can't check your 3G plan online. I log into my account on Airtel website, the 3G plan is not displayed. This way they keep us in the dark.

You pick a 3G plan, start using it, Airtel quietly changes the plan back to zero rental plan. Gotcha sucker!

[libranof1987]

Samurai : Word of advice.

When it comes to Airtel, NO ONE will help you unless you've fired the Nodal Officer and CC'ed the Appellate Officer. Trust me. If I start recounting my tales with Airtel, Skoda will look like an angel.

The Nodal Officer take 2-3 days to get his/her bearings right and then things fall into place. NEVER before that. That's just the way Airtel works. All the ads and jazz goes up in thin smoke when it comes to their Customer Care.

[musafir_blr]

When it comes to Airtel, NO ONE will help you unless you've fired the Nodal Officer and CC'ed the Appellate Officer.

I agree with you, sir. I have Airtel Broadband connection and there were lots of issues with the telephone reciever they provided. Whenever I used to call them, they used to raise a new call and replace with a old defective handset. Somehow I got a contact of a senior officer (not sure if he's a nodal officer or of simillar designation) but after few follow ups and almost verbal fights and shouts, a proper reciever was provided. The whole process took around 1.5 months I guess! :(

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Mubeen

You can choose your desired 3G plan by sending an SMS mentioning 3G to 121.

Now that they have cancelled my 3G plan again, I decided to send the SMS.

Reply: We are unable to process your request. Please try again later.

[Mubeen]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Now that they have cancelled my 3G plan again, I decided to send the SMS.

Reply: We are unable to process your request. Please try again later.

Oops!

Tough luck bud. Looks like messing around with subscribers 3G data plans is Airtel's new cash cow, for which we're getting milked.... and how!

[sgiitk]

libran & musafir; Airtel == Airhell. See my post (#32 on this thread). You should be able to apply the same to Aircel! Incidentally, I have (Danke Gott) not faced any major problems with Reliance after 2004. In 2007 I found my ISD was not activated and the WW sent messages twice to no avail. So I e-mailed the boss at Lucknow. Within half an hour the activation was done, and I also got a call from him, not only aologising and confirming this, but also thanking me for bringing this to his notice.

Once my son had problems. He was shifting from Manipal to Delhi. He did the paperwork, and got the new number at the WW. His phone was disconnected and was not activated on the new number. Some network crash! Next morning he called me, since the hospital he worked for was also upset. I mailed the lady who was the nodal officer (at that time RCOM had the names available on the web) and sure enough his phone was back within 30 minutes, with three calls for confirming it.

So the moral is go higher than the call centre.

[Samurai]

While Airtel is maintaining their silence regarding my complaint, I have been kicked back to Zero rental plan. So I wanted to somehow get back to some 3G plan.

So I called 12134 to re-enable the 3G plan they keep disabling.

Surprise! There are only 3 plans available there.

Rs.103 for 100MB
Rs.200 for 250MB
Rs.20 for 0MB

There is no 600MB plan they re-enabled last week for me. So I chose the 250MB plan for now. Let's see how long that will last before the Airtel 3G pirates change it back.

[ravi@64bhp]

After reading all the posts, now I am getting scared. I recently called the Airtel CC and asked them to to activate GPRS plan with 2 GB download limit. I observed that I have been getting 3G speeds. Called customer care four times in a span of 10 days and confirmed that only GPRS is activated on my number and not 3G. Now, I do not understand why I am getting 3G speeds. I hope they don't come all of a sudden and slap me with 3G bills.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

I observed that I have been getting 3G speeds...

A friend of mine also gets 3G speeds even though he's activated only a GPRS pack in his Airtel prepaid connection. Seems to be an oversight with the Airtel crooks, else his balance will be zero in no time, with the way he goes online.

I hope they don't come all of a sudden and slap me with 3G bills.

Good luck on that, bro. However, if you maintain status quo, the chances of getting looted is less, compared to, when you try changing the plans. Their pro-rata thing is a grey area.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

When it comes to Airtel, NO ONE will help you unless you've fired the Nodal Officer and CC'ed the Appellate Officer. Trust me. If I start recounting my tales with Airtel, Skoda will look like an angel.

You said it bro. Airtel's customer care is a joke, Nodal officer is a mirage, and Appellate officer does not exist in reality!

[vineetmanghani]

I had taken the Rs. 200/250 MB 3G plan from Airtel last month, and made sure it was on the first day of my billing cycle. I installed an app called "Data Usage" on my phone immediately, which tracks ALL cellular data going in and coming out of the phone at the port level. So there would be no question of my usage exceeding what was being reflected in this app.

Then a couple of days ago, I started getting SMS's from Airtel about my usage, and in ALL the SMS's my usage was more (about 25-20 MB more) than what was being reflected by my phone. I even adjusted the usage in the app according to the first couple of SMS's, but my usage according to Airtel always used to overtake what my device told me.

So yesterday, I called up customer care and asked them to disable the 3G plan and restore my Rs. 98/2GB plan.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by vineetmanghani

So yesterday, I called up customer care and asked them to disable the 3G plan and restore my Rs. 98/2GB plan.

Gone! Dead!! Finiss!!!
Best of luck for the circus that will seemingly begin next. You are the next bakra for the AirTel pirates, as Samurai calls them. Brace up now.