I just checked Airtel's website and it would appear that the company doesn’t have a strapline. My first thought was that this was a bit odd, but on reflection I can appreciate that to come up with a single line that summarises a company of Airtel’s magnitude must be an extremely tough proposition. Or is it? Here are a few of my suggestions:
Airtel – we’re really, really shit.
Airtel – we never forget you’re a snivelling customer
Airtel – government service from the private sector
Airtel – who the hell are you?
Airtel – we know you know your place
I could go on, and on… and on… but let me just try and give a brief justification for why I feel compelled to assist Airtel with a strapline.
During my week in England, my wife took out a wireless internet connection with Airtel. It doesn’t matter that we already have an account for mobile phones, she still had to present a number of different documents and then sign another agreement. Unfortunately though, we’ve moved house and so when, a couple of days later, an Airtel employee visited our old address to verify that we lived there still, we weren’t there.
I got an e-mail from Airtel at the weekend telling me that the internet connection had been suspended because the address could not be verified and that we should call in at an Airtel office as soon as we could. This we duly did yesterday.
In the short time we were in the office, we were seen by four different smirking Airtel employees and told that the internet connection had been withdrawn, we would get a refund within 40 days and that we would then have to re-apply. It didn’t matter that we had a revised proof of address with us, the connection had been terminated and that was that. Great customer service from a company we’ve done business with for several years. The problem is that, as far as I know, none of the opposition are much better. I had a connection with Reliance when I first came to India and they were absolutely hopeless. Maybe I should try Vodaphone. They’re the new kids on the block and maybe they have brought some western customer service out to the east. On second thoughts, they probably outsourced all that to India long ago.
Originally published on Blogger on 16th September 2008 - and still waiting for the refund in October 2009.
7 comments:
If u think Airtel sucks, try Vodafone!!! They are equally bad, if not worse!!!
For a good part of 3 yrs that I lived in Bombay (Oops! Mumbai, lest Raj Thackerey is listening!!) I had a Vodafone and a Airtel connection and I cld never figure out whcih was worse..They seemed to be stuck in a race of "Who sucks the most" with no clear winner!!!!
I suppose that none of them have to be that good. They all have a captive market which shows no signs of slowing.
you are absolutely right, they are all equally bad. i have a reliance connection. the other day i was looking for my mobile phone. so i thought of making a call to my cell from my land line number. but my mobile was showing 'not reachable'. five minutes later i found it under the chair. and a new message 'you have 2 missed calls. to get the number please SMS to so and so number, RS.2/- only for the service.'
Wah!!
un - you're not my wife are you? She does things like that. :)
Just like political parties telecom companies fare no better in befooling the public...its a compettitiion between who can reap more profit...
Airtel stalks you - did you know? It has customer representatives call you to ask your name and verify that you indeed are the person under whose name the connection was taken. Then they disconnect your connection, because someone from their shitty office misplaced your documents!!! Vodafone has not done that yet - but it does deluge my cell with spam. Everyday at at 3:00 in the afternoon, you get this annoying recorded voice telling me that they are sending more spam..umm...'offers' my way. Enough to make you throw down your phone and jump on it till it dies a ugly violent death. But by then, that annoying voice has lodged itself in your head. AAARGH!
gaurav - They're all in league with the devil.
Fatema - I don't get so many pre-recorded calls from Airtel these days and having asked Airtel to stop sending me adverts for discount furniture, cockroach extermination, gold, and even a helicopter maintenance course, those ads are declining. It is possible to opt-out of receiving advertising and when I took up this option 30 days ago, I was told it would take 45 days to effect. Ever the optimist, I live in hope.
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