As some people may know, I shifted from Mohali to Hyd in the first week of Feb 2011. I was on the Airtel 2Mbps UL (2999/-) plan when I was in Mohali.
I applied for connection transfer to Hyd on Jan 21st after being persuaded by Airtel CC that transfer is a better choice than disconnecting in Mohali and getting new connection at Hyd. At the time I was specifically told that the connection would be deactivated and no billing would be done till I get the connection activated in Hyd. I also confirmed if I can cancel the connection from Hyd if shifting doesn't work out. Once they confirmed that shifting is possible, I was specifically told that the connection in deactivated state since the time I applied for shifting. I got a pro-rated bill of 2.8k for the Month of Jan as against the usual 3.3k that I get usually. I promptly cleared the bill online before i even got the statement.
Once I moved to Hyd (on 5th Feb), I got call from Airtel about collection of documents for the shifting process. I told them that I have to wait till I join the company in order to get a residence certificate. Once I got the same, I had to call up Airtel CC 3~4 time and let them know that I have the documents ready. An airtel rep called me up in response and told me that I would need a copy of my Company ID and PAN card is not enough for Personal identification.
I got fed up at this point and decided to apply for disconnection. When I called them up, they tried to persuade me to not got disconnect. When I persisted, the rep told me that she is noting the same in my account history against the same ticket for relocation and new ticket is not needed. After that I got several calls to try and persuade me to cancel the disconnection request or at least transfer the connection to someone else. I refused and I was told that the request will take one more week to process. I was waiting for this to complete when I got an SMS saying that my bill for Feb is 2.3k odd. I called up CC and asked why I was charged for a month when my connection was inactive and also enquired about the status of my disconnection request. He said that the account was currently active and no disconnection request was logged in my account history. He also noted from the account history that the relocation request was made in Jan and said that the bill must have been a mistake which would be rectified. He gave me a new ticket no saying both the bill issue and disconnection request have been noted in the same.
When I called up the next day to inquire about the status, I was told the ticket refers only to a disconnection request and no bill issue was mentioned, when I again explained the whole situation to him, checked my history and says that no reference to relocation request can be found, When I gave him the relocation ticket, he says it is invalid (Meaning it doesn't exist at all). This went on so on and so forth. Then on 24th Mar, I got a called form Airtel guy from Mohali saying that I have to clear my dues to get my disconnection request proceed further. I explained the entire thing to him, but he insisted that as per their records there were records of usage in Jan that were not billed and that I should clear that amount (Rs 650/-) and the reset would waived off and my disconnection request cleared. I got a colleague in Mohali pay the bill to a airtel collection agent and got a receipt for the same. The guy confirmed that my disconnection request would be cleared and I don't need to call them back and they will call me back when I should deposit the instrument.
After a few days, I get call from another rep saying that I have to clear my bill of 2.4k, if I delay, they threatened that it would be increased to 6k and I would be sent a legal notice. I called up the guy who was earlier processing my disconnection and he told me that he would handle it and that I should should hand them his phone number in case any one calls in future. So far I did not get any further calls, but I am trying to get my no dues cleared (which the guy promised would be done promptly) without any success.
Points to be noted
1. The Airtel rep either lied to me that my line was in disconnection state after the transfer request or someone has deliberately activated it again/manipulated the records.
2. The question of two pro-rated bills. I didn't get the full bill (3.3k) for either of these months (Jan and Feb). Seems to indicate that the connection was need disconnected after I applied for transfer and some manipulation was done after I applied for disconnection in order to slap some bill on me. If it was active during the entire period, I would have got full bills for both month's.
3. When I applied for disconnection in Feb, it was either deliberately not noted at all or It was removed from the account history later. Since I got several calls asking me not to disconnect or at least transfer the connection, I think its the later case.
4. When I complained about the bill, the first CC guy could clearly see that a relocation request was logged, but the very next day, the other guy could not see any thing to that effect, he says that my ticket id for the relocation which I had been quoting all this while is no longer valid, and that there is no mention of a billing issue in the ticket that the first guy logged. Did the first guy lie to me or was the ticket edited out. Also there seems to have been a manipulation of my account history as well.
5. The guy who talked to me on Mar 24th assured me that the no dues would be cleared once I pay Rs 650/-. Not only was it not cleared, but it seems it was not even updated in my account (even though I have a proper bill to prove payment). Even now he is just whiling away without clearing my no dues.
It seems to me that these companies (not just Airtel) are using tactics like these to milk customers even after they had applied for disconnection. Not just that, they seem to be manipulating their own records to give them selves the benefit of plausible deniability
I applied for connection transfer to Hyd on Jan 21st after being persuaded by Airtel CC that transfer is a better choice than disconnecting in Mohali and getting new connection at Hyd. At the time I was specifically told that the connection would be deactivated and no billing would be done till I get the connection activated in Hyd. I also confirmed if I can cancel the connection from Hyd if shifting doesn't work out. Once they confirmed that shifting is possible, I was specifically told that the connection in deactivated state since the time I applied for shifting. I got a pro-rated bill of 2.8k for the Month of Jan as against the usual 3.3k that I get usually. I promptly cleared the bill online before i even got the statement.
Once I moved to Hyd (on 5th Feb), I got call from Airtel about collection of documents for the shifting process. I told them that I have to wait till I join the company in order to get a residence certificate. Once I got the same, I had to call up Airtel CC 3~4 time and let them know that I have the documents ready. An airtel rep called me up in response and told me that I would need a copy of my Company ID and PAN card is not enough for Personal identification.
I got fed up at this point and decided to apply for disconnection. When I called them up, they tried to persuade me to not got disconnect. When I persisted, the rep told me that she is noting the same in my account history against the same ticket for relocation and new ticket is not needed. After that I got several calls to try and persuade me to cancel the disconnection request or at least transfer the connection to someone else. I refused and I was told that the request will take one more week to process. I was waiting for this to complete when I got an SMS saying that my bill for Feb is 2.3k odd. I called up CC and asked why I was charged for a month when my connection was inactive and also enquired about the status of my disconnection request. He said that the account was currently active and no disconnection request was logged in my account history. He also noted from the account history that the relocation request was made in Jan and said that the bill must have been a mistake which would be rectified. He gave me a new ticket no saying both the bill issue and disconnection request have been noted in the same.
When I called up the next day to inquire about the status, I was told the ticket refers only to a disconnection request and no bill issue was mentioned, when I again explained the whole situation to him, checked my history and says that no reference to relocation request can be found, When I gave him the relocation ticket, he says it is invalid (Meaning it doesn't exist at all). This went on so on and so forth. Then on 24th Mar, I got a called form Airtel guy from Mohali saying that I have to clear my dues to get my disconnection request proceed further. I explained the entire thing to him, but he insisted that as per their records there were records of usage in Jan that were not billed and that I should clear that amount (Rs 650/-) and the reset would waived off and my disconnection request cleared. I got a colleague in Mohali pay the bill to a airtel collection agent and got a receipt for the same. The guy confirmed that my disconnection request would be cleared and I don't need to call them back and they will call me back when I should deposit the instrument.
After a few days, I get call from another rep saying that I have to clear my bill of 2.4k, if I delay, they threatened that it would be increased to 6k and I would be sent a legal notice. I called up the guy who was earlier processing my disconnection and he told me that he would handle it and that I should should hand them his phone number in case any one calls in future. So far I did not get any further calls, but I am trying to get my no dues cleared (which the guy promised would be done promptly) without any success.
Points to be noted
1. The Airtel rep either lied to me that my line was in disconnection state after the transfer request or someone has deliberately activated it again/manipulated the records.
2. The question of two pro-rated bills. I didn't get the full bill (3.3k) for either of these months (Jan and Feb). Seems to indicate that the connection was need disconnected after I applied for transfer and some manipulation was done after I applied for disconnection in order to slap some bill on me. If it was active during the entire period, I would have got full bills for both month's.
3. When I applied for disconnection in Feb, it was either deliberately not noted at all or It was removed from the account history later. Since I got several calls asking me not to disconnect or at least transfer the connection, I think its the later case.
4. When I complained about the bill, the first CC guy could clearly see that a relocation request was logged, but the very next day, the other guy could not see any thing to that effect, he says that my ticket id for the relocation which I had been quoting all this while is no longer valid, and that there is no mention of a billing issue in the ticket that the first guy logged. Did the first guy lie to me or was the ticket edited out. Also there seems to have been a manipulation of my account history as well.
5. The guy who talked to me on Mar 24th assured me that the no dues would be cleared once I pay Rs 650/-. Not only was it not cleared, but it seems it was not even updated in my account (even though I have a proper bill to prove payment). Even now he is just whiling away without clearing my no dues.
It seems to me that these companies (not just Airtel) are using tactics like these to milk customers even after they had applied for disconnection. Not just that, they seem to be manipulating their own records to give them selves the benefit of plausible deniability
