Hello,

We have gone through your complaint, and we need some more information like your full contact details and complaint nos. registered with customer care and their reply.

Originally Posted by admin

Hello,

We have gone through your complaint, and we need some more information like your full contact details and complaint nos. registered with customer care and their reply.

Thanks for the reply.

The billing address was No. 13/15F, 1st Floor, Venkat Reddy Layout, 6th Block, koramangala, Bangalore.

As far as the reference numbers are concerned, Airtel had given me a lot of reference (complain) numbers since they used to automatically mark the complaint as being resolved. However, I do have the latest complain numbers given by the customer care and nodal officer. Using that, the earlier records can be retrieved.
Here they are:
1. 29295844 (via email from 121@airtelindia.com 10th Nov 2009)
2. 50120107945 (via email dated 5th January 2010)
3. F617081683 (via SMS after calling nodal officer on 6th January 2010 to tell that the problem still exists in the bill generated on 3rd January)

Moreover, most of their replies are via phone calls and Airtel has never given a commitment over email except for one time. That email was sent by Airtel (nodal.officer6@airtel.in) on 27th November. Airtel had mentioned that the problem has been rectified and they apologized for the delay.

But I do have the auto generated responses for all the emails that i have sent to Airtel regarding this matter.

I had also sent an email on 14th November 2009 in which I had mentioned that I will be going to the consumer court if this problem is not resolved. I had sent the same letter via registered post to Airtel's nodal officer (Karnataka circle). The subject was "NOTICE BEFORE FILING CONSUMER COMPLAINT (Mobile no: +919740887102 +919740887102 )"

Do you have an official email id where i can forward these emails?

PS: Initially the commitment that the problem has been rectified was given by the customer care executive managers Johncy, Shashi and Ranjit V in three consecutive months. And from past 2 months I have been following up the matter with the Nodal Officer, Ms. Sushma.
Airtel's site clearly indicates that the Nodal team will get the problem resolved in 10 days.

Thanks,
Ayush Gupta
+919740887102
ayush.gupta@yahoo.com

Hello,

As you mentioned that you have already registered complaints with the Airtel customer care and also sent a written notice to the area Nodal officer, and still you are not satisfied from their response as they haven't solve your problem till date, so we suggest you to finally approach the Airtel Appellate Authority, and if still the problem remain same then you can approach the consumer forum.

The address of the Airtel Appellate Authority is:

Bharti Airtel Limited,
55, Divyasree Towers,
Bannerghatta Road,
Bangalore 560 029

Hope this may help you.

Originally Posted by Advocate.sonia

Hello,

As you mentioned that you have already registered complaints with the Airtel customer care and also sent a written notice to the area Nodal officer, and still you are not satisfied from their response as they haven't solve your problem till date, so we suggest you to finally approach the Airtel Appellate Authority, and if still the problem remain same then you can approach the consumer forum.

The address of the Airtel Appellate Authority is:

Bharti Airtel Limited,
55, Divyasree Towers,
Bannerghatta Road,
Bangalore 560 029

Hope this may help you.

Thanks for the suggestion Sonia. The problem is that the resolution time for a complaint submitted to Appellate Authority is roughly 3 months. And for each incorrect bill, i am losing the money that I could have saved by tax exemption.

I had given an option to Airtel in November to either give the previous months bills with correct company name OR pay a compensation equivalent to the tax that I would have saved. But Airtel did not do any of the things.

Last month, I had sent an email to the Nodal Officer stating that I wont be paying the bill if the correct company name does not come on the bill generated on 3rd January 2010. And since, the bill does not contain the correct company name, I do NOT plan to pay the bill. I have sent an email stating the same (with the reference to the earlier email)

Sonia, is Airtel in any position to file a legal complaint against me for non-payment of bill in this case? And even if they do, with the relevant emails and complaint reference numbers, is the legal action that Airtel might take of any sense?

Thanks,
Ayush

Is there no way to get this matter resolved? I have totally lost faith in Airtel and cannot keep getting disappointed with the false promises made every month.
Can anyone shed some light on the procedure to file a complaint in consumer court regarding the same?
I would like to get a compensation for the monetary loss and mental agony that Airtel has caused me.

Thanks,
Ayush

Originally Posted by Ayush Gupta

Is there no way to get this matter resolved? I have totally lost faith in Airtel and cannot keep getting disappointed with the false promises made every month.
Can anyone shed some light on the procedure to file a complaint in consumer court regarding the same?
I would like to get a compensation for the monetary loss and mental agony that Airtel has caused me.

Thanks,
Ayush

Hello Ayush Ji,

Before going to the consumer forum, you have to do the above mentioned things i.e. sending notice via registered post to the Area Nodal office and the Appellate Authority of the company because this will stranghten your case, you can tell the consumer forum that before knocking the consumer forum you have already intimate all the authority and even Airtel Appellate Authority but they are not able to solve the issue.

For notice reference you can visit: videocon fridge

Originally Posted by admin

Hello Ayush Ji,

Before going to the consumer forum, you have to do the above mentioned things i.e. sending notice via registered post to the Area Nodal office and the Appellate Authority of the company because this will stranghten your case, you can tell the consumer forum that before knocking the consumer forum you have already intimate all the authority and even Airtel Appellate Authority but they are not able to solve the issue.

Thanks.
So, I have already sent the notice via registered post to Nodal office. I think its time to send a notice to the appellate authority. Let's see if they can do something about it. I am really surprised by the utter indifference that Airtel shows to its customers' problems.

Regards,
Ayush

One more thing I wanted to ask regarding this.
I had a talk with Airtel's executive again (she had called me up). Airtel is telling me again and again to pay my current bill which i have refused to pay due to the fact that the problem is not getting resolved and I am facing a loss by not being able to use those bills for taxation purposes.
The executive kept telling me that the call charges are valid and I HAVE to pay the bill. But isn't it totally Airtel's fault that I had to take such drastic measures?
When a customer doesn't pay his bill, Airtel (or any company for that matter) charges late fee. If he does not pay the bill for consecutive months also, Airtel sends a notice to the customer for being a defaulter. Shouldn't this rule be applicable the other way round? Shouldn't the customer have the right to not pay the bill if he is facing a problem from such a long time?
When a company suffers a loss due to a customer, they get a compensation from the customer. Shouldn't the customer get the same privilege?
Time to escalate this issue to Appellate authority now.

Ok. I called up the appellate authority and talked to Mr. Rohit. The interaction ID is 620588781. He told me that this can be used a reference number.
In the call, I brought up three things:
1. The company name change problem that I had been facing from past 6 months.
2. The fact that I will not be paying the bill generated on 3rd January 2010 (amount = Rs.3419)and I demand a complete waiver of the bill amount.
3. I want a written confirmation (email / letter) for the above two points.

His response was:
1. The company name has been changed. But Airtel will not send a written confirmation for the same.
2. The waiver will NOT be given. I argued that it was totally Airtel's fault that I have faced a loss of around Rs. 6000 (30% of around Rs. 20000 by not being able to use the bill for taxation purposes. My approximate bill per months is Rs. 3500).

The bottom line is that Airtel does NOT want to give any written confirmation and I have to wait yet another month. I have been doing the exact same thing from past 6 months. And if I pay the bill generated on January 3rd, 2010, I suffer a loss once again. Isn't it high time?

Now, who is to pay for Rs. 6000 that I could have saved and also for all the trouble that i had to go through trying to get the problem resolved?

What's the next step? The appellate authority has also given the same response.

Thanks,
Ayush

The top most problem resolving authority of Airtel- appellate authority has also failed to provide a solution. What should i do now?
Any further help to get this matter resolved is appreciated.

Thanks,
Ayush

Hello Ayush,

Customer Care --> Nodal Officer --> Appellate Authority , this is the channel we have to follow before going to the consumer forum, and if all the above mentioned channel get failed to provide the solution then the final step is to approach the Consumer Forum.

Originally Posted by Sidhant

Hello Ayush,

Customer Care --> Nodal Officer --> Appellate Authority , this is the channel we have to follow before going to the consumer forum, and if all the above mentioned channel get failed to provide the solution then the final step is to approach the Consumer Forum.

Thanks Sidhant!
As mentioned in my post, I have already contacted the Appellate authority and have also mentioned the Interaction ID that was given, and also the response given by the Appellate team member.

How do i approach the consumer court now?

Thanks,
Ayush

Although I did not see much use in it, I am anyways sending a formal notice to the Appellate authority today. Below are the contents of the letter. I hope this is good enough (and possibly the only last thing) to do before knocking the consumer court.

************************************************** **********
To,
The Appellate Authority,
Bharti Airtel Limited,
Karnataka Circle.
Date: 13th January 2010.

Subject: Notice before filing complaint in consumer court (in reference to my mobile +919740887102).
Sir/ Ma’am,
I am an Airtel postpaid mobile customer (mobile no. +919740887102). From August 1st 2009, I have been trying to get my company name changed from Ness Technologies to AI Consulting. Your customer care executives, their managers and nodal officer had been giving commitment in each successive month that the problem will be resolved in the next bill. But the name was still printed as Ness Technologies. Due to this I am unable to use the bills for taxation purposes and it has caused me a loss of around Rs. 6000 (which I could have saved by using the bills for tax exemption). I would like to highlight some key facts and you can see the matter in details in the records that you maintain for a mobile connection.
1. I had requested address change and company name change on 1st August 2009 and submitted the relevant documents in your Airtel gallery in Koramangala. A person had come to my house for verification too.
2. The address got changed but NOT the company name. I followed up with various departments of Airtel but the problem was still there.
3. After 2-3 months, I had given Airtel and option to choose one of the following:
a. Dispatch my old bills with correct company name.
b. Give me a compensation equivalent to the tax that I could have saved.
Airtel chose nothing and simply ignored this email.
4. I had sent a notice to go to consumer court via email and registered post to your nodal office. That too did not make any difference and the bill generated on December 3rd 2009 still had incorrect company name.
5. Your nodal officer Sushma was also not able to get the problem rectified. Your website clearly mentions that the nodal team will take 10 days for problem resolution but it was unable to solve the problem even in 2 months.
6. I finally called up your Appellate team on the number provided on your website and talked to Mr. Rohit. He told me the usual thing that the problem has been fixed. When I requested for a written confirmation, he refused.
7. I demanded a full waiver of the bill generated on January 3rd 2010 since it is TOTALLY Airtel ‘s fault that the bill does not have the correct company name and hence I don’t plan to pay it. Mr. Rohit refused any chances of waiver.
Keeping the above points in mind, I give Airtel a final ultimatum and ONLY the following set of things to be agreed upon if it wishes to settle the case outside consumer court:
1. Give me a full waiver of January’s bill (although it will not totally compensate the loss that I have suffered).
2. Give me in writing that this problem will NOT be there in the February’s bill.
3. An apology letter for the indifference that Airtel has shown to my problem.
I expect a response ON OR BEFORE 20th January 2010 if Airtel wishes to resolve this case outside consumer court.

Yours sincerely,

Ayush Gupta
************************************************** ****************

Dear Customer,


This is to inform you that your concern has been noted and our team is working on a resolution. At the outset, we apologies for the inconvenience faced by you. We will get in touch with you for further details of your concern as the need arises.


Regards,
Vinay chugh
Airtel Customer Service Team