Please note:
- The harassment by Airtel continues EVEN AFTER RECEIVING A WRITTEN EMAIL COMMUNICATION SAYING THAT THE NUMBER HAS BEEN DEACTIVATED & THERE ARE NO DUES.
- The only reason I cleared my dues is that my legal advisor suggested that this would be the best course of action before pursuing legal recourse against Airtel.
- I am in the process of filing a case in the consumer court as well as pursuing criminal action since I have received calls with abusive language despite having cleared my dues
- Airtel has refused to issue any sort of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT regarding my complaints other than saying "PLEASE PAY UP OR ELSE..."
- Finally I have been an Airtel customer for over 4 years on the landline side paying more than 25-30k a year per line in my home & office. I have now disconnected these lines. I also have a client for whom I am building a 60 seater call center where Airtel has now been discarded as an option after this experience.

COPY OF ORIGINAL COMPLAINT dtd 28 December 2009:

To: 121@airtelindia.com
Sent: 28/12/2009 19:37:06
Subject: UNBELIEVABLE HARASSMENT BY AIRTEL
Ref ID: 9004393011|281220099628

Hi
I have no clue what Airtel thinks of itself but one thing is for sure - in a country full of arrogant service providers your company takes the cake and how!! Let me tell you the story of how Airtel is hellbent on harassing me for no rhyme or reason.

- Around the 10th of October 2009 I took an Airtel connection (9004393011) for my new Blackberry phone. I applied for the same at the ARC at Chakala in Andheri East. As is common with most telecom providers special requests at the time of buying a new connection are happily accepted but no acknowledgement is provided. In this case I mentioned that since I stay alone I am generally available only after 8pm in the evening. To which I was told that verification would only happen after the said time.
- Now it so happens that on 11th of October 2009 the SIM got activated but verification was pending.
- While things were hunky dory for about 10 days on the night of 18th of October 2009 I received an SMS stating that my services were about to be debarred. So I decided to call the Airtel help line. Now if anyone has ever used this helpline it is the most excruciating phone service experience ever designed. It is an exquisite application of the art of torture. It loops changes languages boots you out and pretty much everything else except connecting you to a human being. In any case after repeated attempts I was able to get through after to be told that since the connection was not verified it was being barred. So I put on record that nobody had visited me for the same and being a businessperson I was traveling and would be back in Mumbai by the 20th of October 2009 so someone could come over then and verify. I also repeated my request of getting this done after 8pm given my personal constraints only to be told that this was not possible. My phone continued to work so I did not worry too much about it.
- But as it transpires the phone was barred on the 21st of October after which I was only able to reach 121. Given that Airtel has ensured that a customer can only speak to an agent after positively going mad trying to get through the bungle that their customer service helpline is I was pretty much distraught by the time I got through. It took a good 8 attempts!!
- Now the fun started!! I was told in not so many words to take a hike and give up all my work and go home and wait with bated breath for an Airtel verification agent to arrive to verify my number. Having exasperated myself to the hilt I tried reaching the Nodal Officer Appellate Authority - which were switched off almost until 1pm in the afternoon. When I did get through to the Nodal Officer I was told that it was NOT AN OFFICER BUT A DESK and my complaint would be processed as per rules. When I asked to be given a complaint number I was refused one and when I asked for the name of a parrticular person I could meet when I came to the Mindspace office the same was also refused.
- Having had enough I called the help line again and asked for the procedure to cancel my connection. To which the response was that I needed to proffer a reason. When I said I was dissatisfied I was told that this WAS NOT ALLOWED and I COULD NOT CANCEL MY CONNECTION!!! After this most baffling conversation I tried again and after getting through post a number of attempts I was finally asked to approach an ARC with a cancellation request.
- I approached the Bandra West ARC with this request around the 23rd of October 2009. Here, I was asked to pay the bill, wherein I reminded that there was a Rs. 500 deposit made in my name. On checking, the ARC made me speak with the call center where I made a deactivation request and I was told that the number was no deactivated. I was further told that after deducting the deposit, a bill would be generated, which I would need to settle. The ARC told me that THERE WAS NO NEED TO
DEPOSIT A LETTER NOR WAS AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ISSUED.
- To my surprise, the very next day, an Airtel verification agent turned up at my doorstep AFTER 8PM! I refused to sign on the verification sheet or provide any details regarding myself to this person. So it is start
- I received a bill for Rs. 1069.60 dated 24th of October 2009, which was paid on 9th of November 2009 - 2 days before the deadline. The bill mentioned that the amount payable was Rs. 569.60 after deducting the Rs. 500 deposit as mentioned by the ARC. I thought finally with a sigh of relief that my nightmare was over!
- But to my utter surprise, TODAY 28th of December 2009 - a whole 2 months after the last time the SIM card was ever used, I received a bill with charges of Rs. 2720.00 which were ONLY RENTALS for two months. The breakup was SIM Rental Rs. 300 + Blackberry Plan Rental Rs. 899 for 2 months plus taxes of Rs. 123.50 per month totaling Rs. 2645.00 plus a "late fee" for the "unpaid" November bill of Rs. 75.00 totaling 2720.
- When I called the call center, the "help"line booted me out because I did not have my "TELEPHONE PIN", which I couldn't since I haven't been using this connection. When I called the Nodal Officer, the message said that the "Officer is busy, call later". So I called the Appellate Authority where a great personality by the name of Mr. Satyavir received my call. The very fact the a problem resolution officer could have the tone and arrogance this man had was enough to make the whole proposition wacko, but his hilarious and devious responses made the situation outright preposterous.
- On appraising Mr. Satyavir of the facts, I was told very curtly that the line was "very much in regular use" for the last two months and had been deactivated only on 24th December 2009. When quizzed as to when the last outgoing call or SMS or data call was on this line, the man without compunction said "I CANT SEE THAT ON MY SCREEN". For a person who in just the previous breath hand claimed that the line was in REGULAR use for 2 months, this next statement only showed that he was out to cheat me & was obviously lying!!!!
- The actual facts are thus. The last time this phone was used to make a call to any other number except the Airtel helpline was 20th of October 2009. If you study the records, on that date, I received instructions on how to disconnect my line and the day after or on 22nd, a call was made from the ARC in Bandra W to the deactivation desk requesting closure of this account. All dues pending were cleared on 9th November well in time. After this, NOT A SINGLE INSTANCE OF USAGE has been recorded on this line. For the last two months, the only charges have been rental. And given the credit limit of Rs. 1600, the phone remained active due to a gap at your end since the "outstanding" was less than the credit limit. When the fresh bill for December was generated, the "outstanding" crossed the limit and the phone was barred!
- It is shocking to see that your "Appellate Authority" did not seek to apply his mind and instead chose to mechanically insist on something that was obviously a lie and an attempt to cheat me.

I would request you to look into this and have the same reversed, failing which I would be constrained to approach the authorities to prevent further harassment