Best broadband internet service providers in India
Are you shopping for a broadband internet connection in India? Read further and learn my bad experience with Airtel. After living abroad in USA for 12+ years, I decided to return to my home country and start a new life here. But read how Airtel spoiled my first few weeks in India and the ongoing struggle.
Are you shopping for broadband internet service in India? Read further. I have explained my recent experience in broadband internet subscription and will share some of the mistakes I did so that you don't have to repeat them. 
I recently moved from USA where I lived for 12+ years. When I decided to return to India for good, my first requirement was to live in a place for 1 year which provide the similar comfort and life style for my kids. My second requirement was to live in a place where I get uninterrupted, high speed internet so I can manage my websites. After considering several factors, I chose Bangalore as my temporary destination in India.
I reached Bangalore on 22 May 2011. I checked with several people regarding the best broadband internet connection in the Bangalore area. Almost all of them suggested BSNL offers low cost and fastest internet connection, but they are very slow to respond to issues and service requests. Well, that is very critical for me. The next suggestion was "Airtel broadband service". I was told that Airtel broadband is very reliable and offer very good service. Service is just a phone call away. Connection speed is very close to BSNL.
I started my efforts to get Airtel broadband internet on 24 May. I called Airtel agents and offices and I was told to either go through an agent or visit the nearest relationship office.
On 27 May, I visited Airtel relationship office. After seeing the long queue there, my friend suggested me to make a request online and they will send an agent to my home immediately.
I came back home and took a mobile internet connection from MTS for temporary use. I registered in the Airtel website and made a request for new Airtel broadband connection. After battling with their weired validation rules against my slow temporary internet connection for about 25 minutes and 7 retries, I was able to successfully submit a request. I got a confirmation that Airtel will contact me shortly.
I waited 2 days and no calls from Airtel and no one showed up at home. Then I repeatedly submitted the request again in Airtel website several times. Finally, an Executive(!) from Airtel showed up at my home. He collected the application form, identitification documents and Rs 1399.00 as the first month fees for the high speed internet fees. I chose the "unlimited" plan called "impatience 1399" which offers 4 MBPS speed for the first 25 GB every month.
The agent told me it may take a maximum of 3 days to get the connection after he submit the application to Airtel. (What he did not tell me is, how many days he will take to submit the Application form to Airtel!). However, I explained him my situation and how I am dying to get a connection on same day. He was very kind to me and promised me that he will "do something" and get me connected before end of next day. Thank God, India still have lot of good souls!
Immediately after the Airtel agent left, my friend called me and asked whether I paid cash or cheque. When I said I paid cash, he told me that then forget the money! He educated me that paying cash is a risk because there are lot of fraud agents in the city and don't be surprised if they run away with the cash. I realized how foolish I was because I did not even ask for the Id card and do not even know the name of the person. I prepared my self to sacrifice the money.
I waited 3 days and heard nothing from anyone. The assurance from agent that he will help me get expedited service was just an eye wash.
Lesson learned: Do not fill an application form for Airtel broadband internet through an Airtel agent. He may not run away with the money, but it will significantly delay your application processing. Instead, walk in to an Airtel relationship office with all the necessary documents and fill it right there.
After several calls to the agent who took the money from me, he gave me another technician's phone number. When I called the agent at 8:30am in the morning, he asked me to call after 1 hour. I called after 1 hour and he asked me to contact another technician. I contacted the next technician at about 11Am and he asked me to call again after 30 mnts. When I called the technician again after 30 mtns, he told me he cannot find any work order or application details of mine and he gave me the customer support number.
I called Airtel customer support and learnt that they have not received my application form. This repeated for few days. I called several times on the phone number given by the agent. And finally I heard from the agent and he told me that he has submitted the application form to Airtel for the broadband internet connection.
On 4th day, after several phone calls, Airtel confirmed that they received the application form from the agent. But they can't give me any additional information since I have not waited for 4 days (according to the agent, I had to wait only 3 days. Now, according to customer service, I need to wait for 4 days). When I said there is only few more hours remaining to complete 4 days waiting, the lady told me to patiently wait for few more hours and she assured me that someone will definitely contact me before those few hours.
After Airtel confirmed they received the appplication form, I started calling the agent again to find out when I can get the connection (I called agent because he is the one who promised me normally it may take 3 days, but he can try to expedite it and make it happen in a day. But many days already passed so far).
I patiently waited for my "Impatient 1399 broadband plan". Next day came and nothing happened. I started losing my patience and decided to call customer service until I get a satisfactory answer. I made several calls on 5th day. I spoke to several people including managers at Airtel. Each time I requested for an 'escalation manager', the call simply went to 'hold' and then later disconnected. I was wasting my money on those phone calls. Also, during first first few calls, since Airtel had not received my application form, they were not able to register my complaint. So I had to repeat the whole story to each support person I spoke with no call history recorded.
Each time I spoke to the floor manager, I was told that he will call me back within 2 hours, 3 hours etc with a definite answer on the delay in processing my application.
Surprisingly, in one of the calls, a service rep told me that my connection is scheduled for 17 June, which require another 2 weeks waiting. Luckily, no other service rep repeated that which made me think that they were simply trying to shut me up for another 2 weeks.
In one the calls, customer support agent told me that I did not respond to a survey from Airtel and that is what delaying the process. It was true that there was a SMS survey and I failed to respond to it properly due to my ignorance on using the SMS system. In fact, I responded, but I got an error message from Airtel saying "invalid command". I probably did something wrong in responding.
Let me skip the long stories of my long phones calls last 2 days. The latest status I have is, I had a long call with an Airtel manager and she registered a complaint on behalf of me, gave me a complaint number and instantly gave a status update: "Your issue will be resolved before 1 pm on 6 June".
Wow, this sounded like a definite answer to the problem. I was excited on the efficiency of the complaint management team. There were able to "analyze my complaint and estimate the time to resolve" was only 10 seconds. Even though I need to wait another 2 days, I was pretty happy that I will get connected to broadband internet within 2 days.
Wait, as soon as I thanked the lady and hung up my phone, I received an SMS from Airtel saying something like "we will review your complaint before 1 pm on 6 June". Then I realized the manager lady in Airtel customer service simply tricked me again. The 6th June deadline was just to look at my complaint and not to give me internet connection by that day. She simply lied to me.
I lost my patience completely. But I can do nothing but wait because I am at their mercy.
I will soon update this post after I get any updates from Airtel regarding the broadband internet service for me.
Update on 6 June 2011: There are 2 hours remaining to complete the deadline given by Airtel executive. But I decided to call them and check the status since I lost my trust on Airtel already.
The customer service rep who took my phone really hit my nerves. He said, since you did not provide some information, your request was not processed. I really got mad and asked: "What the hell you mean by 'some information'?". He was looking for words and then told me "phone number and address".
What the hell this guy is telling? I lost patience completely. If the complaint is attached to my application, why he can't look up my application form and find out my address? I feel pity for the guy who has to take the anger and frustration from the customers. He is just another call center guy who was forced to work for Airtel because the options are limited for educated graduates like all of us.
I asked for the manager again. (I have been asking for manager many times last few days, but each time after putting me on hold for several minutes, a Shiva Sankar or Jasmine will pick up the phone and say 'Sorry, escalation team is busy', instead, you can talk to me!).
This time I was connected to the Mr. S (name not used to avoid personal attack on the poor guy) again. (I started using the name of people now in this blog, so you can guess my level of frustration at this time.) After expressing my disappointment through the most polite language I could at that level of frustration, I asked for his manager since he was of no help last couple of days other than giving me false promises. He gave me the nodal officer's name, email and phone number. what he did not tell me is, the nodal office will never pick up the phone.
I tried to call the nodal officer several times. Each time the call goes to the music for ever and get disconnected itself after several minutes. As of writing this, I had no luck in reaching the nodal officer through phone.
Hold on, it is 11:59 pm now. Mr. S had promised me about 2 hours back that he will talk to the sales team and would give me a definite answer before 11pm today. I am going to call him again (well, he told me I can ask for his name when I call customer service, which was a smart way to get away from me. Customer service would never connect me to anyone by name. My only option is to try several times and ask for manager each time and sometimes it will happen to be him!)
12pm: I called Airtel customer support again. This time the rep told me that they are working on this and will get back to me before 2pm. Then I asked are you going to get back to me or get me the connection today? He said I will get the connection today itself (another way to shut me up again).
I was given the direct phone number of nodal officer Lalit Chabra as well the regional officer Mr K. K. Sharma, who is the highest authority I can speak with. However, those numbers were useless because it served no purpose other than wasting my money on waiting for them to pick up the call. I made several calls and each time after 5 minutes waiting, the call will get automatically disconnected.
3pm: I called customer service representative again. I was given the most stupid response I was given by Airtel so far: "The complaint is closed because we could not reach the customer". Probably they tried to call me 1 or 2 times today and since I was on the endless calls trying to reach Airtel authorities, I could not pick up their calls. So the smart men over there decided to close my complaint.
What does this mean? Forget my money and apply for broadband internet through some other providers?
The Airtel broadband customer service representative was kind enough to open another complaint for me and wait for another 3 days to hear back from them!
Lesson learned: If you have a complaint registered with Airtel, do not sleep and don't even go to toilet. If you miss a call, they will close your complaint! Sorry for being sarcastic, but I am losing hope on them.
I asked for some better solution than making me wait another 3 days to hear back from them. I asked for the same Mr. S and the rep told me that he is at break and will get back to me very soon. I waited few hours and he never got back to me.
6pm: I gave up on my efforts to reach the top level officers on the phone numbers I managed to get from Airtel. They never picked up the phone. so, I decided to go for an easier media - email.
I sent an email to the following email ids:
nodal.southabts@airtel.in
appellate.southbts@airtel.in
The email ids belong to Lalit Chabra, the nodal officer and K K Sharma, another higher level authority. I am waiting to hear back from them. If they ever bother to respond, I will post them here.
7 June 2011, 11:20pm: I haven't heard anything from anyone at Airtel. Called Airtel customer service and asked the status of the application as if I am calling first time. I asked what log they have on my application and what service requests they see on my application. They said they see nothing. They said they will register a complaint. So, I decided to register another complaint saying I have not heard anything from Airtel after they took my money.
I decided not to make any more money on phone calls and decided to take a short break.
8 June 2011: Made few more calls to agent who took the money from me, customer service etc. Heard nothing different from them other than the regular statements like 'we are working on it', 'your issue will be resolved before 11:58pm on June 17th' etc.
It is interesting to note that each time Airtel gives me timeframes like 11:58pm, 1:53pm etc. When someone give a time including minutes in it, you would really think they are serious about their commitment:-) If they tell you a time like 11:58 to resolve the issue, and if you call at 11:55, they will tell you that there is still 3 minutes remaining and call only if it is not resolved in another 3 minutes!!!
Evening I decided to go to an Airtel office and deal with it directly than calling the customer service which was proved to be a waste of time. I was still learning driving in India (after living in USA for 12+ years, I am not good anymore to drive in India). So, I took help from a friend to take me to the Airtel office in Koramangala.
When I explained the situation to the person, he called the agent and his lead and handed over the phone to me. I was frustrated, but controlled myself and explained the whole story to the team lead. He patiently listened to me, called some technicians in the area while I was in the call and then assured me that the broadband connection will be given to me tomorrow. I asked what was the reason for the delay so far and he had no clear answer other than saying 'some problem'.
I repeatedly asked few questions several times: 'are you sure I will get the connection tomorrow', 'is there anything pending on my application', 'is the address clear', 'is there anything I need to do from my side to make sure someone will come and connect me to internet tomorrow itself' etc.
People standing around me were laughing when I repeated some of my questions again and again. But that did not stop me from getting reassurance few times from the team lead.
Everything looked alright. This guy gave me 100% assurance that I will be online tomorrow.
9 June 2011:
In the morning, I got an email response from the Airtel Nodal office for the complaint I sent 2 days ago. The email looked like a machine generated mail. My complaint was, there were no resolutions to my past complaints to Airtel. And the response to this complaint was, 'we have registered a new complaint'! I am sure they did not pay any attention to my cries but simply decided to send me a casual response. I ignored that email and decided to give up on the nodal office since I realized he is no different from any other Airtel guys I spoke so far.
I am given a 100% assurance that I will get broadband connection today. It is noon now and so far no sign of any Airtel guy showing up here. So, I decided to call the team lead guy who gave me the promise. I made several calls and he never picked up the phone. The red flag started raising in my mind again. After several attempts to reach the team lead, I started calling the agent again. Finally I got him on call again. I expressed my frustration. He conferenced with some others and then re assured me that everything is on track and someone will come on or after 7pm to get me the connection.
7pm passed and nothing happened other than I waiting in front of the gate all afternoon. I started calling the team lead and agent. The team lead would never pick up the phone. I got the agent in the line and poor guy, he had to take a lot from me on the phone. He tried to conference with the team lead but told me that team lead is driving and can't take a phone call. He assured me that he will talk to the concerned people and get back to me within 30 mnts with an update. I said I don't want any updates, but need internet tonight. He said 'Yes, we will do it', which is the normal answer from Airtel guys for any demands you raise.
30 mnts passed, 1 hour passed, 2 hours passed.... No internet and no updates from the agent yet.
At about 10pm I called the team lead again, who might have gone to sleep by that time. He had a casual response saying something like 'I think there was some address problem..... we will install tomorrow'.
Man, this is beyond limit! I spent a pretty long time questioning the way they operate and the way they respond to complaints. The team lead had no explanation for no one showing up today even though he reassured me several times yesterday that someone will definitely come and install broadband services for me.
I was really upset with this guy but I knew it is useless to have any debate with him at all. After spending a long time with him on the call, I decided to agree to his promise that someone will definitely come tomorrow and setup everything. He gave 100% assurance again!
10 June 2011: I just wanted to confirm that someone will come atleast today. So, started calling the agent and team lead. I made several attempts to reach them till afternoon and they never picked up the phone. I am sure I made atleast 20 attempts to call them.
By after noon, I got an SMS from the team lead saying "I am busy, I will call you". But he never called me after that. I tried to reach him till late evening, but he never picked my call.
By 3pm, I got a call from a person claiming to be the technician and said 'We will come within 1.5 hours'. Finally, I thought everything is working out and someone is really on the way to my home. I canceled my evening dinner with some friends and decided to wait for this guy to show up.
Once again 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours passed and no one showed up again. I cursed myself for canceling the evening dinner, waiting on the Airtel guys. I called back the technician who would never pickup the phone until I was lucky in the evening. He picked up the phone atlast and said: "I am waiting for another person and will soon let you know if we will come today or later". Just another typical Airtel way of responding to customers!!
I waited another hour or so and called this person. After several attempts, he picked up the phone and said: "The person I was waiting for informed me that Airtel has not issued a telephone number for you, so we can't give you connection today". I asked who is responsible for this and how can we get this resolved. He said it is back end problem and he can't do anything. I asked for some contact details of backend person and decided to follow up myself since I did not want to leave it to luck to get this resolved by itself.
I got a telephone number of a back end person. When I explained my situation, his casual response was "it is a sales people problem and we can't do anything".
Hmmm.... I thought sales people are done when they walked away with my money! But looks like they are delaying this whole thing. May be they said this excuse just to get away from me for time being. I asked for contact details of the sales persons who are causing the problem. Also, I asked what I need to get this resolved. He said he will talk to few people and will get back to me within 15 mtns. Also, he promised me he will make sure I will get connection tonight itself (it was already 7:15pm!)
I decided to wait for his callback. 15 mnts, 30 mtns, 1 hour, 2 hours passed and no call back yet. Decided to call all the concerned people again. Called Suresh (agent who took the money from me), Dinesh (tech lead of Suresh), Prabakar (technician who called me and asked me to wait for him today to get the connection), Santhosh (the STO guy who is responsible for all the problems, according to Prabhakar). I kept calling each of them, one after the other and no one picked up the call.
I made the last attempt to call Santhosh at about 10:15 pm. He picked up the phone and when I said my name, he replied "Santhosh has gone to market". Since it was already 10:15pm, I asked what time he will come back from market and the response was "Only tomorrow". Did he quit his job with Airtel and went to market looking for another job!?
I am just updating this post and going to sleep since all Airtel guys who are responsile for my case have gone to sleep or to the market!
11 June 2011: Since my wait for Airtel internet connection did not help at all, I decided to go out and do some other work that I have been holding for many days.
I went out with few friends, but as soon as I reached there, I got a call from the Airtel technician that he is at my door to give us the connection. I did not want to lose this GOLDEN moment, so I cancelled all other programs and rushed back home. When I reached home, I saw a bike and no people. But when I called him, he said he is checking some connections from the road. After some time, he called and said he is going back since the wire from the road to my home is broken. Then I asked what is next, he said someone else has to fix it and he will come back only after that is resolved. I asked if it can be resolved in another one day and he confirmed 'Yes, it can be done'. I tried to call the backend person again, but as usual he would never pick up the call. Then I tried to call the agent, team lead etc and no one picked up the call.
12 June 2011 - Another Sunday waiting for internet: Went to church and came back. Called few phone numbers again and as usual, no one picked up the call. They are all familiar with my phone number and simply ignores my calls.
Finally, called the customer support again. I have to admit that customer support is very prompt in answering the calls but the only problem is, they have a standard answer: "we will register a complaint for you and your concerns will be addresses within 3 days".
I spoke to the customer service executive and the escalation floor manager in detail. The usual complaint went for about 30 mtns and as usual, I was assured that "please give us the last chance and your issue will be addressed by 2:30pm tomorrow".
13 June 2011: My wait for the best internet service provider in India still continues
Called the technician who was expected to come and finish the installation. He said he is still waiting on backend people to resolve the technical issues. Also, he said he will come and check in another 1 hour. But when I said "I am going to wait for you without going for work", he said "no need sir, I can't really say for sure if I will come or not".
Then I called the backend person, who is responsible for this according to the technician. He has not been picking up my phone calls last 4 days, no matter how many times I try. He did the same today as well.
Then I called the customer support and checked the status of the complaint I registered. His response was "The time to resolve this complaint is 2:30pm today, but it is only 12:50, so you have to wait another 1 hour 40 mnts".
At about the same time, I got an SMS from Airtel saying "Congratulations, your application for broadband is approved. It will be processed within 3 working days". This is adding insult to injury! I applied 2 weeks ago but they are acknowledging that they got it!
I really want to meet the people who named Airtel as the best broadband internet service provider in India and find out if they are brain dead!
14 June: Called customer support and cried to the customer service executive about my desperate need to get an internet connection. He was so kind and offered to resolve it quickly by marking my complaint as the TOP PRIORITY complaint. Poor guy, he did not know how many such TOP PRIORITY complaints I had already registered. I can't blame him!
After registering a new complaint, I asked him to connect to a manager. I got Pavitra, an escalation manager in line after few mnts wait. She too listened patiently and was kind enough to promise me that the issue will be resolved quickly. After about 15 mnts long discussion, she probably thought my wait is a hopeless wait. So she started saying 'you may not get internet from Airtel'. She mentioned the problem is the junction box in my area can give only 15 connection which is already given out. I asked "If the junction box exceeded the limit, can't Airtel solve the problem or ateast can't you inform me that your application is rejected? Doesn't Airtel has Money, Manpower or Infrastructure to resolve this issue?' She replied, we have all 3, but we have a coordination problem.
Exactly that is where Airtel failed in my case. They simply lack the coordination between different departments to resolve a problem.
But I have a doubt whether the issue is junction box issue since it is first time I am hearing that reason. So I called the technician who visited the place once. To my surprise, he said, 'there is no junction box problem'. The problem is the wire to the house is cut under the ground.'.
15 June: I decided to take a short break after making a call to the technician. Technician said he has to check if the wiring problem is resolved for which he will come to my home before evening. But he never showed up.
16 June: Called the technician again to check what is the problem. He repeated the problem is the wire to my home from the road is broken and the wiring guy has to come and repair it. I asked about the junction box capability problem which was mentioned by the customer service escalation manager.Technician confirmed there is no such problem. Then I asked what to do with the wiring problem. He said only thing we can do is wait for wiring guy to show up, for which he cannot give any timelines. I got the wiring guy's phone number from him and called directly. He said he will come when he gets time since he is busy in some other area. After couple of requests, he said he will come after 1 hour. We fixed an appointment to meet at my home at 11:30am. I waited till 6:00pm and he never showed up.
I called customer supported and registered another complaint. Time given to me to resolve the problem is 17 June, 2:11pm
20 Jun 2011: Last couple of days, I did not really bother to call customer support since I almost gave up on them. Today I called customer support again and checked status of last complaint. The casual answer was "Your complaint is closed and no reason is shown". I wasn't surprised at this answer since I got used to it.
I insisted on registering another complaint today. Also, I mentioned to them that I may be going legal against Airtel for wasting my time and money for all these calls to Airtel and the false promises they made. Ofcourse, Airtel can reject my application, but they have no rights to take so such of my time and make me wait indefinitely for them. When I insisted on a faster resolution, I was asked multiple times to wait at home for the technician to come and fix the problem. But no one came, except one case I mentioned above. (In that case, the guy came without informing and I had to cancel another program to rush to home to meet the Airtel guy, who is really a VIP for me at this time.)
After registering a complaint, I spoke to the escalation manager "Alit". He assured me that the problem will be resolved before 21 Jun, 10:26AM.
I asked him a question, mentioning that I will be recording his answer for legal purposes: "I have been waiting for several weeks for Airtel broadband. I registered so many complaints with no resolution or response from Airtel. Your company failed to resolve the technical problem in last 3 weeks. Does it mean your company is not capable of resolving this kind of a technical problem in a time period of 3 weeks? Does your company have money, manpower or infrastructure to resolve this issue in 3 weeks?"
I am sure if I ask such a question in USA, they wouldn't give me an answer but will forward to a legal team to give me a legally safe answer. I have experienced it multiple times.
I am sure Airtel support managers need better training. In spite of I saying "your answer will be recorded for legal purposes", he gave me the answer: "My company is capable of resolving this kind of problems within 3 weeks".
Okay, so what does it mean? Airtel has the capability to resolve this kind of problem in 3 weeks, but they did not bother to resolve. I think I have a valid case to ask for compensation for my time and my cost in using alternate internet connection and mobile phone bills. If Airtel has the capability to resolve the issue, they should have resolved it. If they can't, they should have told me about the expected time to resolve instead of false promises.
UPDATE 3pm: I just noticed an email to the webmaster of MyWindowsClub from an Airtel authority saying they noticed this blog and want to get in touch with the customer to resolve this. I will post more updates here soon.
I responded to the email and gave my contact details, complaint numbers, application number etc. The person responded to me saying his team will look in to it and get back to me soon.
UPDATE 3:30PM: A customer relations officer (Mr. Kunal) from New Delhi office of Airtel called me to check with me the problem, after seeing my email. I explained the problems. He assured me he will get back to me within 2 days after discussing with Airtel office.
After about 10 mnts, I saw an airtel guy walking around my home, checking up the Airtel box. Good sign.
5:30pm: The Airtel guy is still around looking for broken connection and wires!
21 June 2011: There was an Airtel guy outside my home testing connections for couple of hours. He kept on telling me that everything is alright and I am going to get connection in less than an hour. After some time, he left the place and someone showed up in the evening. He walked around the house looking for options to pull the wires in. Finally, he connected the wires. I connected my phone to the cable he pulled in. He dialed some number from his cell and it rang my phone. This is really music to the ears, and I haven't enjoyed phone rings better than this before!
When I asked him if I can make few phone calls, he said it is not yet ready and another person will come in an hour to complete that process.
I waited the hour he said and then few more hours but no one showed up. I went to sleep but my wife says she heard me shouting "phone is ringing" few times in the sleep!
22 June 2011: I got a call from Mr. Prashant, from New Delhi office of Airtel. He said he was just checking my contact number and will update me shortly to confirm the time to give me broadband connection. He called me again later and confirmed the connection process will be completed within an hour.
After 30 mnts, I got a call from the technician with whom I spoke several times in the past. He said he is at my home to complete the connection. I was at shopping about 2 hours away from home, but luckily someone was home to get him inside the house. Through couple of telephone conversations, he completed the process by about 2:30pm!
I reached home at 3pm and checked my computer. Yes, this time Airtel kept their word. I have lightning fast broadband internet!
We have a happy climax for my 4 weeks long battle with Airtel to get broaband internet connection. Thanks to Facebook. Someone posted this blog to the Facebook fanpage of Airtel and that made them get in to action! I got several calls from several responsible people in Airtel, New Delhi office and they made some sincere efforts to resolve the problem in 2 days after this blog was noticed.Airtel post installation support experience
23 June 2011: The celebration did not last long. Next day after installation, the internet connection and phone went down. I started the process of calling customer support and all other available contact numbers again. After couple of days, with the help of my Airtel New Delhi contacts, I got it resolved again. I am losing faith in Airtel again. It takes many days to get a technical issue resolved and the customer support in Bangalore is very poor in helping. I am wondering again how to call Airtel as one of the best internet service providers in India.
9 Jul 2011: Other than few intermittent breaks, internet and phone has been working good so far. But it went down again today and was completely dead.
It is good that I have not given my landline number to many people so far since I am yet to have any confidence in the Airtel service at my home.
I tried to register an online complaint through their website. After several attempts, one attempt succeeded and a complaint was registered. Most of the time, I was getting an error saying "Sorry, your complaint could not be registered at this time. Please try again later.".
Later, I called the customer support and asked expected resolution time. I was told it will be resolved before 5pm on 11 July and someone will call me to check the connection at my home.
5pm passed and nothing happened. I called Airtel again. I got the funny answer 'Your issue is resolved and your complaint is closed'. The technician simply decided to close the complaint and wrote the reason as 'there was a wiring issue which is resolved now'.
I made the support person reopen the complaint and asked for a supervisor. He put me on hold for a while and then disconnected me. I kept calling and finally I managed to speak to a supervisor. Supervisor gave me another funny answer: "There is a major problem in your area and need to be fixed.". I was very frustrated and asked if it is major problem will you need 100s of people and machinery to fix it and he said "yes".
I wonder how Airtel people make up such reasons! Few minutes back I was told there is a small wiring problem in front my house and now it has turned out to be a major problem in the area! Then I asked, if it is a major problem in my area, it should have affected a lot of other people in the area. He said, no only I may be affected. Hmmm... I must be a special person. A major problem for Airtel in the area only affected me.
I am going to wait a while and see if the telephone toy at my home will become a serious gadget.
12 July 2011: No internet, no telephone and no calls from Airtel technician. I decided to send an email to all Airtel email ids I have hoping to get some help from some corners!
11:00am: Just sent the email addressing AirtelPresence@Airtel.in. They have been pretty helpful in the past, so I am hoping I will get some resolution soon. Talking to Airtel Bangalore customer support has been nothing but a waste of time and money for me.
11:15am: Just called Prashant at Delhi. So far, this was the only channel I could get any help in Airtel. He has been very helpful in the past and this time also he assured he will check my mail and get a resolution today itself.
13 July 2011: I did not get a call back from Prashant till this morning and internet is still dead. However, I am sure he is trying to help me.
Good News: In the afternoon, I saw a missed call from Prashant and then I checked the internet. It is working again.
Hope this will be a permanent fix and I won't have to complain again. I got some feedback calls and I raised my concern over the unconcealed wires and cables across the street which may be the reason for the unreliable connections. I was assured that it will be resolved as soon as possible and they will find a permanent solution.
15 July 2011: The Joy is over! Telephone and internet is dead again this morning. As usual, I called the customer support, registered a complaint, received the complaint number for my complaint gallery, spoke to the supervisor, listened to some usual jokes about the major problems in the area etc etc.
I once again asked for a free datacard from Airtel since the broadband is unrelaible and I can't depend on it to do any serious work. I was told to contact the nodal officer, but I refused to do so saying the nodal officer never never never picked up the phone in the past when I tried. I am sure I tried over 50 times so far and wasted a good amount of money for the phone calls to nodal officer.
Since I have no trust on Airtel support in Bangalore, I sent an email to Prashant at Delhi office who has been the only reliable person I ever interacted in Airtel. Let me wait for a call back from him.Best broadband internet service provider in India
I started this post with the intention of writing about the best broadband internet service from Airtel, according to the suggestions from my friends. At this point, I am really confused. I am terribly upset about their customer support (who do nothing other than apologizing for the inconveniences caused to me and giving me false promises).
I do not want to abandon my efforts to get Airtel because everyone suggested I am not going to get a better service from anyone else! At this point, all I wish is, once I manage to get the broadband internet, let it be fast and reliable enough for me to run my web based business.
After about 4 weeks of waiting, I got the broadband services from Airtel. I took the 4mbps unlimited broadband internet plan. I did a speed test today and it shows 5.3 mbps. I can now certify that Airtel offers the best and fast broadband internet services in India, even though I had to wait about 4 weeks to get the connection.
Tail piece: Who named the Airtel high speed broadband plan "Impatience 1399"? They should have named it "Try Your Patience 1399" :-)
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Dear Customer,
This is to inform you that your concern listed 04 June 2011 has been noted and our team is eager to resolve it. In order to get to the resolution, we need to get in touch with you and gather more details about the concern. However, we are restricted by the absence of your contact details in your original complaint. Please do write to us at airtelpresence@in.airtel.com with your contact details (address and landline or mobile phone number).
We assure you that we are committed to resolving the issue to your satisfaction.
Regards
Rakesh Kumar
Airtel Presence (Airtel Customer Service Team)
Bharti Airtel Ltd
airtelpresence@in.airtel.com