Airtel’s Customer Service Sucks

I recently had to disconnect a mobile number. My sister got married and moved out of the country. I asked her if she wanted to keep it. Since she’s not coming back to India anytime soon, she said to go and disconnect it. I called Airtel customer service and informed them of the situation, being very careful to tell them the reason is married and no longer in the country. The reason I had to even say that is because I knew they wouldn’t just disconnect it easily. I would expect they would try to talk me into keeping the number. It happens everywhere and with every company. Here, it’s a question of degrees – how much will they try to convince me and how much trouble will they give me.

I did this three months ago. Three months later, I was still getting bills. After the first bill, I called them and they said they never received the request. Thinking like an American (i.e., the disconnect would go through smoothly), I didn’t think to get a reference number for my call (as if that would have mattered anyway, but at least I would have had some ammunition). After the second bill, I called them and was told I should just pay this bill as the final and it would be disconnected. Of course, then I got the third bill. I called them again and this time I was told that the reason was my error – customer service usually does not disconnect numbers, that’s the job of the retail offices. I needed to go to the nearest retail center. They were just trying to help me out, really.

I was beyond pissed off by then. I asked them why no one had told me until now the process was to go to the retail office. Why didn’t someone tell me that if they did do it over the customer service phone line, it may not actually get disconnected. I asked the rep if he saw anything wrong with that. Very blatantly and with a straight face, he says absolutely not! I then asked him again. He repeated the same answer! Giving up, I sent an email to the customer service complaint department explaining the situation and providing reference numbers for two disconnect requests. I thought that it would finally be done.

A few days later, I got a call for my home Airtel number. Apparently, they had not received my bill payment yet. This phone bill has the internet service on it too. Needless to say, I am very careful of paying on time as it is, but especially for my internet connection line. I can’t not have internet. My clients would not be too happy if I disappeared on them. The interesting thing is that I paid the bill in the same exact manner that I have been paying bills (for 5 Airtel numbers!) for over a year. Surprisingly, this time around they don’t get my check! Apparently, Airtel wanted to get the last word in – they had to give me grief! This isn’t just an Airtel problem. It is exacerbated by an India problem. Even businesses take things personally. I was not in the wrong. I wanted to disconnect the number. I have a right to do that. But, clearly, I can’t just do that without paying for a few extra months and being given hassles otherwise.