We are writing this as an open letter to Airtel CEO. Hope we get a proper reply.

Airtel was waiting calmly to see what Jio was offering after their Dhan Dhana Dhan offer. Jio responded well with some decent plans. Airtel was too fast to reply with many promises, not realizing their customer support and software cannot handle it well. They had came up with two promises: data carry forward and new family plan. Their original family plan was against Government’s idea of linking Adhar with mobile number. While Government wanted to link every person’s Adhar, Airtel wanted to lose everyone’s identity and link one Adhar per family. We had shared a post on their twitter and Facebook pages regarding the same: http://criticscloud.com/infoblog/is-airtel-family-plan-defeating-the-purpose-of-linking-adhar.

Later we got a call from Airtel Social Media team and they said they have changed the rules and now you can add any child number. We tried adding a child through the app. But customer care said they cannot find its details and hence they will raise it again. In face the child number got two consent messages and both were replied back with yes. Later for a mail confirmation from Airtel: I have initiated your request to consolidating the bills for the above mentioned numbers. Let me assure you that the same will be completed within 11:00 pm on 25-07-2017. (Ref51127252)

By night parent number got a message that the child is added and we can see the child under drop down. However, we were not able to set limit for the child and it was showing as locked. Next day we called them and they said it should have happened, but may take upto 24 hours, but since it has passed the confirmation time they raised a ticket: 78094889. 24 hours passed by and then they said it might take upto 48 hours. 48 hours too passed by and now they are telling 33 more days as they are not able to understand their systems (Ticket is 78128402).  35 days for a family plan change? What a promise.

Issues are not limited to the Family Plan Promise, even data carry forward has its problems. While store people said it will continue to carry forward until it reaches 200GB, customer care said ( and even confirmed in mail) that data will carry forward to immediate next month and it will not go further. In our experiment we could see the whole data current + previous was carried forward. We posted with screenshots at: http://criticscloud.com/infoblog/airtel-data-carry-forward-explained.

We had already written a post about Airtel customer care’s confusion about offers: http://criticscloud.com/infoblog/airtel-itself-is-confused-with-airtel-postpaid-promises. In another instance customer’s account was showing upto 63 GB. But customer care asked not to use it and calculate usage manually based on how many MBs you use. Details can be found @ http://criticscloud.com/complaint/airtel-you-have-got-63-gb-but-should-not-use-it.

After trying to add the child, parent data itself was showing wrong. So we raised a ticket (78094980). A lady called and said issue is resolved and closed the ticket without even giving time to verify. She even said child locked issue will be solved. In fact both issues were not solved. Later when I called they said they will escalate and work on it. Are they treating customers as beta testers? Moreover, they provide wrong information and disconnect calls when they do not have answers.

Finally a quick note about their open network promise. Network speed was very poor in Doddanakundi Bangalore. Airtel rep came and verified. We tested Airtel's speed using the same tool that made them India’s fastest network in front of the rep and results were poor. They said they have understood from the readings that and will increase bandwidth for data and will transfer the call quality issue to another team. Later we came to know that they had given same response and promised a 90 day period 4 months back with another person in same apartment. All details are available @ http://criticscloud.com/complaint/testing-airtel-speed-ookla-speedtest-and-open-network-promise-at-doddanakundi-bangalore.

Finally we have sent the PORT request. Customer care said there is no outstanding and I can port. Also said parent number will not be charged the 399 as plan is not yet activated. Still 33 days left to activate. Previously they used to call and provide some offers and all. This is a 3 year old connection. Did not get any call and we had to call and confirm things. Let us see if they will approve the PORT request or make reasons during the PORT.

We believe Airtel has either already lost the battle or will lose the battle soon if they don’t stop providing unrealistic promises. Wish they reply to this post.

Updates

Got a call first and said everything will be fine.

Further mails to appelate is rejected as their mail box is full with complaints that they cannot handle:

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