I have activated a GPRS connection on my prepaid airtel mobile.
On initial enquiry to customer care centre following was stated by the customer care cntre :
a)It will be charged as 15INR per day from the day of activation till it is active.
b)The deactivation can be done by the user anytime by sending an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222.

On 19th Feb 2008, I wanted to deactivate my GPRS and following is the chronological events:

-19th Feb 2008, 10:28 pm :I sent an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222. I got an notification saying message delivered, but airtels system fails to process it / deactivate my GPRS.

-19th Feb 2008, 10:29 pm :I sent again an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222. I again got an notification saying message delivered, but again airtels system fails to process it / deactivate my GPRS.

-19th Feb 2008, 11:35 pm :Finally I tried it once more before I went to sleep: an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222. I again got an notification saying message delivered, but airtels/bhartis unreliable system fails again to process it.

-On 20th Feb , I sent an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222 and my GPRS atlast got deactivated.

However I observed that Airtel has billed me 15/-Rs for 20th Feb 2008 too.
I called up the customer care and address my problem against failure of airtel in deactivationg my GPRS on the day I sent the SMS and also for charging me for the additional subsequent day.
There response:
Sorry we cannot help you as the billing was done till 20th FEB 2008 as the GPRS was active till 20th FEB 2008 and doesnt matter if you have sent the SMS on 19th Feb 08.

I went to the Airtel office at Rammaruti Road, THANE,:
but the same response, however I asked them to log a complaint and they said it will be address in 72 hrs, but till date I have not heard from anyone.

Above is the issue and my concern lies with the failure of airtel to compensate or even accept the mistake or even they could have taken a feed back for a technical issue that would have helped the system to be better in future.

I have observed Airtel or Bharti’s inefficiency in the following aspects:

1] Customer relationship and marketing : You dont care for your customers, a mere 15 rs refund would have made me to appreciate people to go for Airtel, on the contrary I will rather urge people not too , also I will never activate GPRS again (A potential loss of 450Rs/month for airtel as against 15 rs refund). I am not discontinuing with Airtel since my phone number is of importance, but awaiting for a scheme to switch to another operator keeping the same number.

2] Inefficient Systems : Airtel couldnt even process a simple SMS delivered to there system. There is no failure mechanism to detect which SMS werent processed in the past (As Airtel customer care said confidently that we didnt recieve any request, but I have sent SMS thrice and they are with a delivered status in my Mobile.) . A failure mechanism ensures future stability of the system on basis of past failures. But Airtel is not even concerned about having manual feedback through customers as against automated failure systems.

Earlier also Airtel’s systems failed to realise payments made via ICICI bank towards recharging prepaid mobile twice. Upon calling both Airtel and ICICI bank you get the diffrence in attitude.

3] Brand Image and Capability rating : Very poor. My comment above would have given you an idea of me being a professional in the same industry. Even in professional world such incidences shall describe airtel as a very mismanaged and customer unfriendly organisation.

The over all poor performing IT - systems and infrastructure as mentioned above shows Bhartis inability to deliver / serve potential big projects. Even in professional world grape-wine communications are strong enough to make decisions.

The above statements seems harsh and over-spoken considering a mere 15Rs ! overcharge issue, but that is the truth I can decipher at my end.

Looking at series of incidents and failures, the image that Bharti and Airtel has, is now in doubt by me and many of my personal friends as well as professional colleagues. And they shouldnt be eligible to provide a service if they dont have the adequate infrastructure and attitude to support it well.

I would appreciate if Airtel / Bharti ever consider feedbacks positive enough, else every organisation is free to decide its own fate.

Yours Sincerely,

Milind Junagade

I have activated a GPRS connection on my prepaid airtel mobile.
On initial enquiry to customer care centre following was stated by the customer care cntre :
a)It will be charged as 15INR per day from the day of activation till it is active.
b)The deactivation can be done by the user anytime by sending an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222.

On 19th Feb 2008, I wanted to deactivate my GPRS and following is the chronological events:

-19th Feb 2008, 10:28 pm :I sent an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222. I got an notification saying message delivered, but airtels system fails to process it / deactivate my GPRS.

-19th Feb 2008, 10:29 pm :I sent again an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222. I again got an notification saying message delivered, but again airtels system fails to process it / deactivate my GPRS.

-19th Feb 2008, 11:35 pm :Finally I tried it once more before I went to sleep: an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222. I again got an notification saying message delivered, but airtels/bhartis unreliable system fails again to process it.

-On 20th Feb , I sent an SMS “GPRSDEACT” to 222 and my GPRS atlast got deactivated.

However I observed that Airtel has billed me 15/-Rs for 20th Feb 2008 too.
I called up the customer care and address my problem against failure of airtel in deactivationg my GPRS on the day I sent the SMS and also for charging me for the additional subsequent day.
There response:
Sorry we cannot help you as the billing was done till 20th FEB 2008 as the GPRS was active till 20th FEB 2008 and doesnt matter if you have sent the SMS on 19th Feb 08.

I went to the Airtel office at Rammaruti Road, THANE,:
but the same response, however I asked them to log a complaint and they said it will be address in 72 hrs, but till date I have not heard from anyone.

Above is the issue and my concern lies with the failure of airtel to compensate or even accept the mistake or even they could have taken a feed back for a technical issue that would have helped the system to be better in future.

I have observed Airtel or Bharti’s inefficiency in the following aspects:

1] Customer relationship and marketing : You dont care for your customers, a mere 15 rs refund would have made me to appreciate people to go for Airtel, on the contrary I will rather urge people not too , also I will never activate GPRS again (A potential loss of 450Rs/month for airtel as against 15 rs refund). I am not discontinuing with Airtel since my phone number is of importance, but awaiting for a scheme to switch to another operator keeping the same number.

2] Inefficient Systems : Airtel couldnt even process a simple SMS delivered to there system. There is no failure mechanism to detect which SMS werent processed in the past (As Airtel customer care said confidently that we didnt recieve any request, but I have sent SMS thrice and they are with a delivered status in my Mobile.) . A failure mechanism ensures future stability of the system on basis of past failures. But Airtel is not even concerned about having manual feedback through customers as against automated failure systems.

Earlier also Airtel’s systems failed to realise payments made via ICICI bank towards recharging prepaid mobile twice. Upon calling both Airtel and ICICI bank you get the diffrence in attitude.

3] Brand Image and Capability rating : Very poor. My comment above would have given you an idea of me being a professional in the same industry. Even in professional world such incidences shall describe airtel as a very mismanaged and customer unfriendly organisation.

The over all poor performing IT - systems and infrastructure as mentioned above shows Bhartis inability to deliver / serve potential big projects. Even in professional world grape-wine communications are strong enough to make decisions.

The above statements seems harsh and over-spoken considering a mere 15Rs ! overcharge issue, but that is the truth I can decipher at my end.

Looking at series of incidents and failures, the image that Bharti and Airtel has, is now in doubt by me and many of my personal friends as well as professional colleagues. And they shouldnt be eligible to provide a service if they dont have the adequate infrastructure and attitude to support it well.

I would appreciate if Airtel / Bharti ever consider feedbacks positive enough, else every organisation is free to decide its own fate.

Yours Sincerely,

Milind Junagade