CHEATING

After bearing lots of humiliation and disgust, I’ve decided to move a Fraud Attempt by AIRTEL to the Consumer Court. I’ve listened to many similar stories of WORST CUSTOMER SUPPORT in the past. But, I’ve been a victim of the same from last few months and I’m hardly left with anymore patience regarding this CHEATING CUSTOMER issue!

I’ve paid 1700 rupees for retaining a post-paid number [Deposit: 500, Previous user's balance: 300 & Yearly Rental: 899] and used it for hardly 2 days in December 2009.  When I went to pay my 1st month bill on Jan 28th 2010 – I was left with shock to see that the number is PERMANENTLY DISCONNECTED for address verification failure [same address is present on all my other Airtel Landline - Airtel DTH - Airtel Pre-paid services and all these services are associated with the same Pre-paid mobile number]. I’ve kept my cool and agreed to submit the documents again. Now, the REAL SHOCK: They’re asking me to pay the amount (Deposit + Rental + Balance) AGAIN for the re-allocation and activation of my 5 year old number…… GOD… !

• Do I need to be present at home all the time for their address verification??
• Do I need to pay 3500 rupees for making 5 or 10 calls??

Will see how far can I go, how much more can I pay & how long can I fight with AIRTEL people for RETAINING a 5-year old Post-paid number…! Will update soon!

UPDATE:1 (20th March 2010) – Mr. Mahender Kumar Sharma (from Corp Office in Delhi) has called me and promised me that he will surely try to resolve this issue by 23rd March. Keeping my fingers crossed! In between, thanks to N.N.Iyer (from India Consumer Forum ) for facilitating the discussion!