To Airtel Chennai Management,

Subject: How Airtel has turned the task of getting a new postpaid connection into a clueless circus!

Complaint Particulars :
1. Mobile number to be activated: 90030 59480
2. Date of application: 17th Nov 2012
3. Place of application: Silverline Networks, Chennai
4. Order number : ********


Complaint Details:

I will be listing out the following details for the 6th time in the last 23 days. And I am getting this copy-pasted for future use and followup with Airtel customer service, consumer grievance forums and social networking forums. This has now turned into a part-time job for me and I plan to start a blog on the same soon.

I paid and received a new Airtel SIM card on 17th Nov 2012 at the Airtel Showroom in Chennai - Silverline Networks for my father. The number chosen was ********80. THe oder number was ********. An airtel executive completed the address and identity verification on 19th Nov 2012. Post this I was informed by 121 that it would take one week to get the number activated i.e. 26th Nov 2012. As the number was still inactive (the signal strength and tower appears but is always marked as 'Emergency Calls only') and I was unable to receive or make any calls to any number.

I called up Airtel to verify the status and a request was taken down with a SLA of 2 days. I called up again at 29th Nov as the number was still not activated and the concerned airtel executive said they are still investigating why it is inactive as verification is showing as Complete. The request number received was 47368380.

I made a third call to 121 and was informed they will raise another request to find out why it was not activated still. The executive himself appeared to be confused and perplexed, hence I asked him to connect with his Floor Supervisor which he did after 10minutes of persuasion from my side. A certain Mr. Bala then came on the line and was extremely impatient, UNWILLING TO LISTEN, DOWNRIGHT INSENSITIVE and despite checking several times was unable to provide the REASON FOR INACTIVE STATE OF THE SIM. He only repeated that he has raised a request to the backend team. HE DID NOT PROVIDE AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE ESCALATION. He also gave a deadline of 24 hours for the activation.

I made a 4th call on 4th Dec 2012 and the circus continued with another 121 Airtel executive who had no clue on the status.

I made the 5th call on 7th Dec 2012 and the executive immediately connected me to another Floor Supervisor Mr. Ahmed (they seem to have got used to me by now). He was also UNABLE TO PROVIDE THE REASON FOR THE NUMBER BEING INACTIVE and said he is raising another request to backend team and gave me 48hours deadline for activation. Meanwhile I also raised on online complaint through Airtel Grievance Redressal mechanism which gave me yet another service request number P0120700154. (it is of no use because when I check the status online, it tells me number is invalid).

Today is the 10th of Dec 2012 and to nobody's surprise the number is still not activated.

It has been 23 days since I paid for a new Airtel number and 21 days since the address and identity verification was completed. Airtel has continued to remain steadfast in its commitment to harassing a customer who has 4 Airtel mobile connections, 1 airtel broadband connection since the days of TouchTel. Airtel has found innovative ways to cruelly entertain loyal customers by providing a dozen request numbers, half a dozen promises and making me run around for s simple status update on my new number.

Is there any way I can know the activation status of the number and also the exact reason for the status and delay?

Regards,
Prasanna
********20
********80