Why am I planning to move away from AIRTEL and what are the better options for Mobile, Broadband & TV?

Getting smooth services in India is a challenge even when you pay huge amount for number of services to these companies. Airtel is a big company in India and if companies like Airtel fail to serve well, what to expect from others. But there is no relation, as some smaller companies do much better job at post-sale services (e.g. - I am super impressed with services provided by Kent ). Let me start with the number of Airtel connection with my family – my mobile number (10 years +), my wife’s mobile number (12 years +), Boradband (3 years +), landline (3 years +) and Airtel TV (4 years +). And a secondary number with my dad. My parents use BSNL. In total, we pay 3600 to 4500 Rs in a month.

After making OYO popular, it’s time for Airtel. Idea is to share the mental harassment I have gone through and which lead me to explore other options in market. I want to share other competitive options available and why those seem like a good candidates for switch. I am sure lot of other folks would go through the same frustration and would want to explore what is better for them, if they want to move away from Airtel.

So the story started when I had to shift from one sector in Noida to another. Before shifting I made a call at 121 and confirmed the process. They said that it’s recommended to call on the day you shift and then we take 5 official days to resolve it. I asked if it can be done earlier. The gentleman said that it’s usually done in 2-3 days and when you call, ask them to mark the request urgent. And the team would take it on priority. Since the movement is local, it should be an issue to do in a day. I made the call to 121 at 8am (26th Dec’16) on the day I was shifting and had a long call to ensure that the person on other side understand the urgency and get it resolved in time. Gentleman assured that it would happen within a day. 2 days passed and I didn’t receive any call from the team which had to do it.

Now I tweeted to @Airtel_Presence and immediately received a call with another assurance, but no action. Series of tweets were exchanged for 5 days but no call from technical team, which had to do the actual work. Finally I made another call to 121 at around 1pm (31st Dec’16) and the gentleman tells that it would be done in 48 hrs. Now it was unacceptable. Airtel took 5 complete days without any action and then they say it would take 48 hrs. And what was the guarantee that it would happen in 48 hrs. I asked the guy to send me an email that we were unable to complete the movement of connection due to technical details and now it would take 48 hrs to resolve (what he was telling verbally on phone). He refused to do that. I asked for escalation path and then he said that let me transfer the call to supervisor, which remained on hold forever. It was 15 minutes call. Can you imagine the amount of time I had to spend on Twitter, calls with social media team, calls to 121 and the metal harassment my family went through. I am a IT professional and I have high dependency on internet connection. Due to lack of connection at home, my whole schedule got changed. The better part was that I was on holidays, otherwise I would have to reach office early and come late to ensure that I work properly without missing any meetings with US teams.

All this made me take the decision to move out from Airtel. While writing this post, I am still using Airtel but I would certainly change. I don’t want to give business to such company which doesn’t respect customer’s time and don’t have processes to fulfil commitments. I was really shocked with the way everyone on phone kept assuring me but there was no action on ground.

Here are some of the very good alternates available -

Mobile Connection - Jio is already playing big to replace these players, but that would not be straight forward. I myself tried Jio as secondary sim but that is certainly not an option for me. Very unreliable and who wants to compromise on primary contact number. Aircel is something I would love to explore, as I am impressed with some of the initiatives of this brand. Idea and Vodafone are there but I need to ensure that connectivity is good while travelling.
TATA Sky – My in-laws and parents use TATA Sky and never heard any issues. So there is a clear option apart from few more available in my society. I am yet to explore and see which one works best for me, in terms of quality of services and pricing.
Landline & Broadband – Landline is never a need. It’s just that Airtel gives this connection with Broadband and my parents like using landline in comparison to mobile. But if it’s not there, they always use mobile phones. There are lot of regional players and since I moved to a bigger society now services of Hathway are pretty good. And it’s cheaper as well. Wiring is already done and they have a small office near the gate. Nothing can be better that this, if internet speed is good.

During all this, I could collect following email-ids, which may be of some help. I was so frustrated that I didn't try these emails, as it was already too late.

121@in.airtel.com

Nodal.ncr@in.airtel.com

Abbellate.upwest@in.airtel.com

011-41604690

I will be a separate post which would have details about other better options when you want to move away from Airtel, so stay tuned.

Check out a similar story here by Tech Blogger Prashant.

Some snippets from from Facebook conversation -