Myth about Airtel targetting zero questions with its new campaign ?

Bharti Airtel in recent times somewhere in Mid June 2020,  has come out with a campaign for targeting zero questions. Under this campaign, Airtel has rolled out a new campaign highlighting its aim to resolve every single customer query, learn quickly from failures, and ensure they don’t get repeated. The Open to Questions campaign is a multi-channel marketing campaign that will run across TV, digital, and print to communicate the company’s promise to customers.

As it is perceived by Airtel, the relationship between Airtel and its customers has never been more important, and to serve them even better the company has decided to take the customer care to the next level.

As appearing in some of the newspaper “Airtel acknowledges that it not only has the responsibility to provide access to high-quality telecom services but also to give answers to all their service related queries by responding and resolving them in a quick and transparent manner,”                                                                 (Source: Financial Express dtd. 18th June 2020)     The present article deals with a question as to whether it is a myth or the Airtel really means the campaign and learns from its failure in meeting the consumers' aspirations of getting the best quality of services, whether the consumer issues gets quickly resolves and/ or such issues does not get repeated. To find an answer, two complaints are being studied.

 Complaint No. 1

A consumer subscribed to a plan of Airtel known as the Annual Rental Plan for his broadband connection through the Airtel App on his registered mobile linked with the broadband connection. Under the annual rental plan offered by Airtel, the annual rental is paid in advance wherein a 20% rebate is given at the time of generating advance bill and its payment. The options as given on the Airtel App is for 6 and 12 months rental with the corresponding discounts. 

The consumer selected an option  of 12 months specifying a 20% rebate and paid online in December 2019. The payment made in advance should have taken his validity for 12 months i.e up to November 2020. However, it was shocking for the consumer when the messages after adjustment of monthly billing indicated that the balance amount in his account will be sufficient only up to August 2020. He took up his grievance with the Airtel through two modes viz social media (Tweeter)  and  DO messages in June/ July 2020. Some of the responses from their customer care executives are given below:

1. Confirmed having received the amount as stated in the complaint. Further asked whether it was just an advance or ARP i.e Annual Rental Plan
2. Did you inform the customer care executive at that time after making the payment? That is the reason it is not registered as an Annual Rental Plan.
3. Now, nothing can be done. We have treated the amount paid by you just as an advance paid.
4. At best, we can offer you an additional one-month moratorium. 

In the meantime, a number of emails were sent to Airtel along with the responses received from their customer care centre. One of the communications from Airtel reads as under:

"We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you due to the delay in addressing your concern. We understand how upsetting this must be and appreciate your patience in this matter. 

As per your telephonic discussion on xxxxxxxxxx with the undersigned dated 06th July 2020, this is to apprise you that your highlighted issue has been addressed, and please note that the current active bill plan is Airtel-UL-Value 999 300GB (16Mbps/1024Kbps) COMBO Plan (Subscription) monthly plan. 

Further, the maximum adjustment which we can process on your account is Rs 1178.82/- and I would request you to kindly share your consent so that needful can be done.'"

As the blog author is a consumer activist, such offers from Airtel were being rejected time and again keeping in view the principle to get the services for the amount paid without any compromise of getting any short service even by a day. However, the Airtel kept repeating the same communication throughout when the consumer finally sent an email quoted as under: 

"This time I am really feeling embarrassed for emailing you the reminders as well none of my call being responded to. 

The communications are trailed. The brief of the issue is 

1. I have taken an Annual advance rental plan for my broadband connection number xxxx-xxxxxxx through Airtel App on 22nd December 2020 and the amount as generated by the App after selection of 12 months advance rental option the payment was paid through the Airtel App on 22nd December 2020. 

2. The payment up to the bill for the billing cycle of mid-Oct to mid-November 2019 was paid separately on 7th December 2019. Hence the advance rental 12 months must be starting Mid Nov to Mid December 2019. 

3. I was shocked when I find my balance amount shall be sufficient only up to the billing cycle ending on Mid August 2020. 

4. The issue was taken up through customer care as well as emailing you. While emails to you have been non-responsive, the conversation with your customer care and their responses were again surprising and shocking. I was being told on the call that at best they can extend the validity for another one month at the maximum. 

5. I am leaving this conversation open to you for an interpretation but my interpretation is that the extension of the period by one month looks to be a donation from Airtel despite making payment for 12 months in advance but getting service only for 9 months with a donation of another one month i.e for 10 months despite paying for 12 months thus foregoing my advance payment for two months period. I have really not understood the logic as never heard in my profession of consumer activism.  

6. While I am leaving this topic for your best logical conclusion with a request that the same may please be intimated to me as soon as possible as I do not really want to be further feel harassed/embarrassed. I will respect your final conclusion on the issue that you may arrive at and intimate the same for the issue to be closed. "

The final response as received from Airtel on 12th August 2020 read as:

"Thank you for your email dated 10th August 2020 regarding billing related issue for airtel account number xxxxxxxxxx.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We understand how upsetting this must be and appreciate your patience in this matter.

This is to inform you that the highlighted concern has been attended and resolved as we have processed the credit adjustment of Rs 3536.46/- on your above-mentioned account dated 12th August 2020 and the current excess amount reflecting on your above account is Rs 5053.45 which will automatically get adjusted in your future bills." 

The readers of the blog may like to draw their inferences. It has taken almost 40 days to resolve an issue. Surprisingly the customer care executives kept repeating illogical things for all these 40 days. 

Complaint No. 2

The consumer is a subscriber of Airtel DTH services for the past several years on a prepaid recharge basis. It has been heard several times, the DTH operators do not provide the services for the entire period for which the payment has been made on a prepaid basis. The blog author never believed such a story as all the telecom services are driven through the application of  IT technologies and the chances for any error is unlikely to occur. However, the belief turns out to be a Myth. 

1. The consumer in the month of July 2020 recharged his DTH account and the confirmatory message confirmed the next recharge to be on 22nd August 2020. 

2. However as per SMS received by the consumer on 17th August 2020 reminding the consumer about the due date of recharge as 20th August 2020. 

The Airtel DTH was approached for such an anomaly as to how such an error can be possible in IT-enabled services. The Mail was sent to Airtel on 18th August 2020. The customer care executive on 18th/19th August 2020 could not explain such discrepancy and promised to come back with a solution. However, he has not turned up with a call till the time of writing this article. A period of 12 days has already lapsed till date.  There is No response to the mail sent to Airtel on 18th August 2020 which reads as under:

"I am forwarding herewith a screenshot of two messages regarding the recharge of Airtel DTH.  As per the first message dtd. 19th July 2020, the next recharge date is shown as 22nd August 2020 whereas 2nd message dtd. 17th August 2020, it states the due date for recharge as 20th August 2020. ID is xxxxxxxxxx.

I request you to kindly look into as to why such anomalies." 

The readers may like to see as to whether it is a "Myth about Airtel targeting zero questions with its new campaign" 

This article will be emailed to the Airtel for their perusal and comments if any with a hope that Airtel would look into such feedback for its improvement. The blog author would be glad to receive the comments for incorporating the same in the article as soon as they are received. I would also like to see as to whether Airtel reverts back on the anomalies of the recharge validity and resolve the issue or the Airtel would prove that the campaign for targeting zero questions is a Myth. 

Analysis

1. Two problems of similar nature i.e failure of the use of IT Technologies. Contrary to the campaign motives

2. The first complaint took 40 days in resolving the issue. The second complaint has already taken 12 days without any redressal and response. The advertisement campaign states learning from the incidences. What was learned from the previous incident? 

3. The campaign states a quick response. Is it a quick response. 

4. The customer care executives kept repeating the same solution for all the 40 days. Any lesson learnt out of the incident. If yes, it should not have repeated in the 2nd incident. 

Intimation to Airtel

An email has been sent to Airtel on 30th August 2020 sharing the article as per code of ethics. The content of the email is quoted below:

"Based on my experience of interaction with Airtel for about two months on two issues, I have published an article titled "

Myth about Airtel targetting zero questions with its new campaign ?"

on my blog with the link: 

http://skvirmani-jagograhak.blogspot.com/2020/08/myth-about-airtel-targetting-zero.html

You may like to pursue the article and may like to submit your comments. Your comments if any received shall get published in the article as "Comments from Airtel". Alternatively, you may also have an option of commenting on the post directly. The article shall be shared/ circulated on the various social media platforms for wider awareness.

The issues have arisen as systematic failures exaggerated by poor grievance handling and have been on a repeated basis. While one of the issues has taken 40 days, 15 emails as well as posting on tweeter, the 2nd incident has already taken 12 days without any response. This is what I felt that the advertisement of zero questions has been a myth. " 

Update 1: Comments from Airtel on 24th September 2020

Airtel after 25 days has submitted their comments which are quoted below:

"This is in reference to your complaint to TRAI vide reference number OT-09-20-0192, feedback regarding airtel services. 

We understand your concern and would like to apologize for an unpleasant experience. We always try to ensure that our customers get highest quality service through any of our channels. 

We have taken your feedback regarding the service rendered and the same has been communicated internally to ensure that you don’t face any such issue in future. 

At airtel, we believe that our customers' feedback is a valuable input which helps us to improve our services and ensure that we strive towards achieving customer satisfaction.

If you have any further queries/concerns, please feel free to contact us. We will make every effort to revert with a resolution as soon as possible."

As can be seen, the Airtel responded after 25 days of the issue raised through the post that too the incident as stated at S.No. 2 was not resolved till date i.e even on the lapse of 40 days. The Author sent its response as :

"Thanks for your response after a long time. The mail as received from you shall be written into the subject article. However, I feel regret that you have still not responded to the 2nd incident wherein DTH recharge was expired two days before due date. This is a systematic failure or may be IT software misappropriation deceiving the consumers. I would have appreciated if you would have resolved the complaint too. Regards

Readers may like to frame their own view. The Author is of the view that advertisement about Airtel targeting zero questions with its new campaign is a Myth with questionable poor grievance handling coupled with questionable trustworthy software.