continued from Air "The Tare" Tel (part I)....
I was initially going to discontinue my current AirTel connection with immediate effect and in the meantime draft an official letter to AirTel to put it to their notice to free me of any liability of any SIM card registered and used in my name less I am dragged into any complications in the future; but the latest developments of the day (where my father also was told of a name-number mismatch) changed this outlook. My thought process took a different direction altogether - I suspected that I am just being lied to, i.e. the prepaid Airtel number which I have been using, always was and is registered in my name upon submission of required documents 4 years back but it is being conveyed to me by the CCEs that it is not.
As readers must be well aware, owners of prepaid connections have no written documentation if the need arises to prove that a certain number is registered in their name or not. Upon purchase, the ID and address proof documents are submitted along with the application form for number activation vis-a-vis the postpaid connection where there is written proof of ownership of the connection due to the monthly bills sent by the service provider every month and hence the first point to be noted is that if any manipulation has to be done, it can easily be done with the prepaid but not the postpaid connections. Now, why do I feel that Bharti AirTel Ltd, India's largest telecom company by subscriber base and revenue, would need any kind of manipulation? The answer is MNP or Mobile Number Portability which enables switching of service providers without changing cell numbers - an amazing facility introduced nationally in India in January 2011. A little research over the net yields a few interesting numbers and experiences - statistically, AirTel has lost the most number of subscribers immediately in the aftermath of the MNP (most even inspite of the fact that it blocks MNP which will be talked about in the next paragraph!). It did gain the most too, but the absolute losses are important to note placing it at a 3rd position in net gain after MNP introduction. Either due to lack of infra or employee force and their abysmal communication skills, AirTel was losing customers by droves when MNP was introduced. The subscriber base started eroding and shifting over to Vodafone or Idea and like any business, AirTel had to do something to stop this outflow which was bringing down its profits. Now, prepaid customers like me who have been using the connection for a pretty long time would tend to shift their numbers to new service providers more as compared to new customers; but MNP can't be effected when the number is not registered under the user's name. We can't check their data systems, right? So, by informing me that my number is not registered under my name, AirTel firstly secures the number ensuring MNP is no longer an available option; (given that I have no written proof about the registration details about the prepaid connection as discussed earlier) - now I can't port it and hence face 2 options - either to discontinue and abandon the current number if I am fed up with the service and switch to a new operator with a new number or continue being AirTel's customer and tolerate their who-cares approach and let them rob me bit by bit by unfair VAS activation and tariff scheme jumping. Most users who have been using their numbers for long tend to think that the loss of switching over to a new number would be far greater than the few bucks AirTel is robbing me off. Informing contacts of the new number, updating subscription details and informing banks or educational institutes (add impending placement season to that and the it becomes all the more unfavourable) of this change is a tedious process and might also result in some loss due to some or the other fault. Given the high uncertainty and the probability of damage caused being greater in the case of abandoning a number used for years, I as the customer would tend to stick back with AirTel - as a result, I go nowhere; they can charge me as they want and when they want; suck money as a leech sucks blood knowing my vulnerability. Thus, they retain a customer who was going to leave their service by manipulating his/her details; what else can be the explanation given that never had I been informed in 4 years that the number I am using is not in my name? how come was it verified in the first place !?
The above move is when they anticipate a voice raised against their unfair deductions/tariff jumps; for those who have not had unfair deductions or have had them but have been refunded or those who are simply unwilling to continue with Airtel and are contemplating MNP, for them there is another move waiting - rejection of MNP. As data shows, the most number of complaints registered with TRAI have been against Airtel among all service providers. MNP can only be effected when all dues are cleared of the former service provider and the said service provider clears the user's documents and disengages the number from the grid; after that, the documents are sent to the new service provider who upon verification, activates the number on its service. If the former service provider rejects porting, nothing can be done. Using this as a tool, Airtel denies MNP to a great section of its applicants as can be seen. Given that it has observed the outflow of customers in the 3 financial quarters since the introduction of MNP, Airtel is planning out MNP rejections as can be observed from the news reports. There are 2 cases which I am just citing here in the blog; there are many more I have read and there are bound to be more given the evidences the entire clandestine technique of Airtel is churning out! One case is of a Pramodz while the other is of iChaitanya - these 2 relate to MNP complaints while that of Avinash Narula speaks on another aspect of AirTel's cheating; I have picked them up from consumer and broadband forums. (Infact, in the 2nd link of iChaitanya, there is a post by Amish - dated Jan 29, 2011 09:41 pm which shares 8 reasons offered by Airtel to reject MNP; the 5th reason highlights certain aspects of my argument)
So, as both the above moves suggest and from all the data I could gather, Airtel is reacting to the event of the erosion of its subscriber base because of MNP and both moves (the name-number mismatch claim and blocking of MNP citing stupid reasons) are their tools to retain customers by hook or by crook! Instead of providing better services, they are resorting to malpractices and coercion. If it is indeed an infrastructure issue which is limiting its capability to serve customers in large numbers, they can stop adding new ones till the expansion is achieved and come up with maybe new attractive schemes to cover for lost sales during the phase, but no - the greed it seems has got the better of them!
As far as my current status in my "disagreement" with AirTel goes, I had drafted and mailed AirTel a grievance letter which actually bordered close to a letter of lambasting AirTel from its service, its CCEs to its ethics and morals. As mentioned in part I, I had warned them that I would be complaining to TRAI incase my dissent is not registered and I am not entertained regarding the whole issue. Round 1 of the interaction proved to be quick - they replied with a cursory mail stating that all VAS services were de-activated from my account. Though they failed to answer my queries about the switching in tariff plans and most importantly their communication to me about the number not registered in my name, they did try to pacify me (or buy me!) with a `300 credit - 6 times my current monetary loss and yet deficient in the essentials! Still, I have engaged them in round 2 expecting full clarity regarding all my queries. Without satisfactory answers to all of them, I will end up smoking off the credit they have awarded and would be switching over to another service provider soon. In the meantime, the letter to TRAI has been drafted; I hope I will receive some sort of a response from TRAI soon; incase that does not happen, as mentioned in part I, an application under RTI might just be on its way! Friends, small things do make a difference. We have to atleast register our voice against injustice, for what we feel is wrong and must be changed. Given what has happened with me and how my father learnt of his name-number mismatch because of this event, I urge readers to find out if their numbers are not in jeopardy. It can be a possibility that many of us are being tricked; please get back to me if it is the case with you and we will hammer in one more blow 'coz every blow matters - big or small, strong or weak, here or there - somewhere, sometime, someplace - everything matters a lot !
Jai Hind!
I was initially going to discontinue my current AirTel connection with immediate effect and in the meantime draft an official letter to AirTel to put it to their notice to free me of any liability of any SIM card registered and used in my name less I am dragged into any complications in the future; but the latest developments of the day (where my father also was told of a name-number mismatch) changed this outlook. My thought process took a different direction altogether - I suspected that I am just being lied to, i.e. the prepaid Airtel number which I have been using, always was and is registered in my name upon submission of required documents 4 years back but it is being conveyed to me by the CCEs that it is not.
As readers must be well aware, owners of prepaid connections have no written documentation if the need arises to prove that a certain number is registered in their name or not. Upon purchase, the ID and address proof documents are submitted along with the application form for number activation vis-a-vis the postpaid connection where there is written proof of ownership of the connection due to the monthly bills sent by the service provider every month and hence the first point to be noted is that if any manipulation has to be done, it can easily be done with the prepaid but not the postpaid connections. Now, why do I feel that Bharti AirTel Ltd, India's largest telecom company by subscriber base and revenue, would need any kind of manipulation? The answer is MNP or Mobile Number Portability which enables switching of service providers without changing cell numbers - an amazing facility introduced nationally in India in January 2011. A little research over the net yields a few interesting numbers and experiences - statistically, AirTel has lost the most number of subscribers immediately in the aftermath of the MNP (most even inspite of the fact that it blocks MNP which will be talked about in the next paragraph!). It did gain the most too, but the absolute losses are important to note placing it at a 3rd position in net gain after MNP introduction. Either due to lack of infra or employee force and their abysmal communication skills, AirTel was losing customers by droves when MNP was introduced. The subscriber base started eroding and shifting over to Vodafone or Idea and like any business, AirTel had to do something to stop this outflow which was bringing down its profits. Now, prepaid customers like me who have been using the connection for a pretty long time would tend to shift their numbers to new service providers more as compared to new customers; but MNP can't be effected when the number is not registered under the user's name. We can't check their data systems, right? So, by informing me that my number is not registered under my name, AirTel firstly secures the number ensuring MNP is no longer an available option; (given that I have no written proof about the registration details about the prepaid connection as discussed earlier) - now I can't port it and hence face 2 options - either to discontinue and abandon the current number if I am fed up with the service and switch to a new operator with a new number or continue being AirTel's customer and tolerate their who-cares approach and let them rob me bit by bit by unfair VAS activation and tariff scheme jumping. Most users who have been using their numbers for long tend to think that the loss of switching over to a new number would be far greater than the few bucks AirTel is robbing me off. Informing contacts of the new number, updating subscription details and informing banks or educational institutes (add impending placement season to that and the it becomes all the more unfavourable) of this change is a tedious process and might also result in some loss due to some or the other fault. Given the high uncertainty and the probability of damage caused being greater in the case of abandoning a number used for years, I as the customer would tend to stick back with AirTel - as a result, I go nowhere; they can charge me as they want and when they want; suck money as a leech sucks blood knowing my vulnerability. Thus, they retain a customer who was going to leave their service by manipulating his/her details; what else can be the explanation given that never had I been informed in 4 years that the number I am using is not in my name? how come was it verified in the first place !?
The above move is when they anticipate a voice raised against their unfair deductions/tariff jumps; for those who have not had unfair deductions or have had them but have been refunded or those who are simply unwilling to continue with Airtel and are contemplating MNP, for them there is another move waiting - rejection of MNP. As data shows, the most number of complaints registered with TRAI have been against Airtel among all service providers. MNP can only be effected when all dues are cleared of the former service provider and the said service provider clears the user's documents and disengages the number from the grid; after that, the documents are sent to the new service provider who upon verification, activates the number on its service. If the former service provider rejects porting, nothing can be done. Using this as a tool, Airtel denies MNP to a great section of its applicants as can be seen. Given that it has observed the outflow of customers in the 3 financial quarters since the introduction of MNP, Airtel is planning out MNP rejections as can be observed from the news reports. There are 2 cases which I am just citing here in the blog; there are many more I have read and there are bound to be more given the evidences the entire clandestine technique of Airtel is churning out! One case is of a Pramodz while the other is of iChaitanya - these 2 relate to MNP complaints while that of Avinash Narula speaks on another aspect of AirTel's cheating; I have picked them up from consumer and broadband forums. (Infact, in the 2nd link of iChaitanya, there is a post by Amish - dated Jan 29, 2011 09:41 pm which shares 8 reasons offered by Airtel to reject MNP; the 5th reason highlights certain aspects of my argument)
So, as both the above moves suggest and from all the data I could gather, Airtel is reacting to the event of the erosion of its subscriber base because of MNP and both moves (the name-number mismatch claim and blocking of MNP citing stupid reasons) are their tools to retain customers by hook or by crook! Instead of providing better services, they are resorting to malpractices and coercion. If it is indeed an infrastructure issue which is limiting its capability to serve customers in large numbers, they can stop adding new ones till the expansion is achieved and come up with maybe new attractive schemes to cover for lost sales during the phase, but no - the greed it seems has got the better of them!
As far as my current status in my "disagreement" with AirTel goes, I had drafted and mailed AirTel a grievance letter which actually bordered close to a letter of lambasting AirTel from its service, its CCEs to its ethics and morals. As mentioned in part I, I had warned them that I would be complaining to TRAI incase my dissent is not registered and I am not entertained regarding the whole issue. Round 1 of the interaction proved to be quick - they replied with a cursory mail stating that all VAS services were de-activated from my account. Though they failed to answer my queries about the switching in tariff plans and most importantly their communication to me about the number not registered in my name, they did try to pacify me (or buy me!) with a `300 credit - 6 times my current monetary loss and yet deficient in the essentials! Still, I have engaged them in round 2 expecting full clarity regarding all my queries. Without satisfactory answers to all of them, I will end up smoking off the credit they have awarded and would be switching over to another service provider soon. In the meantime, the letter to TRAI has been drafted; I hope I will receive some sort of a response from TRAI soon; incase that does not happen, as mentioned in part I, an application under RTI might just be on its way! Friends, small things do make a difference. We have to atleast register our voice against injustice, for what we feel is wrong and must be changed. Given what has happened with me and how my father learnt of his name-number mismatch because of this event, I urge readers to find out if their numbers are not in jeopardy. It can be a possibility that many of us are being tricked; please get back to me if it is the case with you and we will hammer in one more blow 'coz every blow matters - big or small, strong or weak, here or there - somewhere, sometime, someplace - everything matters a lot !
Jai Hind!
1 comment:
Even my no in M.P. is not in my name which I acquired last year again from AIRTEL! I agree with what you say.Irrespective of using airtel or not we must complain to TRAI and do what's in our hands at least.
Post a Comment