Disclaimer
In this review of Airtel am talking about their connectivity in MUMBAI & Navi Mumbai specifically, so the loyalists please don't jump in protest.
Hi Ma, what’s up?
All ok beta, what are you doing?
Am in kitchen about to cook kadhi, in fact called you for that only…how much curd do I need to put?
Beta take………….
Hello! Hello!
Oh the call got disconnected….
15 mins & 10 attempts later the network is still busy & the coverage tower is fluctuating like the heart beats fluctuate in movie ka hospital monitors. Sigh!
I did make the kadhi but the effect was missing….
This is just one day & one incidents of my life but the coverage of Airtel in Mumbai is so horrible that I can go on & on….
I have grudges more than one with them let me start…
: Left side is not the Right side
When am talking on my mobile suddenly the person on the other side says hey, can’t listen to you any more.
I get up move around, can you hear me now? No…I move a bit more, now? No….ohhh let me change the side & bingo the person can hear me.
After all the permutations & combinations I have concluded that if the mobile is on my left side the clarity is bad but if it’s on right, it is always right;-)
Now I have seriously started doubting if there is a problem on my left side;-)
: Aasman pe drawing….eh!
Airtel in Mumbai can give a stellar & unbeatable performance as far as Network Busy & Call lost'sare concerned.
Time & again it has happened that I am speaking to someone and the call gets lost & you keep trying & the only message that comes is~ Network Busy~
And trust me I have never tempted to draw in the sky but I do end up counting stars up there and for the network to get un-jammed;-)
: Ab koi dooriyan nahin
Well that’s what Vidya Balan & Madhavan have been chanting…please call me more than once, keep calling me. Well they justify it with slashed STD Rate.
I justify it with my logic. Well when you can’t get the call through 1st time, 2nd time errrrr… many more times then you have to keep calling na;-) and that’s the case with me too.
I very vividly remember the evening. I was trying to get in touch with my mom for some very urgent work(read it as wanting to know another recipe) I kept trying her but was not able to get through.
I then tried calling my brother(who has an Airtel connection) and asked him to tell my Mom to call me. 20 Mins later things were as is; even she couldn’t get in touch with me. I had to finally ask my brother to take her into conference so that I could speak to her, so much for mobiles making our lives easier.
: SMS= TMM i.e. Too Many Messages;-)
Day 1
I receive a ‘sms’ from Airtel. The message guides me how to download emoticons & colors in my SMS. I tired downloading it, was unsuccessful & forgot it.
Day 2 – 6
These buggers have decided to wake me up with their sms. Since am very busy I ignore it.
Day 7
I get a call from an executive telling me how to download it and requesting me to download this free service. When I talked about my failed attempts he tells me empty the memory and try doing it.
Day 8 – 10
Few more unsuccessful attempts & more than 2 messages in a day, am fuming. I call their customer care.
I narrated my issue to them. After putting me on hold for around 10 minutes what comes out is that to download that application you need to have Airtel Live activated on your mobile, which is not the case with me.
I don’t need Airtel Live on my phone because GPRS is already active. Then why am I crying here?
I don’t want to receive those unsolicited messages when they are of no use to me. When this was said to the executive he tells me he can not do anything for it. And tells me that you will recieve them as they are promotional. No amount of persuasion could convince them.
When I complained about the horrible network. He tells me that there is a problem in connectivity in Mumbai & they are working on it & can expect it to be resolved in few days. The same promise was made to me 4 months back.
But yes I must add that comparatively their GPRS facility has been good. And if it fails once in a while then it’s on the account of the poor connectivity,
Does this make me a satisfied customer of Airtel?
*At the end of the day what do I expect from my service provider?
*- Good & Consistent connectivity
Unfortunately in Mumbai, Airtel fails on all these accounts.
And when you see those fancy advertisements they all look hollow.
Every time I see them I feel ki If Only they could have invested that amount in the solidification of the network.
The only reason that I am continuing with them is that I have a corporate connection which bars me from using another service provider.
If that had not been the case I would have loved to end the daily story of losing calls, redialing, busy Network and many more related pains which have now become synonyms of Airtel for me**.
And if you are planning to take a connection Mumbai my serious suggestion is to stayw away from it. It's not worth the headache.
My heart bleeds everytime I see the network vanishing like woof! Don't take the pain its better to go without mobile:)*
