Payback : My story. Review on Airtel Broadband

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I had a small office set up of my own. As any typical office, it had furniture, PCs, Internet Connection and to make it possible a landline connection. I had earlier used AIRTEL broadband connection at home for a brief period and was pretty much satisfied with their service.

So, loyalty knocked and there I was, again surrounded by officially dressed, I-card displaying workers who promptly did the wiring and installed the handset. Another ‘engineer’ arrived the next day, plugged in the DSL modem to my PC, keyed in his settings and gave a broad smile after showing a page of ‘yahoo.com’ appear on screen.

A few months later, due to turn of events which made me shift my office to a home- cum-office set up, I had to put up a disconnection request over the e-mail. An auto-reply which expressed ‘great regret on losing a valuable customer like me’ assured that the proceedings would take 20-25 days and I ‘kindly co-operate’. No issues.

To my shock, the next bill which arrived seemed illogical, mind boggling, exorbitant, ambiguous, heart shattering and shocking! If you feel that all these words almost mean the same, you are wrong. You should have been in my place to experience the effects of each. Thereafter began the calls to ‘request’ me pay my bill to settle the dues. I declined to pay the amount for obvious reasons.

I had just one demand – “Explain the bill to me.”

With all the VAS and the VAT and Clip and the whip and the dip and the nip and taxes and rental and mental and accidental charges, I was at a loss to understand how I owed so much to them. They had just one answer– “The amount. Due date.”

They requested. I refused to pay. They demanded. I refused to pay. They threatened. I refused to pay.

“Explain the BILL to me!” – I snarled.

No answers. “Pay or you will have to pay.” seemed to be their slogan.

Things were pretty much forgotten for a while as it seemed the status quo would ensure that they give up and settle for what they deserved and what I owed to them. But I was wrong….

One ugly afternoon, I received a call on my cell(which I had mentioned as my alternate number while requesting that broadband connection and which had been used for the communication all along). The number flashing was a cell number, not a landline. The voice on the other side was a woman(lets call her Rani Champakali) who sounded very authoritative:

“This is Rani Champakali from patiala court, New Delhi. A case has been filed against you under clause 420/421 that you owe an amount of Rupees 1700 to Airtel Broadband. Your case no. is XYZ. Contact Advocate Rajeev Sharma on 98…. right NOW!”

Let me confess I did get shaky for a moment. But I gathered enough courage to call this ‘Advocate’ Rajeev Sharma whose number Rani Champakali had given. From the moment I mentioned him my name and my ‘case number’, the guy turned extremely rude and talked in no decent terms how I should ‘better pay the amount or face consequences’. An arrest warrant, a summon, court case – words used by him which I had only heard on News channels started echoing in my head.

But again, I ignored. Let them do what they want. I don’t have time to fill their coffers with my donations or rather cough up my hard earned money as hafta vasooli.

The demons may turn away for a while. But they return with double venom. And they did. Rani Chmpakali and ‘Advocate’ Rajeev Sharma made calls again a few days later, to tell me I would be arrested any moment that day and summoned to the court if I don’t pay ‘in an hour’.

I made my wife sit along with me and we visited the local AIRTEL head office in sector 57, Noida. Let me tell you that if that threatening call was made by Rani Chmpakali, my wife is a Rani Laxmi Bai. In cases where you need war with words or war with swords, I push her forward while I watch silently behind the screen.

I wished her all the best and told her –“ Just give it to them!”

I sat in my car outside the AIRTEL office while Rani Laxmi Bai went inside to fight our case. Half an hour later, she was out all smiles. Sitting next to me in the car she thrust a ‘full and final payment’ receipt in my hands. The amount written on it made me mad with joy. I just couldn’t believe my eyes.

Rupees 190 ONLY.

She had all the details in her hand – duplicate bills. I felt proud of her. Frankly, I would not have gone in the demon’s den and returned victorious.

The story:

They had charged us till late October for a request for disconnection request made on July 15th. Immediately after the disconnection request, we had stopped using the service. So, who was preparing the bills anyway while the connection lay unused?

Moral of the story:

Right to information is your fundamental right. You need to know why and how you are paying what you are paying.

You need proofs in the form of documents, e-mail print outs, last receipts etc to fight your case. Maintain your files.

Never get shaken up by threats. If you feel you can’t handle it, let someone else handle it.

*Hero(ine) of the case:

*My Rani Laxmibai of course :)

*Questions unanswered:

*Who were Rani Champakali and ‘Advocate’ Rajeev Sharma? Why they never called from any landlines if they were calling from ‘courts’?

I am told they were recovery agents from Airtel who pretended to be someone else. Does anyone have an answer which can confirm my doubts?