Airtel review: no customer care number active, website full of errors! 92

Indeed, they are cheat. Has anyone got back their money ?
I have filed a complain before. FTC (www.ftc.gov ).
Would request each of you to lodge a complain before FTC. Please use the following link to submit your complaint: https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

I lost $ 100. After couple of tries it says the Account is Locked. Customer Care Number is always busy. This is cheating and the company of Airtel wants to make Quick Bucks...

This is organized crime. Mafias in telecom industry as well ?

The website is not working properly. It's taking a long time for the website to open up. Event though, it opens up, the log in info detail form is not saving the information. In fact, there are many loop holes in the website.

You guys are missing some points. First it is clear to all of us that the site belongs to the same company Airtel which has 30+million customers in India. Why should it and how can it get into some fradulant business? High business stakes here, right. It is a listed company and one should think whether such obvious fraud is carried out by such organizations.

Looks to me more like unexpected traffic at their web site and call center. Look at our benefits which are higher than the small advantages of beautiful web site or smart call center executive greeting us...

1. Rate is much cheaper than reliance Indiacall.
2. Very clear voice, I did feel i am not far off from my mom when I spoke to her. No shouting into the phone to get heard and broken voice.
3. Calling is working fine. I can wait for the guys to get ready with call center and a better functional web site.

I believe all you guys may have to wait a bit to get your overcharged amount refunded. Look at the bright side...
You have alternate service provider with superb voice clarity and good rates.

I fail to understand why reliance is not reacting to the drop in prices?

Airtel stores your credit card info permanently. There is no way to delete your info. This is serious after seeing the complaints. They may charge in the future ! We need to file a fraud case as airtel doesnt give what they promise. Some of the promises broken:

1) Service not available to customers. Customers cannot call their toll free numbers, forget about reaching India.
2) 24/7 support doesn't work
3) Insecure transaction cannot trust, excess charges.
4) Call drops - Inefficient service.

We need to spread this message to all NRIs before they fall prey.

I purchased a card $25 and I'm unable to make calls in spite of having account number/pin.

I found a site which offers service at good rates. Try: http://www.uniontelecard.com/
They provide one second rounding and charge 8.3 cents/min. As they give one second rounding, it works out cheaper than any other company.

Hi all, earlier i had complained on airtel for charging my credit card and for not providing me the account. After a wait of 10 days, today i had received my account, and am able to make calls to India. One positive observation about airtel service is that the transmission is of high quality. I wish that all of you would also get your refund/account.

I agree with Sathya, Ranjan & Suresh..I was also frustrated when got into this registration and CS call failures, but few services are better now for me. I believe Airtel team is rectifying the defects (but very slowly!). I hope every one will be going to get a better and cheaper alternate service provider very soon. Also hope to see a very quick reaction from Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group! All the best for everyone. Happy holidays!

It is really bad!

Don't have words to explain it.

Once I got the reg details and started using the service, it has been a good experience, the network is better than reliance. I am sure that Airtel being such a big name in telecom back home, will resolve all the issues plaguing the service right n0w...after all its been a remarkable company over a short span of time!

Folks, just tried the website yesterday & all is well man. Don't know whats the fuss all about. Airtel must hav had problems at the start but things seems to be ok now. Whatever said & done, some credit should be given to the airtel guys for bringing in the price war, otherwise one would still have to pay 13c for a call. Also the double talktime promo too, reliance is now copying airtel, good for us dudes ... at least the monopoly has ended. Just a word of caution though, I had checked the Reliance site and it says celebration offer valid till 15/31 jan. Dunno if this applies for the rates too as the website has not specified. cud be that Reliance new rates are just temporary, Who knows...can anyone pls clarify on this .. can't get thru to their call center either.

Raliance has slashed its rates to match airtel. Great move!

https://www.relianceindiacall.com/US/coffer.asp

Guys,
It's the same case with me.I lost 25 bucks! with this stupid website.
What the hell is going on with Airtel ? Don't they recognize the false reputation going on in USA?
People who are taking care of Airtelcallhome should be fired! right away...
Or do you think some one else is using their name?
Let me know if we need something to SUE those ###!

This company is registered company in USA

Put your complaints online against them to BBB.Org , They follow up

Better Business Bureau Serving Metropolitan New York (New York, NY)
257 Park Avenue South
New York, NY [protected]
Phone: [protected]
Fax: [protected]
Email: inquiry@newyork.bbb.org
Web: www.newyork.bbb.org

After trying to make a call unsuccessfully for 3 days and not able to reach the customer care even once, I called up my credit card company. I blocked the payment and said bye bye to Airtel.

Its a big blotch on AIRTEL brand. I had jumped blind into their lap because of their brand, but they haven't done justice to it.
Seeing so many people complaining makes me feel that the service was put up in a haste without proper testing.

AIRTEL folks wake up...

By the way: For side effects of completion: We got rate reduction from Reliance and also the bonus minutes... balle balle...

DON"T EVER BUY THIS CARD... YOU WILL REGRET IF YOU BUY.

I tried their website to buy the card. Three time they declined my card on their website. Next day I see a charge of $25 on my credit card.

Tried calling their customer service (never lets u connect...) . So, I tried to submit complaint thru their website, it won't allow you to do it. Looks like their website is designed by a rookie. After three days could get some one on line for their disgraced customer service. Tried to force me using their card. After threatening them with stop payment on my card, they agreed to refund. 15 days later I got refund.

In between this, I tried to use their toll free number for calling. Their toll free number never connects. You will wait for 2 hours even before connecting to toll free number. HORRIBLE SERVICE. Even worst than the prepaid calling cards.

In short.don't even attempt to buy this card. You will regret and your money is surely going in drain.

Airtel - a big company with a disgraced and horrible customer service.

I had lot of issues and one of them is registering my telephone numbers on airtelcallhome.com. Always the calling 1-800 number is busy. Customer service is hope less.

So we need to send all our issues to the following email address and also we need to copy Airtel chairman Sunil mittal. How his company is providing service (Disgusting and frustrating service ever had)

customerservice@airtel.in

Please be proactive ...after all its our hard earned money and we are the consumers...start below..most of the details are available on the AIRTELCALLHOME website..

https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=

Thank you for recent correspondence. The Federal Trade Commission acts in the public interest to stop business practices that violate the laws it enforces. Letters from consumers and businesses are very important to the work of the Commission. They are often the first indication of a problem in the marketplace and may provide the initial evidence to begin an investigation. The Commission does not resolve individual complaints. The Commission can, however, act when it sees a pattern of possible violations developing.

The information you have provided will be recorded in our complaint retention system. This computerized system enables us to identify questionable business practices that are generating numerous complaints and may be in violation of the law.

Thank you for providing information that may be used to develop or support Commission enforcement initiatives.

The advent of airtell brought one important thing, that is Reliance bring down their rates to call India.
In a way we thankful to airtel. But its service is pathetic. Simply wasting our money and time.

Airtel is a cheating company and follows the rules as if USA is India and no proper response to customers. I have opened a new account with 25$ and I was offered to get bonus minutes for another 25$ (since I registered before 31st Dec 06) but it did not happen. When I called customer care, they said that it will be taken care in 24hours and actually it was not so far. When I wanted to talk to their supervisor ignored the issue, he/she simply played cheap tricks for the three times consistently by disconnecting the call. This company should be dislodged from working in USA if they can not answer or take care of customers problems properly.

Just avoid Airtel Call Home. Same story as all of the recent complaints. Web site sucks. Credit card charged but gave me error at the time of registering it. Could not call Local access number. Customer service number does not work 24x7.
I have asked for a refund today (31st Dec 2006). Lets see when they actually refund it. How can we sue these guys?

Good luck with the refund, I asked for the same and they said they could not process it...as per the company policy. I complained about the bad lines and not being able to get connected via the toll-free number...and yet another complaint was registered. Blah! They've asked me to try in another hour...lets see...wish me luck!

I had same problem with BhartiAirtell. I disputed the amount with credit card company and finally I am out of this scam. Stay away from this company!

I registered with Airtel 10 days ago and have only been able to make 3 successful calls to India. 9 out of 10 times the access number itself is busy. When you try to call the Customer care center, that number is busy too. A week ago, I was able to get through to Customer service once to get my Easy Dial numbers registered. I was told that it will be fixed in 24 hours...it seems like 24 days, because to date my issue has not been rectified.

For those finding the 4c/min to India rate attractive...think again. It is better to pay 8c/min on Reliance and get connected to your loved ones.

This AirTel cookie is not baked at all !

I was victim too for $100. Even today I tried to call CSR ( 1/18/07) after my credit card company denied issuing credit to me. It looks like very organized scam. We should start sending emails to our local state attorney general's office. state attorney general are responsible for consumer related affairs.

I also tried sending emails to other bharti officers none of them bounced back and none of them replied. feel free to flood their inbox with complains !

domains.admin@bharti.com, harish.dua@bharti.com, manish.ranjan1@bharti.com, anayar@bharti.com, trdua@bharti.com, narender.gupta@bharti.com, anurag.joshi@bharti.com

STAY AWAY.. IF you are lucky you will be able to login to your account and see the call history. Add up the total amount for your calls and compare with your balance. Don't be surprised if you realized their system swallow some of your money. They are doing this very cleverly..All your per call rate and amount is accurate; the problem is the actual amount deducted from your balance. Continently they would not show you the balance after each call! The only way you will notice this by adding up all your calls and add the balance to see if the amount you gave them is equal!.. Are they really charging what they say they are? Indian ripping-off another Indian..what a shame...

Airtelcallhome sucks, The worst web site I have ever used, Takes loooooooooooong time as it was retrieving a ton of records. No direct dials. Need to remember stupid numbers to logon and also to call, log on to the site etc.

Relianceindiacalls is a 1000 times better. I will switch back to reliance as soon as this double talk time is done.

Some stupid Project manager did the web site. Website would have been better if it was done by undergrad students as a project.

Pls, dont sign up. Just cancelled the service. Worst Ever in the business. Big time cheaters.

When I looked at my bill, I found out that Airtel is charging us for the same call again and again, so there is no double talk time thing... in fact we are paying more than what they tell us.

Airtel is the worst service provider ever came in the market. All the Customer Service Representative are like parrots..singing the same song for the complaints made. "WEBSITE going Technical upgrade" wait for 24 hours. It will be resolved. If you call after 24 hours same message will be repeated by another customer care personal. Its not customer care... its worst care from Airtel. NO Complaint numbers will be given to this issues. No follow up calls will be given and you can't even talk to supervisor... if you still insist then they will transfer the call to neighbor fellow and he will talk like supervisor...as they think the customers are stupid fools. Better advise... user any services but not AIRTEL...

The website is full of errors... every single page is slow like a snail and has hell a lot of errors.. It does not even allow you to login sometimes... saying invalid userid and password.. though they are correct.. My friend had subscribed and did not even get a subscription mail.

I was able to make calls with my first subscription and the quality of the calls were fine... but to get to that point is very awful.. I guess the problem lies in the website.. If the website is fixed.. it should be good...

Other bad things in the site.

1) credit card numbers are saved. User should be given the option to let it save or not.
2) it generates 2 different account numbers which gives a very bad user experience.. he has to remember everything to get into the site..

I fully agree with it. I've paid for prepaid card for rs99/-. My connection is not working. I wouldn't able to receive incoming calls. Every time its happens with airtel connection. Whether phone is not working or sometime network problem.

Please don't use this service anymore. Please listen to me. I wasted 50 bucks while recharging my account. They charged my credit card and it says Credit card transaction failed, but they charge the card. Then I spoke to customer support to co-ordinate regarding the charge back to my account. I had put in conference with my bank people and airtel representatives are unable to provide the authorization code, to revert the transaction and quoting the reason they don't have the sufficient information. And they are not willing to add minutes to my account and they are feeling like we are making calls to INDIA at the mercy of the Airtel.

We can sue this Airtel if everyone supports.

Thanks & Regards,
Sridhar Jonnalagadda

Recently, I had awful experience with Airtel. On 28th Feb, I recharged for $25. The website on that particular day( & may be at that particular time) shows that you have to recharge on/by/before Feb-28-2007 in order to be eligible for "Free Double Talk Time". On the confirmation page, I got a pop-up message saying that Your Double Talk Time will be credited within 24 Hours. The next day I checked and still it says you have $29.xx($25 + 4.xx Previous). I called customer service about this and they told me that you are not eligible for the offer as you did not register before Feb-4-2007 & your transaction was on Mar-1st. I live in MST. They asked me to visit the promotional page. There it shows You must have on/before Feb-4-2007 & the transaction should be by 12:00AM EST.

I knew some sort of thing would have as I read millions(not really millions) of complaints on this Airtel. On the same day & at the same time after recharging I took the screen shot of the page what I saw. There it never mentioned about Feb-4-2007 & 12:00 EST. I called them and told about.. They asked me to mail the screnshot. This was on Mar-1 sometime evening/night. They told me that they would revert the mail with-in 24 Hours. With in 24 hours they replied, but with the same screen shot that I sent them without any message. I called (Mar-2), they assured me that somebody would either call to discuss or reply to the mail. 24 Hours, no reply/call. Called(Mar-3) them again, told that they(Who take care of those mails) are closed and would definitely reply back in 24-Hours. 24 hours passed. No mail/call. I called (Mar-4) them and spoke with one of the Supervisor. At that moment they opened my mail and told you are eligible for the Free Double Time Offer & would credit to my account in 24 Hours. Already passed 24-Hours and never saw in my account. Will wait for some time & ...

If anybody recharged on that day and if they did not credit the free Double talk time to your accounts, please PM me, I still have the screen shot with me.

Also, if somebody who is thinking of registering with Airtel, see below,..

On Mar-1, Called them & waited for about 10 Min on line, 10 min explaining to the Cust Rep & then wait for 5-10 Min 7 then with Supervisor for about 10 in = 10 + 10 + 5 + 10 = 35-40Min.

On Mar-2, more or less the same time = 35-40 Min.
Mar-3, 30 Min.

on Mar-4, 35 Min.

Total on average = 35 + 35 + 30 + 35 = 130 which is > 2Hours of time to get $25 & that too having the eligibility of the offer.

> 90% of the time, the website is down.

*********Do no hesitate to PM if anybody needs the screen shot.********

Airtel Pre-paid customers beware! If u easy recharge with Rs 50, then the balance will not show the amount. On calling their customer support I was told that the amount will go towards air-tel-to-airtel STD calls only. Why can't they inform the customers before recharging? This is robbery.

I had registered and much like the rest of the crowd couldn't make any calls and so lost my $5.00. They didn't send in any customer ID nor the service person was reachable. And now they have the nerve to send me an email saying that the account was inactive and if I dont use it it will terminate within the 6 months of registration. I suggest we should sue this company together.

You guys should use www.fonemine.com

No charges. Completely free calls to almost 30 countries and also conference calls allowed. Calls are supported by the ad you hear on the phone. On top of it, you get your own website which is viewable by both web and cell phone. You dont need a computer, you dont need to recharge, you can make a lot of calls, people from india can make calls to you in usa, u can upload your phone photos, send sms messages etc etc... But most importantly, you can call free. I dont use relianceindiacall or airtel or any other calling cards

This is the worst service

I am VoIP Service Provider and Running Phone to Phone calling Service same as Reliance and Bharti from USA, UK, Belgium.

If anybody interested to start using our service you can sign up http://www.allvoip.net

We will offer 10% Cheaper Rate then Reliance and Same Type service with and Without PINLESS service, we are offering service now on Testing Phaze and will fix any issues before Rollout fully in Market.

Customer can start Taking Top Quality Service now so we can make Changes at beginning so we don't want loose confidence of Customer and there Trust.

Jayesh Shah
Tel : +[protected]
MSN or Yahoo IM: freecallsindia@yahoo.co.in