Goodbye, Airtel. Hello, BSNL

Thanks to Airtel, since the past one year, every time I got a call on my mobile phone not only my family, but my immediate neighbours and practically everyone who lives in our lane knew it was my office calling. Every time my mobile rang I dropped whatever I was doing at that moment- getting into clothes, having breakfast, reading the paper- and rushed out of the room, out of the house, out of the gate and out on the road in our lane and try to catch the signal on my mobile. This is because my service provider is Airtel whose signal is so bad that I am sure even Airtel folks find it difficult to talk with each other on their mobile phones. Several times I wondered if I should seek out the nearest Airtel mobile tower and climb to its top to get the signal and have a clear talk.

I am sure I am not the only Airtel customer to have contemplated climbing mobile towers in order to catch the signal. One only has to read the papers to discover how many complaints there are about Aitel’s lousy service. One would have expected Airtel to pay attention to improving their service but instead they are spending the money on sponsoring events and also commissioning interesting ads as if that would somehow help the customer. Anyway, there are a few reasons why I am terribly angry with Airtel.

One such reason is that every month I received a rather joyously worded message from Airtel saying- ‘Airtel Radio is renewed and you have been charged Rs 30 for 30 days and 30 minutes free.’

Earlier I used to get this message before I got the previous message:

‘Aitel Radio will be renewed in 3 days. You will be charged Rs 30 for 30 days with 60 Free minutes of music. To unsubscribe call xxxxx’

These messages came without fail every month like I had nothing else to do all day except listen to the radio on my mobile. I am amazed that the Aitel folks think that despite TV, the net and other distractions there are people, especially Airtel customers, who still love the radio. As for me the last time I listened to the radio was sometime back in the early 80’s. That too was by accident. Dad had just got a new emergency lamp that also had a fan and other things. When I fiddled with the switches the radio came on and that is how I knew it also had a radio. I haven’t heard a song or anything on the radio since then. I haven’t also seen an actual radio set for decades now.

Anyway, so when I got those messages asking me to renew Airtel Radio I did not want to. I did not even know that my lousy Samsung mobile phone was also capable of radio facility. I tried to call the number they gave in the message to unsubscribe. Needless to say, no one responded on that number and three days later I would get the message that my Airtel Radio was renewed and that Rs 30 have been charged to my account.

After a couple of months of this Airtel simply messaged me that Airtel Radio was renewed and Rs 30 was charged to my account without even giving me the advance notice they used to send earlier. Maybe the intelligent folks at Airtel thought it wasn’t worth asking me beforehand if I was interested in renewing since they anyway wanted to add Rs 30 to their kitty. This, naturally, enraged me no end.

Everyone in the office had Airtel connections. Some clever guy at Airtel must have figured out that since all our connections are paid by the Government we wouldn’t mind a piddling Rs 30 being added to the bill. How wrong they were! We decided we’d go for number portability and switch to another service provider. Sometime last month we initiated the process. The Airtel guys panicked when we asked for the connections to be transferred to BSNL. Someone from Airtel actually called me up and asked why I was switching. I told him their reception is so lousy, that I get probably a million marketing messages everyday and also told him about the Radio. He had no answer to it and simply said thanks and put down the phone. I thought they had accepted our request but no, I was wrong.

Our request for portability was turned down on the grounds that there was some technical mismatch. We tried again, this time with BSNL guys on our side. The second time too Airtel refused the request saying we had pending payments issues. The third time however, they couldn’t refuse. The BSNL people took up the issue and somehow we were able to switch to BSNL. I am so happy since I can now take calls from my bedroom at any time of the day.

I wouldn’t have minded if the Airtel folks used the money they took surreptitiously to improve the service. But instead what do we get? Ads like the ‘Har Friend Zaroori Hotha Hai’ (which is a wonderful ad, by the way) and news that they are sponsoring some event. When will it get through the thick skulls at Airtel that offering better service to the customers will get them more customers than running creative ads on television.

To cut a long story short, I now have good old BSNL as the service provider for my office connection too. The BSNL network signal is so strong I am sure even if I am a couple of miles underground I will be able to talk with anyone. Now I can be somewhere deep inside my house and talk on my mobile phone instead of coming out on the street and shouting my head off.

Good riddance, Airtel.