Chart: Telecom Operator Network Quality & Customer Care


I spent 2 hours 3 minutes and 22 seconds on a customer care call with Airtel yesterday, most of it on hold. Someone even checked, and the Guiness Book of World Records told us that they don’t have a record for such category. I could have hung up any time, but wanted to see how long I’d be put on hold; it’s a second number, and prepaid at that; so I just left the speaker on and let it ring on and on.

Airtel did call on my primary number and offer to address the issue, but I wanted to see how long I was kept on hold. I’ve never faced this as a post-paid customer – in fact, my experience with Airtel’s post-paid customercare is such that I’ve recommended them just on that basis; the connectivity used to be good too. I wonder now if there’s a separate set of norms for prepaid and postpaid. Surprisingly enough, though, the call didn’t drop. But is this the case with other operators as well? Do tell. Maybe it’s just unfortunate for Airtel that I’m an Airtel customer, and am writing about it here.

In any case, customer service and network coverage are differentiators, and we have for you visualization of data related to customer care and network coverage, based on TRAI’s report for the Quarter that ended on 31st December 2010.

Check how your telecom service provider performs:

- Network quality parameters (the call drop and network congestion levels are rather high)
- Customer service parameters (calls may be answered in time, but what about resolution?)

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Category : Airtel | Tags :
  • Telecom

    As a prepaid customer, if you call 121 and speak to an agent twice in a single day, Airtel blocks the calls to 121 for one week. This is reality.  

  • http://twitter.com/hbk_varun Varun Kumar

    Guys please spare a thought on the customer care people… its not those poor chaps who have to be criticized or condemned …. They are just an employee who have there own rules and regulations… Please understand there feelings…

  • Ashish

    I called Vodafone few days back I have post-paid connection, and  I wanted to use ONE NUMBER FREE scheme, what they did that was amazing they put my own number free on my own number, and their pathetic system which is down most of time could not even recognized that same number can not be free.. I mean how can i call my self ..and why would I ..? also on Tuesday if there is bank holiday on Tuesday, they will charge you for SMS they will send coupon code also but offer can not be availed because of bank holiday. All these big teleco giants are taking too lightly Indian customers.

  • Anonymous

    Its not just Airtel alone. Vodafone, which ironically had an ad-campaign centered around customer care, has a pathetic policy that bars access to a human CC-rep, if you call three times in a day. This, when they charge for the call and their reps cold transfer calls to IVRs, without resolving your issue. The block also extends to 198, which is meant to be a toll-free complaint helpline. Wonder what gives telcos the right to charge subscribers for a non-existent customer care service?

  • Sidman

    @twitter-61389317:disqus Of course the anger isn’t directed at the rep personally. The rep is merely doing what s/he’s told.

    Frankly, as a paying customer, I don’t give a damn about anything except getting my prblem resolved.

    It’s a failure of leadership and technology. And the simple fact of the matter is that unless customers defect due to poor service, the telcos are not going to give a damn.

  • Nikhil Pahwa

     @2a21df961c05d7966cf38b86f51c5f83:disqus So, this is where a regulator typically steps in…when there’s consumer interest to be served, and competition is insufficient to improve the situation. a cartelization. If you ask me – despite this incident, I would still not shift from Airtel because I get good customer service on postpaid. But do I like what happened, or what does happen – whether false billing, and being made to wait…not one bit. My two worst experiences, when it comes to the digital industry, have been with Sify Broadband and Tata Indicom data card. MTNL, despite its connectivity issues, is miles better than what I faced with Sify. With the Tata Indicom data card – it never worked for me for two months, and I had to *pay* to get my account cancelled.

  • Anonymous

     Well I fall short because I have spent more than 50 min. several times with TATA DOCOMO and Airtel. The biggest problem is – Every time you call them, you have to start the story again because nobody knows what the previous one did and so calls increase and problems too… They all know this and still not willing to solve.Why don’t you post some information regarding how to contact and complaint to TRAI about these very common and frequent issues, so people can gather momentum and pressurize companies to do well…???

  • http://twitter.com/dotmanish Manish Malik

    This might not be applicable to all pre-paid customers of Airtel. I had called 121 several times a day a couple of weeks back, and call again several times the next day – each time talking to an agent (whether the problem was resolved satisfactorily or not, is altogether a different issue).

  • http://twitter.com/dotmanish Manish Malik

    btw, if you called up 121, and the call wasn’t hung up, good for them. They charge Rs. 0.50 per 3 minutes for customer care chat on that number.