Bharati Airtel ripoff dishonesty and fraud, credit card charged for service but no service till date Internet

Bharti Airtel is one of the largest Indian telecom companies and recently (12/08/2006) they started a telephone service for non-resident indians to make calls to india. The rate is 7.9 cents a minute and that is considered almost 40% less than the best available rate.

They also promised to give double talktime when you sign up for the first time.

I opened the account with Airtel on airtelcallhome.com on 11th December 2006 by buying $25 worth of talk time. From that day all my problems started with Airtel.

First of all, at the time of sign up, I got the error message saying that my registered phone number could not be saved because of some technical issue. Please note that, unless my registered phone number is saved, I cannot make calls to india.

I immediately call the customer service number (1-877-247-5150). Please note that it took almost 15 minutes to get connected. Customer service rep told me that they have some technical problems and the site will start working fine after 3-4 hrs.

Ok. I tried after 4 hrs but could not update my registered phone number. Every time I tried to update the account number I got the same stupid error message. This made me very angry. For the next 7-8 days I have been trying to update the registered phone number but no benefit. Many times, I even could not login to the account, as the system refused to recognize my login details.

I tried to call their customer service but I could never connect to it. Every time the service was busy.

I was very frustrated and angry. Then I decided to email them. I emailed them on customerservice@airtel.in and wrote about all my frustration. Well, I got the automated reply saying that the mailbox has exceeded the storage limit and my email cannot be delivered.

Not sure what I can do now. I have tried all methods to contact them but no avail.

Not sure what to do. I cannot use their service and my credit card has been charged on 11th Dec only.

Shame on Airtel. This is one big example of how to start a bad business, rip-off customers.

I want my money back as soon as possible.

Vilas
Marlboroug, Massachusetts
U.S.A.