Indian telecom operators have never been able to provide quality services to all its consumers. In fact after the entry of Jio, the older telecom operators are not able to handle the competition and their services are degrading further.
Recently, a consumer forum court found telecom operator Airtel guilty of not only providing poor services but also harassing the customer.
Vineet Krishan who is a resident of Chandigarh was using Airtel’s fixed landline and broadband connection under the monthly tariff plan of Rs 1533. In February 2017, he made a request of changing his tariff plan to Rs 799 per month but till October 2017, he was charged under the same Rs 1533 plan.
Vineet, an income-tax practitioner by profession, didn’t pay the bill for two months (August & September) but on October 6, 2017, he received a message asking to pay Rs 4,797 immediately. He paid an amount of Rs 4,800 the very next day so that the services are not discontinued but next day, he got a message asking him to pay Rs 6,801.70. After 10 days, he again received a message, demanding a payment of Rs 3,139 and he received similar messages on October 21, 25 and 28 too.
He was tired of such irresponsible and insensitive attitude of Airtel and filed a complaint against the firm, alleging that he suffered huge losses as he was not able to file ITR of his clients, the last date for which was October 31, 2017, due to poor services of Airtel.
The district consumer dispute redressal forum gave decision in favor of Vineet and asked Airtel to pay him Rs 25,000 as the compensation and an amount of Rs 10,000 for covering the litigation costs.
The amount of Rs 4,800 has also been paid back by Airtel and it has cited that as the system is computerised, SMS are generated if the payment is not made. Airtel did try to prove that the consumer was charged as per the usage and they have not charged any extra amount but all the efforts of organisation went in vain and the court understood the agony that the consumer went through.
It’s high time we should ensure that these companies don’t try to cheat us.