My Airtel Landline broadband connection has been de-activated because of non-payment of dues.
I am sure this happens to a lot of us – we don’t pay up because of various reasons. In my case, the reason was that I wasn’t around in the city around the time of the due date/ bill payment date ( I was traveling on business.)
So when I was back home, I realized that the broadband connection is not available and I will have to go to the bill payment center to pay the bill. An exercise that will make me have to take time out of hectic/ busy schedules. Also, an exercise that I dread because at most times, paying the bill like this means that you have to stand in a line for more than 10-15 mins.
I was wondering if Airtel has ever gone about thinking about this consumer problem and ways of resolving it.
There are 2 things that a consumer who has ‘non-payment of dues’ against his name would want to do.
1. Pay the bill and restart the connection
2. Pay only the remaining outstanding amount and request complete de-activation because he/she wants to discontinue services of Airtel.
My simple solution to this:
When the due date passes, if a consumer tries to log-on to any website, he should be re-directed to an Airtel bill payment website. The website will probably ask for User ID/ password, and then proceed to accept 2 things :
1. Credit card payments for those who want to re-activate connections.
2. Requests to discontinue services.
I am sure they do this for connections that are active. Consumers who want to pay online can pay online while their connections are still active. It won’t cost much to extend this to de-activated consumers.
I am sure it will bring consumer goodwill(or delight!) since lazy bones like me(who fall in number 1 above) will be able to pay from home, and wont have to show their faces again at a bill payment center!!
And people in the number 2 category (above) will not have to go through the frustrations of being called by Airtel executives every 2nd day for bill payments!!
