Airtel to pay customer Rs 35,000 for deficient service

CHANDIGARH: The district consumer dispute redressal forum penalized Bharti Airtel for deficiency in service and causing harassment. The forum also directed Airtel to pay Rs 35,000 to the complainant. An income tax practitioner claimed to have suffered huge losses on account of deficient service on the part of the telecom firm. Vineet Krishan, a resident of Sector 9, Chandigarh, in his complaint, said he had been using a fixed landline and broadband connection of Airtel under the 1,533 plan. After some time, he saw an advertisement and in February 2017 made a request to get the plan changed to 799 per month.

Despite this, he said, Airtel continued to charge him 1533 till October 27, 2017. At this, the complainant stopped paying bills for two months. He received a text asking for payment of Rs 4,797 and on October 6, 2017, he deposited Rs 4,800 to prevent discontinuation of services. A day after, Vineet received another SMS to pay Rs 6,801.7 for July-August and August-September, 2017.

Then, on October 18, 2017, the complainant received another SMS asking for payment of Rs 3,139. He got similar texts on October 21, 25 and 28, 2017. Finally, Airtel disconnected services. The complainant said he is an income tax professional and was supposed to file IT returns of his clients by October 31, 2017. But he had to suffer huge loss on account of deficient services.

On October 31, Airtel credited Rs 4,800 in the account of the complainant and services were restored. Airtel contended that the system is fully computerized and if the amount is not credited in the account, an SMS is automatically generated. It was also argued that the complainant was charged as per usage and there was no question of extra amount being charged. The consumer forum allowed the complaint and directed the firm to pay Rs 25,000 compensation and Rs 10,000 to cover litigation costs.