Considering Airtel Call Home - STOP!

OK, so if you are considering switching to Airtel call home or join new just because they are offering 7.9 cents a minute. Hold your horse real tight and read further.

I made the mistake of jumping first and suffered big. First I am very keen to meet the Program manager, Project manager and the person who signed off on their website. The security (registration) is as if they are going to hold my future behind it and the user id is a randomly assigned number even major banks allow to pick a 5 character userid if it is available. The site did not allow me to login for almost 24 hours and it was picky thereafter as if the person authenticating me was on nicotine break. After all is done, tried calling got a long dead break and no response and could not use the line anyways. They use AJAX very nice BUT it is broken some of the places and can be very confusing! I could never register my phone numbers.

Finally, after all the huffs and puffs decided this is it. I am cancelling this. So, I call up the support that claims 24/7 support hehehehehehe ..... only if you are willing to hold 40 minutes! After 7 attempts, a carpal tunnel injury and endangering another tennis elbow I got through and on complaining about the wait, I was told - "it is because of high volume call", that was a big no no; it is the sign they are having more trouble than what I have imagined. The representative was friendly and nice though.

On the whole wait before you sign up, Airtel is a good company and is not inherited through generations so I am all for it. They are very disruptive and they have shaken Reliance India Call (I use this service). I uphold their jihad on price, kudos. It will take them some time to fix some of their website glitches. These glitches should have been caught long time back though, this is not some thing new and Airtel is big enough to do so. Something, seriously missing is easy dial feature capability to store numbers.

I did not face any such trouble with Reliance India Call and never had to call the support.

PS: Reliance is matching the deals with some good breaks.