The Airtel 4G LTE Pune sales team (details in the Invoice attached) sold me the 4G LTE WiFi Router (Model: ZTE MF29) for a price of Rs. 3500 (after discount of Rs. 500) assuring that its a very good product providing excellent internet connection speed of upto 10 MBPS & having a good WiFi performance range of 10m allowing internet access from multiple rooms within the house. However the demo that was provided at the time of sale was given on the basis of the LTE dongle device (Sales person said that Router demos is not provided) & hence router performance range was not demonstrated & tested. The complete product price was charged upfront before installation/activation even though I insisted on half-payment till I observe the service performance for at least a week. As a result the issue with WiFi router transmission range came into light only after the connection got activated (Activation date 12-Oct) but within a week of using the service. Accordingly I reported the issue to Airtel 4G LTE Helpdesk on 15-Oct-13 (Issue Reference – 53328801) The core issue here is that as per the product specification the WiFi router should be having WiFi transmission range of 10m whereas in reality the internet speed diminishes 10 times if accessed from another room within 5m of the router location.Product & service thereafter does not meet the specification and hence I’m not getting full value for the product price I have paid. After number of repeated follow-ups from my end over phone & email, finally Airtel’s Technical engineer/supervise & team visited my home to investigate the issue & concluded that there was no technical solution available at their end & acknowledged the WiFi router performance issue with its WiFI transmission range stating that its to do with the product deficiency by make/design and so even replacing the WiFi Router will not help. Deepti Parashar from Airtel (Service Area Manager, Pune, Cell – 98900 31812) then told me that she will check with Airtel Appellate team if and what kind of compensation can be provided from their end. On 3-Jan-14 after almost 3 months of reporting the issue the Airtel Appellate team responded back that they will not be providing any compensation against the defective WiFi Router without providing any justification to their irrational stand (refer the attachment)

1. I’ll need Airtel to either resolve the technical product deficiency with the 4G LTE WiFi Router so that I can use Internet from other rooms within my house or otherwise compensate me back for the missold product . 2. Until this disputed matter gets resolved I’m withholding the outstanding payments on my Account & I expect that no late payment fee charges are levied as a result of this. Once the matter is amicably resolved I’ll make the due payments in time. 3. The kind of customer service I have received from Airtel on this matter, I’m entitled to refuse payment of Service tax charges being levied on my Account until the matter is amicably resolved.

Complainant Information
name- Tavinder