A customer care message by one of Airtel’s social media team sparked major outrage on Twitter on Monday.
A customer care message by one of Airtel’s social media team sparked major outrage on Twitter on Monday.
It all started when one Pooja Singh, who describes herself as management professional on micro-blogging site, started ranting about Airtel’s DTH service. In her angry tweet she saidf that ‘I raised complaint for reinstallation of DHT.but assigned service engineer miss behaved with me. His words are "Tum Phone Rakho Dobara call mt krna " his number is+91 79-85195094. This is how Airtel is looting it's customer (sic).’
Soon, the Airtel’s social media team replied with standard message. ‘Hey, I most definitely appreciate you reaching out here! We’ll take a closer look into that & get back shortly with more information. Thank you, Shoaib.’
What sparked the furor was the woman’s reply. ‘Dear Shohaib, as you’re a Muslim and I have no faith in your working ethics because Kuran may have different version for customer service, thus requesting you to assign a Hindu representative for my request. Thanks’
To much of Twitter’s surprise, Airtel’s team did reply to this brazen message. ‘Hi Pooja! As discussed, please let me know what days & time frames work best for you so we can talk. Further, please share an alternate number so that I can assist you further with this. Thank you, Gaganjot.’
The name change of Airtel’s customer care executive triggered barrage of angry tweets. Several people including ex-Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah blasted Airtle for not standing up against this ‘blatant discrimination on religiou grounds.’
‘Dear @Airtel_Presence this conversation is genuine (I’ve seen the timeline myself). I refuse to pay another penny to a company that condones such blatant bigotry. I’m beginning the process of porting my number to another service provider & canceling my DTH & Broadband,’ Abdullah said in his tweet.
After many ‘shame on you, Airtel’ tweets and several threats of people leaving its services, the telecom major issued a clarification.
‘Dear Pooja, at Airtel, we absolutely do not differentiate between customers, employees and partners on the basis of caste or religion. We would urge you to do the same. Both Shoaib and Gaganjot are part of our customer resolution team. If any customer contacts us for an ongoing service issue then the first available service executive responds in the interest of time. On your query, we will get back to you as soon as there is an update. Thanks - Himanshu, Airtel Response Team Lead,’ the telecom major said.
'We request everyone not to misinterpret and give it unnecessary religious colour. The said customer has been responded to,' the company further added.
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