Many users of Airtel Digital, as well as rivals like Dish TV and D2h are facing issues with the activation of their new TRAI-compliant plans, with customer care officials not able to help in many cases.
Unlike Dish TV and D2h, Airtel Digital users are facing more difficulties as the DTH provider does not have a public webpage that the customer can log on to make changes and submit or resubmit their TRAI package details.
Many customers who submitted their TRAI package details in January are still waiting to watch their new packs, wondering how to activate the new plans.
“I have been waiting for four days for activating my new plan, but they have activated some other plan,” complained user Rajan I from Thrissur.
Twitter too is full of complaints from users who have apparently been switched to packs other than those that they chose.
A quick call to the Airtel Digital’s customer care did not produce results either.
Armed with the ‘request ID’ generated from an earlier request for activating the new TRAI pack, we placed a call to Airtel’s customer care, only to be told that the request details were not “pulling up” in the system.
“Please wait for some more time. It will be activated,” said the customer care contact person.
The situation is puzzling to both customers and industry officials alike, as Airtel Digital has changed the packages of nearly all their customers.
“If it was merely a case of the system getting clogged or overburdened, then subscribers should have been continuing to get their old plans. But their plans have been changed, even in cases where the complaints have arisen,” pointed out an official with a rival DTH operator.
Upon repeated attempts, an Airtel Digital customer care official said users who have been moved to the wrong pack can try resubmitting their pack change request.
What makes it complicated is that, unlike in case of other operators, Airtel Digital’s website does not show a direct link for customers to change their packs either.
According to the customer-care official, users can resubmit their requests by going to the webpage https://www.airtel.in/s/selfcare/DTH/CUSTOMERID/001/custompack after replacing CUSTOMERID with their 10-digit customer ID.
For example, if a user’s customer ID is 3020201234, then they have to visit the url: https://www.airtel.in/s/selfcare/DTH/3020201234/001/custompack Users may need to login to their Airtel account before entering the above url.
Meanwhile, the channel selection page for Tata Sky can be found here, while that for Dish TV can be found here, that of D2h here and that of Sun Direct can be found here.
However, in our tests, some of these websites have been unresponsive or inaccessible.
Users can also try to download the mobile apps of Tata Sky, Dish TV and D2h to see if the facility is functional on the apps.
The migration to new packs is part of an attempt by the sector regulator TRAI to increase consumer choice in the TV distribution sector.
It aims to do this by dismantling the package structure, allowing users to pick and choose their channels.
While many cable operators are doing this using a printed form distributed to their customers, DTH companies have chosen to with the electronic format.