Airtel, responding to the angry posts, said in a statement: "We absolutely do not differentiate between customers, employees and partners on the basis of caste or religion."
The woman, whose Twitter handle declares her as a management professional, a "Proud Indian" and a "Proud Hindu", had complained about a service engineer. Within minutes, her exchange with Airtel was in wide circulation.
@airtelindia pathetic Airtel DTH customer service.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.
- Pooja Singh (@pooja303singh) June 18, 2018
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
- Bharti Airtel India (@Airtel_Presence) June 18, 2018
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
- Pooja Singh
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
- Bharti Airtel India (@Airtel_Presence) June 18, 2018
It was Airtel's last tweet, signed off by "Gaganjot" that infuriated customers.
Some tagged various service providers with requests to port out their numbers and received immediate response.
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. pic.twitter.com/BZxJOaEsN6
- Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 18, 2018
Correct response. The best way to handle this despicable entity is to hurt it where it hurts most - financially. Let us appeal to all in our individual circles of friends and acquaintances (our individual network) to port out of Airtel and on to the competition.
- Shantiveer Kaul (@ShantiveerKaul) June 18, 2018
Many twitter users condemned the customer over her prejudice.
Sorry but I condemn your extreme prejudice which is a manifestation of your unfounded hatred towards Muslims! What if Shoaib is a good human like Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam? Moreover at a corporate call centre its company's policies which is followed!https://t.co/tINblfvooe
- DarkKnight (@Nair008Nair) June 18, 2018
Twitter was slammed for allowing such exchanges. Some requested it to ban the woman's account.
This is among the most despicable things I have read on Twitter. I hope @Twitter @TwitterIndia bam this user for bigotry. Unbelievable! You can't allow this @Airtel_Presence
- Liberal & proud! (@ohiswear) June 18, 2018
After a stream of such messages, Airtel made amends.
"At Airtel, we do not differentiate between customers or our employees/partners on the basis of caste or religion. If a customer contacts us again for an ongoing service issue then the first available service executive responds in the interest of time. We request everyone not to misinterpret and give it unnecessary religious colour. The said customer has been responded to."
Some users cited an instance when a customer complained to Ola cabs about a Muslim driver. Ola responded saying "Ola, like our country, is a secular platform, and we don't discriminate our driver partners or customers basis their caste, religion, gender or creed. We urge all our customers and driver partners to treat each other with respect at all times."
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