All of Airtel’s troubles aren’t caused by Reliance Jio — its own social media team isn’t helping.
On the occasion of Diwali, Airtel’s Twitter handle put out two tweets. Instead of simply wishing its customers a happy Diwali, Airtel sought to impart some awareness as well. One tweet urged users to “join us in the fight against pollution”, while another featured a mute button, and wished customers a “noise-free Diwali.”
The Airtel family wishes you a happy and a noise-free #Diwali! pic.twitter.com/WRIJ5Qt1Ed
— airtel India (@airtelindia) October 19, 2017
Many Airtel users, though, were less than impressed with the company’s sermonizing on a happy occasion.
This is terrible. Don't get into faith and feelings of we Hindus. You have all the liberty to advice how to celebrate Christmas without jingles and no noise of Azan from masjid.
— RAAJESH TIJARE (@RajeshTijare) October 19, 2017
https://twitter.com/abhishekrajaram/status/921056507914887169
Others pointed out the hypocrisy of the company — on other major festivals, Airtel had simply wished people, not tried to judge their behaviour.
Your hypocrisy is appalling! pic.twitter.com/dS9llKhz2V
— Angsuman Chakraborty ✪ (@angsuman) October 19, 2017
Soon, people were threatening to leave Airtel for its stance on Diwali.
@reliancejio @JioCare @airtelindia Hei Jio i have 5 numbers on Airtel Network as a family plan. Wish to port as they find my biggest festival in appropriate. Making us feel as if are not in India but some anti Hindu country.
— RAAJESH TIJARE (@RajeshTijare) October 19, 2017
https://twitter.com/Mayurgoakar/status/921065315198410752
And several people mentioned that they’d port to Jio. Jio gleefully began replying on Airtel’s Diwali’s status, giving people instructions on how to move to their service.
Thank you for reaching out to us. We would be more than happy to have you as a part of our Jio family. Please(1/3)
— JioCare (@JioCare) October 20, 2017
Thank you for reaching out to us. We would be more than happy to have you as a part of our Jio family. Please(1/3)
— JioCare (@JioCare) October 20, 2017
And it didn’t just stop there — people started sharing images of them having cut their Airtel connections.
Dismantled them pic.twitter.com/dScbx6SCjT
— Briz (@Noctiggi) October 19, 2017
You apologise otherwise accept this. I informed to all my staff to port pic.twitter.com/tEesJAFAol
— CA Manish Malhotra (@camalhotra) October 19, 2017
And there were plenty of burns.
https://twitter.com/GruhamB/status/920951909392855042
https://twitter.com/ProfYogendra/status/920727342166749184
The protests even spilled over on the Play Store, where people began giving one-star ratings to Airtel’s app.
At this point, Airtel can ill-afford to antagonize a large part of its userbase. The telecom provider has been struggling against Jio’s onslaught — its profits have fallen 72% since Jio began offering its high-speed plans, and it’s had to introduce low-cost plans of its own to compete. And it’s a not a smart social media strategy to condescend to people when they’re trying to celebrate a happy occasion — Airtel’s learning it the hard way.