[Resolved]  Airtel — Inclusion of emi charges for late payment in airtel digital tv recharge

Address:560086
Website:www.airtel.in/personal/digital-tv

17th may 2016
Airtel digitaltv id: [protected]
Dealer : mkj telecom
Dealer mobile: [protected]
17th main road, j. C. Nagar, kurubarahalli, bangalore - 560086


I received the automated call from airtel digital tv saying that since i've not recharged my account and the balance is only 2 rupees, they are suspending the service until it's recharged. I called up the customer care to inquire more on this number[protected] and i spoke to one of the executives named ganesh who was very arrogant.

When asked about the reason for this, he said that is the rules of the airtel. Since you have not having minimum balance of 160 rs in the account, its being suspended. I said it's fine. When asked about the activation, he said you can recharge whenever you want but rs 15/- will be deducted from the account as emi / fine / late fee for recharge. When asked about why this 15/- he said it's a fine for not being recharging your account on time. He gave an ex: saying if one recharges on 1st of month and the account expires on 30th of that month 12 am. Customer has to recharge within that 12 am, even if the customer is recharging it next morning, he has to pay 15/- as late fee. What in the world is this rule, he says thats the rules of airtel. The executive who was talking in kannada is no careless about the customers he was literally arguing with us instead of giving a quality service.

I clearly explained to him, i've given 2100 bucks for airtel digital tv hd stb. Along got 8gb pendrive free. I had choosen the 245 sports value pack as my channel pack. The shopkeeper said you'll get all the hd channels for a month free and you can recharge whatever the package you want from next month and hd channels will be removed automatically. A month got over. I got message on the screen to recharge my pack. I recharged it on 28th april 2016 with 250/- the shopkeeper said no worries, the 5 rs can be carried forward to next recharge it'll be in the account. When asked about the hd channels, it'll go off. But the hd channels kept coming for 15 days and i received message on my mobile "validity of your airtel digitaltv id [protected] expires today. Your rental is rs. 479. Please recharge for continued services."

I called up the customer service, they say you recharged 250 instead of 479 and hence only half the month came. You have also subscribed hd channels. I said i did not subscribe, i was told it'll come for a month for free and it'll taken off, which wasn't done. When asked about this shopkeeper, he said you should have called airtel customer care after every recharge. Asked the customer care to remove hd channnels and give the relay for 245 pack, they said no. So, shopkeeper also didn't tell me the full details and the customer care also not caring and i lose my money since i'm not able to watch tv till i recharge it.

We had a discussion in home and we said, we should have been careful and we ignored it. Now today i receive the call for suspension and they say extra 15 rs will be deducted i really became frustrated. What in the world i've to pay them if i'm not seeing any channels and also i've given them the money for the box and activation. Its done. Now.. Whenever i want to recharge and whatever the package i select, it has to come for that days (Say, i've taken 245 sports value pack) i should see my pack channels for 30 days. After that, they should take back the feed / relay. Tv should be blank.

Its customer wish to recharge the pack whenever he wishes too. If i don't want to see tv for another month, i'm not gonna recharge it. And when i recharge it, they should take only the amount of the recharge pack and not put a fine to me of rs 15 for late recharge. Its legal roll call. They say its their rules and when told about complaining this to consumer complaints he said you can do whatever you want sir, this is the rules.

When asked the executive about why can't i just block it for so many days and then unblock it when i need it, he said that can be done and we called as safe custody. That way he will keep the account on hold and from that money will not be deducted and when we call back them, it'll be removed from safe custody and as usual service comes and 15 rs gets deducted on daily basis. When asked if there is any payment needs to be done for the safe custody, again 30 rs will be deducted from the account.

So, no matter what you do, they are gonna deduct money from the account and they put extra 15 rs if we want to recharge when we want as late fee which is not fair and also just to keep our account on hold and stop the relay for number of days inturn stop deducting money from account, again we have to pay 30 rs.

As a customer one has to keep recharging the money so that they can legally loot the customers money.

This is utter ridiculous.
Cable network was really good they give us the relay for the entire month and with out any additional charges of whatsoever. You pay you get. You don't they stop it. Simple.

Another loot which i've noticed is that a new kannada hd channel colors / etv kannada was released in channel no. 843, for few days as free. There was a scrolling down the channel stating if you want to view this channel you have to recharge for rs 36/- and get subscribed to this channel.
This free view of this channel was coming in all airtel digital tv stbs. One of the customers i know subscribed for this channel and automatically instead of 36/- rs, the amount deducted was rs. 60/-
When he spoke to customer care, they gave answer saying its actually 60 rs only and when asked about 36/- rupees in the scroll on tv, its the ad, but actual payment is 60/- when the same was discussed with the shopkeeper who was a dealer, he said if the dealer recharges for the customer, its rs 36, if its done online or else where its 60/-

So they are again looting in this way. I'm not sure for how many customers this has happened and the day loot is going on legally and no one cares if the complaint is registered on them.

I really want action to be taken on this and compensate our losses. Its not about my problems, if the number of subscribers are more and each paying extra amount for the channel, then the profit they gain by cunning the customers is really high. Please request you to stop and compensate the loss.

I request to remove the late fee charges and extra amounts for any safe custody and if the customer recharges, relay should come, if not, stop it. Simple and why can't we keep the minimum balance as 0 and why it has to be 160 rs. My wish, i will watch when i want to see the tv, who is airtel to tell me this, if not watched to pay extra charges. This is loss to customer.
Serious action needs to be taken.

I'm looking either the relay to be given free for couple of days or refund my money back for not giving any details to me at the time of purchase of all nonsense rules or refund the money back and take back the stb or do not put extra charges and loot the customer in legal way saying its my rules, my company.
Apologies from customer care for arrogant reply and not provide quality service to customer over the phone.

My phone number: [protected]
My email id: 21. [protected]@gmail.com

Included the dealer address & phone number since he is as responsible as airtel for not telling any details to customer at the time or purchase.

I've the audio recording of the customer care which i spoke to but i'm not able to upload it since there only option to add images & add video and there is no option for adding audio. If someone can contact me, i can provide the audio file.

Kindly do the needful. Help customer to from this legal loot.
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Aug 11, 2016
Complaint marked as Resolved 
Airtel customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
Verified Support
May 19, 2016
Airtel Customer Care's response
Dear Mr. Hemaraju,

This is with reference to your post dated 17 May 2016.

We would like to acknowledge that we are working to address your concern as soon as possible.

We will connect with you to get additional details, if required, to resolve the concern effectively.

You can also get in touch with us at airtel.[protected]@airtel.com


Regards
Akanksha Singh
airtelpresence (airtel customer service team)
bharti airtel ltd
airtel.[protected]@airtel.com
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