Airtel Money — Never feel safe keeping money in airtel money wallet

Address:

Kolkata, West Bengal

I have done a big mistake by trusting Airtel money and keeping Rs 9, 500 in the airtel money account for 2 months. And now they have blocked the registration of the sim card and hence forfeited my money left in the wallet. The number is [protected] and i got the number and a handset as a gift on my birthday. Now, when asked airtel says, the person on whose name the simcard was purchased already has more than 9 sim cards and hence this number has been blocked. So i have to get the details of the person and go and activate the number. This is not possible obviously as this is a gift and i cannot ask anyone to give me their verification details. Next solution they give me is submit the documents with which i opened my airtel money wallet to any airtel store nearby and get a power account and use similar details to open this power account so the Rs 9, 500 can be transferred to the reactivated wallet. This is lame, To open an express account, they never asked me to provide any verification details, because transactions will stick to basic that is nothing above 10, 000. In any other e-wallets, the companies always ask to provide verification details and verify them before opening any account for example, paypal, paxum or even vodafone m pesa in India. So, when airtel never objected to register for an airtel money account, today why do they seize the money and will not transfer unless same airtel money details for verification are provided? What kind of logic is this? They compare themselves to bank, but a bank will not allow me to open a bank account without filling the KYC form and submitting verification details. Rs 9.500 is not a meagre amount and particularly when i need it. I kept it in the wallet thinking its safe over there but then when i trusted airtel, this is the way i got repaid. They will give 100 excuses not to give the money back whatsoever happens. And of course if i can provide all the transaction details, including txn ids and even the airtel money account details with which i opened the account, that should be enough to verify myself for an express account, because thats all it asks for when we register. If the registration process is so loose, why do you put so many restrictions during transfer? I have all the transactions proof screenshots, even the mobile on which i put the simcard is with me, so what more verification do you need for an express account. All those are lame excuses just to snatch customer's money from wallet. SHAME ON YOU! People like me trusted so much, and got cheated and fooled.