Airtel — Airtel ripoff - phone number deactivated within days of recharging

Address: New Delhi, Delhi

I recharged my Airtel phone number on 10th september for Rs. 250/- and used that to recharge 3G (1gb) by SMS. It worked fine for a couple of days, then stopped working. I went to a nearby Airtel outlet (Green Park, New Delhi) and asked them to resolve the issue. They told me that Airtel had deactivated my number on 15th September due to disuse and they couldn't do anything about it. I asked them how the number was in disuse considering it was recharged for 250/- and working prior to deactivation, they had no answer. I asked them why they had happily recharged it a few days earlier if the number was to be deactivated, and they had no answer. They said that they had no recharge records of deactivated numbers. I asked them for a refund, and they said that they could not process refunds, and connected me to Airtel Customer Care (121). The customer care 'executive' told me that he had no records of deactivated numbers, and that I should go to the nearest Airtel outlet (!!) for resolution. I renewed the number (paying Rs 25/- for the SIM), it had zero balance. Though the amount is not a big deal, I decided to post this experience here. I have no hopes of a refund, but perhaps enough complaints could bring about improvement in Airtel's service. From personal experience, I've found that Airtel 3G has better network coverage than most others, but a terribly buggy/rigged backend (recharges dropped/speeds locked to low levels/connection failure/random deactivation) and very slimy customer care staff.