Airtel — false data billed during international roaming

After 13 years in it industry and went to many on shore (Foreign) engagements one would think we have seen it all. But as it turns out, life can still surprise you.

I was going to germany for an onsite engagement on 08th of november, 2018 and the itinary had been planned from bhuabneswar via delhi via abudhabi to dusseldorf, germany. Before i started the journey, i had made several calls to the airtel customer care and inquired about the international roaming and tariffs. They have activated the international roaming pack but with zero rental thats how they told me and they did not inform me about the data charges and if any extra recahrge i need to do for my airtel sim. They have only told me that i need to pay the basis rental of rs298 including gst so that i can receive only the sms as my intention was only to get sms for my banking transtaions in india.

Until i got my airtel bill. Not a regular bill though, but worth rs 8149, 00!!! With a bill like that, one would assume that i must be on phone all 30 days of my trip! But the truth is that i had a taken local lyca sim on 09th of november, soon after i reached germany.

I am usually wary of taking roaming services from domestic telcos fearing exactly this type of bill inflation. I typically prefer taking new temporary sim card from the country i am visiting, which is what i did on my us trip last year and many others before that.

Not to mention that airtel sends you tons of mail like the one below promoting such packs, again with a promise to “roam abroad without bill shocks”.

That’s the irony. “bill shock” is exactly what i got.

Actually the bill says rs 52, 542. Airtel, in an act of “kindness” has reduced that to “only” rs 8149. How considerate of them! I guess they realised rs 52k is too big a sum for anybody to pay as phone bill, so let’s ask for something that is not that absurd! Airtel – if you are listening – this is still absurd. Who am i kidding – at this point, even the word “absurd” has lost its meaning.

This is after the fact that airtel has set a credit limit of rs 6500 and i get tons of sms and calls if i happen to cross it with service barred after that.

Now, here’s the weird part. I am not the first customer to be harassed like this. When i searched, i found numerous cases like this on https://www.consumercomplaints.in and other such forums.

This guy got a bill of 75, 000 in mar 2017.
An instance from 2016 of being charged rs 22, 000. This guy even made a video.
An instance from 2015.
Another instance where customer charged rs 19, 000 in 2013.
An instance from 2010 of being charged rs 53, 000.
Looks like this fraud has been going on for years. And airtel might have bullied some people via legal notices and collection agencies to pay such a hefty amount for no fault of their own.

I hope after reading this, people get to know the reality and stay away from airtel international roaming packs. You are going to feel sorry afterwards.in case anybody is curious, i have been an airtel customer for past 4 years. So much for customer loyalty!

I haven’t blogged in a long time. I feel weird i am writing my first post in years on a topic like this. Well, such is life i guess!

Ps: i hope this reaches the right people at airtel and they put an end to it. After all, i am an optimist.