Hi, I am an Airtel customer for more than a decade. I have an excellent credit and billing history and no delayed payments.
Recently I moved to US and decided to carry my Airtel SIM with me to manage OTPs related to banking transactions. I am on a postpaid connection and before leaving to US, I had visited an Airtel store where I consulted with them about the options on whether I should continue with the postpaid service or should
I switch to prepaid. I was told, as long as I don’t answer any calls, decline calls, send texts or use mobile data, there wouldn’t be any issue with my billing and that I could continue to be on my current base plan of INR 798 (Infinity Family Plan) and pay bills from US. For the first couple of months when I moved to US, I had no issue with my billing. In June 2022, I was suddenly charged 1, 736.96 which I decided to pay assuming that maybe I might have unknowingly declined some calls or sent some text message internationally. I asked my wife to discuss this with Airtel and make sure there is no roaming pack active and ensure that I get billed for the base plan only. For next couple of months, there were no issues. On September 2022, I was again charged 9, 749.16 citing that I have activated an international roaming plan. This time I decided I am not going to fall into their trap and challenge the statement of charges. Airtel has no option to speak directly or chat with customer care from US to discuss your concerns, which is terrible for such a big company. So I asked wife to discuss this issue with customer care. After multiple calls and visits to the Airtel store, Airtel decided to reduce the charges from 9749.16 to 5, 689.94. The Airtel team who was adamant that I have activated international roaming, automatically decided to reduce some of their fraudulent charges. However, I am adamant that I will not be cheated this time and do not wish to pay for services I did not use. Despite this issue, I still tried to pay the base charges and was hoping to continue discussing my complaint later. However, Airtel has no option to pay part of the bill either. We either have to pay the billed amount or don’t pay it at all. In June when I was charged excess, Airtel told me that I should go ahead and pay the excess bill. They would make sure that the excess charges would be adjusted in the subsequent bills, which never happened. After two months of normal bills, these fraudulent charges have started again. So this time I decided that I would research online and see whether this issue is unique to me or whether other Airtel customers have similar issue. Obviously, no surprise at all, Airtel has been doing the same to many customers who have registered their complaints as well. These sham charges and their willingness to NOT resolve our complaints is very disheartening. Therefore, I have decided to join the masses and seek your help in addressing the situation. While I’m writing this complaint to ensure my immediate billing issue is addressed, I would I also request you to take strict action against Airtel who seems to be making money from Fraudulent billing charges.
Thank you in advance for your support.
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