Airtel — international roaming activation for postpaid without request

Address:

1,1st Floor,opp udupi grand Hotel,2nd Main,nanjapa Layout, Adugodi, 560030

Hello

I am Suraj Hayathbabu and I am a platinum postpaid customer of Airtel karnataka with mobile number [protected]. I have been using this number from past 12 years and I travel very frequently to Thailand and other countries like France, China for company related work. I carry the same number to whichever country I travel but I use the local sim cards of the respective countries to call to India. My india number never had international roaming and I never wanted it also. As per the airtel policy for postpaid numbers the international roaming is not active by default. We need to pay security deposit to activate the same and I never did it. On 30th march 2019 I travelled to Bangkok as usual (my previous trip to thailand was in Aug 2018) and as soon as I landed I switched on my mobile to change the thai sim. As soon as I switched on I got sms my international roaming is activated, I didnt use it. When I saw my March 2019 bill generated on 1st Apr 2019 it contains International roaming activate charges of 499 + tax. I could not contact customer care from thailand So as soon as I landed india on 7th april mid night 12 I called airtel customer care to ask the same and they say its new policy for some specific countries it will be activated by default and being a smart phone it seems as soon as i switched on my mobile in thailand it used some data approx less than 1 mb which i am not aware.

I donot want to pay the 500 rs as it was done without my permission or my request. I am not travelling for the 1st time abroad with my number and how will I know they changed policies and it will be active by default. Airtel has never sent me a sms saying when I visit any country international roaming will be activated and I need to pay 499 INR.

It is not a big amount to me to pay but it is totally unfare on the airtel company to cheat customers and loot money like this. Being a customer of airtel from last 12 years I am totally unhappy with this act.

I want airtel to waive off this amount as an action for this complaint and make sure they activate only when customer requests.