This is with regards to the issue of illegitimate billing due to default activation of international roaming facilities from Airtel. The sequence of events is as listed below.
I am holding primary number 808xxxxxx and my parents are using child number 941xxxxxx as part of Airtel family plan, with billing on primary number. As my parents had proceeded abroad to Canada to meet my brother (working in Canada), to ensure that they are updated on banking transactions, if any, a call was made to customer care from my mobile no. 808xxxxx towards last week of June/first week of Jul 22 to activate only free incoming SMS international facility on the child number 941xxxxxx (being used by my parents) and no activation of any other paid international roaming facility data/call services (As there was no requirement of international data/call facility as they were staying with my brother). During the initial call, repeated confirmation was sought from the customer care rep on only free incoming SMS International Roaming (IR) facility to be activated and no other paid IR service to be activated. The same was confirmed by the customer care rep each time (Record of the same has been made in notings in the Airtel system, as confirmed by the another customer care rep also).
The bill generated on 26 Jul was same as earlier. However, the bill generated on 26 Aug has extra billing of Rs.2405/- shown as usage of international roaming charges and for activation of Rs. 649 pack on three days. Service Request via Reference No.[protected], dated 27/08/2022 was raised for resolving issue of extra billing as no consent was given from me for activating any paid international roaming (IR) services.
Further, with no clear answers coming from customer care during subsequent calls, different querries were raised through mails to Airtel ([protected]@airtel.com) (The details are attached to this mail). During the replies and subsequent calls to customer care, the following came to the highlight.
(a) International roaming services (all services) is activated by default by Airtel system. The default automatic activation of all IR services was not informed to me by the customer care representative. Further, the default settings have no meaning to the customer once the customer has told the Airtel customer care representative to not to activate any other services which carry any payment (it includes everything not limited to -international call/data services). The Airtel customer care representative has failed to provide complete information on activation of different IR facilities.
b) There was no information provided on automatic acivation of Rs 649 pack per day. How other paid IR services got activated without knowledge of the customer, proper consent and disclosure has not been replied by Airtel in any of the replies. No such information on pack activation was given to me during my initial call.
(c) During the various mails sent by me (As attached) and their replies, they had just tried to justify that the charges on international roaming are valid. However, Airtel has deliberately tried to provide no explanation to the various queries written in the mails on why incomplete information was provided and why consent and approval was not taken on activation of paid IR facilities befor activating them by default. In this context, even their supervisor denied to register any compliant despite repeated requests from my side.
(d) Further, during the subsequent mails to Airtel, one of the mail mentioned on handset settings and data to be kept off to avoid any IR charges, which was again not briefed to me during my initial call to the Airtel customer care representative.
(e) When I insisted to check call recording, wherein repeated conformation was sought on deactivation of all paid IR facilities, Airtel gave the reply that they don’t have provision to provide call records. How can the truth prevail, if call recording is not shared. It seems there is delibrate attempt to hide the mistakes done by the Airtel customer care representative in giving incomplete information on IR services.
(f) In all my subsequent calls to the Airtel customer care rep, the customer care rep and supervisor have denied to register complaints against incomplete information provided by the customer care rep. Failure to lodge compliant in this regard and non sharing of call recording clearly states the intent in not accepting the mistake done by their customer care representative.
Not addressing the queries, activating by default all IR services with no consent and approval of customer and not sharing the telecom conversation is against the against the law of Natural Justice, wherein an illegitimate bill of Rs 2405/- has been forced upon me, with no resolution since last two months.
Despite being an Airtel postpaid customer for more than five years and paying all bills in time, it has resulted in harassment and stress to me as repeated calls and mails have not made any difference. To make things worse, the mobile phone outgoing calls, data and DTH services (part of Airtel Black Plan) on my mobile no. [protected] were stopped on 19 Oct 22, with just a message that ur outgoing calls have been barred. Such kind of handling by the Airtel has caused a lot of hurt and agony. DTH services till today stands suspended by Airtel
This has been a nightmare for me and I just cant believe how a company with such a high reputation can
- Not accept their staff mistake
- Fail to lodge a formal complaint
- Fail to provide justification to call records and internal call log records
- disconnect my services after being an honest client and paying my Bill's for 6 yrs without a single payment delayed so far.
It has been pure harassment since I am cut off from services without notice even when tfe case I'd escalated to nodal officer. So inhuman to cut off someone from services hurting all emotions as I am not able to talk to my kids.
Amit R
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