[Resolved]  Airtel — SIM Deactivation

My son, who is studying in Manipal, came home to Hyderabad during the winter break. On returning to Manipal, he found his outgoing calls blocked because he had not used the sim for 3 weeks! Obviously, he did not use for 3 weeks because he was in Hyderabad and was using his Hyderabad Airtel prepaid sim. It is pretty easy for Airtel to verify that he was indeed using his Hyderabad SIM on these dates since that was also airtel. However, airtel will not listen to reason.

He was asked to show his ID and other documents and after he produced those, he was asked his Hyderabad address proof!! The only thing we could show was my address proof since there is nothing in Hyderabad in his name (he is barely an adult) and that was rejected.

Later, after I talked to the customer service people, I was told by one Ms. Divya that on producing the manipal documents, things will be resolved. The sim will be deactivated only after 90 days of non-usage.

However, within a day, the sim got permanently disconnected and I was told that the documents were not shown on time even though they were presented long ago.

Clearly, this is a scam by Airtel to make money off anybody swallowing all the money in these prepaid sim cards. So, consumers beware - if this happens, try to get the money from the prepaid cards and run away from airtel. They will prolong the suffering and the end result will also not be in your favour.

My only request is for Airtel to return our money from the sim card (my son had topped the card thinking that was the reason it did not work and airtel gladly accepted that money even though the sim was invalid for other purposes!) and I will not bother them with any more airtel connections.

frustrated,
-krishna