[Resolved]  Airtel — Charging for unsubscribe VAS

Address:

Karnataka

I am subscriber of Bharti Airtel Postpaid mobile services from the last 8 months. From last 3-4 months I am getting charged for unauthorized VAS (Value Added Services). Each month they have been charging more than Rs 150, which is unauthorized. It looks like a scam. They claim that I have clicked some link, and just for clicking a link they charge Rs 50/99. I have been calling them and asking them to revert these charges. If the VAS charge is say Rs 150, they say that they can revert Rs 100, and they pocket the remaining Rs 50. This seems to be a well thought out stratergy to milk-out money from customers. Looking at the number of customers airtel have they could have made millions through this scam. I request you all to make customers/ TRAI aware of this scam.

Last month (Aug), I got frustrated with this and installed an application on my smartphone so that it blocks all internet access. I thought this could prevent any link being clicked without knowledge and hence getting charged by airtel. I was very happy that this application was working fine and I did nit click any links which could make money for airtel. However when I saw the bill I was horrified. They had charged me Rs 503.30 for VAS, which was 3 times higher than any previous month VAS charges!! though I had installed a filter application!! I complained to airtel call center about this and they registered a complaint numbered 45496276. After couple of days on 28th Aug, customer service lady called up and said I had actually downloaded something for which they are chargin Rs 503.30 I challenged them to prove this and I explained that I had installed a filter application to block this. Then they changed their game plan and said they can give back Rs 400 (its their same old tactic). I am fed up with and raising a complaint here.

Please help me.