[Resolved]  Airtel — MOBILE BILL EXCEEDING CREDIT LIMIT

Address:

South Delhi, Delhi

I never thought that I’d need to write a complaint to Airtel since my 8 years of association with the company (read brand) was immensely satisfactory.

To give a background; I had visited Thailand from March 3 to March 10, 2011 and I took my Airtel mobile # [protected] along. Just before leaving for Thailand I called the Airtel customer at 121 and asked for activating my international roaming; I also asked the representative to provide me the calling rates when I’ll be on roaming, however, the representative was not well informed and insisted that I send an SMS to 121 stating rate `country name’.

While on roaming I was able to make and receive calls. I sent an SMS to 121 ¿Rate Thailand¿ and did not get any response; I tried it again and sent a total of 3 SMSs and did not get any response. The only SMS that I received in this regard asked me to visit a website to know the rates. And if this is what a customer has to do, why did the customer support executive not tell me in the first place. (by the way I kept getting SMSs of various promotional offers!).

Upon my return I got a message that my unbilled usage was around 17K which was just impossible for me to digest as my credit limit allows me to spend no more than 5K! I spoke to the customer care again and was told that when a customer is on international roaming, Airtel does not limit usage within the credit limit. This was very surprising, throughout the trip I was under the impression that my usage is well within the limit however, Airtel kept adding charges very quietly without even bothering to inform me that I have jumped my credit limit.

Let’s take a scenario; I give you my card which has a balance of 10K. You go out of town (Thailand) and being very considerate I deposit additional 10K in my card so that you can use this amount. Obviously, I didn¿t tell his to you. While out of town you kept on using the card knowing that it would stop working once you have reached the maximum limit of 10K. And when you come back, I give you a shocker that since you were out of town (read International roaming) I thought of adding funds to your account so that you can have a nice time. But now that you have spent 20K (but you always thought that it was 10K) you owe me the entire sum; which is unjustified for me to ask for.

This is just how I felt when I got to know that irrespective of my credit limit being 5K, I was unknowingly allowed to make calls worth more than 3 times my credit limit. I don’t think it is justified in any case. My points of concern are:

1. Why was I not guided properly by the customer care executive regarding international calling rates when I called 121 the first time?
2. Why did I keep getting promotional SMSs but not an SMS for resolving my query (even after sending the service SMSs to Airtel)?
3. Why I was not informed upon nearing my credit limit of 5K? Usually Airtel sends an SMS as the customer is about to reach his/her credit limit.

Why there were no SMSs and service messages before making an outgoing call?

I hope the above explains my position as a user; I’m not sure how the situation can be dealt with now as the amount is still outstanding and Airtel has started adding late payment charges of Rs. 750!.

In addition to this, I observed that my bill from March 26 to April 25, 2011 has charges for international roaming for 9th and 10th March which does not even fall in the billing cycle. I don’t understand what is happening to their service standards. I face more number of call drops, abrupt disconnections, irregular bills, unjustified reasons for overcharging and a lot more disappointments. It seems the Airtel I had been trusting all along has lost its way.

I’ve told them that I’ll not be making any payments till the issue is resolved and I know Airtel (as mentioned above) will keep adding late payment charges!! I would appreciate if someone from Airtel could get in touch with me to get the issue resolved ASAP.