Bharti Airtel Limited — Cheating customers with Mobile Recharge Voucher

Dear sir/madam,

I am a customer of Bharti Airtel mobile prepaid service since past 3 years. Today i went to a mobile prepaid recharging shop and purchased an Airtel prepaid mobile voucher worth Rs 20. On the frontside of the voucher it is clearly printed exactly as follows :

MSC: Rs.20 (Service tax inclusive), Calling Value Rs.16.13,
Processing Fee Rs. 2.00, Validity of 0 days

From this description itself, it is clear that the voucher gives me a talktime validity of 16 rupees and 13 paise. After when i punched the 16 digit code in the voucher as per instructions in the card, i was able to get my mobile recharged but only with 15.13 Rs . instead of actual 16.13 Rs.

As soon as i noticed this unusual change in talktime, i contacted the company's pre-paid customer care. I talked with an executive and described about my issue. He told me that, it is Airtels new scheme so that instead of that 1 Rupee i will get 10 Local/International SMS free valid for 4 days. I told him, it was a normal voucher and nothing about this offer was described on top of the voucher. The voucher clearly talks about 16.13 Rs talktime. I told him that i purchased the voucher for regular talktime, not for any offer recharge. If i was in need of any offer there are several offer recharges and special easy recharge schemes available which i will do. But now, i was in need of talktime only and that is why i purchased a topup recharge voucher.

Also, i already had an existing validity of 100 SMS a day after paying for two local SMS. So, i asked him to waver the money back to my account since i wasnt awared about any "hidden" charges imposed on me in name of normal recharge voucher. He told he he will transfer it to his senior department, and i waited for some seconds. The same thisg repeated with senior. He argued to me that they cannot do anything and Airtel is offering likewise. He was speaking like i am guilty by purchasing a normal topup recharge voucher.

He argued with me saying that Airtel isnt giving 16.13 Rupees for 20 Rs recharge, and only 15.13 Rs is available. I told him that i had the recharge voucher as evidence in my hand and nowhere in that card describes about any hidden offers and also it clearly talks about my regular talktime. He then argued that he cannot come and check the card in my hands to validate whether i am saying truth or not. I said ok, then i will provide you the serial number of recharge voucher so that you can validate my complaint. I gave the serial number of that card :

[protected].

Now he got confused on what to say, and asked me to wait for some seconds. After a while he returned back and told me that they cannot get further card details other than its price and validity. I asked him that there should be some information about this card in your databases and then he transferred the call to another senior executive.

Now, things again repeated here and he also told me that Airtel is doing likewise, so you are liable to accept the changes. The phone conversation ended with me saying i will complain this to consumer court.


Dear sir/madam, there was nothing descriptive on the recharge voucher about this hidden cost on an offer which normally i doesnt need. Whenever i recharges with 20 Rupees card i was able to get 16.13 as talktime. So i did expected the same today also. The customer care executive argued that this is a new plan introduced by Airtel. If it is so, isnt it the liability of the company to inform its customers about a change in talktime in its existing topup recharges? I am getting atleast 4 or 5 marketing calls and more than 5 marketing messages daily from Airtel. I havent ever received any informative message or IVR calls regarding any changes in talktimes. The company doesnt had enough interest towards customers and alerting them about new changes but in their cheap marketing tricks.

Really, i was forced to pay for an offer which i doesnt need and that too in the form of hidden charge. 1 Rupee may not be a big loss for now, but what will i do if in future i will be fooled with bigger amounts i this way? How can i guarentee that i will not be fooled again by Airtel? How many lakhs of people might be fooled like me, and how much would be this company earning illegally by cheating customers? Dear sir/madam,strict action must be taken to these type of companies imposing extra expenses to customers without their knowledge, and not ready to refund the customer for his valid demands.

With Regards,
Jithin PG.