I use an Airtel Post paid connection and my number is 9xxxxxxxxx0. I had traveled to US (transit through China for 4 hours) in Dec 2017. Before leaving India, I had activated the international roaming pack through My Airtel app for which I also received a confirmation SMS on 12th Dec 2017 at 6:47 p.m. This was only for receiving emergency calls during my travel.
However a couple of weeks ago in Feb 2018, I received a notification that my billing amount is Rs 38k/- I thought there was a mistake and when I checked again, to my shock and surprise, I was notified that a data add-on worth Rs 649/- daily had been activated on my phone. I was not aware of this till I saw my bill. When I called customer service, I was told I used data in US and China and all charges are valid. My credit limit is only Rs 3500/- and this is to protect me from any such occurrences. However the customer service rep told me this this is not applicable for international roaming.
I have 2 grave concerns:
1. Why did Airtel activate such an expensive add-on without my consent. They could have simply suspended my services. My average monthly bill is around Rs. 600/- They could have seen this trend and that was all the more reason for suspension of my services. Also, I received no such SMS to tell me they were activating this add-on. The customer service representatives were reluctant and unwilling to listen to anything. They also told me I sent SMSs in China and used data. As far as I know I was using Wi-Fi throughout. I don’t understand why was international data pack active even if in the background.
2. The credit limit is assigned to a customer for a reason. And Airtel conveniently decides to side-step policies for international roaming and breach it by over 10 times the my original limit which is only Rs 3500/- I have not signed up for any such exceptions.
I have never had any other issues with Airtel, and due to their system loopholes and loosely governed policies I am being duped. I was informed by a very reluctant customer services officer that there is nothing se was going to do about this and will be canceling my services at my behest. I have had this number for 15 years now and will lose it due to this malpractice and deplorable behavior by Airtel.
I have already written to them thrice, but they continue to ignore my grievances and choose not answer my simple 2 questions.
1) Who told you to activate the add-ons?
2) Why did you allow my credit limit to breach?
Both these actions were performed by Airtel independently without my consent. The Airtel representatives sound like scripted robots when I speak to them. They don’t seem to have any authority and no sense of empathy.
Please help me by making this complaint reach the right set of people to look into this.
Parag Patel
Goregaon East, Mumbai 400065, Maharashtra
Email: pxxxxxxxxxx1@gmail.com
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