Airtel Mobile - Prepaid
Non-disclosure of key conditions - Lack of ethics

I recharged my phone with Rs. 36/- recharge option which was intimated to me via an sms from the service provider which said that I would be able to send local and national messages at 1 paise per sms for a period of 45 days. I got the same recharge done from an E-recharge service providing retailer.

Soon I realized that I was being charged 9 paise for some messages. On contacting the customer care executives, I was informed that the offer is applicable for only messages sent to Airtel customers and that messages going to mobile phones with a different service provider would be charged at 9 paisa per sms.

Since there was no disclosure about the conditions applicable to this offer either in the message sent to me by the service provider nor in the rate cards available with the E-recharge service providing retailer nor is any information available on the website of my service provider, I requested the customer care executive to deactivate this offer and return the amount charged. To my utter surprise, I was replied that there is a basic condition for any recharge option that they can be changed at any moment without any intimation to the customer and when a second request was made to the customer care executive, she asked if she could help me out for any other thing and then disconnected the call. [Request reference number being CBDVS20614811157]

This is something that is not expected from a service provider like Airtel which happens to be India's most preferred mobile service provider known for the quality of its premium services. The response given by the customer care executive was barely less than rude and a retail prepaid customer like me and the millions of people like me have no other option but to bear the brunt of the hidden conditions kept by the mobile service providers.

The number on which I recharged this amount is 91 90141 99464.

I would be glad if this message reaches the management of Airtel so that they maintain the ethical standards in doing their business. I understand that we all do business for money but it is not acceptable if it is to be done by duping the customers.

Regards,

Ankit Jain