Following a promotional SMS sent to my prepaid mobile phone by Airtel, I recharged on 23-June, through a local grocery store, an amount of Rs. 500 on which I were to get Rs 550 talk time. After recharging, to my surprise *123# balance reflected only Re.1. The grocery storewala then told me that the money might have gone into some scheme & advised me to contact Airtel Customer Care at 198 instead of 121 from my mobile for further details of scheme. I spoke to the customer care executive who informed me that this scheme provides me 550 minutes of talk time whereas the SMS had mentioned about Rs 550 talk time and he also informed me that for balance, I had to request *123*8#. No further detail than that described above was provided to me by Airtel. I had even checked my balance after 1 local call and the balance showed was in Rs. & not in minutes. Suddenly on 17-July, when trying to make a local call, came an automated reply that the phone balance is 0 & recharge again. On contacting the Airtel Customer Care at 9892098920 from my landline member, I was informed that the scheme I had entered into had a validity of 25 days & so whatever was the balance remaining had lapsed. I registered a complaint with the escalation officer of Airtel and also with the Nodal officer. The Nodal officer categorically declined to refund my forfeited balance in spite of my argument that I was not informed about the 25 days validity of the scheme.
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