Airtel Prepaid
Stealing customer's money in the name of company policy

Folks, This is the most sneaky company policy I have ever seen. I live abroad and come over to India once a year for about 4 weeks. When I come over the first thing I do is to buy an Airtell prepaid sim card. I am asked to provide, id proof, address proof photograph, ration card copy, driving license copy and what not before they give the sim - Reason given is that 'I need to be identified if necessary'. Fair enough and I am happy to co-operate on this.

Now the issue is we top-up the sim by an amount and invariably leave about 200 to 300 balance on the sim when we go back from holidays. When we arrive the next time, the number is gone and so is the money.

When asked with customer service, they say that it is company policy to recycle the number if it is not used for more than three months - Acceptable. However, the company have no rights to take my balance amount. If they really want they can refund (less administrative charges if applicable) to me as they have my address, id etc., etc., They can always write a cheque and post it to my address. They can at the least send me an email asking if I would like to be refunded. I get loads of email (Marketing junk) from airtel, but never once stating that my account is going to be closed and if I would like to have a refund.

But they care a damn - because this is free money they get. I wonder if these money which they take without the customer's consent gets shown up in their balance sheets as profit. In simple English, taking money from somebody without the person's consent is called STEALING and these companies should be ashamed to say that is their company policy.

I wrote to Airtel customer service explaining exactly the same as I have lost considerable amount of money over the last few years and so are most of my friends and the majority of the NRIs who live outside India. And guess what is the response I got from Airtel - 'Sir, we would like to inform you that if the sim is not used for 3 months the number will be made inactive and the balance will not be refunded as it is company policy' . This followed a half a page of standard nonsense like 'Airtel strives hard to satisfy the customer and hope the reply has satisified your needs and we are extremely happy to be at your service' and and all that standard nonsense which is totally irrelevent to the issue...

I said your company policy is wrong and they said that is our company policy. Great!!! Who would ever accept they are wrong???!!!

Imagine, you having a bank account and you keep your savings there and you do not go to the bank for 3 months for some reason. If the bank closes your account without trying to contact you and takes your money how would you feel? There is a process called Dormant account with banks where the account goes into Dormant state for a couple of years and if the customer wants to re-activate the account he/she can. Why can't the Telecom companies do this?

Guys this is big money - Think about how many millions of people living abroad and how many of them have lost how many times. This is free money as they have taken the money without providing a service. The total amount should be in several crores - This is a big scam happening right under our noses every day by all these telecom companies.

I wonder if the complaints raised in this forum is even looked up by the concerned officials. Does anything happen to these complaints at all?

I would love to see your comments on this - Thanks - Anand

Company: Airtel Prepaid
Country: India
State: Tamil Nadu

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