Today a funny thing happened on my Airtel Mumbai circle No. 9892805396. I received a service message and my phone asked me “Retrieve?” Upon retrieving the service message, I landed up at the Airtel Live site and it offered me some valentines day stuff to download. Being uninterested, I immediately exited. I got 2 balance updates immediately, each stating that 30 paise had been deducted from my account as browsing charges. Well Airtel live is supposedly free to browse so I understand, however, it was a non issue. About a half hour later, I was surprised to receive another balance update message, thanking me for downloading something which I had not, and informing me that Rs. 75/- has been deducted from my account towards the same. Irritatedly, I called up customer care, prepared to spend my Sunday involved in a fight for my rights. However, this turned out to be a day of surprises.
The executive was very courteous and immediately told me, upon listening to my explanation that my amount would be refunded, however, he was not empowered to do so, and so transferred me to his superior. This executive who identified himself as Robin Suryavanshi, too was quite courteous, and assured me that Rs. 50/- he had already refunded and the balance Rs. 25/- would be done shortly. True to his word, my Rs. 75/- was credited back in a matter of 5 minutes. Of course he did tell me not to retrieve such service messages in future as they are links, which of course is nonsense as I have often earlier retrieved such messages with no repercussions. To my pleasant surprise, the whole exercise took me all of only 10 minutes.
Compare this with IDEA who are irritatingly unresponsive and are in the business of routinely committing Highway Robbery.
This is what happened when I called up IDEA customer care with reference to my complaint as detailed in my earlier review/complaint listed here on Mouthshut.(Incidentally, I have had no response from Idea on the same till now, and am afraid to recharge the card, lest the deductions start again.
Idea customer care executive: what is your name?
I tell him.
Idea customer care executive: Is your complaint about this same number from which you are calling?
I say Yes.
Idea customer care executive: What is your name?
I tell Him.
Idea customer care executive: Is the sim registered on this same name?
I say yes.
Idea customer care executive: what was your last recharge amount?
I tell him.
Idea customer care executive: What documents did you give to get the simcard?
I tell him I don’t remember what I gave since I didn’t make a note of what I gave.
Idea customer care executive: What is your date of birth?
I tell him
Idea customer care executive: Address please?
I tell him.
Then I have to repeat my complaint that without authorization and without any request, Rs. 3/- is being deducted LIKE CLOCKWORK EVERY THREE DAYS, for some silly CH 99 magazine subscription, and I don’t even know what it is and that earlier it had been deactivated online by another executive but it has started again as soon as I recharged.
He tells me to dial some no. and use the options. I tell him I have done so ALREADY and there is no option AT ALL for this particular service whatever it is. I tell him I have even sent sms 5 times for list of keywords to stop the service but the bloody service is not there in their list. I lose my cool here and shout at him. His response is to talk courteously or else he cant help me(Incidentally the airtel customer care guy I mentioned, when I thanked him, told me he would have refunded me the amount even if I was giving him bad words).
The Idea customer care guy then simply CUTS THE CALL. THERE IS NO RESPONSE FROM IDEA TO MY EMAIL EITHER. DON’T GET TAKEN IN BY THE ADS FRIENDS. JUST DO NOT EVEN THINK OF SHIFTING TO IDEA OR TAKING AN IDEA SIMCARD IN MUMBAI. AND BELIEVE ME I HOLD NO BRIEF FOR AIRTEL BUT AM SIMPLY AN ORDINARY PREPAID SUBSCRIBER. GETTING IDEA IS A ROTTEN IDEA BECAUSE IDEA IS THE MOST UNCARING SERVICE PROVIDER IN MUMBAI. BESIDES BEING CHEATS.