I purchased an idea net setter prepaid connection last year. (Note- always go for prepaid connection to avoid exploitation). I had to leave India for a few months. After I returned, I found the net setter was not working. I called their support centre. They said that I had to pay a nominal charge for it to be reactivated. I went to their Pune Law College support center to get this done.
The Idea staff member attending to me looked into the records and informed me that the net setter number I was using has been ‘recycled’ i.e. assigned to another customer, since I had not been recharging it for the past few months. I told him that that the idea call centre had confirmed that I can still activate after paying a nominal fee. The idea staff member almost relented, when his colleague who overheard us went out of his way to stop his colleague from helping me, insisting that they cannot reactivate the number as it was back in circulation.
I asked them if that meant that the money that I had invested in the netsetter equipment had gone to waste? They confirmed and requested me to buy another net setter connection. I stared at them incredulously and walked off.
What irks me is not the wastage of 3K or so. What irks me is that there was nothing in their plans which indicated that we need to keep on recharging every month to keep the connection active. What also irks me is the sheer unprofessional-ism and unhelpful attitude that the Idea support staff seems to be proud of. People would go out of their way to make that extra effort so that your work would not get done.
Thankfully, now I have switched to Reliance Net Connect, which I am happy to report is much faster and reliable and transparent than Idea Net connect.
Idea should refrain from such petty measures to make money so that they can afford Junior B.