This is about the Tata Indicom brand labelling their retail chain as ’true value’. TATA Indicom charges an advance Deposit for ISD calling which is not mentioned in their advertisements, retail outlets or billing and related literature. This is something I only realised last night.
After purchasing an India Calling Card for Rs.500, I was told that unless I cough up Rs.1500 in cash at their True Value Shoppe tomorrow (Sunday) morning, I cannot call ISD. Today, the store is closed. Now, I have been both an Idea subscriber in Gujarat and an Airtel subscriber in Chennai - neither charging me deposits and activating ISD within an hour or two of calling their toll free number.
So this was a rude shock to me that the True Value of my phone was in an upfront payment and not the bill I settled at the end of the cycle. The bills on both my Idea and Airtel numbers were easily higher than the 1500 each time I dialled abroad that particular cycle.
So, my question here is : if two enlightened GSM operators realise that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, why is True Value TATA Indicom charging the deposit while collecting the per minute talktime in their bill seperately ? This reminds me of of a time that mobile service operators used to charge incoming calls.