Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Airtel Scams


Airtel Scams, Stop Now, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao
Airtel scams, Airtel missed calls, Airtel Ads, SIM card activation, Airtel roaming services, Airtel Fraud

Airtel is one of the leading service providers in India. Because of the intense competition, Airtel (may be other service providers also) has (have) resorted to cheap and unethical ways to generate revenue streams. If you have encountered any of these in the past, please share in this forum, so that awareness can be created and get such unethical actions punished. The I have seen are - 

a) Calls from switched off numbers: 8105204433, 40668980000. The call center agents call you at the afternoon time. The moment you pick up the call, the currency is deducted from the account. 

b) Calls using other service providers numbers: 9008020617, 959180248, 8970123629. The call agents call you up at midnight or sometimes at 1:00 am. These numbers are registered with Spice and Aircell in Karnataka region. 

c) Roaming service: They call you with some random mobile numbers, the moment you pick up the call, the roaming chargers are applied and you end up losing Rs. 105/- per minute at the present incoming rate. Ten such calls from the service providers and you lose Rs. 1000/- which is equivalent to losing 666 minutes of talk time in India in 10 x 10 seconds of wrong calls. 

d) Airtel Ads: Even if you have unsubscribed them, they still send you this. One mistake of clicking something on the SMS, and you have the services activated. I have seen my relative lose Rs. 40/- in 4 mins of accidentally activating this service. 

e) SIM card activation: This is the big boss of all. They sell SIM cards on street side, ask for proof of ID and address, get the forms filled, and top up the SIM card at the instant you buy. It works for a few days. One of the days they call you (without prior notice) to get a verbal confirmation of the address proof. If you miss the call, they deactivate the SIM card immediately. Can someone from their side explain, why only one call and that too without prior appointment? Why do they believe the verbal confirmation is essential, though all the information has been verified by their street side agent? Why not refund all of the money back if they disabled the SIM?

Getting your grievance redressed through Airtel is a nightmare. If you want do not believe, you can search for "Airtel Complaints", "Airtel Grievance", etc. and the first page that you will come across in Google will be of a consumer court. This is because Airtel either does not want to redress the customers' grievances or they have not setup a mechanism such that customer can quickly get their issues resolved (remember issue resolved means lower revenues for Airtel ;) ).

In one occassion, I have been able to get some refund for an issue through the Nodal Officer. The Nodal officers are of some help in case you are able to reach them.Their address is   http://www.airtel.com/applications/xm/MobileNodalOfficer.jsp

I am also copying their contact addresses below, in case they remove this from the web-space for their own benefit. You can also complain at http://www.icomplaints.in/, but I am not sure how effective they are.

Circle
Officer Name
E-Mail Address
Phone No.
Fax No.
Office Address
Delhi NCRNA + 91 9818334865+ 91 9810498104Bharti Airtel Limited, Mobile Services,
Plot No.-16, Udyog Vihar, Phase - IV, Gurgaon - 122015
PunjabNA + 91 9878434865+ 91 9815298152Bharti Airtel Ltd.,
Plot No. 21, Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park, Chandigarh - 160 101
UP(West) and UttarakhandNA +91 9897534865+0522 4139111Bharti Airtel Limited
B-38/C1, Sector Noida-201301,
Uttar Pradesh
UP EastNA + 91 9935334865+0522 4139111Bharti Airtel Limited, TCG 7/7, Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow - 226010
HaryanaNA + 91 9996034865+91 9896298962Bharti Airtel Limited, 85, Durand Road, Ambala Cantt.,133001, Haryana
Himachal PradeshNA + 91 9805034865+0177 2620312Bharti Airtel Ltd.,Block No. 11 A, SDA Complex, Kasumpti, Shimla 171 009, Himachal Pradesh
Jammu and KashmirNA + 91 97973348650191 2473337Bharti Airtel Limited, Ansari Complex, Sonwar, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 190 001
MumbaiNA +91 9987234865+022 40031404Bharti Airtel Limited,7th Floor,Interface Bldg No -7, Mindspace, Link Road, Malad (W),Mumbai - 400064, Maharashtra
Maharashtra and GoaNA +91 9987234865+022 40031404Bharti Airtel Limited, Vega Centre, A-Building, Shankarseth Road, Next to Income Tax Office, Swargate, Pune - 411 037
GujaratNA +91 9724534865+079 40090330Bharti Airtel Limited, Zodiac Square,
2nd Floor, SG Road, Opp gurudwara, Ahmedabad 380 054
MP and ChattisgarhNA +91 9893134865+0731 4031101Bharti Airtel Limited, 3rd Floor, Metro Towers, AB Road, Near Vijay Nagar, Indore, Madhya Pradesh
RajasthanNA +91 9928034865+0141 4044204Bharti Airtel Limited, K-21, Sunny House, Malviya Marg, C-Scheme, Jaipur, Rajasthan
KarnatakaNA +91 9972534865+080 41218070Bharti Airtel Limited, 55, Divyasree Towers, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560 029 Karnataka
Andhra PradeshNA + 91 9959334865+ 9140 40009900Bharti Airtel Limited, Splendid Towers, Opp.Begumpet Police Station, Begumpet, Hyderabad - 500 016, Andhra Pradesh
ChennaiNA + 91 9952434865+ 91 9840198600Bharti Airtel Limited, Oceanic Towers, 8th Floor, 101 Santhome High Road, Chennai 600 028, Tamil Nadu
KeralaNA + 91 9995834865+91 9895338715N H Bypass, Kundanoor Jn,Maradu P O Kochi 682034. Kerala
KolkataNA +91 9831234865+033 40060071Infinity Building,7th Floor,Salt Lake Electronics Complex,Kolkata-700091 , West Bengal
Bihar and JharkhandNA +91 9934334865+061 22273646Bharti Airtel Limited,Anand Vihar, 7th Floor, Guinea Motors, West Boring Canal Rd., Patna - 800001
AssamNA +91 9957134865+0361 2363143Bharti House,
6 mile Khanapara, Guwahati - 781022
North EastNA +91 9612034865+0361 2363143Bharti Airtel Limited
Modrina Mansion, Shillong-793003
OrissaNA + 91 9937449253+0674 2743569Bharti Airtel Limited,Infocity Campus,6th Floor,E-13/1,Chandak Industrial Estate,Chandrasekharpur,Bhubaneshwar-751024,Orissa
West BengalNA +91 9831234865+033 40060071Bharti Airtel Limited,Infinity Building,7th Floor,Salt Lake Electronics Complex,Kolkata-700091 , West Bengal
Tamil NaduNA + 91 9952434865+ 91 9840198600Bharti Airtel Limited, Oceanic Towers, 8th Floor, 101 Santhome High Road, Chennai 600 028, Tamil Nadu

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