| Name of Complainant | |
| Date of Complaint | August 17, 2019 |
| Name(s) of companies complained against | Airtel |
| Category of complaint | Mobile Phone |
| Permanent link of complaint | Right click to copy link |
| Share your complaint on social media for wider reach | |
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I’m writing this to let you know of a grievance that we are currently facing with Airtel, specifically with regard to cell # 96771 68447 (registered to Padmavathy).
My mother planned to travel to the US starting 4/18 and I (Gowri, Padmavathy’s daughter) had activated international roaming for two days only (for 4/18 and 4/19). She did not intend to use the phone and hence two days of roaming was sufficient. She safely arrived in the US and since then, as planned, has not used this phone/cell. The phone was simply turned on, kept on charge but never used.
She received a text on 6/5 stating that her current bill was approx Rs 27,000 which was shocking to all of us. On further investigation, it was noted that there were a few SMSs that were sent around billing and overdue payments, but none of these were seen until today since the phone was kept on charge and never actively used.
- On 4/22/19 stating that bill was Rs 1372 (See screenshot 4/22)
- On 4/27/19 stating that bill was Rs 6041 (See screenshot 4/27)
- On 5/27/19 stating that bill was Rs 26,724 (See screenshot 5/27)
- On 6/03/19 stating that there is an overdue amount of Rs 6040 (See screenshot 6/3)
While this is a bit confusing (and shocking) around what the due amount should be, we called airtel customer care and they mentioned that we needed to pay the Rs 27,000 due to international roaming data charges. The customer care rep also mentioned that the usage was for a download of approx 106 MB of data. We explained that the phone was never used and data used automatically by the phone due to background app refreshes which we were not aware of. Please remember, we simply left the phone on charge and did not realize that data was being used by the phone without our knowledge. The customer care rep also mentioned that daily international roaming packs (of Rs 650 each) were automatically applied daily, but I don’t understand why this would be applied when there is no explicit consent or confirmation from the customer.
Here are my grievances
- For usage of 106 MB, should a customer be charged Rs 27000; especially when the phone was not even used?
- Why didn’t the bill shield kick in? There is a credit limit of Rs 4600, but the system allowed Rs 27,000 to be accrued as due?
- If there are credit limits and bill shields setup, should the customer be charged such high bill usage?
- Why was the daily international roaming activated for Rs 650, instead of activating Rs 4000 pack for 30 days?
We think the amount that is being charged to us is unreasonable and unfair and we won’t able to pay this. We contacted Airtel regarding this grievance several times, but they were unable to provide a reasonable response. They mentioned that they cannot reduce the amount to Rs 3000 to 4000 which is the appropriate monthly pack charge/fee for international roaming.
Hence I would like to bring this to your attention so that we are able to resolve this grievance amicably. We would really appreciate if you can please look into this, especially the circumstances in which these have occurred and found a solution that will work for all parties.
