It comes to me as a Rude Shock that Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have not stopped unauthorized deductions from Pre-Paid Customers by activating Value Added Services explicitly not authorized by the customer. I had reported this fraudulent practice by Airtel 3 years ago after having experienced it myself but the Day Light Loot by Airtel and Idea continues unabated.
Here is an excerpt of the TRAI Report which has audited the Telcos Billing Systems and the results are there in front of you.
Bharti Airtel – 60 Lakh Complaints for Unauthorized Deductions on Pre-paid Accounts of which 1067 were audited and 100% were found to be correct. [My Take – The Logic behind such a massive loot is that Airtel has 177 Mn mobile pre-paid customers, of which even if they deduct balance for 10% of them it will be just 17.7 Mn customers of which only 6 Mn have complained, the rest still fills the coffers of Airtel. Hopefully ethics will return to the market]
Idea Cellular – 40 Lakh Complaints for Unauthorized Deductions on Pre-paid Accounts of which 1067 were audited and all of them were found to be correct.
Aircel – 40 Lakh Complaints for Unauthorized Deductions on Pre-paid Mobiles of which 1166 were audited and 820 were found to be correct.
Reliance – 4.12 Lakh Complaints for Unauthorized Deductions on Pre-paid Accounts of which 1067 were audited and 968 were found to be correct.
Vodafone – 3.5 Lakh Complaints for Unauthorized Deductions on Pre-paid Accounts of which 1238 were audited and just 105 were found to be correct.
Data Widely available on the Internet which Log Consumer Grievance also suggest that for Airtel, Unauthorized Deductions on Mobile Services has become a Rampant Practice and the Company should be suitably fined.
So far Vodafone is the best Pre-Paid Service when it comes to Customer Billing.