Sep 24, 2006 11:48 AM
6097 Views
(Updated Sep 24, 2006 11:55 AM)
I recently took a new Airtel (Karnataka) connection, but soon I started getting messages asking to download tunes, about offers which I am not interested and such other things... If that was not enough, recorded calls also started coming !
According to court order, customer should have the option not to receive any marketing calls.
On going to the Airtel website to enable do not disturb option, I was really surprised to see the way the setting were present.
On the page https://airtel.in/dont.htm asking to opt out of marketing services (which are a headache to customer)the customer has to fill out details which include fields
mr/mrs
first name
last name
date of birth
email id
city/location
billing address
mobile number
and all the fields are compulsory!
however on the page https://airtel.in/dont_deactivate.htm to de-activate the service and let them send as much message and calls as they wish, all you have to do is just enter your mobile number or for that matter you can enter anybody's phone number and let him face the music of annoying and disturbing marketing calls !
However, the way the form for do not disturb has to be filled out, it looks more like they are collecting a database to sell the details, because why in the world would they ask one to fill all the details only for de-activating marketing calls while they do not need all these details when they are going make annoying calls?
My opinion is that you should not fill the form, but instead send 'BLOCK' to 222 (i.e. without quotation marks to phone number 222). I got this information only after calling their customer care and it is not surprising to know that most of these shortcut de-activating or removing subscription options are not available on their website.
Another thing I did not want was caller tunes for which they would be charging Rs. 30/- per month. They told me to de-activate it I have to call *160# . After doing that at different times of the day for three days unsuccessfully with just an error message, I called the customer care to be told that I can also call 678121 and press option 1 to unsubscribe. Well, the customer has to pay Rs. 6/- per minute even for that !
Disclaimer: The above opinion is the personal opinion of the writer of the article. The above opinion may not be that of the general public or be complete or correct in every sense in spite of the best efforts. E.& O. E.
