Airtel claims that during a random marketing call soon after my Dubai trip in 2017, I agreed to enrol in an international pack. While I was never informed the details of the pack via email or sms, they claim to have activated it soon after I landed in Sri Lanka and China on the 22nd and 23rd April 2018. I did not get a welcome message from Airtel describing the details of the pack automatically activated and the charges therein. There was an sms on the 29th April stating your account has been charged 2999 for an international pack. 7 days later. Throughout our trip we never used the phone to make a single outgoing or incoming call, never used Data on roaming and the phone was on just incoming SMS from random junk sources came through. We understand when one does not have an international pack and just has a post paid connection incoming sms does work and there are no charges for the same. We also thought this was the case as Airtel failed to communicate before that we have activated such a pack and the details of the pack to us. They also didn’t tell us when we landed in Sri Lanka or China. We were surprised with a 10,000 bill when we came back. If trai guidelines allows Airtel to enable international packs on a phone call with customer then we would need to see the recording of such a phone call where the charges and details of pack was explained to us and we explicitly agreed to turn on the pack. Airtel has no communication in writing that we have agreed to this and they have not clearly explained any of this to us. They also failed to intimate us as soon as they switched on the pack without our notice in Sri Lanka and China. Therefore there is a lapse on their part in not sufficiently communicating with the consumer on what they are up to and hence consumer was in dark during the time these packs were activated without being informed. Consumer has not used the packs either and hence due to these reasons there is no justified cause for Airtel to slap these charges on the consumer. As a family we have been customers of Airtel since the 1990s. We are credible and genuine customers to them and whether valuable or not is left to them to decide.
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