Unpaid airtel bill

There is no need to be in tense as you never provided your no. as in reference rather your friend used it so you are liable for him. If airtel company implement as threatened then you are entitled to initiate strong legal action against them and can recover compensation for defaming you and your mother. Let the company do what has been threatened.

Thank you for the reply sir.So u mean to say that am in safe hands and need not worry?But the company said that they would use my number as reference for legal proceedings.I am trying to contact my friend by all means, but its of no use.Kindly reply

Learned Mr. Makkar has given valuable advice. Kindly follow it.

You  do not owe any payment and you are under no obligation to approach your friend or company or listen to the calls of the company.

Your friend might have your number as a preferred number for free calling/ calling at subsidized rates at your number from his number.

Usually the telecom companies like Airtel play trick and make calls at frequently called numbers to pressurize the innocent and ignorant citizens to call the customer who has blocked their payment to contact the company and make the payment. This practice is illegal. In your case it is defamation of customer and you. You need not tell them that you shall contact your friend.

In majority of the cases the customer blocks the payment as neither the nodal and appellate offices of the company which are otherwise supposed to be unbiased resolve the complaint and do not penalize the company for its wrongdoings.

You may make a note of the date, time, phone number from which the call originated.

Next time if you receive any call you may record it , and speak the date, month, year, and ask the person to state his full name with sir name, name of his agency, address and then ask him to call airtel manager stationed at the agency, and repeat the same sequence and tell him  that you are not owner of the number and do not owe money, and the employee of the agency under his control has threatened you stating.........(you may speak the threat given to you) and ask the manager to stop the calls at once or you shall be constrained to lodge a complaint with police and criminal case in court and go public by informing the media and may calla press conference. You should ask the manager to speak in whose name the phone number of the agency is registered and who is the proprietor/ director of the agency.

You can lodge a complaint with SHO, police commissioner and obtain complaint number on the copy of your complaint. Police can identify the number of the agency. Usually such numbers are not identifiable in the local directories. You can lodge a written complaint with local BM of the company's RO (Regional Office) in your city, and ask them to beg apology in writing and write the complete details of the calling person and their agency in their reply. You can lodge complaint at 198 which is complaint helpline number of the company and obtain complaint number and ask them to beg apology in writing. You should record all calls.

These companies indulge in such practices and continue since no citizen protest and inflict shame on the local staff in media and force them to make the details of the agency public.

If you are able to contact your friend you may advice him to put his grievance in writing to the company under acknowledgment and build record in his favor.

Thanks for the reply.I feel that I am in safe hands.I am not able to contact my friend.Anyway if they call me again, I will do the same as you mentioned to me.thank you.

Dear Smiley,

The picture is not that rosey as it seems as for the reasons best known to your friend he is evading the Company who wants their bill settled.  If tomorrow the Company resorts to filing of Criminal Complaint there is every chance that the IO will definately call you for investigation.    Otherwise there is no harm in going through the standard Subscriber Enrolment Form of the Company which is available at every where in which the terms and conditions are detailed in.  More over In the fitness of things put the Company to notice in writing detailing everything in depth so as to avoid unpleasantness  in future.

Best Regards

Daksh

Ooops,

There is another side to the story.  Usually for the recovery purposes the Company engages the DSA's or the agents who do most of the telecalling.  In addition to this there are buckets namely depending upon the money to be recovered keeping in view the cost involved in getting these amount recovered a call is usually taken as you have not mentioned about the quantum of money it is difficult to suggest other via media.  Last but not least apart from putting the Company to written notice let the copy of the same be forwarded to the TRAI as well.

Best Regards

Daksh

Hi daksh,

The amount to be paid is 4000 it seems.Till now i didnot get hold of my friend.And i dont know wat to do now.so plz let me know wat to be done clearly.

Dear Smiley,

At the most your friend shall be shortly getting a notice from the Lok Adalat of your area ask him to go and settle the dispute there.

Best Regards

Daksh

thanks daksh, so will i also be getting any notice like that.I have no other proof with airtel except they have my number as reference and they asked me to tell about the issue to my friend.they said he have to pay bill buy today evening, failing which, he has to attend court tomorrow .if that too failed, a warrant will be isued on his name.

so will i also be involved in this.I am really tensed.

meanwhile I have mailed a complaint to  airtelpresence@in.airtel.com regarding the issue.

kindly reply.

Learned experts and members Mr. Makkar, Mr.Daksh have given valuable advice. Kindly follow it.

No notice can be issued to you.

You can sternly and plainly:

-snub the tele callers that you are under no obligation to take any call, message from Airtel and pass it on to the person of their choice. If the company has any issue company should contact their customer on their own and company should beg apology from you in writing for intimidating, coercing, threatening, harassing you or face the consequences. You can mention that you are contemplating to approach the women cell of the local police also in addition to the institutions of print and electronic media, NGO's, police, social and legal forums, consumer forums, courts of law, TRAI, government regulators and ministries, Divisional Commissioner etc. You should lodge a complaint with police commissioner and Divisional Commissioner and ask them to call local BM of the company, punish the company and supply you the complete details of the telephone number from which the call originated. If they do not act at once raise RTI application and you shall see the things moving in your favor, and the company begging apology in person thru local staff and at that time you may video record the proceedings and ask the police commissioner and Divisional Commissioner also to update minutes of the proceedings in their record and issue instructions to all companies in the city on the norms, laws, rules to be followed.

-snub the tele callers to stop calling you at once or you shall arrange a demonstration thru student union, councilor of your area, along with media etc, at the local RO of the company and shall force the BM to receive the complaint under acknowledgment and beg apology in writing.

Your friend should supply under acknowledgment a written representation to MD of the company and state his complaint and having failed with biased Nodal/appellate office of the company he is making a final representation to the company, and company shall have to bear the cost and consequences of all representations and complaint and grievances. If company has been deaf and dumb your friend should be bold. he should also lodge complaints against company with local BM, police etc.

Company can file a complaint at the circle office ( usually at state capital) and the summons if any are issued to customer ( not you) thru " pyada" of the court and as per the practice they also make calls that summons have been issued. Otherwise Pyada has to make 3 attempts to deliver the summons at the address and if summons are not delivered pyada, may approach Police Commissioner to help delivery of the summons, and SHO of the local area may be asked to deliver the summons. SHO can not question or investigate or arrest and shall only ask to take summons. However this has not been seen happening. Company does not shell out that kind of money which shall make all this happen. Nothing moves without money. All these phone calls etc are made to coerce the customer either to pay or lodge a consumer complaint at his cost. Company engages lawyer for cases in wholesale and subsidized rates and lawyer shall not spend more than he gets. Hence coercion by phone calls. Moreover customer cal always present his side and defaults of the company in person or thru his lawyer. If your friend receives a legal notice from lawyer of the company, your friend may reply and mention that he has tried but company has engaged into willful and intentional default and he shall be constrained to initiate civil and criminal proceedings in a lawful manner at their cost and consequences.

If your friend has faced harassment he can lodge a consumer complaint with local forum.

Kindly post the details in the forum as it  shall be useful and helpful for many who visit the forum.

Hello,

the person who called me yesterday regarding the issue, is calling me today again.I didnot attend the call.Wat should i do?

The calls may not stop even if you do not answer the call. These companies are recalcitrant and the representatives at the lower level have to act as per the schedule given to them by the company and their follow up on the schedule is closely monitored by the company. They shall not stop until the company asks them to stop.

Kindly proceed as deemed fit.

ok so wat will happen if i dont attend the call, i have no where given my proof, so i wish not to answer those calls.please suggest me apart from wat mr makkar has said.I wish not to attend the calls.

If their calls do not preturb you,you may continue to ignore the calls, till they stop calling you, from the same number.

Their threats are hoax.