[Audio] The Police Officer On Behalf Of Airtel – FIR, Threats etc

Last month I had tweeted that a senior High Court lawyer had called me from Delhi with regards to an unpaid Airtel broadband bill and demanded that I pay up in an hour else he would go ahead with proceedings in the Delhi High Court.

The call appeared dubious. The lawyer changed the amount I will have to pay as a ‘fine’ twice, ranging between 80,000 to 150,000 INR that too for a bill amount he claimed was approx Rs 5000. I told him that I don’t like this extortion attempt. The call ended with promises of going legal against me. (Wonder why Delhi when I am based in Mumbai and my Airtel connection was in Mumbai?).

I tweeted out from my account @annkur and Airtel promised to call me. And they did call me regarding the same, only to tell me that I should pay the amount they are asking (some 5,000) and the caller wasn’t ready to co-operate on the complaint I had raised with Airtel before disconnecting my connection. Airtel was in no mood to discuss the so called lawyer who called me and ignored my complaint about harassment / legal threats.

Back then I was travelling and couldn’t do much to record the call, however I got the opportunity today. So what happened today? 

I was in office and I got a call from one Mr Samir Saxena who claimed to be ‘thana incharge’ of a police station in Delhi. I made a excuse of driving the car and offered to call back. I called back from a colleagues cell and recorded the call.

He (Samir Saxena) told me that Airtel’s lawyer was present with him and they have some magistrate order to register a FIR against me and start proceedings in 1 hour if I don’t visit an Airtel gallery and pay up the requested amount.

The supposedly police office talks about a fine of some Rs 65000 this time (funny right?) if I fail to comply. The person calling narrated my airtel account no, due amount as per them, address (shop no) and my full name. I asked to speak to my lawyer and call them back.

My friend advised me to lookup the police station and call their landline to confirm. As suspected there was no ‘thana incharge’ named Samir Saxena there. 

During the second call from the same person, I informed them that the police station denied the said officers name and that infuriated the caller such that he went on to threaten me beyond limits with police action etc.

I have both the calls recorded. And sharing it with the community. There is lot of discussion there, my words would perhaps not convey the severeness of the situation, you should listen to both the recordings below.

Airtel has failed to responsibly assist my CS complaint. Failed to settle the bill even after agreeing last year. And are now harassing and threatening me such that we won’t even want criminals to be treated in a democracy like ours.

I am a graduate by education, have taken a course at Asian School of Cyber Law, have been a journalist / technology reporter / blogger since 5 years yet I was scared on both occasions. I still am. I can only imagine what would happen to a common man with such tactics by large cos.

I am happy to share both the phone numbers (last month and today) if required. I am also contemplating legal action against this caller and Airtel. Waiting for advice on that.

25 May, 2013 12:44AM – Note: I have posted an update here.

June 6, 2014 –  For the ones asking what to do about it? Sadly – this is a widespread – industry wide practice today. I get such calls even today and I choose to ignore it. At times I take it as humour, but I ignore it for my peace of mind. 

218 thoughts on “[Audio] The Police Officer On Behalf Of Airtel – FIR, Threats etc

  1. Annkur says

    Appreciate the support friends.

    Please feel free to replicate this post, share the audio.

    • parth says

      I was purchase idea net setter from a employ of idea company they provide me the number and dongel….then i never used internet on that and i also tell them that i dnt wnt to use internet so please cancel my card because i have allready purchase dongal and card also..and i also paid inr 999 forthat net setter…then in the monthof end they tellme that you have bill of 2400 rupees …i shocked…and tell them i allready request forcancellation then why you send me the bill…so i not paidthe bill after one year they call me that we send notice with delhi high court..and they herras me for bill..if i not used the internet then why i pay bill for it today they said me you have to pay 3100 rupees..help me agains idea…there employes are also totaly faked people..and for them promotion and kamishen they totaly put us in problem…please help me..they tell me yhat they from delhi court and all

      • shikhar says

        kindly do one thing just log a complaint in pgportal.gov.in and select department of telecommunication so log a complaint ur complaint will be resolved within 30 days

    • Ashutosh says

      I have the same experience with idea.
      I used sim for 12 days , hardly made 10 calls and they gave me bill of 500 saying I had used data. I asked for correction of bill because I had data plan free, but they said no for 12 days it is not free. I got infuriated and did not pay the bill. Now they compounded it to 1350 and asking me to pay. Calling from police stations and lawyers and threatening me. What should I do.?
      Should I launch a case with consumer forum?

    • Ajay Rana says

      somewhat same thing happened to me , this time its tikona broadband service in delhi (which Sucks) . i got a call from a so called advocate from delhi civil court for my non payment of a bill of Rs.1600 which i have to pay according to them but i dont want to pay bcoz i told them to disconnect and they didnt do it . i wasnt even using the broadband , so why should i pay . the fir “extortion” call will also come to me . so what should i do then and should i pay the bill ???

      • Tikona always does that. If you ask for disconnection then you need to wait for 20 days without making a login. Then they won’t come to collect their devices and even if they do, they will keep on sending bills for months with fines added for non-payment.

        You will surely get a call from some so called lawyer from Delhi High Court which is nothing but a telecaller calling from some BPO and they will give you orders to pay by 5 in the evening.

        For a matter of fact, High Court or any court lawyers are costly to hire. Companies won’t hire lawyers to make phone calls to their customers. So don’t worry.

        The next time you get such a call, just ask the person – what is the number of your chamber and in which court? I am coming or sending someone to deal with you directly. Either the telemarketer will drop the call or stammer with some fake numbers. Then say that you are recording the call and you are on your way to the Police station to file a FIR against him for false representation, threat and extortion. Bam. They will never ever call again.

    • Khyati Mishra says

      Hi Ankur,

      Same thing happened to me as well, I ported out of Airtel and started my services with Vodafone.
      I used Airtel for 15 days after porting out request was initiated and for 15 days these people are asking me to pay 5748/-
      I tried to follow up with customer care and even with appellate and nodal officers. None of them replied properly.
      And since past 2 days I am getting threatening calls from some so called “advocates” from Delhi saying that my number will be blacklisted , police case has been registered against me…I ll have to appear in Delhi court in next 2 days..and all sorts of shitty things. They have been calling me from these numbers: 7734841454, 9694717772, 8441061912.
      That guy is not ready to talk politely at all. and when i try to say anything in my defense he just hangs up the call.
      The voice is very similar to the one in the audio shared by you.
      I m not sure what to do. thinking to file a grievance against all these things.

      • Joswin says

        Hi Khyati Mishra,

        What was the action taken by you after that. I too have faced the same. I had discontinued using Airtel postpaid and without my notice they were charging me the regular monthly rentals for 6months after which I came to know when they sent me a letter at my address. I ignored it. But months later I got a call from a advocate stating he is calling from Delhi and I need to pay the bill amount before 2.30PM(He had called me at 1.30PM) from any of the Airtel outlet. He didn’t even allow me to talk as how could I locate the outlet within 1 hour. I was scared and later gone through Google to check whether anyone had faced the same issue. I found that your case was similar as mine. Iam ready to pay now their debt. But what will they do further as I failed to do the payment by 2.30?,

        Regards,

        Joswinn

      • Pramod Yadav says

        Hi Khyati,

        Even I got this kinda same call for the settlement amount of Rs. 4300/- from same number 9694717772,This guy is pretending to be from Delhi but this number belongs to Rajasthan area. I have paid this amount at the time of closing my account , but will confirm from the Airtel outlet and will paid the rest of amount if any. Go to Airtel retail outlet clarify all the dues and take the proof of payment or settlement and Send an email to Airtel payments team from which you used to get emails regarding bill payment and all. Stay calm as eveident from all the other posts these are hoax calls.

      • Roop says

        hi Khyati,
        What did you do finally? I got the same call from Tata Docomo and refused to pay. Want to know what they will do next. 🙂
        Let me know about your case as I am in the exact same situation
        Thanks!

    • pawan shri says

      Hi there,
      This is Pawan from iam facing a similar problem I guess, I got a call from airtel for due bill payment for a number iam not even using nor is registered to my name the belongs to my friend. The number was disconnected but still the bill was produced paying the bill is not a problem but the language used by the airtel person isn’t acceptable.
      The airtel person keeps on calling me and asks me to pay the bill only because iam the friend. I do have the recording and in between a call I have also called or reffered as “chor insan”.
      How iam a theif when I have never used that particular airtel number.
      So please help me out here guide me what to do, whether it has to be a legal action taken or consumer court . Please help me.

    • Anand says

      Hi sir,

      I have been fooled by Tikona in the same way.
      I have deposited 1500 rs .

      Is there a way to bring my money back?

  2. Ankit says

    Never had airtel, never faced this, will share in case people have bad similar experiences.

  3. Ravi says

    They are all scumbags. Docomo acts the same way. Check with myakosha.com if you can file a case in the consumer court

  4. Sameer says

    I am going through something very similar right now, though it hasn’t escalated to this extent. Till now, I thought it might be a rogue dealer in Chennai. Sad that it’s much more widespread.

    If you have the necessary time and resources, you should seriously consider going ahead with the litigation. Airtel badly needs a lesson in manners and morality.

  5. Its clearly a fake call.
    1> Why is the “thana incharge” taking side of the “vakeel”?
    2> He said “rokda”. Isn’t it a “mumbaiya” word?
    3> “Airtel Gallery” how can a “thana incharge” knows the exact names of the outlets…

  6. Chirag says

    Dont worry they are just bulling around.. even if they abuse or do whatsoever.. Just disconnect the phone.. the major extortion gangs have shifted to delhi.. but we shouldn’t care abt it.. as there will never be a case in mumbai or anywhere..

  7. Puneet says

    Have heard something very similar from a friend, who got a 3G bill which was too high. He was being bullied an harassed.

    Seems like it is a practice when such instances occur.

    What happened to you is highly unacceptable.

  8. Supreet says

    I got a similar call from Reliance & as you said I was really afraid too man.. couldn’t record the call & had paid the bill eventually..
    Then did some follow up & got to know that the call was dubious.
    Reported it back to Reliance they say that they don’t have any records of any customer by my name??
    Strange na.. Well now I know the truth & will be ready if something happens next time..

      • nandkishor thakur says

        ankur same think happen with me which happen with u delhi vaala today i got call from delhi police +91 7727 825 021 he told me pay money within one hour by debit or credit card or cash and tell them status..other wise thay will report FIR and after i go court ..wt i do if thay call me again

    • Ravi says

      Hi ,

      i am also receiving similar calls from reliance side saying a court case will be filled against my name and i should pay the bill. they threatened me but now i know what i have to do. will not get bog down due to these rasc**s..thanks everyone for creating this awareness..

      Regards,
      Ravi

  9. Ashish says

    Next time anyone calls, tell them to issue a notice in writing on company letterhead to prove their authenticity. In absence of written notice these calls are extortion calls. Sue the bastards for damages for mental harassment.

  10. Dashrath says

    I suggest u to immediately report it to ndtv pehredar. They r doing good work.

  11. vishal says

    Well I had been victim of similar ‘dadagiri’ when there were disputed outstandings against reliance. didn’t knew the vakeel is fraud and there is no such case outstanding in Delhi high court.

  12. Supreet says

    What happened after both the calls? I just gone through them both & man you did a great job..
    But I am eager to know what happened after the call?

    Did you get a call again? Did you pay?

  13. Sidharth says

    I’ve had the same call for a Tata Photon connection. Some bastard called me up and said I could solve the situation before he files the case.

    I asked him to get the fuck lost.

  14. Tej says

    Ankur, They are obviously repo men trying to strongarm you. Good thing you were able to pwn them. It’s Sad to see Airtel stooping to such levels. I had good experience with them few years back. When did they get so fucked up?

  15. Rohith says

    Hey Ankur, why dont you go and post the same on their FAcebook page? I am sure they have to reply to save their honor !!

  16. Shashank says

    Haahahah it was funny which nonsense police officer had got so much time to explain the whole issue…god bless them…2 months ago I was wrongly billed for Rs 8345/- for post paid Airtel connection…I tried my best to explain them that this is not correct…and faced the similar issue from “Delhi Airtel Legal” as they said…my ears were deff to them and I said them that I will not pay them becoz am billed wrongly…and to my surprise they gave me 50% Discount and asked me to pay some 4k at the very moment I understood the whole situation…and just laughed at them n told them am not giving them even a single penny…and I have not paid till date and nothing has happened…

    and dude dont be afraid it will take 10 years to settle your matter even if they go to court…and thats why they will never go to court coz court expenses for 10 yrs will become more than Rs 5000/- for them…hhhahahaha….

  17. Alap says

    Very Interesting.. Any lay man will first be scared if a ‘Senior Lawyer’ or Police Officer will call him. It was a good move to record the call. You have already figured out that they were mere attempts to usurp the money.
    These companies have very little arsenal to get their unpaid bills cleared.
    Hence they offer such ‘Unsettled Accounts’ to extortion specialists. I am guessing these people will be getting some commission in the bill is settled.

  18. Damn!!

    Serious Dadagiri it is.. !!

    See the pay these public servants are responding..

    I will definitely tweet and share this to let people know and reach your voice..

    Do let us know if your Voice is heard.. We are waiting..

    Sanjit Chohan
    Udaipur

  19. Karamveer says

    Its surely some cheap rogue recovery agents trying their tricks!
    Its really shame on the part of Airtel!

  20. Vichar Hari G says

    This is common practice with all Service Providers. Not long ago, I had a similar experience with Reliance, and the exact same thing happened. I was sweating myself, and in the end I paid the due amount and the calls stopped. I think its high time we start taking action against them.

  21. says

    This one is seriously a deep crap being played by Airtel & its associates.. Airtel can simply say that they are not aware of this but in fact they are the real culprits..

  22. I received a similar ‘extortion’ call on 10th April from a supposedly Reliance lawyer based in Delhi- the amount due was mentioned against my prepaid data card which I hadn’t used in 4 years….anyway prepaid means you pay and ten use so no questions of any dues….I am not one to be cowed down especially when someone tries to intimidate me by threatening action in an hour…so instead I tweeted about it …https://twitter.com/#!/sandygautam/status/189606653803495425 and many other such tweets as i was very upset…’ after that I never received a call either from the ‘lawyer’ or a ‘thana incharge’ till now, but am mentally prepared for that harassment now.

    Annkur, I seriously recommend some action , a PIL or something and I vouch to give testimony if such case does happen. the mental harrasment these guys are causing is pathetic.

    pls do keep me informed/involved.

  23. sakshi says

    I had to face similar situation with the BSNL, Gurgaon. I was on a broadband connection with them and they didn’t send any bills to me for 6 months. Every month I used to follow up with them regarding billing cycle. Their standard reply was that they are upgrading their system. After 6 months they send me my broadband bill which was a total of Rs. 80000 !!!! Obviously, I panicked and went to the authorities seeking a clarification. You’ll be surprised to know, but the officials were very casual about it and said, madam you can pay it in installments, or provide advance-dated cheques!!! I had absolutely no clue of what went wrong. I decided not to pay the amount and lodge a complaint in the consumer forum. However, my landlord threatened me and asked me to clear all the dues with BSNL. I ultimately had to pay for it as I had no other option. It’s a different story how I managed to pay the entire amount.

    However, ANnkur I am really happy to see you taking up this issue. I know I was cheated and I also know that I should have taken help. However, some other situations on personal front which were more important than money that time didn’t allow me to put up a lot of time into the issue.

  24. Pradhyuman Singh says

    This is with every company not only with airtel. They have recovery people who use such tantrics. Dont take tension till you receive any leagal written notice.

  25. Prranav says

    Well, Annkur, I’ve faced the same issue with Airtel. Same Delhi calling em and claiming to file an FIR. I was called thrice actually! Like you, I too called the helpline, they told me that they’d get back, well, as you can guess, they didn’t. I’m a student, who doesn’t have the patience or the maturity to handle it further (take legal action blah blah). So i’ll just ignore the calls as they come!

  26. Karthik says

    Something similar happened to me a month ago. Someone claiming to be a junior advocate at the Delhi Highcourt called me up to pay up the amount by 4 that afternoon, after which the file would be proceeded and serious legal action would be taken. He said he would himself urge the presiding judge to not go forward for an amount as small as Rs.1,500 and that it was because of his great efforts that I was being saved of several round trips to the court. Then I wasn’t aware this was a part of a ridiculous attempt by the collection agency and payed up immediately, not wanting to get into trouble. I am not aware of any legal procedures, but doesn’t this amount to Identity Theft or similar?

  27. Vikram says

    My doubt is why dont you clear the bill and then tell whoever calls later to get the fk lost.

      • Aravind says

        I too got a call from 8459114570 saying he is SI from delhi police , told me to pay within one hour , other wise he ll transfer the case to tamilnadu police and file criminal case against me.. then i have to pay 25000 rs. The issue is with AIRCEL . Next time the same guy called and urged me to pay bills .. i said “my internet speed is very slow give me some time to pay .. He said ” go to the nearest Aircel showroom and pay” ..I said im in work cant go out .. then he gave the phone to his senior .. A girl spoke to me and urged me to pay within 30 minutes .I asked ” If i fail to pay means wat action you will take on me” .. She was frustrated and said” You will see our action ” then cut the call.

  28. says

    Hey Annkur,

    You did a right thing by recording the call. We all need to share and show the world the reality of these corporates.

    I am myself disputing a Tata Photon bill from last 4 months. These guys didnt cancel the account even and now are demanding me to pay atleast half the bill. Complete morons.

    Will share the Tata Photon audio if the Thanedaar calls 🙂

  29. Pandey says

    Oye chill.

    Standard procedure of recovery agents. 3 yrs back i was scared too for a one month delayed photon bill I got SAME CALL. You may choose to ignore and I would suggest to go for the consumer court / FIR / ombudsman (if you have that kind of time 😉 )

  30. r@yd3n says

    Happened with my uncle once.He shifted from airtel after that.He once received a call regarding outstanding bill and the guy on the phone told him that his property has been seized due to non payment of bill as per court notice and he is supposed to appear in court regarding the same as per the day and date told by that man.
    The funny thing,there was no outstanding bill and the property they were talking about is the same we live in.
    airtel s***s big time.

  31. Deep Ganatra says

    Ask them to send legal notice and you will reply legally. One they send it, get a local lawyer and send legal reply to them. They will stop harassing again if the case is genuine, which I am sure is in this case. 🙂

  32. SARA says

    The same thing happened with me. Whilst they refused to address my complaint, I had these extortion people calling my phone every five minutes and the only way I could stop was to turn it off.

    When they found that I wasn’t responding to their phone calls, they called all my friends from my itemised billing list and asked them to ask me to pay up. This takes it to an entirely different level, leading to breach in privacy.

    Later, they emailed me multiple legal notices and threatened to take legal action (though nothing has happened)

  33. Vinit says

    The SAME thing happened to me with regard to an unpaid Reliance Broadband bill of Rs.2040 even though I had disputed that amount with Reliance since they had charged me for an account I had ask them to shut. Anyway, asked a lawyer friend and stopped taking their calls.

  34. says

    Gud job Annkur in recording these .. I also received these spoof calls couple of months back for default in payments for Reliance which I had not as I had requested for the account closure … I was also scared … but Googling it a bit within minutes I understood that these are tactic calls by these stupid companies … next time they called up .. i told them to go ahead and file the FIR etc .. nothing happened afterwards .. fact is they don’t have customer care to resolve issues but they spend millions in hiring these gundaas ….

    don’t worry b happy …

  35. Hey Annkur,

    I too was one of the victims of fake billing by airtel but I guess I was lucky enough or may be you can call it a timely resolution by airtel. I settled the matter by contacting the nodal authorities via email. But yes I don’t deny the continuous calls that caused a great deal of worry. But as they were billing me for what I did not use, I took a firm stand of not paying the bill. Contact the nodal authorities via email, I am sure they can resolve the issue!

  36. Vijay says

    Hey,
    Don’t know if this will help. I had a similar story with airtel, 3G bill of mine was 18,000 Rs. First, i cleared my voice calls bill which was around 1000 Rs. Told them i wouldn’t pay the rest since i hadn’t used it. Which is when they dispatched a “mediator” straight to my house. After hours of discussions and honest rubbish (i can probably write 20 pages easy on the stupidity that came out of his mouth) and a few subtle threats (“Mat bharo, dekho kya hota hai aapko… etc.”) which went on for 2 weeks, i finally managed to win the argument. Here’s how, Airtel keeps sending you messages alerting you about the usage, for me it was ” You have used 65% of your total 3G usage”, which apparently meant that i had exceeded the usage by 65% !!!!!
    Now this was my wild card, when i brought it up first he said he cannot pull my sms’s sent to me from his database cause that needs a warrant. So i took a path saying they didn’t send me ANY alerts and that was airtels fault for failing to alert the user when usage exceeds. Hell they send alerts when i’ve crossed my voice limit, why not for 3G. One fine day he turned up with my entire sms’s from Airtel which had the said messages, i immediately took a snapshot and took me an hour to interpret them for him. They finally closed the whole case and i had to pay nothing extra. But i was lucky.

    Always have a witness, a camera phone, a recorder in handy. Hope this helps. But please close this matter as soon as possible. Go to the airtel HQ in your region, shout, make a fuss till you get to speak to a higher official. The longer it stays with airtel, they higher the amount is gonna get.

  37. Praveen says

    Why dont you call up airtel customer service.. Insist on talking to a manager. the word “legal action” should usually get you the access. Once you talk to the manager, get his email ID and send him the audio clips. Believe me, things in writing will get you an immediate response.. and also tell him that the audio clip is public on the internet and that you have a journalist friend..

  38. tman says

    Just tell em,since you have their numbers you will have your lawyer filing a case on them,under the Section 389:putting person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion and Section 170:impersonating a public servant(in my case,I first had a lady call me and tell me she is calling from the high court, Delhi,I asked her if she is a court employee,and she said yes…she gave me the lawyers number,who’s filed the case. I could not make sense why would TATA Teleservice engage a lawyer to pursue a case against me in HIGH COURT that too for a meager sum of 500 Rs!!! It all seemed illogical! When I did get in touch with the guy I could hear the same lady behind..I called my lawyer and he gave me the above sections to throw back at them)..and when you tell em that you’ve figured out their modus operandi,it really ticks em off and they start getting abusive..until then they are just playing on your fears……!!!

  39. Ashish Patil says

    My friend had similar situation with Vodafone. She was on postpaid connection, and since it was new connection we assumed the rates told to us by Vodafone executives to apply for our calls. But when the bill came following month, and we see the different rates, we went to Vodafone store and get the plan changed to prepaid, got executive to admit his mistake and also paid a settlement amount as told by executive (which was less than actual bill but more that was should have been if rates told to us were applied). This was about 3-4 yrs back. Almost after 1-1.5 yrs, she received a call from lawyer to pay up the balance else phone will get disconnected. We visited Vodafone store and explained then the case. But their records were still showing the balance. Nothing happened for next 6 month after which there was another letter from some lawyer in Mumbai High Court. We simply ignored it and the phone is working till date and no further threats.

  40. Hi Ankur

    I want to reassure you that this call is most definitely fake. And I can understand it must be a stressful time for you. But since you do have the numbers and this proof, you have a strong case.

    Do not lose hope! Fight back! Who knows, maybe the court might decide that Airtel owes you money for all the trouble they caused.

    Also, I don’t think this is Airtel’s fault directly (company can’t have a policy for this, officially). It’s the employers at fault. But due to Vicarious liability (employer is responsible for action of employee) Airtel is the one which will be sued.

  41. says

    hi I am a law student .. and these guys can be held for fraud, impersonation, criminal intimidation. Not only should you approach a consumer court you should also file a criminal case against them. Can be punished with Jail term of 7 years and its a non bailable offence.

  42. says

    Also can you post the numbers of these callers. I am sure at least a 1% of the people reading this blog will call them and pull them up.

  43. Umang Sonthalia says

    Exact same incident happened with me on my Reliance Broadband+ service when I stop making payments due to a dispute with the customer service. The connection was on my aunt’s name. I had to end up paying after such extortion calls were made on her phone!

  44. says

    Good work on recording . Even I have got called in 2007 saying that they were calling from Police Station but I knew they only called me as from their language

  45. says

    Just make his number public. As this is not right way to call customers. I bet those are airtel guys who are misusing their admin access to customers database.

    Regards
    Prashant!!

  46. Ankush says

    You could file a FIR against the alleged Police officer the unde the Code of Criminal Procedure impersonating applied officer is a non bail able offense and is punishable with fine as well as rigorous inprisonment. And as far as airtel is confirmed lodge a complain with the consumer protection forum they will help you out with that matter. This is a serious matter and you should take some action in it.

  47. Vijay Nair says

    Iam also experiencing the same problem with Reliance Net Connect…. Every month from 10th to 15th I get call from Relaince asking me to pay the broadband bill… which is booked in the name of one female named Shobha… apparantly she had given my no. as reference.. Once I told the reliance people to discontinue the services if you are not getting the payment…. every month I have to go through the same situation.. asking them to discontinue the services…. what I dont even know any female named Shobha… who the f… is Shobha…..!!!

  48. Rahul says

    Wow.. was on the verge of changing my ISP for the long run to Airtel.

    Screw this. Mailed them explaining why I’m not going for their service and also told them I will make sure my friends and family hear about what you went through.

  49. Utsav Dey says

    Wow this is a new low. I faced a similar problem with AirTEL but they didn’t resort to such pathetic tactics. Instead they kept calling me like 10 times everyday for more than 2 months continuously. I just paid them the amount ( 1200 ) and got the NoC. Can’t believe they pestered me for 2 months for 1200 bucks ( which wasn’t even rightfully theirs – I’d asked for the disconnection of my line 1 month before they finally registered the request ! )

  50. Utsav Dey says

    And about being scared – that is normal. I was too, for different reasons. The rumour is that they screw up your credit history (secretly shared between banks, etc) so that you never end up getting any loans. Not on a good interest rate atleast.

    If you’re scared of Physical violence or life, well that’s normal too. I’m pretty sure everyone would be, till they thought about it for more than 10 seconds.

    1. Think about the negative backlash it would cause for AirTEL if even a single case of recovery violence is reported. Who’d even consider using them ?

    2. You already called up the police station and the “thana incharge” didn’t even know that the phone number you mentioned is a Valid Phone no. It’s 200% obvious the guy’s a fraud.

    3. The “Thana incharge” is confused about his tone he wants to “fake” with you. He starts with “Tum”, “karo” and keeps switching between “Aap”, “kariye”. Just bad acting.

    4. The “Thana incharge” is too fluent with AirTEL customer IDs and the process at AirTEL gallery ? Just like you’d expect from a run-of-the-mill Thana incharge, wouldn’t you ?

    5. The way his jewels come up to his mouth when you say “Maine vikaspuri thaane mein phone kiya tha”. He’s shocked for a good 5 seconds. Kya ? Kya ? Lol.

    6. The threat at the end is just useless. If he was legit, he wouldn’t have bothered with the lame threats. Also, even as a police officer, he’s just too willing to make compromises. And he asks “Aap aage badha rahe ho ya khatam kara rahe ho” way too many times. Legit # of times = maximum 2 -3.

    7. The biggest giveaway is the background noise. Download the sound and listen to it in slow motion after removing Ankur’s voice. Atleast 2 more calls of a similar nature are going on, which make it almost sure it’s a recovery agency.

    Now I’m already sure you knew most of these, but helps to know that others do it too. Don’t worry dude, you stayed unbelievably cool. I’d have lost my temper at the point when the irritating-ass lawyer got on the phone.

  51. ashu says

    I had same issue with Airtel, cops called me, I told them you didn’t solve my prepaid plan issue so I wont pay for my postpaid connection..and I didn’t play.

  52. akshat says

    they screwed up with my broadband bill as well – kept sending me bills even after it was disconnected – now i get a call every week and have to explain the entire story to a new call centre chap

    pathetic

  53. Vikaas S Sahay says

    With me the so called lawyer went to the extent of calling people from my list of called numbers from my airtel landline asking them to lend me some money so that I could pay my bill. some of these were my business associates. he even called one of my friends (a frequent receiver of calls from my landline phone) and told him that his outgoing calls will be barred if he did not pay the bill on my behalf.

    I complained to the Airtel ombudsman and only received a terse reply telling me to NOT email them again. these buggers are pathetic

  54. Vikaas S Sahay says

    these dalals all have daily recovery targets set to say Rs 10000 per day on which their income depends. they therefore go to any limit and they’re mostly vagabond types with fake law degrees from Meerut Univ, Farrukhabad etc.

  55. shalini says

    This is a very common practice by many service providers in India – MOBILE companies use this largely.

    I have had similar experiences with VODAFONE & AIRTEL.

    They are shameless companies with no moral ethics to speak of. Dont ever get harassed or worried over these calls; just have some fun with them if you want to because THEY REALLY CANNOT DO ANYTHING AT ALL.

  56. Blrgal says

    Do not give in, these are outsourcers whose revenue depends on the collections they make and they will train their execs to talk all kinds of rubbish without actual knowledge, throw a afew sections back at them and they will back off and most probably get abusive, try and speak to some one at Airtel office and get it cleared… given a choice, they will harass you…. they are LIKE THAT ONLY!!

  57. Vipin says

    I know 3 individuals personally who’ve mentioned about arbitrary exortionist calls from Airtel.

    All these 3 individuals had put in requests to disconnect their post paid mobile / broadband service connections.

    Airtel did not disconnect the connection despite repeated requests and when the customers finally stopped using the services (which they had anyways requested Airtel), Airtel slapped massive bills on the customers, followed by such exortionist calls.

    Absolutely horrible behaviour.

    I have discussed these state of affairs (threat calls from telecom operators, one sided agreements being made to sign by buyers when they purchase flats from builders, no respite to people who suffer permanent damage due to doctors’ negligence in hospitals etc) with senior retired judges of courts in India.

    Sadly, all of them have (of course on the condition of anonymity) told me that these telecom operators are above law. Indian legal system is absolutely incapable of delivering justice to retail consumers (YES!! Shockingly this was exactly what a retired CONSUMER COURT judge told me on a personal level).

    When the legal system can provide safe harbor to a guy who on recorded camera proceedings shot dozens of people on Indian streets, giving shelter to such extortionists like Airtel is but a small offence.

    But lemme show you the silver lining, let the Air- f^%^$g – tell or any other such dubious companies call you the next time. You just have to do the following things –
    1. Ask hi to name the SHO of the police station from which he is calling.
    2. Tell him you are recording the call
    3. Tell him you will file a lawsuit against Airtel if he ANY information he tells you during the call is incorrect.

    These asses will not call you again !

    Jai hind 🙂

  58. Brijesh says

    Bravo Ankur, good job

    Similar calls were made to me few weeks back, that they are calling from Tees Hazari Soochna Vibhag, and Delhi Legal services have lodged a case against me under section 137 / 138B IPC, for 403 and 406 proceedings. but they never mentioned any company who have lodged this case, got very panicky initially but I spoke to my lawyer about it, she started laughing, cos IPC 137 is for Marines Captains who have done some illegal activities on ship, and section 138B doesn’t exists, luckily they called again while my lawyer was there, when she spoke to tim abt it and got to knw she is a supreme court lawyer, refused to give their enrollment number and refused to answer any questions.

    no calls are coming since then… (phewww)

    modus operandi is to harrass common people with legal and police actions so they will pay up inspire their issues with company… my suggestion is make sure one checks their credibility and ask them to call from landline so they can be traced easily…..

  59. Sukhdeep Singh says

    My friend had a similar experience with Reliance… They even managed to find the number of his nephew and called him up, telling that arrest warrant has been issued against him.. and all sorts of things

  60. Anon says

    I colleague of mine got a similar phone call. After which we called Airtel and after much pressure was able to get the number of the call center from which the originated. After which we called that call center and got that chap fired from the job (atleast that is the call center people claimed). Also we goggled it the number was there online in so many similar cases.

  61. I had the same experience with Reliance telecom after I disconnected my land line. After almost an year, their lawyers started calling that I have a bill outstanding. I said that I have the receipt indicating all dues cleared, then how come you are saying so, and that too after an year. Then, two muscleman came home to collect the receipt – when I called the society security, and the reliance customer care. I dropped them a mail stating that such use of muscle will make me go legal route. And the next thing, they started sending me couriers from lawyers – the best part, all land-line phone numbers mentioned on the letters belonged to Airtel (when the office was supposedly of Reliance) and were non-existent.

    I think all telecom companies go hand-in-hand in using muscle power and political/police links to harass and extort money from common man.

  62. says

    The sad thing is that the guy does sound intimidating and if I got a call like this, it would take me several minutes to think with a clear head and respond the way you did.

    Hope airtel or someone takes some action against these guys and all the others who’ve started this new drama now.

    Passing it along to all my friends and family in India.

    • Annkur says

      Thank you. Your words are my energy. I was scared, scared beyond imagination. But had to hold my nerve. The fact that I called back after making a excuse gave me time to prepare and record. That helped as well.

  63. Dinesh Kumar says

    Not paying the bill can lead to legal action through court of law. But it is not a crime anyway. It is a matter between you and Airtel, and police has no role to play in this.
    Obviously the call was fake.

  64. Sebin thomas says

    i think u shud seriously take this matter up
    what shocks me further is how soft spoken u have been , u shud have come off hard on there ass’s
    such goons need to be taught a lesson
    clearly there are a loot of loopholes to there version of the situation !!
    all the best
    share it up with the airtel senior folks as well

  65. AP says

    Seen this happen, but from some scumbag supposedly representing Tata Indicom who was threatening a friend of mine. This was over a year ago, I think. Another time from someone calling on behalf of some other telco I cannot remember, but probably Reliance.

    However, both of these callers did not demand extra ‘fines’. Just payment of the bill amount.

    So the practice is fairly widespread by now. We had told these fellows to bugger off, and had demanded more information about the ‘advocate’ from Tees Hazari court. That shut them up.

    What is it about Tees Hazari court? Plenty of out-of-work low end ambulance chasers buzzing around to participate in this rubbish?

    Nevertheless, it is a beautifully thought out scam. Lawyers, Police and courts are stuff most people are scared shitless of. On top of that, the demand comes not from your native town or region, but from faraway Delhi. The thought of having to go to Delhi (which is what they demanded my friend do) and appear in court, etc. is almost certain to intimidate most people into paying up.

    To whoever thought this up: Please, become the Finance Minister, or better still, the Prime Minister. This country needs someone with your intelligence at the top.

  66. partha bhattacharjee says

    Just today I had some lady call me up from tees hazari court apparently – asking me to pay a bill that I had already paid and disconnected the connection eventually. It is Reliance. I think I am going to have some fun with this one.

    Ankur – or anyone else in this group – if you are going to take some legal action + your offending company is Reliance + your offending person is a lady from tees hazari in Delhi – please contact with me as well. Perhaps we should join hands and take some action collaboratively.

    If you leave a comment at this page I will get that update.

  67. partha bhattacharjee says

    Just today I had some lady call me up from tees hazari court apparently – asking me to pay a bill that I had already paid and disconnected the connection eventually. It is Reliance. I think I am going to have some fun with this one.

    Ankur – or anyone else in this group – if you are going to take some legal action + your offending company is Reliance + your offending person is a lady from tees hazari in Delhi – please contact with me as well. Perhaps we should join hands and take some action collaboratively.

    If you leave a comment at this page I will get that update.

  68. Oh man.. I’ve been suffering their harassment for the last 3 days! And its worse because I had nothing to do with the issue – they randomly got hold of my number in their search for one of my friends. He had never mentioned my number ANYWHERE. He is not even in the country anymore and he has actually cleared all his debts. These ***ers kept calling me under the pretext of ‘courier service’ with a ‘package from Rockwell India Chennai’. All they kept asking for was where my friend was now. I got suspicious since they would not reveal any details – what courier service, what package, nothing. On the third day, the guy said he was from Airtel. I googled the number (080 4283 7813) and this is what turned up: http://www.grahakseva.com/complaints/58897/harassment-by-airtel-3g-data-card. I yelled at the guy when he called me once again – at which point he suddenly stopped calling. After this incident, my number has been mysteriously signed up for some dealership of dishtv and people have been calling me all day thinking I run some electronics store.

  69. Annkur says

    Friends, seems like Sound Cloud has reached the limit of downloads per track (100 that is), so the option to download the audio files might have been disabled.

    I shall try and get them on a CDN and post the links shortly.

    Thanks
    Annkur

  70. Akhil says

    Not only AirTel. All telecom companies sub contract the collection of pending bills and payments to Debt Recovery agencies.
    While the parent company may not even know the malpractices followed by the debt recovery agents. It is illegal and can be prosecuted in the court of law. Supreme court of India has already passed a ruling vide a circular few years back.

  71. says

    This happened to my friend as well. The harassment wasn’t this bad though. I think this requires to be brought to everyone’s notice. and if you are taking legal action then I’m sure you will get many who have faced the same problem.

  72. Tehseen Ali says

    Damn….. these are the exactly same guys who called me in January 2012. But in my case they told me its for Reliance Broadband connection (which was never installed by Reliance in my premises). I remember the name, the voice & the tone of the two persons in these calls. The modus operandi was the same. First person called me telling me he is the SI of Vikaspuri Thana & he told me the exact thing for my dues showing false compassion. Then the second person spoke to me in the same authoritative & threatening way. We got into a heated argument after the alleged lawyer started raising his voice just like in the clip.

    Thankfully I was not intimidated but just extremely angry & called the Reliance rep who was involved in me asking for the broadband connection. I scolded him enough & he settled the matter by a conference call with the fake lawyer.

    I was not a customer of Reliance since the connection was never provided but the bills started coming & interestingly the bill was just of Rs. 500/- only. I can simply imagine the horror other customers went through & paid their disputed bills (sometimes a 2nd time) only to save themselves from the harassment of an arrest warrant & court case.

  73. Deepansh says

    Yep it happens. Happened to me with Tata Photon. Their person came and collected the bill amount from me and promised to disconnect my connection. I stopped using Photon afterwards and later they have been sending legal notices for a pending bill of some thousand bucks. The problem is that these guys raise such matters after a fews months when you have misplaced the receipts. If there is a billing issue, you should notify the customer within a week and not wait for months.

  74. Anurag says

    I’m sure people from New Delhi are told they have to appear at a court in Mumbai.

  75. Jagan says

    Hi Annkur
    if you have all the bills and documents and if u want to settle this please try Akosa. Their twitter id is @MyAkosha
    They will help you to solve.
    -Jagan

  76. Naveen Roy says

    I also received a call from a “lawyer” purporting to represent Reliance and asked me to pay an amount. Didn’t record but don’t care either!

  77. Ghanashyam says

    I too got a similar call from a guy saying he was at the Nashik Court and he threatened filing a criminal case against me under some section of the IPC if I wasnt present in Nashik within an hour.

    I just googled for a while, and I came to know that it was Airtel’s bullshit, trying to make people pay their bills.

    In my case, Airtel had billed even after I had returned their internet router and phone and cancelled the connection.

    The cancellation procedure is quite tedious in the sense the customer actually get a confirmation call a month later after the cancellation, and they ask you if you want the connection transferred to any of your friends..

    I asked them to check with one of my friends and they told him they couldn’t provide him the connection because they couldn’t lay the cable.. And all this while Airtel shamelessly bills me for around 4 months..

    And a YEAR LATER, I get a call from “Madhya Pradesh Tourism” saying there is a post they want to send to me, and confirm name, address and a day later this hoax call.

  78. Praveen says

    This is a regular tactic by these mobile/broadband companies and such scrupulous practices go unrestricted as there is absolutely no valid mechanism to keep them in check. These so called lawyers, magistrates never call from an MTNL landline which is the biggest proof that they don’t call from a Govt premise as all the Govt offices either have MTNL or BSNL phone connections. Next time you get such a call, tell them that they be screwed and you are ready to take them on in court :P. I get telemarketing calls everyday from a number that shows ‘Airtel Nodal Officer’ on the screen. Such is the extent of their rampant abuse.

  79. Nitin says

    What airtel & it’s reps did is plain stupid if they don’t correct these practices, they’ll be doing other carriers a favor. I do however have a question. Did you actually have an outstanding amount on your account or any unpaid bills? If you didn’t owe airtel any money, why were they calling you in the first place?

  80. Amit says

    2007 – almost same case for a broadband number where my bill was inflated.. I was scared.. I live in Noida. Me and my wife went straight to Airtel office, remained rigid on the valid amount to be paid.. The threat was from a cellphone.. We wrapped up the case by paying the right amount which came up as some 200 rupees whereas they had asked for some 2-3 K if I remember right.. After I returned from the Airtel Office, I called the same number and told that “thana in charge” and “lawyer” – Bhaisaab, main Airtel office gaya tha aur aapko jaan ke khushi hogi ki maamlaa settle ho gaya hai. Mere 200 rupaye bakaya the jo maine pay kar diye. Aap apni tassilee ke liye Airtel waalon se baat kar lein.” to which he meekly replied – “Chalo ji, thee hai..hmmm”.. You just sit in the Airtel office and shout at the top of your voice so that every one hears and I GUARANTEE that you would come out a winner! Dont worry brother, youve done a great job of recording the audio, it was a journey down the memory lane for me!!

  81. Hi Ankur,

    Thanks for putting this up. I have seen numerous such complaints on consumer forums. And Reliance Broadband does this to me every few weeks. And they keep calling on Saturdays .

    They speak relatively politely until I ask them, “Bhaisaab, Saturday ko kaunsa court khula hota hai?” Moreover, Reliance Broadband states clearly on their website that all conflicts are in the jurisdiction of the Bombay HC.

    I’m going to record the next call.

  82. Kriti says

    Same thing happened to me in dec. I was studying in Gandhinagar when I used some Idea post paid connection and forgot to pay 1000 Rs while leaving the town. After 4 years, someone calls my mom on her number saying that she is calling from some bank and need my details. My mom sincerely thought it is some genuine reason and gave my number and then the disaster happened. This ‘some police wala’ calls me up and says that there is a case on you under sec blah blah blah and you need to come to police station immediately. I was like what the hell! and immediately called my dad, strangely they had already called him and told him to pay 8k otherwise legal action would be taken. within 5 min my whole world turned around as that police wala starting harrasing me sayin that ‘aisi file banuga teri family ke against ki sare ke sare jail ke under honge’….n some lawyer who called my dad told him to pay the price within 15 mins….my father asked atleast give us 3 4 hourse so that i can arrange it…but he was like i dont have time for yor bullshit…in the meantime that police wala was calling me again n again n asking me my whereabouts….finally we paid 7 times wht i had to and got rid of them

  83. Vinod Puliyadi says

    I also faced same with reliance, but i paid immediately, i was scared due to “court matters” i don’t wanted to stuck into this matters.

  84. arav says

    dude please sue them. I am a student of law and this is certainly unacceptable behaviour.these guys need to be taught a lesson. please file a complaint in the consumer court it is not that big a deal. this needs to come out in the open. at least send it to some news channel please. they jusgt cant do stuff like this. Shameful. **** Airtel

  85. Satya says

    It’s al about the story we are facing in today’s life. what will happen if list will be grow who are intantionally not paying by taking benifit of this rules. is our brucarcy, Administration & law are so update that can be prevent this limitation….

  86. Pavan says

    Hi, thank you so much for writing this and I hope you take these corporate crooks to court. I’ve got a similar type of call last week from Delhi from a lawyer/court clerk team for my Tata Photon connection (which was taken under my previous organization and I handed the card over to them before leaving but they didn’t remove my name from account holder). As you know in the corporate world, we can’t really afford to have FIR’s and court matters under our name so I ended up paying and I’m angry and disgusted that I gave in. Here are the numbers of these hired crooks who called me :- +91-9711675685 and +91-8586904907.

    Also, it’s really shocking to hear all the cases here, especially Kriti.

    Thanks Annkur

  87. DelhiBoy says

    thanks Ankur. you are a real hero. You exposed Airtel’s real face.I wish one day Either airtel people improve or get vanish from Indian Telecom industry .I too was victimized by the brutelity of these b#stards(AIRTEL)

  88. Rakshit says

    Hi Annkur,

    I’m going through a similar experience myself.
    On Friday many of my friends and also my parents received a call from an unknown number. They all were asked for my number. The person claimed to be from some courier company. He said he had some bank courier which can only be handed to me, and hence needed my number. My mom thought it was something important and hence gave my number to that guy.
    When i tried calling on that number, it was diverted to some other number.
    Yesterday i received a call from some other number claiming to be a lawyer in Delhi High Court. He said that Bharti Airtel has filed a case against me and that i have to appear at the Delhi Court. He said that Airtel had sent 2 legal notices at my address a few days back which i failed to respond to. When i said that i wont act unless i get a written communication, he abused me and the hung up the phone.

    Thanks to your post, i realized that this is a scam.
    Even i’m thinking on filing a case against Airtel in the consumer court.

  89. Mahesh Parashuram says

    I work for IBM India, I took Airtel BB 1299 plan in month of Jan ‘2011. The Airtel representative said, he shall give me Wireless modem while signing the connection, but ended up with Wired. They claimed additional amount for Wireless modem at the end. Having continued with given old wired modem, I started facing frequent disconnections (connection resetting by itself) and raised complaint with Airtel BB helpdesk. They called after 4-5 days and said issue is fixed, they had problem in the box. I mostly used my broadband in the night and weekends whn I work from home on emergencies. When I again worked next, I still found the same issue. While noticing & checking the logs on the modem, I noticed the the connection reconnecting every few mins and logged the complaint again. The Airtel engineer came on a saturday and worked for 2 hrs and said it is all fine now. I noticed he changed some config on modem after consulting his team lead. But after a day or 2, I still found the same issue. My VPN connection which connects me to my company network was getting disconnected and I had to reconnect every few mins, the pain is re-connecting back to all servers..!! With all this I kept making payment to Airtel until May ‘2010, after which I requested thm to fix the issue thn to expect the payment, as my buis got suffered due to frequent disonnection and had to listen from my manager. Any case I moved to Tata Photon which never disconnected me for over 24hrs whn online at times. As there was no expected level response, I opted for disconnection in mid July ’11, ref # 1479936. 2 weeks from there Airtel retention team called and promised me to get the issue fixed by tht weekend and if satisfied, I can make the payment and continue the connection. As he said, that due to technical issues if the connection is disconnected they would have a problem internally So he requested to give him another chance. I had to agree as he pleaded for another chance. Though the guys never turned up to fix my issue, the bill continued to come into my inbox for another 2 months and the total amt due became around 5,400/-. When I called Airtel helpdesk, they were unable to explain and claimed they hav NO request in there records for dis-connection and there is no such reference number..!! That was the shock of my life to hear it from a company like Bharti Airtel.. who is also a customer of IBM.. 🙁
    From there on I recd calls for payment, I kept on explaining my grievance and asked them to produce details of data usage & I would pay the amount in case there was any. Some guys said they would come to house with details, I welcomed but they never turned up. The calls from recovery team, calls from legal team started of periodically and some abused with uncivilized words forcing me to disconnect. I asked the Airtel legal team to continue with there legal process if they hav started of when they called. There were some females too who spoke loud threatning that I would face a legal action soon.
    Some guys came to home asking for payment, explained them about there connection efficiency and said I have handed over details of all the calls and my bills to my lawer. Hearing this, they would leave immd. This kept happening from Nov ’11 to June ’11. After which there were no calls. Today I received a call from a person claiming he is a Airtel Lawer from Delhi, and he has filed a case for non-payment in Delhi magistrate court and I was sent multiple legal notices for which I hav not responded and there was a hearing today for which I was not present..!! and it was contempt of court and he would initiate process to arrest me. He claimed that I owe Rs. 41000/-..!! Though I was shocked to hear all this I had to ask him to goahead with his porcess, soon as he heard that he started of abusing me in uncivilised words like ‘*hand phe *handa’, ‘*hutiye’ ‘bewakoof’ etc… all in our Rashtriya Baasha ( he got to.. as he claimed from Delhi.. 🙂

    The person called from ‘+918377885274’ which I dialed back after an hour, there was no response. I tried tracing that number on ‘http://indiamobilenumber.com’, it said that number is ‘Not alloted’.

  90. priya says

    Hii friends,

    I have an issue with Airtel prepAid now, for 400 mb extra usage, they charged me 5500 rupees extra.
    And I already warned them to activate 2gb plan but they failed to do the dame and this month I crossed 1.4 gb… For that they billed 5500.. when I escalated this issue, the back end team told me that they cannot reverse the amount.. and gave the escalation manager number.

    How do I handle this issue, instead of activating 2gb plan they did 1mb n asking me extra charges..

    Please help me friends

    Regards
    Priyahcutie@gmail.com

  91. Michael says

    huh….faced the same situation by Reliance communication. so now i went ahead, filed a consumer case & sent them legal notice for which they have to reply me in 7days time… so cheap of reliance.

  92. Yasin says

    Hi

    First of all I will congratulate you for your courage and sharpness, you were my role model today morning.

    Today I got a call from same Vikas Puri Police Station from Sr. PI named Vikram Singh Rathore with the ditto same conversation what you have uploaded. At first glance I was quite afraid but then thought to browse google, luckily I got your details and then I followed the same. I called station landline number and there was no constable or Sr. PI named as Vikram Singh Rathore.

    Well. I am going to my near by police station to lodge a FIR.

    Thanks a ton.

    Regards,

    Yasin

  93. vishesh says

    Hey frds dis same us hapening wid me too…i activated d plan for net ..bt dey didnt send me any mesage wen it exceeds d limit of free net use…i keep on using z i was not aware..n sudnly d bill came out 4 k n its alrdy 3 months i hvnt paid nw dey keep on calng at my frds no. n all d colegues to ask me to pay bill…n nw dey r askng fr 8k..z late fee…so vt shld i do knw…alrdy todayone of my frnd got d cl dat legal notice wil be isued against me..vt shld i do nww.

  94. ANIL says

    Hi ,
    Similar thing is happening with me also but now I have understood the reality and ready to take them head on.

    Thanks

  95. Deepak, Bangalore says

    I had a similar experience today.
    Got the call from Delhi and they demanded that I pay up in an hour else he would go ahead with proceedings in the Delhi High Court. “HE” claimed that he’s a lawyer in Delhi court and doesnt know English to speak with, as i’m not a good Hindi speaker.

  96. hiren says

    Hi,
    Right now i am facing the same problem, i got the bill of 12300/- of two months in which 9500/- of GPRS only, i am airtel postpaid customer, now after two months, i am getting the same call and they are threating me of legal action and legal notice please friendz let me know what i should do. at this time my number is also disabled they are calling my friends and saying them all the crap thing. they are really harrasing me.the guy who called me was telling he is a lawyer if i dnt pay till monday i have to apeear in the civil court. he said that he sent me two legal notice but i received none. when i told him this he told me to check with courier companies. i am really tensed. please give me suggestions on my email my email is hiren.rupareliya@gmail.com

  97. vivek modi says

    going with the same issue with reliance. did you pay the bill? and can these telecom compnaies prosecute by law?

  98. Krishna chaitanya says

    Hi Ankur,

    I got similar call twice . Apart from me they called all my friends on harrassment. I have then traced the number and found that it was from Airtel Recovery center in Bihar/Jharkhand Region.

    I had an unresolved issue and i reported customer care mulitple times but unresolved till now. After this call I spoke the customer care and they helped that they will speak to the Backend office.

    I was scared initially and about to pay but hesitated because I was in a state of confusion on why should I pay for what i have not used.

  99. Krishna says

    Such a big relief….
    I just got a call from same bas****s.
    They give me 30 mins only for making the payment against my dues which i didnt used as we shiifted to new location.
    Inspite of mailing and calling to Customer care…no boby neither disconnect my services not shifted my existing connection to new location.
    They kept charging monthly rental for 2 months…
    The 2 advocates named Deepak k. Pandey(08271361499)and Mohanlal Desai(@ 07870388555) called me up few hours back.
    and said the same story…
    They were calling me from delhi but when i traced the nos. they were belongs to BIHAR state of Uninor operator.
    They charged me some crime agains under section-123 IPC.

    I never wondered that airtel would ever do this…
    No i hate it like anything.

    Guys be alert and need not to scared.

  100. Varun says

    I got a call from 9274620620 saying he is Mr Dubey, clerk at Mumbai high court. He asked me to call Mr nikunj Agarwal, Advocate in Bombay high court. Mr nikunj asked me deposit outstanding amount within 1hr else the payup amount will be 10 times higher and i will face judiciary action (passport blocked, loans will not be approved etc.). I paid up the amount and sent him the details.
    Surprisingly one week afterwards, I got a call from Tis hazari Delhi on the same issue from Mr Rathi, 8750954243. I am surprised that telecom cos take up the matter to courts and they will end up paying much higher amount in fees than the claim amount.
    i feel that most of these calls are dubious. These guys somehow have all the details like company name, residential address etc.
    Guys don’t be threatened by these calls…

  101. Sunil Kapadia says

    hello i have got the same kind of call from Reliance.
    Some lady was speaking from Delhi Court and i was given a local advocate’s number saying that i have to talk to him.

    I had applied for disconnecting the service on 8th may 2012 but they discontinued the service on 29th june and so they are charging for the time till 31st may. When i got a call from reliance after 20 to 25 days after 8th may i asked them why so late they said there was some fault in the company so could not call me on time. Normally it takes two days to respond.

    So i have been charged for Reliance fault.

    So what should i do ?

  102. Sunil Kapadia says

    hello i have got the same kind of call from Reliance.
    Some lady was speaking from Delhi Court and i was given a local advocate’s number saying that i have to talk to him.

    I had applied for disconnecting the service on 8th may 2012 but they discontinued the service on 29th june and so they are charging for the time till 31st may. When i got a call from reliance after 20 to 25 days after 8th may i asked them why so late they said there was some fault in the company so could not call me on time. Normally it takes two days to respond.

    So i have been charged for Reliance fault.

    So what should i do ?

  103. anand says

    Yesterday i had also received the same type of call from Delhi , first some one lady called me and told me some number of an advocate that she had filed a suit against me and asked me to call her when i asked who is she , she replied from consumer court , then i called the number some lady against said that yes i m a lawyer and if u pay some 4500 in the Tata outlet of some number of Tata Proton then the case will be dropped . I asked her there is no such due from my side to any number but she insist to inquire from Tata . then i called my lawyer and asked what is this . he said relax it is a dubious call as many person got this type of call but i was not happy then i called one lawyer in Delhi he told the same thing and he said they might say that a fir had been lodged but u don’t worry its all fake . But still i was scared but some where i was thinking that no one lawyer would speak in this manner and though a lady in her late 20 wold never come to this profession as they voice were sound very clear and straight to the point as they had been trained like a call center girl.

    I think we all should file a complaint against these people to stop others being harassed and pay off with their hard earned money.

  104. Nikhil says

    Everyone, I keep getting calls from someone claiming to be a lawyer from Mumbai High court or Inspector from Banaglore P.S stating that there is a case on my Late Father and that they want to confirm my address. When I ask them what is this regarding, they never say anything, they keep saying that you tell us your address then we will tell you what is this reg. I am very frustrated and they keep calling from different numbers. The numbers are usually from Harayana when they say Mumbai or Bangalore when the number is from Airtel A.P. I do not understand what to do as the callers never give me any details at all. I dont know what is this regarding but it is pure mental harrasment.

  105. Nikhil says

    The funny bit is that the voice over the recorded conversation sounds exactly of the same person who had called me. I guess this is one gang running this sort of racket. Any advice on what to be done will be greatly appreciated as this is bringing a very bad name to my deceased father.

  106. says

    Hi Annkur,

    Thanks for posting. I started receiving calls informing legal notices from Tata’s presuming CSEs. Initially it sounded too amateur…I wondered God they have to work so hard doubling as ‘legal consultants.’ But today’s call I received was different and seemed from a real lady from Tees Hazari Soochna Vibhag. I will be sharing the audio. The name of the lady is Ms. Rhea Gupta and her no. is 07503368476. I’m waiting for further reply/legal notice in print from them.

    Will keep you updated.
    Thanks,
    Preyash.

  107. c.p.pramod says

    Hi all…i am also facing the same problem with Airtel today they have crossed all the limits. The person Deepak is threating my father in mobile. I dont know how the airtel company got my fathers number. They tell them self as thees hazaree lawers.

    Please suggest what to do ?

  108. Maverick says

    I am a victim of reliance.

    I received a similar call from someone who claims himself to be a constable from Tees Hazari Court.
    His cell # is 9716553370.

    He said that there is a case against me from Reliance Communications that I haven’t made a payment of Rs. 5500 so I have to do it within 15 minutes otherwise they will arrange an arrest warrant against me and I have to pay around 50K in the court.

  109. Sandeep says

    Dear Ankur following is complaint regarding Tata Docomo. Do not give in to these guys. noone other than company employ can call you. Go to following stehttp://www.consumercourt.net.in/
    Threat calls from Lawyer Devendra Sharma
    Dear Tata Docomo
    My dongle No 7204147721 with a fixed bill plan was billed for 11000+ rupees in the month of April-May 2012. Despite excessive and wrong billing, on insistence of Tata Docomo Bangalore to close the case, I paid Rs 3000 as a compromise amount. However my wife is getting threatening calls from following Nos 8459113334, 8459064318, 9910465183 of a Lawyer called Devendra Sharma. I demand refund of Rs 3000 from your company and also i am lodging a complaint with Bangalore Police and consumer court for threatening calls and mentally harassing and disturbing whole family against Tata Docomo and Advocate Devendra Sharma.
    Sandeep Dhawan
    Bangalore

  110. Nitin Kamat says

    Just like you I too had received such fraudulent calls on my mobile twice, first time from mobile number 9250209261 on 16.11.2012 at around 11.32am and second time from mobile number 8006079506 on 21-11-2012 at 11.36an from from a lady Ms. Ragini Singh introducing herself Police Sub-Inspector from Delhi Police who knew my name and other details and said that she has an arrest warrant in my name for the complaint lodged against me under section 138 of negotiable instruments act for a bounced cheque. On reviewing the matter I was sure that the lady who had called up is falsely posing herself as Police Sub-Inspector and seems to be a fraudulent person since she wanted me to settle the matter financially to stop the warrant being served. Earlier too on 24-07-2012 I had received similar call from the same mobile number from a person introducing himself as Sh. Naresh Yadav Police Inspector from Delhi Police regarding warrant under section 138 who too wanted me to settle the matter financially for not serving the warrant. Thus I am now confident that this is a gang of fraudsters who are into money making business by threatening the mobile users. I have registered a complaint with local police as also informed Commissioner of Police, Delhi about this matter and is awaiting their action.

  111. Ranjeet Vimal says

    sanjay.kapoor@ airtel.in,
    dramesh.babu@ airtel.in,
    NET@ in.airtel.com,
    sbm@ bharti.com

    sanjay is the ceo, sbm is the chairman, dramesh is regional head. Just mail ur complains to the ceo

  112. Swaroop says

    Airtel broadband service and customer care sucks…. faced similar situation. Luckily they realized their mistake and relieved me. VERY HAPPY WITH ACT BROADBAND NOWWW

  113. abdul says

    i just recive a call from +918377082682 he said that he is a police officer of delhi police he have a case against me for pending bill payment of my airtel and he is harrasing me that u have to pay that bill and all what can i do id it rel or fake please help me i m n soo tension…..he is telling that he have a arrest warrent for me…..plz reply me As soon as possible…..thanks
    sorry for gramatical mistakes….

  114. rajesh says

    I had same scenario for last one hour.

    I paid Rs.3000 on account of broadband connection which never existed.

    Bharti is richer by Rs.3000. But lost a big customer. I pay ~ Rs15,000/ month for my Airtel mobile + my office Airtel lines!!

  115. anu says

    Today same thing happen to me. Someone called me and told that there is a warrent against you for not paying 1000 Rs bill for Tikona braodband. Pay it within 1 hour otherwise there will be a legel action against you. Thank God I go through your article.. Such a big relief for me….

    Thanku so much ankur…God bless you…:)

  116. rohit says

    hey bro same happened to me they freaking calld my friends from my bill list telling them i had a debt of over 65 k actly i used an idea cellular connection postpaid and they charged me uselessly i am getting threatening calls from diffrent people pls help pls m jst 19 yet n m afraid mail me at rohithareshraj@gmail.com

  117. Ashish says

    Airtel dealers are also suckers! When i first bought airtel sim he told it will not be activated till i get first time recharge of rs 200 which i then found out is not necessary!!!

  118. A says

    It shocking to get a call from a so called advocate Rohit Sharma, 08696672757 telling me that a case is being filled within the next 30 mins and it is my good will gesture that I’m calling you to inform to pay your dues in the next 29 mins so that you will not be dragged to the court for a connection which I have discontinued more that 2 years for un-reliable services, not proper information shared by the representative at the time of the connection thus leading to unjustifiable bill amount. Upon several calls to the Customer care, i had given up hope and decided to terminate the connection which was not acted upon and they continued to bill me.

    I do not understand why should I pay up for this and threatening to file a case is treating you like a criminal..!

    a/c # 976681849

  119. Raj says

    Hi,

    i have also recived the threat call from airtel regarding my bill issue, on the morning one of lawyer from Delhi High court called me and threats me to pass the case to majiestrate within 1 hour, if i will not pay the bill. the amount he claimed me to 26,000 rs to pay the company and the leagal action against me.

    could ou please suggest me , what to do now.

  120. vikram says

    thank you for the article brother. i just got off a call from two different people supposedly from Delhi court asking me to pay my for a connection that i cancelled last year for which the entire outstanding was paid in full. i spoke to the customer care guys and they have no clue about these callers and he also informed me that he amount is still outstanding( 1228)i checked with my bank and they are saying that the amount has been taken out from my account by Bharti airtel ltd. these guys are constantly calling me and saying that they have put a hold on the file till 3pm and want me to pay that money. I politely told them to F#%@ off.

  121. kaushal says

    I am victim for similar situation. What troubles me I tried to pay the bill sincerely but online it was rejected.and these bastards called me and made me rush. I wish all those agents get behind bars. 🙁 seriously I wish.

  122. rajesh says

    I too am receiving such threatening calls from Airtel. what happens if i dont respond to these calls?

  123. Lavanya Sethi says

    I have recently bought an airtel 3G dongle and I have been harrased to the extreme point with pathetic speeds. At times it stops downloading and automatically disconnets thereafter refusing to connects for hours and sometimes even for a while day !!
    Customer Care number: 1800 103 0405 is a bogus number. It doesn’t work and after select options 1 (for airtel 3 dongle support), 2 (for english), 1 (for postpaid) it just disconnects.
    I am fed up and with the services and will be taking appropriate action in a few days. Also it has billed me for 5000 + INR when my credit limit itself is lower than 2500 INR. and i find no justification to the billed amount!
    Please, i urge all consumers not to subscribe to airtel 3G services!
    I have even filed a complaint against them on their site as well as here, http://www.consumercourt.in/mobile-services/87223-issues-airtel-customer-care.html at Consumer Court site but so far no action has been taken on this case.I hope i will get the proper solution of my complaint very soon.

  124. Tusar Behera says

    I used Airtel Broadband (account Number 7005213076 and phone number 8042025063.) for several months in Bangalore.
    I was out of station for two months and couldn’t able to pay the bill , hence the line disconnected in end of December 2011
    After disconnection also they keep on sending bills through my email. In the month of April I got one e-mail from Collections.KK@in.airtel.com , Asking me to pay an outstanding amount of Rs. 4908.00
    I got one call from customer care asking me to pay whole amount when I told her that I have not used after December as line was disconnected. Finally she told that if I will pay Rs.4000.00 then the matter will settled and I will receive one settlement statement.I paid 4000 through cheque on May 9, 2012 and I got one receipt No. 001130713.
    I followed up customer care through e-mails and phone calls for settlement statement but I didn’t got any reply on that matter

    On January 29th I got one call from a number 9266629713, person claiming that he is lawyer in Delhi District Court saying that there is a case registered against my name in Delhi by Airtel. If I want to close the case then within one hour I have to pay the due amount , I didn’t respond to that call again he called me on that day evening and asked if I paid or not if not I have to come to Delhi and pay the penalty of Rs.24000 and/or ligal action.

    Again on yesterday i.e. 11th Feb I got a call from same number asking to make the payment before 5 pm today , else ligal action will be taken against case number 12116/2013 .
    Today morning I got call from some other number.9873892427 ( Claiming Adv Arjun of Delhi dist. Court) and telling the same thing
    Why should I pay more even after I have paid more for unused usage.
    Any help with this regard to close this matter would be highly appreciated.
    Please advice and help.
    Calls/threats such as this causes immense stress to customers.

  125. Shweta says

    Hi Annkur,

    I am getting legal notice from airtel even after asking them to disconnect the number several times.
    Read your post, just wanted to know if your matter was resolved?
    Thanks
    Shweta

  126. Sunil says

    Similar story with Reliance.

    I got a bill of Rs 39543 (Yes, thirty nine thousand+) for a broadband connection that I disconnected some 4 years back!
    They outsource this cheating work to third parties, who in turn pester you with emails (most of them in a threatening tone)
    This has happened with me and many of my friends. There is no use of talking with reliance people, they are complete assholes.

    Some one should bring them to court. This is a national shame. UNReliance, cheating, and @#$@#$

    below is the email I got

    ———————————-
    Reminder Notice

    WHEREAS M/s. Reliance Communications Infrastructures Ltd. Represented
    by M/s Vision Business Solutions, Bangalore-560017. , as a settlement
    agency & has instituted a petition against you for the recovery of Rs.39543
    against.

    A/C No. 10000010850xxxx : Service ID No. 1.3xxxx1127184E+18368408091456_X

    (a) Outstanding Bill Amount : Rs. 39543

    (b) Interest Accrued : Rs.

    (c) Cost and other charges/expense : Rs0
    Total : Rs. 39543
    And you are hereby requested to contact +91 65699588/89 or respond to
    their email services@vbsolutionsnet.com[1], or by a pleader duly
    instructed and able to answer all material questions relating to the
    petition, or who shall be accompanied by some person able to answer
    all the questions to answer the claim; all the documents and other
    materials upon which you intend to rely in support your defense.

    Take notice that in default of your sincere reply on the outstanding &
    make use of the credit cell of concern telecom office can hear your
    side statement of not settling the above said bills.

    To,
    <name and address which is 4 years old and non-existent)
    ——————————————–

  127. Sabu says

    Yes, I was lucky today to talk to this fake lawyer. I did pay the ‘buggy’ bill today realizing that it’s not worth being tracked by these criminal minds for an amount of 650/-. However, I have also cancelled my airtel postpaid mobile connection and my another broadband connection today as a token of appreciation to their smartness. Thanks to the mobile number portability and other customer friendly ISP’s. Wish TRAI was like OFCOM.

  128. Nitin Kamat says

    Yes I too receive such bogus calls from different thanas or courts. So whenever you receive such calls next go to trace.bharatiyamobile.com put the caller’s 10 digit cell number in the blank space and click “trace” you will get the correct location of the caller his operator’s name and type of signal that is gsm or cdma. If the caller’s number is from Delhi then you could call Special Investigation Team (SIT) Delhi Police on landline number 011-27292060 and lodge a complaint. Alternatively you could also mail your grievance to The Assistant Commissioner of Police, SIT, New Delhi at acp-sit-dl@nic.in since they are the competent authority to handle such cases. I have done this everytime after receiving such bogus calls and the calls have stopped.

  129. Arun says

    Getting through to Airtel folks is next to impossible …where on earth are their helpline numbers for dongles on the website ….anyways have a disgusting experience to share , couldnt find a better way … i once used to own a Airtel dongle (9004637121) which rarely worked to its promised speeds and i finally i disconnected the service in Jan , paid 1070/- as a full and final . Surprise , surprise … get a call from a SI ( delhi Police , Sadar Bazar ) Rajveer singh that i have a outstanding due of Rs 535/- and i got to pay up in the next 1 hour or an FIR would be registred in Delhi !!..Call up mutliple support lines of airtel frantically , got hold of bill details etc ( for i had never received any invoices post my disconnection) …What are you guys upto …Airtel !!
    a) how on earth did Airtel share my details with anyone outside Airtel .( isnt this a breach of privacy laws )

    b) Normally, disconnection happens only when there is a zero balance on the account …. how on earth did they post a Rs .535 charge and for what ?

    c) Still i may wish to buy in the fact that there was a charge applied of Rs 535 …why werent there any collection calls made to inform us of the outstanding and how did Cops come into the picture ( surprising that the cops in this country have the time to service you folks for collection calls !!)

    I called the Sadar Bazar PS (PH 011 – 23512411)in New Delhi and spoke to the Station incharge there and there is no one by this name who is a SI or a SHO . indicating that it is a handiwork of your stupid company

    Details from where the call came through

    +91-8441061923

    Details of the impersonator
    SI Rajvir Singh
    Sadar Bazar PS , New delhi

    Advocate Rohan Khanna who supposedly “filed a case” for Rs 535/-

    Regards
    Arun

  130. Ramesh says

    Thanks for this expose.
    i am a senior 73 year old citizen and today i have also received threatening call from some Adv Rohan Khanna from Delhi city civil court. I live in Bombay and hardly go to Delhi for anything. He says he is sending police warrant in 1 hour. But he refuses to give me the reason or cause for the same. Something has to be done to stop these kinds of threats to old people. I googled Adv Rohan Khanna and found so many people have similar complaints against this person for making similar calls. Delhi Police has to take up this matter.

  131. Sameer says

    I also got the same call from the number 9213289908. I was supposed to pay dues last month 25th as i closed Airtel Broadband connection. I didnt pay the bill, as online payment mode is disabled in my airtel account and i didnt get the time to go to airtel outlet and pay the bill. First call i got scared, but still i told i can’t pay within an hour, u file case. Then after that thought for sometime, is it real, our legal system is so fast that i would have to pay 90,000/- that too tomrw as he claiming. Then i decided it is just trick from airtel to get the bill ppaid. Next time i got the call, he again told to pay with 4 o clock, i told i can’t pay within that time, you file a case. Waiting for call again 🙂 🙂 Again if i get the call, i will record and file consumer court case.

  132. Siddharth says

    Dear Sir,

    I also got a call from someone from teez hazari court (Mob no 8459117543))and threatened me that there is a case on my name and I have to appear tomorrow or I will be arrested by police, he said that they have send me legal notice twice but it was not received. I was shocked as I was in the middle of a meeting with my client. He told me to talk to someone Mr. Avinash (Govt Advocate 7827524848)about the case as he is not aware about it but can will stop my file for 10 minutes until I talk to the other person and confirm him. When I called Mr. Avinash he shouted on my like anything, he said that I have a recovery of Rs.35,000 on my name, or else if I will deposit Rs. 3000 in JK Bank the file will be closed. I said why should I, you should have send me a legal notice of bill or something else and I have got nothing in that regard, In fact I want my money back for the dongle which was sold to me and they vanished from here after 2 months. Then he threatened me in very abusive way that, that now police will talk to me and I will be arrested and hung up the phone. I was really surprised as how can companies threaten someone like this.
    I purchased the dongle from them and after two month they vanished, no refund for that useless CDMA dongle. I asked them to refund my money which I have paid and they refused as its not their problem. They are the culprits, they owe us not we.
    There should be some action against these guys. Tata docomo shouldn’t do such a low graded deeds.

  133. Soumyajit says

    I got an extortion call from 9654406859. A lady was telling she is a senior lawyer from Delhi and wanted me to pay for an Airtel connection that was terminated long ago. They gave em one hour to pay or it will be passed to police station or some other court.

    What should I do?

  134. Rajesh Choudhary says

    Hey Ankur,

    Got similar call from teez haazari court from section officer who asked me to speak to airtel lawyer to understand the case. as government officer he was not authorized to give away the details. Section officer number Mr Baljit +91 9250509952 and lawyer number Ms taranjitt kaur +91 9250509957. What gave these impostor away was that there number was in series and they were calling from delhi while I should be fighting any case in karnataka. We also have recorded 15 minutes of conversation where in the end they said sorry..I am blessed with great lawyer who thinks its time to file a formal legal complaint against airtel.

    Hope I can get few more details from you if required so build a case against airtel.

    Regards,

    Rajesh

  135. Asit says

    I also got a call from Airtel today for broadband that was disconnected(asked to) in Oct 2012
    Was shocked
    Reading this, I understand what the modus operandi is
    Will await next call, and respond properly by recording the call and filing consumer court case

  136. Arun says

    Hi folks …

    Just block the number ….I dealt with a similar call in april and took airtel to consumer court … result ….a 42000/- rupees compensation ( 8 monts of bill charges ) 12000 compensation for mental harassment …. Airtel did confirm to me in writing that this was a DSA ( collections ) who were resorting to such methods.That really helped..all that is needed is a bit of patience , since getting hold of the right people in the corporate office is a huge pain. but once you get hold of a few ,Feel free to trip on them.

    Use social media ( facebook , twitter etc) to expose these goons … the results are faster

    Good luck

  137. Gilbert says

    Dear All,

    This Morning I too received a Phone call form the following Number 8587038285, who claimed to be Ragagav Sing Batch 56, from the Delhi Consumer Information. He then went on to explaing that i need to contact another number to understand what the issue was, the second number belonged to (Advocate Vasant Rana: 08506859989) who asked me to rush to the nearest Reliance outlet to make the payment of 1400 for a Reliance Broadband connection as a final settelment. I fail to understand that Reliance takes Advance reltel along with installation & setup charges and discontinues the usage if bill are not paid at the end of 30 days, hence my question to Advocate Vasant Rana was how could one use excess Broadband Bandwidth if its an advance rental, he was dumbfound to provide me with a logical answer and thretend me to make the payment in an Hours time. I asked him I havent received any notice to the claim he was making, he answered that I wasnt present at home to receive the notice via registered post, I politely asked him for a landline number so I could verifiy if he was a real advocate or that he really existed to which he began to ague and started abusing and threatning. This is no way to treat anyone let alone a customer.

  138. Ashish says

    Hi Ankur,
    I got a call from some sub-inspector ajay choudhary from Delhi saying that some warrant has been issued on my name,passport is being cancelled, and to avoid it all he gave me the advocate A.K singh’number and case-id(DL1943/13).
    Ak singh told me that he handles cases for airtel,reliance and etc.
    He asked me to pay 22,390 to prevent any further legal proceedings and I paid the amount to him.
    He was reluctant to tell his account number but then he gave his assistants SBI account number where in i transferred the amount.
    My bill outstanding was 2743.19 but they tricked me to pay 22,390 quoting some penalty charges,court changes etc.

    Even after paying such huge amount bill outstanding is still there.
    I know it was my mistake to not to pay bill on time but paying 10 times is really justified?
    Please tell me what to do?Is there a way i can i get rest of my money back.

  139. kaushal says

    @Ashish Are you even educated?Just check news anytime, you will find a bail amount for a deadly case like 2G in order of lakhs. For thousands of crores, bail is few lakhs. How do you think the legal system would charge so much so fast? seriously you know how to use net banking but you don’t know these basic facts? I do understand that the situation is panic kind of situation. I was there in it as well. But atleast you could have searched/called up to your friends or atleast visited police station for the same. You could have paid 1k for local police and got those scoundrels arrested. Better late than never. Contact police and tell them these guys took away so much money. You have e-trail(Transaction details) so don’t worry it will come back. Meanwhile contact you bank and ask them to initiate an action for this. Don’t worry. If you can spend 22k so fast, don’t hesitate to spend even 1lakh to get justice. oh one more point, you can get back the whole money you spent if you win the case :). don’t give up just kick ass 3.

  140. rajkumar donny says

    hi everybody , m from Imphal and I’d used tata photon which comes free with 1 GB data with micromax fun book about 2 years back and I used it only for 1 month and a bill came amounting 2200. I did talked with their customer care and as they were so rude I paid the said amount and surrendered the dongle to their regional head quarter out here at babupara and after few week a girl called me and told me that I got a standing bill amounting 10000 she was way rude and even threaten me that they will send me a legal notice . I tried to let them know that I already paid the bill that I’d used and even told them that I’d surrendered the dongle but they never listen and I contacted the regional office and they told me that it must be a mistake and told me to ignore and suddenly today I received a call from Delhi court telling me that tata photon filed a case against me and told me to pay up the amount the unknown who come bill within 1 hour. I got scared but have my calm and asked people whom I know who had worked at tata before it was wipe out of NE and they even got shock hearing the news and here I’m trying to find out what’s really going on.

  141. Tina says

    I too got a call asking me to pay 800 rupees for the connection that was disconnected and all the due amount paid.

    Shall I pay the amount or take legal action?

  142. Aamir says

    I too received such a call today. The person was talking professionally with correct information. But he called me on my personal number which is not from Airtel. He was taken aback when I asked him where did he get my personal number. He threatened me to pay in 1 hour else criminal case will be presented before a magistrate in Delhi. Before disconnecting call he whispered (loudly) to someone to prepare a warrant and send it to my address. This is very cheap. This is extortion.

  143. K sharma says

    I too recived a call today from 8587038285. telling my case is transfered to Delhi in some forged matter.
    I am going to local police against this.

    Thanks for sharing such info on Web.

  144. Viv says

    I totally agree that the action taken by Airtel is wrong, but is this happening to people who are not paying their due and maintaining that they have no obligation to pay. I had n number of post paid and i paid before i left the the place, and i never faced any such issue.

    • good job says

      it is happening because these people have seen that if we pressurise innocent people with bogus tactics atleast 1 out of 10 will pay up for the bills which are imaginary…

  145. Ruchira says

    I got a similar call today from a person claiming to be advocate saying pay the bill of around 2000 (which already is deposited) in one hour and we withdraw the case which is due in 1 hour or pay some 45000. I asked him which court and i will come there and handle the guys.. so he gave the phone to someone else.. It was so stupid.. I asked him the address and he said Patiala court and then he says you pay or we will send Police. What am i stupid!!! I knew this call was fake… This is so ridiculous and cheap. I had disconnected Airtel because of pathetic customer service and crap bills. I am happy i did so! Guys please dont fall for it

  146. Siva says

    Hi,
    I am facing similar issue with Airtel unpaid bill. I have explained to customer care people if the credit limit is not bounded my bill and they sent a bill of 3000 rs disputed month bill, now crossing 5000rs for the months even after the sim is thrown out.One guy threatened me saying he will proceed with legal notice.

    What has to be done..?

  147. Anis Mohiuddin says

    I am surprised that such a large scale problem exists out there and people are sitting quietly. If Arvind Kejriwal can set fire to the imagination of Delhi-ites and the rest of the country how is it that people here chatting on this blog cannot act together to silence this anarchic greedy Corporates through a strong legal action? There are many Govt organisations too that need to be given a dressing down like – Ombudsmans – my experience is that they are manned by nincompoops. They just do not know why they are there. Set them right and many of our problems facing these corporates can vanish away.

    We will need money and legal luminaries to help us. Anyone there to come out of the box before we go into a corporate bag?

  148. Akshay says

    i got the same call today.. i am still playing with them by making them call me again and again. every time they call, i change some detail and see them follow around the bush all over again… this is getting too hilarious.. Ankur, so finally whats the outcome of your ordeal?

  149. Hemant says

    Hi Annkur, Nice job BRO, Today I also got same type of calls for using a reliance data card.

    The funny part is that the lady asked me that I need to pay the amount in an account number in SBI branch near me. She said that I should call her again when I reach the branch and she will tell me the account number. This seems wierd to me that the payment is for reliance communication and should be paid in the reliance web world, why is she asking me to pay into a bank account.

    I started searching on internet in this matter and found your post and many other pages

  150. Ayush Agrawal says

    I recently experienced something similar. I was a Tikona Broadband user, and asked them to terminate my account through their customer care number 2 months back, executive said I’ll receive a call from the disconnection team in 24 hours, but I never received any call, I separately also sent two mails on the customer care mail id but to no avail. And today I received a call from someone claiming to be a senior lawyer from Delhi court.

    I tried to explain how I have already paid all the bills for the period i used their service but he wasn’t interested in listening to me at all. He started threatening that if I do not pay the bogus bill amount he will send police and simultaneously a court case will be filed in an hour. After talking calmly for 15 minutes I ended up the call telling him to go ahead and do what ever he wants. But now after going through this article and other comments am rather waiting for his call again, will give him an earful.

    Oh and while I am at it, I must also mention that Tikona probably is the worst broadband company in India, the moment you get their connection prepare yourself to spend a sizeable amount of your life dealing with their good for nothing customer care executives who will provide you with the most creative excuses about why the speed is so slow and the latency is so high. Pathetic company, pathetic service, horrible experience.

    • good job says

      Absolutely right about Tikona…..Worst and Shittiest lowlife company on the face of this earth…… I too received a call from some tees hazaari court…bogus laywer asking for bogus bill….But I was prepared for it as I had heard about this stuff…..I just hung up the phone…Poor Shi*head….must be wondering “who cuts off a lawyer like that” haha.

  151. good job says

    Is anyone planning to do anything about it at all? I mean are we just going to wait to let it be as it is and get bullied??
    Ankur, you are a knowledgeable guy in the field of law relating to this telcom stuff……Please someone file a PIL or if someone has some higher contacts, make these people pay for their deeds…do something please…

  152. Ananth says

    Glad that I found this blog ..

    Today, I received a similar call from Delhi and I was told to contact the lawyer RC Gautam for a legal case against me. When I called RC Gautom number, some lady picked up the call claiming she is talking on behalf of RC Gautom and I gave my reference case number which was given by the first caller. I can clearly sense that she is inputting my case number in the computer and informed me that this is regaring the unpaid amount to Reliance NetConnect which I had used 3 years ago, when I was in Chennai. She told me to settle the amount in the nearest RCom outlet and I need to call her back to confirm the receipt number within 1 hr. I asked her whether I can pay online, and she started educating me on where to go in the Rcom website and make this payment (like a Rcom customer care rep). I immediately relaised that she is not from any legal firm – but, from a collection agency. Also, the funny thing is, today is Ramzan (29-Jul-2014) – and she told me that – if I don;t pay the amount within 2 pm today, she will immediate move the legal papers to the court today.. on a Public holiday !! 🙂

    I’m wondering how they managed to get my Airtel number in Bangalore. After, I read this blog I’m going to block these numbers

    Let’s see what happens.

    I have also seen this article where Reliance has replied in this matter..which may be useful for others: http://www.techtree.com/content/news/1137/reliance-broadband-users-allegedly-threatened-with-arrest-for-unpaid-bills.html

  153. says

    I had a Vodafone postpaid connection in Delhi. However, when I shifted to Mumbai, I asked the customer care to deactivate my Delhi number after a week or so. But, they didn’t do it, so I kept on using the same. Now, the number has been suspended but the outstanding amount is 2030 rupees which would have been restricted to around 600 or so, had they discontinued my number. I have got a demand notice recently stating that if I don’t pay the amount, they will go ahead with civil or criminal proceedings against me.
    What should I do??
    Kindly advise.

  154. rajesh says

    Hi guys ,I want to share my incident with you and hopefully get some suggestions from you .
    I was fascinated by the 4g dongle and bought one. When I approached them they said they wouldn’t issue a postpaid 4g to a student, so he insisted me to fake that I was a working employee . Then I used it for few months and the bills were becoming a burden to me. I hadn’t paid for 2 months and when they had called i had requested them to cancel my connection ,I got a reply saying that my request will be put forth but they didn’t cancel and I continued using it, finally after 3 months they cut my connection. Now I’m starting to get “legal” calls from them . what should I do .
    PS bill amount is 3k and I thought this is my opportunity to get back at them for deducting my phone balance unnecessarily numerous times.

  155. nitika says

    I received the call too.. my cousin was using one DoCoMo prepaid no. Then that no. Was misplaced and they co.. gave the postpaid no. After submitting the I’d proof.. cz that ws my proof.. I told them from the very first day that y the hell you gave postpaid connection without even informing me.. I won’t be responsible for any outstanding bills.. I told them nearly 10 times to stop that no. But they didn’t… And today I received a call from Delhi high commission that we gave got a file at your name and we are going to open your file.. the outstanding amount is 3500/- and they are saying once file will be opened you’ll have to pay 15000/- as a fine.. do pay it within half an hour…. What to do now?????????

  156. Aruna says

    Sir I am college student I am Getting Every day Call from this number : 91-9629636353.Please do nessessary action immediately.

  157. Rao says

    I used airtel sim for 1 month I took the connection for very less package that 250/- plan , my intention is to use this sim very less so that I can pay less bill as I have another sim which is primary, but it is big surprise that the airtel bill was more than my primary sim bill that is 950 rupees, so I asked the customer to explain why this much bill got generated as my usage was very less, but none of the customer care executives, replied it so I waitied for their resposne and I didn’t paid the bill, for two months, after two months a executive calls me and asks to pay the bill amount of 2000/- otherwise they will take legal acions, as my alternate number is my mothers number, they call to my mother and speak in umparliamentary language with my mother, Airtle hires some stupid uncultured and uncivilized brats as customer care personel who don’t know to speak.

  158. naDDy says

    Courier guy, lawyer, cop, and even vasooli guy. The way these little pricks, who work for penny amount deceive themselves, its funny. I just ask then to shove the notice up their *blank*. But, am also considerate considering the fact that these are illiterate people usually who dont get a better job. The bhai types. Dont loose peace. They aint gonna arrest you.

  159. Avinash Singh says

    Don’t pay penny according to common sense a court case , i would like to share my recording with you.

  160. H K RAO says

    I am H K RAO and I am a one of the Airtel’s Customer who has been charged more bill again and again . You Guys have wived off many time but now I am really pissed off by Airtel services and Airtel customer support representative. Let me explain what exactly happened this time.
    In the billing period 04/3/2015 to 0504/2015, bill generated ~6000.00 but in this bill 4500 rupees of internet charges were included.
    During the call for change of plan I never asked for internet plan. How can possible it.I called up airtel customer service team for an assistance in getting refund for the amount which they charged me for the service which I never availed, They wanted me to send an email to customer care people to fix the issue and they will not be able to do so.
    I told them that I will not be able to do so since I dont have an internet connection but they said they cant help. I am writing this complaint on hehalf of all those people who dont have internet facility to write email to airtel to get the amount refunded if airtel charged them extra.
    Any govt authorities who is having the access to look into this issues, please action on it and save money of those poor people who are still losing out their money.
    My Mob No is 9717332888

  161. Manan Chopra says

    hi ashu i faced same experience today by luckily my saved me from this hazzle as he is matured enough to talk with these crooks . We recorded some audio and i want you to post same on your blog to aware other people that how to deal with them . Kindly give me your email address or tell me how to proceed it to you . Regards Manan

  162. Atul Markan says

    Hi All,

    Due to bad services and not proper response, i disconnect the connect. I also wrote a mail to disconnect the connection and they never disconnect the number. I know I have to pay for one month 1100/- RS and i didnt pay because of bad services and they did not provide the resolution on my complaints.
    I also got the call and some lady called to me and said to pay 3000/- immediately, otherwise I have to go court tomorrow Shiva Ji nagar Pune. Then I said why I should come court and I did not get any notice from court then she said notice is already sent. After that I said, once I will get the legal notice then I will come court. Then she used some bad words and disconnect the phone. Then I called her on the same number 2-3 times and no one picked. After that I messaged her and wrote that next time if you used bad word or you called me then I need to take the against you. I also sent the mail to Airtel CEO which email ID mentioned in this email ID.

    Let me know if anyone can guide me with the proper steps against on these cheap people. I am really disappointed from airtel services and really want to abuse that DSA lady.

    Regards
    Atul

  163. Aakanksha Nimutkar says

    ankur same think happen with me which happen with u delhi vaala today i got call from delhi police +91 7610836443 he told me pay money within one hour by debit or credit card or cash and tell them status..other wise thay will report FIR and after i go court ..wt i do if thay call me again

  164. Prakash Vaza says

    Hi,

    I too got a call minute back form a lawyer from Delhi stating that Airtel has filed a case of 420 on you for not paying the bill of 3000/- which i had asked airtel to give the explanation for and they did not do it.He said an arrest warrant has been issued on your name so are you paying the bill or you want to fight the case. 🙂

  165. sandeep jaiswal says

    I got a same call yesterday. A girl age 22-26 year by voice referred herself to be tikona lawyer. Asked me to pay Rs 1,100. If I don’t pay than I have to pay fine of rs 30,000 at tiz hazari court new delhi.
    Note that: 1. Court will never call you. They always sent you a legal notice.
    2. If it is a mumbai based company, they can not fill a case in tiz hazari court new delhi.
    3. Court will never call you after 4pm. They did called me after 6pm.

  166. Sangee says

    Iam also facing same problem by Aircel network……….. I dont know wat to do. Always some person callin and threating as FIR, Court, Case from Delhi. Please suggest any thing to relieve from this problem

  167. P K Jha says

    Airtel is the biggest suckers of all time. They employ such cheap tactics everytime. I have faced similar issues 2-3 times with Airtel. I had this experience with Airtel

  168. Prashant says

    I received similar harassment call from so called lawyer from Airtel for 4G connection bill. He told that do I want to settle it outside court or he should move ahead with case registration. I said, I am ready to pay bill if Airtel agrees to give me the discount which they offered me initially otherwise I will fight the case and I have all the call recorded too. He said, he had sent me notice and I informed that I have not received it. He said, he will prove that I have received notice :). Now he is going to send me summons to appear in Delhi High court within 3 days, at least this was his last sentence during the call.