Airtel has
crossed the not-so-fine line between being friendly and being creepy. Their new
scheme that “takes care of customer needs” without being asked to do so is
nearly as stupid as its advertisement, which has a creepy guy asking a sweet
shop to mix a lot of sweets together to match his friend’s revolting taste. In
order to customise services to match customer needs, Airtel has decided to take
it upon itself to activate Value Added Services automatically if a subscriber uses
a facility frequently enough.
This scheme is the
anti-Robin Hood: stealing from the poor to distribute to the rich. The epiphany
came to me when my domestic help told me that she always runs out of balance within
days of a recharge even though she never calls anybody. Someone called Airtel
on her behalf and found out that they had “automatically” activated services
that she didn’t want and her balance was being eaten away.
A large number
of mobile phone owners in India don’t know how to use a phone beyond making and
receiving calls. My domestic help is illiterate so she can’t even understand
the messages that tell her that a service has been activated. It’s also quite
unethical to levy the same rate for a service when the charge is deducted from the
talk time as opposed to a cash payment. Not every recharge gives
you full talk time so by automatically activating services, Airtel is actually
overcharging customers.
Tut tut, Airtel.
Shame on you. You’ve become a stalker. A creep. And a thief. Oo you.
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