Delhi woman travels to Bihar, gets Rs 1 lakh international roaming bill from Airtel

Airtel sent a Rs 1 lakh international roaming bill to a woman in Bihar

When Delhi-based author Neha Sinha travelled to Bihar, she did not expect to be stranded in the state with a phone bill of Rs 1 lakh and have her services cut off by Airtel. That is precisely what happened when she reached the border area of Valmiki Nagar in Bihar.

Sinha posted about her ordeal on X (formerly Twitter), saying that Airtel sent her a huge international roaming bill even though she never left India.

“A terrible scam! I'm in Valmiki Nagar, Bihar. Airtel India sends me a roaming bill of Rs 1L+,” she tweeted. “I’m an Indian citizen on Indian soil. With no outstanding bill, Airtel cuts my services. Leaving me stranded!” she added.

A terrible scam! I'm in Valmiki Nagar, Bihar. @airtelindia sends me a roaming bill of ₹1L+. I'm an INDIAN citizen on INDIAN soil. With no outstanding bill, Airtel cuts my services. Leaving me stranded!
Shame on you @airtelindia! Do look into this @DoT_India @AshwiniVaishnaw pic.twitter.com/f7BT321Xv1

— Neha Sinha (@nehaa_sinha) December 6, 2023

In follow-up tweets, she said Airtel is jeopardising the safety of women by cutting off services without cause or warning. “In effect, Airtel has given me a spurious bill and charged me wrongly for 'roaming'/international charges when I'm still in India. [They] have then cut my connection for 'non payment' the very same day,” she said.

The author Wild and Wilful further said that when she managed to reach out to Airtel from a borrowed mobile phone, she was told that there is nothing the company could do. “When I borrowed a phone to call Airtel they said they could do nothing, because this is what the 'system' has logged. Is the system a God? what is this system that leaves real people stranded?” she asked.

I must emphasise here that when I called Airtel they asked me to pay 1792 rupees “if” I wanted my sim restored.

Why was it cut in the first place? I have no answers.
Not to mention the tone is passive aggressive. Like it’s my fault. Well sister it’s not my fault. It’s yours.

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— Neha Sinha (@nehaa_sinha) December 7, 2023

Airtel allegedly told Sinha she would have to pay Rs 1,792 if she wanted her SIM restored. “Why was it cut in the first place?” she asked, also blasting the customer service for their “passive aggressive” tone.

In the comments section, some people said the issue is common in border areas and advised Sinha to file a complaint in the consumer court.

This is a common issue in border areas. Indeed a scam, since their network never catches signals in areas where Jio or Vodafone works, but catches international signals when the phone is in India. Would advise you to put a consumer case against them and also claim for harrasment

— RDx (@rdrakesh) December 6, 2023

Airtel has since apologised to her. “Accept our apologies for the hassle, Neha. Kindly share your respective Airtel number via DM so that we can quickly look into this,” the customer care handle of the telecom company tweeted in response to her thread.