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Bill Bloopers
Step I
If 1 MB of data transfer costs Rs. 1.20, how much would 3.350MB of
data transfer cost? Did you calculate it to Rs. 4.02?
Well you have got the wrong answer, at least according to airtel
Airtel calculations says it will cost Rs. 6.45
Step II
Ok, If 3.350MB costs Rs. 6.45, then I MB should cost Rs.1.92537 (for
accuracy) let us assume that this is the airtel approximation for Rs. 1.20.
Step III
If 1 MB costs Rs. 1.92537, how much will 4.171 MB cost?
Did you calculate it to be Rs. 8.0307? wrong again, Airtel says its Rs 8.16
jaane do..small decimal difference you think?
Step IV
Ok, going by the same, if you think 18.117 MB should cost Rs. 34.8819,
Airtel says, it will cost Rs. 35.39.
But, at the actual rate of Rs. 1.20/MB, the cost should be Rs. 21.74
On an average, Airtel charges you in excess of Rs. 13, for every 15MB?
This is the that I get to make from my bills.
Thank you for letting me take you through this arithmetic.
Now the question is, is Airtel in possession of a super duper random
number generator with the AI to crunch these numbers that appear on
our monthly bills, smart enough to charge us more, smarter enough to
not let it get noticed?
Well, let us not accuse them of using such a dynamite technology, and
let us assume that it is indeed an error; after all, there is no
denying what these guys have done to usher in the mobile revolution.
The background behind this story is, I am being billed in this
ridiculous fashion, since I don't know how long (I don't seem to be
able to find all my past bills). However, three months back, there
was a huge error that finally made me sit and do these calculations.
I did get this to the notice of Airtel, more that 2 months back. They
said it was a "Serious error", I guess a serious error is not as
important as a "fatal error/fatal bug" that would have actually billed
us for a lesser amount. So this serious error is actually not so
serious, because nobody has come forth to resolve the issue, instead
their bunch of kids who run the front end show, would just call up
time and again asking me to pay up, first they make you lose your
patience, and once you do lose your patience, they make merry by
pulling out the plug from your telephone lines, or your internet
connection. Very interestingly, they do not silence both the lines at
the same time...I guess that will not be much fun really!
The airtel mobile bills have their own intelligent systems at work,
for one weeks subscription of GPRS, you are billed twice. There might
be other techno-supernatural powers at play, which maybe many of you
would have noticed in your bills.
The point is, as one person, I have been charged in excess of Rs. 4000
or so, since the last three months, and Airtel has in excess of 2
million subscribers in the country. Airtel does not think it fit to
act promptly, but chooses to bar my STD/ISD facility, in spite of my
having brought this issue to their notice through a legal counsel.
I am sure Airtel has company, it could be the other mobile service
providers, there were reports about comically gross over billing my
reliance energy in Mumbai.
Is this the kind of privatization that we need? Or is it the kind of
privatization that we actually deserve, for our apathy, because a
couple of hundreds drained from our pockets do not actually matter,
and who has the time for this arithmetic?
Please check your bills.
And... we talk about privatization of water??
Regards
Vasanthi
Next: Bill Bloopers II
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