BSNL stops sending Expiry SMS now. Waiting to drain your main balance..

still get charged for SPAM

WHAT THE 🐠

manishreddy wrote:

still get charged for SPAM

WHAT THE 🐠

The trick Airtel and Ideas uses by subscribing you to something and deducting money from your balance.. Now BSNL does it, they deducted like rs65 to get my daily predictions or something and I also get spam SMS for games, friendships and talking to movie stars etc as well as multiple calls each and every day asking me to subscribe to this and that..

All this is when I have been using unlimited plan for a couple of years now.

if you are using unlimited plan, why leave balance in main account? Same thing happens with AVoid so why single out BSNL. At least BSNL does not ask you spend Rs.24 every 4 weeks just to stay connected.

panchabhut wrote:

if you are using unlimited plan, why leave balance in main account? Same thing happens with AVoid so why single out BSNL. At least BSNL does not ask you spend Rs.24 every 4 weeks just to stay connected.

I wanted to get yearly plan and then found out they did not allow you to do it. But now they did so I added more balance to get it up to do it..

Only that this time they did not inform when the old plan would expire like before.. Its not as easy to find out since you dont think about it. The stuff it prints out all the time only gives the wrong info and it meaningless.. After what happened before I was extra cautious..

But you are right.. Dont leave any main balance anywhere, it is dangerous.. And is only a matter of time before someone swipes it.

Did I mention this time they did not send even a single SMS about plan expiry? They usually send 3.. And rs3 per megabyte of data? I kept checking the SMS every day but obviously I should have been more prudent.. But isnt that why we get unlimited plans and all that anyway??

In the US companies did try this trick until supreme court decided this was not allowed. No companies can not charge you unlimited amounts, if the charges get to be higher than a plan then that plan has to be automatically activated instead. People ended up with phone bills higher than the price of cars and such because children would get fooled into dialing and listening to games and such which charged a lot if you did not subscribe to it.

panchabhut wrote:

if you are using unlimited plan, why leave balance in main account? Same thing happens with AVoid so why single out BSNL. At least BSNL does not ask you spend Rs.24 every 4 weeks just to stay connected.

Accumulating main balance using different loot offers

alienteck wrote:

I wanted to get yearly plan and then found out they did not allow you to do it. But now they did so I added more balance to get it up to do it..

Only that this time they did not inform when the old plan would expire like before.. Its not as easy to find out since you dont think about it. The stuff it prints out all the time only gives the wrong info and it meaningless.. After what happened before I was extra cautious..

But you are right.. Dont leave any main balance anywhere, it is dangerous.. And is only a matter of time before someone swipes it.

Did I mention this time they did not send even a single SMS about plan expiry? They usually send 3.. And rs3 per megabyte of data? I kept checking the SMS every day but obviously I should have been more prudent.. But isnt that why we get unlimited plans and all that anyway??

In the US companies did try this trick until supreme court decided this was not allowed. No companies can not charge you unlimited amounts, if the charges get to be higher than a plan then that plan has to be automatically activated instead. People ended up with phone bills higher than the price of cars and such because children would get fooled into dialing and listening to games and such which charged a lot if you did not subscribe to it.

US is mostly postpaid and contract based so people can be screwed more easily. Here thankfully its prepaid so the scope of scamming is limited.

panchabhut wrote:

US is mostly postpaid and contract based so people can be screwed more easily. Here thankfully its prepaid so the scope of scamming is limited.

Oh I noticed that.. After my bill of almost 30000 from BSNL I get the shakes when ever I hear the word postpaid..

Now they are saying they will send bill via SMS.. Like the SMS they sent for plan expiry I suppose..

onlineuser7 wrote:

Accumulating main balance using different loot offers

Actually you cant accumulate that much. I thought it was safer than leaving the balance in PhonePE after using it on coolwinks 2000 CB offer.. But then someone broke in and figured out how to recharge JIO numbers using other peoples PhonePE balance and they did not have yearly recharge plans and it seems neither did BSNL using main balance until I had already topped it up.. Trying to keep track of all these short term recharges are a real pain and why people just get airtel postpaid etc even though much more.. Who has time with job and studies and other thing to do?

BSNL unlike others do not keep recharges in que.. You recharge 5 times, all 5 gets activated immediately..

alienteck wrote:

Actually you cant accumulate that much. I thought it was safer than leaving the balance in PhonePE after using it on coolwinks 2000 CB offer.. But then someone broke in and figured out how to recharge JIO numbers using other peoples PhonePE balance and they did not have yearly recharge plans and it seems neither did BSNL using main balance until I had already topped it up.. Trying to keep track of all these short term recharges are a real pain and why people just get airtel postpaid etc even though much more.. Who has time with job and studies and other thing to do?

BSNL unlike others do not keep recharges in que.. You recharge 5 times, all 5 gets activated immediately..

If sim balance is higher (1000+) , I keep sim card out of phone . Don’t know when they deduct balance by VAS , international calls , spam .
Keeping high balance in sim card , wallets is not safe nowdays .

onlineuser7 wrote:

Accumulating main balance using different loot offers

I wanted to create a separate topic on this. I just need to know whether it’s possible to do this on Vodafone or not, accumulating main balance under these nice offers to recharge at a later date. I’m pretty sure it’s not, but still would like to know. I thought it was only possible on Jio though, had no idea you could do it on BSNL as well! BSNL has normal talktime denominations of 50, 100 etc. right? So how can you do it on BSNL anyway? I thought as only Jio has their exclusive and different denominations it’s only possible with Jio.

Someone please clarify this. I couldn’t utilise a single offer in last week because I’m on Vodafone as I was pretty sure this accumulating main balance method is not allowed for them.

ithehappy wrote:

I wanted to create a separate topic on this. I just need to know whether it’s possible to do this on Vodafone or not, accumulating main balance under these nice offers to recharge at a latter date. I’m pretty sure it’s not, but still would like to know. I thought it was only possible on Jio though, had no idea you could do it on BSNL as well! BSNL has normal talktime denominations of 50, 100 etc. right? So how can you do it on BSNL anyway? I thought as only Jio has their exclusive and different denominations it’s only possible with Jio.

Someone please clarify this. I couldn’t utilise a single offer in last week because I’m on Vodafone as I was pretty sure this accumulating main balance method is not allowed for them.

Yes , you can accumulate balance using offers in Vodafone , Airtel , idea , BSNL . In jio ,using main balance you can activate all plans but in vodaidea , Airtel & BSNL selected unlimited plans are available to activate through main balance . So check your best offer ( you can activate unlimited plan if showing in best offer in vodaidea Airtel) before accumulate balance .

ithehappy wrote:

I wanted to create a separate topic on this. I just need to know whether it’s possible to do this on Vodafone or not, accumulating main balance under these nice offers to recharge at a later date. I’m pretty sure it’s not, but still would like to know. I thought it was only possible on Jio though, had no idea you could do it on BSNL as well! BSNL has normal talktime denominations of 50, 100 etc. right? So how can you do it on BSNL anyway? I thought as only Jio has their exclusive and different denominations it’s only possible with Jio.

Someone please clarify this. I couldn’t utilise a single offer in last week because I’m on Vodafone as I was pretty sure this accumulating main balance method is not allowed for them.

BSNL has specials, 240 topup gives you like 425 TT during festioval seassions..

Normally its rs550 for 575TT, rs1100 for 1200TT, rs2000 for 2200TT etc..

So you can get some discount that way. Before they discounted tax from recharge so doing a 448 recharge only cost you like 350TT with main balance recharge but seems they removed that or its only during specials etc…. So yes you can top up main balance like that..

BUT problem with BSNL unlike JIO, if you recharge 448 3 times, all 3 gets activated immediately instead of being in que..

IDEA seems to have changed this the last month since now when I did it, it added validity until next year.. So maybe voda also does it.. Check to see if validity goes up.. Unlike BSNL and JIO, even a top up on Idea will increase validity..

BUT in all of them even JIO, if you have large balance, something will happen and drain that balance so only keep recharges.. My mistake was at the time the plan I wanted was only available from BSNL offices.. And then the PhonePE security breach happened.. So it seems, its just is not safe to keep money anywhere. I converted all main balances to recharge vouchers now, got JIO recharges until next year.. Yea wanted yearly recharges there too but they did not have 2GB data plans… If its exact 90 days its easier to handle this.. But 28, 84, 124 days etc.. Who can keep track of it???

onlineuser7 wrote:

Yes , you can accumulate balance using offers in Vodafone , Airtel , idea , BSNL . In jio ,using main balance you can activate all plans but in vodaidea , Airtel & BSNL selected unlimited plans are available to activate through main balance . So check your best offer ( you can activate unlimited plan if showing in best offer in vodaidea Airtel) before accumulate balance .

I just checked my best offers and the 399 plan (84 days unlimited crap) is mentioned. My current 399 plan expires on 22nd June. So if I slowly accumulate say 300 rupees in my main balance, I can utilise that for the 399 plan later on 22nd June when it expires? Does the main balance have to be more than 399 or it doesn’t matter?

Also I don’t think Vodafone has any advanced recharge feature. Last time I recharged with 399 when my previous 399 still had 2 days till expiry, but as soon as I recharged they literally stole those two days from earlier plan and activated the new 399 plan instantly.

It’s so confusing nowadays and I don’t even have time. Probably should go back to Jio FFS.

ithehappy wrote:

I just checked my best offers and the 399 plan (84 days unlimited crap) is mentioned. My current 399 plan expires on 22nd June. So if I slowly accumulate say 300 rupees in my main balance, I can utilise that for the 399 plan later on 22nd June when it expires? Does the main balance have to be more than 399 or it doesn’t matter?

Also I don’t think Vodafone has any advanced recharge feature. Last time I recharged with 399 when my previous 399 still had 2 days till expiry, but as soon as I recharged they literally stole those two days from earlier plan and activated the new 399 plan instantly.

It’s so confusing nowadays and I don’t even have time. Probably should go back to Jio FFS.

399 balance required to activate plan . Advance recharge is available in idea from last 2 month , don’t know about Vodafone . If you accumulating balance then first deactivate internet by dailing 1925 . So your main balance not deduct after full data used .

onlineuser7 wrote:

399 balance required to activate plan . Advance recharge is available in idea from last 2 month , don’t know about Vodafone . If you accumulating balance then first deactivate internet by dailing 1925 . So your main balance not deduct after full data used .

If you used 1925 codes.. Will it auto renew once your current plan expires?

Went through this internet draining with idea as well but unlike last year they are now better with no SPAM or fortune cookie subscriptions since nov last year..

alienteck wrote:

If you used 1925 codes.. Will it auto renew once your current plan expires?

Went through this internet draining with idea as well but unlike last year they are now better with no SPAM or fortune cookie subscriptions since nov last year..

It’s one time process . Deactivate internet services only once . Then no balance deducted after plan expire also .

onlineuser7 wrote:

It’s one time process . Deactivate internet services only once . Then no balance deducted after plan expire also .

So that means even if you have main balance, your SIM validity can expire.. and loose your balance and SIM validity.. In feb I recharged like 6 times using the freecharge CB offers but it only added 28 days 6 times all from the same start date and like 150tt balance. Little did I know FC codes would be for ever and you can use them only once.

Since I dont use it for calling and only look at it when doing some banking stuff, unless it auto renews this is bad.. less bad than not using it since for some strange reason it would deduct some balance when the weather changes and it connects to a new cell tower.. Would lose a couple of rs when ever I traveled as it constantly kept saying charge but never used for anything (turning off the phone or airplane mode might help in this) but turning it on again means you get another message about deducted charges for connecting to tower.

Now there is a way to make some money only idea could come up with a way to charge you for doing nothing and blame it on mother nature..

onlineuser7 wrote:

399 balance required to activate plan . Advance recharge is available in idea from last 2 month , don’t know about Vodafone . If you accumulating balance then first deactivate internet by dailing 1925 . So your main balance not deduct after full data used .

Okay. Thanks for the information on the 1925 deactivation procedure, even though out of 84 GB data given in 84 days I hardly use 10 GB Lol. I’ll inquire to Vodafone whether they allow advanced recharge or not, but their customer support is pretty much non-existing nowadays, so not expecting a constructive reply.

P.S- Desidime literally sent me 12, yes, TWELVE emails for this one tag towards me. Good grief!

ithehappy wrote:

Okay. Thanks for the information on the 1925 deactivation procedure, even though out of 84 GB data given in 84 days I hardly use 10 GB Lol. I’ll inquire to Vodafone whether they allow advanced recharge or not, but their customer support is pretty much non-existing nowadays, so not expecting a constructive reply.

P.S- Desidime literally sent me 12, yes, TWELVE emails for this one tag towards me. Good grief!

CC is outsourced by everyone. They literally have no idea what you are asking.

I got locked out of cellular payment on google and I called idea CC who kept asking me to do this and that and to press this or that.. IT DID NOT EXIST.. and I hung up in the end.. Others will talk nice to you.. But rarely do they fix anything.

Yes you can pay for things in google pay stores with idea.. Microsoft store with airtel etc.. They deducted main balance + 28% GST so it costs more than using a card etc.. But giving your card to anyone is a bad idea.. You end up getting subscribed to things the world over then instead of just a local teleco.. then you get email with your fortune cookie from ukraine and Nigeria..

alienteck wrote:

CC is outsourced by everyone. They literally have no idea what you are asking.

I got locked out of cellular payment on google and I called idea CC who kept asking me to do this and that and to press this or that.. IT DID NOT EXIST.. and I hung up in the end.. Others will talk nice to you.. But rarely do they fix anything.

Yes you can pay for things in google pay stores with idea.. Microsoft store with airtel etc.. They deducted main balance + 28% GST so it costs more than using a card etc.. But giving your card to anyone is a bad idea.. You end up getting subscribed to things the world over then instead of just a local teleco.. then you get email with your fortune cookie from ukraine and Nigeria..

Yeah somewhat knew that CC is outsourced by most companies but some at least are informative and helpful. I really never thought I would say this, but airtel (I don’t even call them airtel but chortel only) CC is actually rather helpful! Every thing I’ve asked to them on Twitter thus far (read last 5 years or so, not before that), they have replied to, and constructively. Vodafone was like that, even better. Their customer care reps. talked real nice (compared to airtel reps who were total illiterate like) but I’ve noticed that in last couple of years only that Vodafone customer support just doesn’t give a rat’s arse about anything.

ithehappy wrote:

Yeah somewhat knew that CC is outsourced by most companies but some at least are informative and helpful. I really never thought I would say this, but airtel (I don’t even call them airtel but chortel only) CC is actually rather helpful! Every thing I’ve asked to them on Twitter thus far (read last 5 years or so, not before that), they have replied to, and constructively. Vodafone was like that, even better. Their customer care reps. talked real nice (compared to airtel reps who were total illiterate like) but I’ve noticed that in last couple of years only that Vodafone customer support just doesn’t give a rat’s arse about anything.

In the last 5 years all those people moved onto the likes of amazon, google, facebook and such MNC’s.. So now they are hiring freshers who dont even know how to speak.

Most give canned snippets they have typed up.

Twitter and such are different since they can spend the time to search and provide answers if they have access to their internal database. Also they get paid more for correct answers.

Also for most cases, these people dont have authority to do much for a problem and need escalation which is difficult. Like in Amazon.us they had authority to do most things if it was like under 100, 200, 500, 1000 depending on their level.. ie most anyone could fix a problem if it was under $100.. But thats rs7000… to do that on amazon.in you would need to get a hold of bezoos secretary itself..

I think they can also deal with problems under $500 if a supervisor is monitoring and ok it.. I dont think amazon.in can fix any issue for that amount without their legal and other departments getting involved.. I was surprised how easy it was to fix things.. Since risk is very high ordering from US to start with. But all returns and other problems were fixed in like 10 minutes without any hassle.. and I have had trouble with half of everything I ordered.. I still only order if I have no choice.. Sending things back is very difficult and expensive. Post office wont accept most anything.