Friday, March 28, 2008

Airtel - Accidentaly Charging Rs 99 to its mobile customers in the name of VAS99 Pack ??? Is it so ?

If the already irritating SPAM alls from Airtel were not enough, all of a sudden yesterday both my wife and father got a message from Airtel No 170 stating "Thanks for subscribing to VAS99 Pack. Rs 99 have been deducted from your account". What is this ?

On inquiring from Airtel further they confirmed from us that whether or not we have subscribed to this service (i don't even know if a service like VAS99 exists from Airtel) . On refusing that they registered the complaint and today i have got the messages on one of the mobiles that Rs 99 would be credited back to my account in 48 hours.

Though the amount did come back this set me thinking

Lets assume a situation for a company X (not the real name) and assume that they charge their customers accidentally. Going by experience (and no scientific basis :-) ) less than 30 % people might have cared to call up the X's CC for a refund , for the rest 70 % assuming the current users of X 4 million and assuming only 1% of those were charged accidentally even that meant an extra revenue of 4 mn * .01 *. 7 *99 = Rs 2.7. mn Rs (if my mathematics is right this is approximately 27 lakhs) for X at almost nil costs... Now that sure looks like a business idea ;-) , but i am sure this definitely is not happening. Right :-) ?

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