We were overcharged in our Broadband bill for Dec 2015 by Rs 500. On inquiry, we were told that we had requested for an upgrade for internet bandwidth on the 5th of the month, as we had surpassed the limit provided as per our plan, although we have the unlimited plan. We checked the browser history and found that there was form submission on the particular date which “approved” of the upgrade. On inspection of the form, we noticed that there is a mandatory field requiring our customer number to be entered. In addition, the process required you to go through more than one page submission in order to upgrade. Incidentally, we were billed for the highest level – Rs 500. We visited the Margao office to inquire but the officer insisted that we had requested the upgrade. We pointed out to him that this was not possible as we did not even know our customer reference number which was a mandatory field, without which the form submission cannot take place. In addition, it could not have been an inadvertent click of the mouse as the process required a submission of more than one page. It’s not easy to convince the government employee, so we registered a written complaint. I also pointed out to the officer that it did not seem right that it was so easy to upgrade which involved a financial transaction trail similar to online credit card transactions. They said it was a new feature. I suggested that in that case the feature should have an option where it could be disabled on the customer portal. Later on we realized that another friend had a similar experience. A quick calculation considering the large BSNL customer base made me realize that the loot could be in lakhs if not in crores every month. Way to go BSNL!
