because everything is recorded in the app and in bank accounts, nothing to be scary..
If we exchange cash, then there wont be any record, now everything electronic, it can be traced, only it may take sometime
I used to think the same way, until one day everything changed. I would like to tell you my story.
2 years back. One morning. when 99rs. recharge was still a thing for Prepaid connection. I did a recharge of that for Airtel prepaid connection through their Airtel Thanks app.
I used my saved credit card which was SBM bank-backed One Metal Card. The transaction went successful and I got an SMS on my number too, that transaction is successful and I will get the benefit in the next 4 hrs. I waited and waited, but didn't receive the recharge benefits. Contacted the Airtel customer care team, they said. my transaction is not showing and so should be assumed unsuccessful, I will get the refund in the next 3-4 days. I should do another recharge and so I did.
After waiting for 10 days, When I didn't get the refund, I contacted One Card and Airtel. According to Airtel, there was no recharge showing up with the transaction id that I had received from One Card. But the thing is I had received the order number from Airtel in my Successful transaction SMS and that too was not showing on Airtel End. The merchant mentioned in the SMS received from One Card was Bharti Airtel. So after some struggle and I thought to raise a chargeback with One card. I contacted them with all the proofs including SMS screenshots and Airtel reply emails. One card responded back after around 30 days, that the merchant is Paytm and hence they need proof from Paytm that the service was not provided. I was furious I sent them the transaction SMS screenshot which I received from One card itself. They skipped that and told me the merchant code reported is Paytm and they cannot dispute the transaction unless I provide them statements from Paytm. To my surprise, the merchant on the transaction was indeed showing Paytm in their One Card app (and also confirmed my SBM bank).
After a long discussion with Paytm they gave me different transaction id and told me- Airtel is confirming that the transaction was successful, benefits have been provided and hence they too cannot help me. I contacted Airtel again on this and after checking the transaction with the id provided by Paytm, I got to know the recharge was done on a different mobile number which has no relationship with me.
I raised two RBI Ombudsman complaints one for SBM bank and another with PAYTM one by one, Both were closed under clauses 14(9)((a)/(b)) -Facilitation and 16(2)(a) respectively. and these clauses prevent the customer to raise any appeal.
I never got my 99rs. back and even no information on how the recharge went to some other person. I had all the details, but nobody helped. I tried all the channels. But nothing worked. yes, Airtel gave me 99rs. credit since I had moved to Airtel Black by that time and One card gave me 99rs. worth of Reward points to settle the matter. But still...
