I have an Airtel number. For the past 15 months or so, I’ve been getting calls from Airtel asking me if they could talk to Rahul Tomar.
My name, as you can see, is not Rahul Tomar. I don’t know anyone called Rahul Tomar. I know plenty of Rahuls. But I’ve never known a Tomar. The only Tomar I know is Paan Singh Tomar.
So each time they’d call, I assured them I knew no such person. And each time, I’d be assured that I won’t be called again. But every few weeks or so, they would call back.
When this started happening frequently, I decided to ask them about this Rahul person. I was told he had used my number as his alternate number. Who he is and why he did it is a mystery to me.
I asked Airtel if they could share Rahul’s number with me. They did. The number was similar to mine. I’m guessing he mentioned a made-up number on his sign-up form. Unluckily, it was mine.
I called his number. It was out of service. I Googled for his name and number. No luck there.
After some point, I got upset at Airtel’s frequent calls. It bordered on harassment. I could recognise their numbers on the caller ID now. So I began ignoring them. If I’d accidentally taken a call, I disconnected the moment the operator uttered “Can I speak to Mr. Rahul…”
Now, the frequency of their calls shot up: from once in a few weeks, to several times a week. It drove me mad. Also, I rarely had the time to step out of my office or home and bark furiously at these operators who’d decided not to believe my side of the story. So I kept ignoring the calls.
One day, I decided to be calm and talk with them. The operator, who might have become familiar with my disconnecting habits, sounded like he couldn’t believe I had taken the call.
Calmly, I explained the whole situation to him. Again. He told me I would not be bothered. Again. It felt like it was the end of the problem. But I had my doubts.
Some days later, I get another call. “Can I speak to Mr Rahul Tomar?” I sighed. And disconnected. They called back immediately. I disconnected again.
Today, I got yet another call. I was in office. It was a Sunday. The office was practically empty. I could bark at the operator without disturbing anyone. So I barked.
Right before both of us turned abusive and I hung up, the operator mentioned an outstanding bill of 16,000 bucks.
So this is what I know of Rahul Tomar: his telephone number was 9810483361, he misused my telephone number, he owes 16,000 rupees to a phone compnay, he’s a thief, and he’s on the run. Also, he’s the son of a thousand fathers. But that is conjecture.
I called Airtel today. I lodged my complaint. Again. I was assured I won’t be bothered again. Again.
Let’s see how long this peace lasts.
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Sam
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Ohh oh!!
We on our land line number get calls for Beta Electronics since a decade. We say wrong number sir, they might have used this number earlier. We get calls even on the weekends. Even at 11 Pm in the nights.
But we can tolerate that.
Rahul Tomar needs to pay!!!
Sigh. This is why one must always insist on a fresh number. The frequency of wrong numbers I get is not funny.
Yes.. thats seriously a matter to be looked into!!
“Hello, Devi Prasad hai?”
“Yeh Phone nahin Panauti hai!” :D
My feelings, exactly. Rahul Tomar, Babloo bhaiyaa, Raju — these people get more calls on my number than I do.
When they call again next time, politely ask them not to call you again as you are not the person they are looking for and tell them that if they call you again, you’ll handover your Airtel number and go with a Vodafone number. You should also mention that you’ll file an FIR against them if this thing happens again.
Did you send the link to this post to the Airtel executives? I had a very bad experience with a multi-national company a few months ago so I wrote a big long post about the rant and emailed the link to the top executives of that company. The matter was resolved within a week and I was sent gifts through senior managers who had come to meet me and apologize personally.
Tip: You just need to Google for the email ids.
Thanks, Archit. I would keep that in mind. Also, during one such call, I told the operator I would sue the company. That bought me time. And then they started calling again.
Man same shit used to happen to me- not with the same frequency. then I moved countries and all was well :P talk about running away from other peoples debts
Other people’s debts is right. These people are plain idiotic. They claim to be from Airtel and they can’t even look up the Airtel database to see who the number belongs to.
Next time when they call, you should tell them that Rahul Tomar has passed away last week.
LOL! Good idea.
dude same thing happened to me…they used to ask for “Shammi Kapoor, jinki doodh ki dukaan hai”…to get rid of them i started saying what richard was suggesting you…trust me it works…next time they start looking for Rahul, just kill him!