Airtel, Pray Tell

A couple of days back I paid the bill for our iPad 3g connection. I always pay through the Airtel App as its easy. I have been making online payments for many years now and I follow certain self imposed rules to keep my data safe. One rule that I follow is never to save the details of my credit card on any website. That way, it allows me to use any card or sometimes pay through a debit card even. Till last month, the Airtel App would ask if I would like to save the card details for faster checkout. This time when I paid, I wasn’t given the choice and the App simply saved the card details …. who gave Airtel permission to save my card details without my approval ? I want to know if we can take them to court over this. I don’t want to save my card details on their App and its my choice as a customer. I wonder what they gain from saving the card number …

Here are the screen shots to show that I was never given the choice of saving the card, but it was just saved anyway. Am pissed off and I am thinking of giving up the 3g connection and take it from some other provider. Please share any suggestions any of you might have on how to deal with this situation.

  But why ? You don’t decide how fast I want to complete the transaction !! 

From a learning perspective, how many of us are doing the same with our customers ?? Do we ask them what they want or just go and shove our products or services down their throat ? Buying our services or products is a choice that our customers make and only if our services or products solve something for them, will they buy – it could be their social standing, it could be their “feel good” product or it could be a necessity like medicines or concierge services. All products and services need to figure out what they solve for the customer and the customer will put you up there as the first choice. If you sneak in a “must do” like Airtel did with their App, chances are the customer will be miffed and opt out.