I have just bought a new prepaid Airtel chip (No. 99031-7607X). I wanted to know the GPRS settings. First of all navigating through the IVR of Airtel is painful because you have to wait till the voice stops parroting. Then, if by chance you enter a number (option) twice, you get disconnected. When you do choose, for example, English Language, you don't get an option to connect to Customer Care. Only after I learned that you must dial the secret number "9" at the secret point in the IVR do you get connected to Customer Care.

The Customer Care really don't care about the customer. Perfect parrot in practiced English dictions, a little off-beat question confuses them thoroughly. They put you on hold and ask their supervisor. In my case, I was told to dial 7070 for technical assistance. I asked whether the number was toll-free and "yes" came the reply.

I called 7070. They had no idea regarding GPRS settings (AND THEY CALL THEMSELVES TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE?) and asked weird and vague questions and finally said they had no idea regarding my question. Ah well! I always knew they were dumb. After hanging up, I was shocked to see my balance depleted for Rs 26.xx for a less than 10 min call.

Moral of the story: Don't trust Airtel. Don't buy Airtel. If you can't afford Hutch, go without a phone. Hire a messenger to send your messages. Above all, don't call customer care and waste your time. Buy some other card. Even an out-of-state on roam SIM.