Deactivating Airtel Value Added Services

If Airtel were a thief, I would say "You've become so fat after stealing my money."


Alas!!! can't do anything of that sort with a company that love minting only money.

It's crappishly frustrating when you are charged for services that you don't ask for. Airtel value added services (jokes, cricket, caller tune, job tips, miss call alerts, etc.) are things that I never have subscribed for, nevertheless Airtel activated some of these on my mobile for more than once. No matter how much I plead I've never got refund for whatever Airtel charged me for the services I didn't subscribe.

Lately, Airtel seems to have blocked pre-paid subscribers from reaching customer care executives. Anyways, they have better things to do than listen to complaints from pre-paid subscribers about unknown charges. Calling Airtel 121 (customer support) from a prepaid SIM just takes you to endless recorded IVRs (interactive voice response) to make your choices. We are not yet in that era where IVRs can fix problems that need human attention.

Well, if Airtel has activated something that you didn't ask for the best option is to deactivate the service yourself without calling 121 at all. There are two options.

1. Send SMS "STOP" to 121
2. You'll get an acknowledgement message and the list of services and their codes currently active on your phone
3. SMS the service code such eg."3" "4" that you want to deactivate
4. Airtel sends back an SMS for you to confirm your request
5. Send confirmation SMS as "1"

Note: Here Airtel is trying to earn few more coins from you. :)
The second option is

1. Dial *121*6#
2. You'll get an SMS with the list of services and their corresponding codes active on your phone
3. SMS back the service code to deactivate
4. Send confirmation SMS when asked.

To activate any value added service from Airtel just *121*5# and follow the instructions.
P.S: This post is a signature of my frustration.