Since 2004, I have been recharging my or my mom's phone only form the Recharge Shops. That means, one needs to visit the Shop physically and do the recharge. Well out of 100% of recharges, I had 95% of positive experiences. But there were only two or Three incidents, where the Recharge was done Wrongly to an another person and Wrong Amount top upped to me as well!
One time, I spelled my number Wrongly and Rs.250 was Recharged to some other person, luckily that person was a kind enough to recharge back the same amount to my number.!
In an another incident, I recharged my phone for Rs.100 from a shop which was out of my city limits. The guy Recharged but I did not receive the Top up ever. I could not go back and ask him because I was on Travelling. So I lost that Rs.100.
On a third incident, I went to a shop for Rs.75 Recharge but the shop guy Wrongly Recharged me with Rs.750.! Then I had to pay him back the Rs.675.
The other two big problems with these Recharge Shops are -
1) Sometimes we need to do Recharges but the situation becomes is, these recharge Shop go closed. For an example, on some Govt Holidays, we make lots of Calls to our known ones and empty our charge, but could not recharge because there Recharge Shops remain Closed!
2) With most of Recharges, the top up never happens instantly and we have to wait for a long time, alteast 1 hour and more. I have even waited a day long. And sometimes, some operator top ups like BSNL are never available at these Shops.
So because of these reasons, I decided to use this Website "PayTm.com".
Well what is PayTm? -
Paytm is just an another Shopping portal like Flipkart and amazon where we can purchase items. But this website also serves for Services like - Mobile Recharge, Bank Wallet, Pay Bills and so on.
I personally only have used the Recharge service so far. But did not try the Shopping Service from Paytm because I did not had the need of using it. I had some Bad experience with Wallet and paying bills(read Below).
=> So here is my experience with PayTm service -
This is the main Reason why I got into this Website. I don't have visit the shops to do these recharges anymore. Very simple procedure.
Well first I began with recharging with Rs.10 and Rs.20, and it was very successful.
Then I did recharged for Rs.100 and now I did a bigger amount of Rs.230 for my Vodafone and it had always been a success!
the Recharge time is less than a minute. That means Immediate.
But just Recently on Oct 22, I performed three Recharges. One for my Vodafone(Rs.150) and two for my mom's BSNL(Rs.100 twice). Vodafone was a success and only first BSNL recharge was a success but the second is still pending.
When Contacted PayTm customer center via mail for that pending recharge(thats the only option available), They Replied saying "Our system is saying the Recharge is a Success!". But till now I did not receive the Recharge. Hence literary now, I am at a loss of Rs.100. And I can't even call these guys and explain them in Detail.
Well some of Shopping portals actually offer PayTm Wallet for payments. Hence, tried loading money from my Account via ATM, but it was not success. Because they don't Accept IOB and Indian Bank Cards. Ah Atrocious.! Hence I could not use the Wallet Service.
Well we can use PayTm for Paying Gas and Telephone Bills. So I decided to give a try, but the funny thing was payment could be done only for a few Agencies and not like famous BSNL or Indane.
Hence I could not use this too.!
Did not Try this so far, because I trust Flipkart, amazon and ebay more than any other Website. Not only this, Since I even had bad experience with Recharge and Wallet services, hence I could not trust with the Shopping at PayTm.
=> Other Bad Experiences with PayTm -
Ah, is this really there with PayTm? I doubt.
In an straight open view, I would say PayTm Customer support is "Worst worst worst". You spend thousands of money buying and paying things via PayTm and you can't even talk or even Chat to a customer support Executive.! This is absolutely rubbish. One can only Address their issue/problems with just an so called "Ticket ID", which is basically a junk. And you will get a pre-typed useless response from them through the mail BUT you issue is never Resolved.
Their Customer Support number - "01203062244" is absolutely useless. You call this number from the Registered mobile phone and you only get some pre-recorded junk which is useless either. No facility to Talk with the customer support Executive.
And you call the same number from a Landline like BSNL, the Crap Response is - "Thank you for calling Paytm. For any security related concerns, write us to cyber-cell at paytm.com", which is useless Again.
I have NEVER come across such a worst customer support in my life so far.
The Logging into Paytm requires "Username or Registered phone No.", "Password" and "OTP".
Here the OTP has a issie. With all of the log-ins with PayTm for far, I have never received the OTP through Message. Every time, I have to get the OTP through "call to get OTP" only. Which is not so user friendly.
But on the other hand, this OTP procedure makes the logging in more secure, which gives the users peace of mind.
PayTm website -
Very Easy to Register and log in with this site. Very Secure Site too because this site uses the OTP Technology even for Logging in.
The Website is very easy to use and do the payments and recharge. Anyone can easily use this website. Lots of user-friendly options for doing recharges and other payments. Pretty Fast Website either.
PayTm App -
PayTm app is available with every Phone OS like iOS, Windows and Symbian. And is very easy use it app either. Well I have not used any Service via App so far though I have installed in on my phone, hence, I can not comment about it any further.
VERDICT -
Overall, PayTm still needs more reformations and improvement in their services. Especially, their customer support center.
I would not Recommend to use PayTm for Recharging very often, but PayTm is helpful for emergency Situations. hence I will rate PayTm only 3 Stars. And I wait for PayTm to improve further.
UPDATE 1 -
No refund so far from PayTm. 2 days ago Oct 29, I received a mail from them that "You can relax because we have initiated the refund of Rs.100 to your Paytm wallet and it will be reflected in next 24 hour". But its 40 hrs now and till now "no update".
Hence my money is still at large.
I will wait for atleast a week more and even then if not done, then I don't think I would use PayTm again.!
