From Airtel's Own Product Page
"Activate in just one minute"
It has been days.
Opened a bank account just to buy a smartwatch. Paid ₹2,999. Watch arrived. Airtel forgot to update a checkbox in their database. Now nothing works. The watch can't pay. The bank account is decorative. And the customer service team is on an extended vacation from competence.
Opened an Airtel bank account just for this. Watch delivered. Neither works.
This isn't just about a smartwatch. The only reason this Airtel Payments Bank account was opened was to use the smartwatch's NFC Tap & Pay feature. Airtel's own marketing says: "Customers who are new to the bank can order the smart watch immediately by opening a bank account digitally on Airtel Thanks App."
That's exactly what happened here — a new savings account was opened specifically for this product. The bank account has no purpose without the smartwatch's payment feature working. The entire customer journey Airtel designed — open account → order watch → activate → tap & pay — is broken because of one internal status update that Airtel refuses to fix.
So the result is: ₹2,999 paid for a watch that can't pay. A bank account that serves no purpose. And a customer who can't use any of it for 32+ days.
The watch was ordered on March 3, 2026 and delivered by Blue Dart on March 13 (AWB# 35440261485, delivered to SELF). Airtel's system never updated the delivery status — it still shows "Arriving Soon" with the order stuck at "Order Confirmed." Without that update, the "Wearable" section doesn't appear in the Airtel Thanks app, making activation impossible. The bank account, the watch, and the Tap & Pay feature — all useless.
Every promise below is sourced directly from Airtel's official product page and press releases.
"New customers can order the smart watch immediately by opening a bank account digitally on Airtel Thanks App."
"Activate the watch by linking it to their savings bank account via the Thanks App in just one minute."
"Once linked, users can immediately commence making payments by simply tapping the watch on POS machines."
"A customer would be able to make payments between ₹1 to ₹25,000 per day using the smartwatch."
"Open Thanks App → Bank → My Wearable → Manage Usage → Enable contactless limits."
"Get 24×7 assistance at our customer service hotline. Still have a query? Share it via Email."
Opened a savings account specifically for this watch. The account serves no purpose without the watch's Tap & Pay. Entire customer journey broken.
Delivery status never updated in Airtel's system. Activation blocked. "One minute" became 32+ days.
Can't tap. Can't pay. The watch is a ₹2,999 fitness tracker with a dead NFC chip because Airtel won't flip a switch.
Zero transactions in 32 days. Not because the customer doesn't want to — because Airtel won't let them.
"I have explored every single option in the Airtel Thanks app where I don't see anything called wearables." It never appeared.
Helpline only offers account opening. Email got a template reply. Follow-up emails: ignored for 12 days.
The official 5-step activation from Airtel's product page. The process breaks at Step 3 because Airtel never updated the delivery status.
Airtel's official path: Thanks App → Bank → My Wearable → Enter 16-digit code → Set PIN → Enable Contactless.
Reality: The path dead-ends because "My Wearable" never appears without a delivery status update that only Airtel can do.
First, let us assure you — we at Airtel Payments Bank hear you. We hear you when you call 400. We hear you when you call 1800-23400. We hear you when you chat in the app. We hear you when you email the Principal Nodal Officer. We have built an entire infrastructure dedicated to hearing you. It's a beautiful system, really. State of the art. The only thing we haven't built is the part that actually helps you.
Updating delivery statuses? That's a different department. They're on lunch. Have been since March 13th. It's a very long lunch. We don't judge.
Some of you have expressed concern that we close support tickets without resolving the actual issue. Allow us to clarify: we don't close tickets without resolving issues — we resolve tickets and then the issues persist independently. These are two separate workflows, managed by two separate teams, living in two separate realities. Our ticket closure rate is 99.7%. Our actual-fix rate is classified information.
Regarding the smartwatch activation: our records indicate your product is still "Arriving Soon." We understand you are physically holding the product. We understand Blue Dart has proof of delivery. We understand you've explained this fourteen times. But our system disagrees, and in the grand hierarchy of things, the system outranks you, Blue Dart, and common sense.
When asked "Where is the Wearable section?", our Principal Nodal Officer — a real person who read your complaint and responded with a template — provided this guidance: "Go to Thanks App, under wearable section, enter 16 digit activation code." That the wearable section doesn't exist in your app is, frankly, a you problem. Have you tried restarting the router?
We note that you opened this bank account specifically for the smartwatch's payment feature. We appreciate your commitment to our ecosystem. We regret to inform you that the ecosystem doesn't work, the bank account serves no purpose, and the watch is earning exactly ₹0 in tap-and-pay transactions. But on the bright side, your savings account is earning 7% interest. On nothing. Because you can't use it. But the math checks out.
Call 400 or 1800-23400. The IVR cheerfully offers to open a new account. Already have one? Too bad. Want to speak to a human? That's not on the menu. The helpline helps with everything except help.
Query 6773760040034 — born March 18, died March 18. Lived a full life of zero resolution. Its ticket number will be remembered by nobody at Airtel, ever. Rest in peace, little ticket.
"Go to wearable section, enter activation code." — a response so generic it could've been written before the complaint was filed. Probably was. The Principal Nodal Officer desk: where complaints go to receive PDFs.
After explaining the actual issue clearly — 12 days of nothing. Not even a template reply this time. Apparently, when you demonstrate that their template is wrong, the protocol is to ghost you. Professional.
Click any screenshot to view full size.
Click to zoomApp shows order stuck at "Order Confirmed" despite delivery on March 13.
Never Updated
Click to zoomCourier confirms AWB# 35440261485 delivered. Airtel doesn't know.
Delivery Confirmed
Click to zoomIssue reported with delivery status problem clearly explained.
Query: 6773760040034
Click to zoomMarked "closed" March 18 — no fix, no follow-up, no communication.
Closed · Not ResolvedFormal notice → generic response → real issue explained → silence.
Subject: FORMAL NOTICE: Failure to Activate Smartwatch / Non-Responsive Support
Despite receiving the watch four days ago, order status remains "Arriving Soon." Helplines only offer account opening. Query 6773760040034 unresolved. No instruction manual. Demanded resolution within 48 hours or Consumer Forum escalation.
"Kindly follow the steps shared in the user manual to activate the wearable. Go to Thanks App, under wearable section, enter 16 digit activation code received in the box."
"You guys are not understanding my issue. My problem is where can I see the wearables in your app??? I have explored every single option in the Airtel Thanks app where I don't see anything called wearables to enter the activation code."
"First update the watch delivery status. Till now it's showing under processing but it has been delivered a week back. I think you must update this first which will enable the wearable section in the app."
🔇
No response for 12 days.
Call 121 or use Airtel Thanks app. Document everything.
Email pno@airtelbank.com. Mark as "FORMAL NOTICE."
Airtel Payments Bank is RBI-regulated. File at cms.rbi.org.in.
File at consumerhelpline.gov.in or call 1800-11-4000.
File via e-Daakhil. Companies settle quickly once proceedings begin.
Document everything. Make it public. You're looking at the result.
This amount increases every second. Airtel's own advertised savings account interest rate of 7% p.a. is applied to ₹2,999 from the date of delivery. Because if they can hold our money, we can charge interest on it.
Option A: Update the delivery status for Order ID 03032026233913993736623, let the customer activate the watch, and this website disappears. Option B: Keep ignoring this, and the interest keeps ticking. Your choice, Airtel.
Experience the thrill of Airtel customer service! Click the button and find out how your complaint will be "resolved." Spoiler: it won't be.
Airtel's wearable activation issues aren't unique to one customer. Here's what others have reported across the internet.
Multiple Samsung Watch users report identical errors when trying to activate Airtel plans. One user: "I called airtel multiple times, they say they have cleared the backend data but it is not helping. Visited Airtel shop too, they simply raised a SR to backend team and backend team simply closed the SR without resolving."
Source: Samsung Members Forum →A user tried multiple times to activate Airtel plan on Galaxy Watch 6. Customer care claimed they "deleted data from backend" but the issue persisted. Eventually had to physically visit an Airtel store — customer support couldn't do it remotely.
Source: Samsung Members Forum →Apple Watch users told "Your AirTel account is not eligible to enable mobile service on your Apple Watch." Multiple users reported Airtel customer care couldn't help, and they were told to switch carriers entirely.
Source: Apple Community Forum →Pixel 7 user reported NFC attestation failure with Airtel Thanks app travel card: "ATTESTATION FAILED: deviceOSVersionCode not support." Customer support's solution? "Factory reset." The actual issue remains unresolved.
Source: XDA Developers Forum →A LinkedIn user reported being defrauded of ₹20,000 through Airtel Payments Bank, describing the experience as raising "very disturbing & fundamental questions around digital banking" by consumer companies.
Source: LinkedIn →Pattern detected: Airtel's wearable/NFC backend has systemic activation issues. Support tickets are routinely closed without resolution. Customers are told to factory reset, visit stores, or switch carriers.
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