Panchaayat
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Unauthorized Auto-Renewal Charge and Refused Refund on ZEE5

ZEE5PC-2026-01098Entertainment & TicketingAnonymous ·
Kudos to ZEE5 for inventing the ultimate customer retention strategy: Deduct money silently, bypass mandatory regulatory notifications, and then hold the customer hostage using "Company Policy"! 👏 On September 11th, my ZEE5 subscription was auto-renewed, and ₹799 was deducted directly from my credit card. Here is the glaring issue: I received absolutely ZERO prior intimation. No SMS, no email, no 24-hour heads-up. I am currently traveling out of India and have zero use for this subscription. When I tried to resolve this, I realized how truly pathetic the ZEE5 customer service is. There is no active helpline number. You cannot speak to a human being. You are forced into a chat system where executives like Akanksha Patil act like programmed bots, copy-pasting a rigid script: "We can cancel future auto-renewals, but as per ZEE5 policy, the deducted amount is non-refundable." Let me be very clear: A company's 'Terms of Use' do NOT supersede strict RBI E-mandate guidelines, which clearly mandate a 24-hour pre-debit notification for recurring payments. By bypassing this, ZEE5 and their payment gateway have processed an unauthorized transaction. Honestly, it all makes perfect sense now. The reason ZEE5 is grabbing customers by the throat and forcing these non-refundable subscriptions is because nobody is willingly renewing them! The platform's service and customer care are so terrible that their only survival strategy is to silently trap people in auto-renewals and extort money under the guise of "policy." If I manually purchase a plan and change my mind, a non-refundable policy is completely justified. But silently trapping customers, offering zero voice support, and refusing to reverse a non-consensual transaction is not a policy—it is daylight robbery. I will be raising a formal chargeback dispute with my bank for an unauthorized debit, but this predatory practice needs to be called out. ZEE5 Communication ZEE5 Communication Manish Kalra — Is this the standard of trans

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  1. Case filed

    Filer · 6 Oct 2026, 8:00 am

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