Swanand Kirkire has stirred a major conversation on social media after accusing Toyota India of sharing his personal contact details with insurance companies after he bought one of their cars. His posts on X quickly gained attention, with many users saying they had gone through similar experiences after purchasing vehicles.
‘Big Mistake I Made'
Swanand openly expressed his frustration in a post that soon went viral online. He wrote, “Big mistake I made — buying your car, @Toyota_India.”
The lyricist claimed that after purchasing the vehicle, he began receiving nonstop sales and insurance calls from different companies. According to him, the constant calls became so exhausting that he spent most of his time politely declining offers.
“You shared my phone number with several insurance companies, and now all I do is answer endless sales calls,” he wrote.
Big mistake I made — buying your car, @Toyota_India. You shared my phone number with several insurance companies, and now all I do is answer endless sales calls while trying to remain polite, because I know there's no point screaming at or insulting your underpaid and exploited…
— Swanand Kirkire (@swanandkirkire) May 7, 2026
Swanand also pointed out that he did not blame the employees making those calls, saying they were likely underpaid workers simply doing their jobs. However, he questioned why companies would allegedly share customer information for marketing purposes.
“Don't you make enough profit selling cars already? Why sell your customers' data too?” he added.
In follow-up posts, Swanand reportedly claimed that even automated bot calls had started contacting him repeatedly with recorded voice interactions. He also tagged authorities, including TRAI and consumer grievance platforms, while demanding stronger action against spam calls and unwanted marketing communication.
@Toyota_India now you're making a bot from your call centre call me in a mechanical voice, asking me a thousand questions. This is not acceptable. Have a real person call me, or I will keep raising my voice about this.@TRAI @MCA21India @jagograhakjago #officialcomplaint
— Swanand Kirkire (@swanandkirkire) May 7, 2026
Toyota Responds Publicly
Toyota India soon reacted to the complaint on X and apologised for the inconvenience caused. The company sought Swanand's details, and later said the matter had been forwarded to the team concerned.
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Debate Over Data Privacy
What started as a personal complaint soon became part of a larger discussion online about customer privacy and unwanted marketing calls in India's automobile sector.
Many social media users supported him and claimed they had faced similar issues after purchasing vehicles from different companies. Some users alleged that the issue was not limited to one automobile company, and customer details may also be circulating through dealership networks or vehicle registration systems linked to RTO databases.
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The incident has now triggered fresh conversations around how customer data is handled and whether stronger safeguards are needed to stop personal information from being circulated without consent.
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