Vodafone India — New postpaid sim restricted, Unfair unbilled amount charged

Address:

New Delhi, Delhi

According to a latest mint survey nearly 50% of Vodafone’s customer base is either not satisfied with its services or doesn’t hold an opinion at all. In past few days I have also joined that club. The incompetence of Vodafone’s service staff not just at lower level but at nodal and appellate level is what I have witnessed in these few days. These people don’t think, they don’t delve deep into consumer’s problem. In fact they just want to close their service tickets so as to improve their performance ratings. As a result rather than solving problems, they usually simply state what the problem is, without looking into the causes. This particular case highlights the faulty systems which Vodafone has in place for new postpaid connections. It also depicts the ineptitude of Vodafone’s customer service staff in dealing with such problems. My new postpaid sim ([protected]) got activated on 5th July morning. I had opted for 199/- monthly rental plan, with which comes 300 minutes of free local and STD calls. I then activated a monthly 3G data plan (150_500MB_3G) with a fixed monthly rental of Rs 150/-. So technically if I have data usage of less than 500 MB and make less than 300 minutes of local/STD calls during the month, I should get a bill amount of 349/- (150+199) Rupees at the month end. Fair Enough! But to my utter surprise just after 3-4 hours of sim activation, my sim got blocked. I received a message from Vodafone saying that due to non-payment of bills my services have been restricted (What the hell!). Now the thing is I surely didn’t (or can’t) make 300 minutes of call in these 3-4 hours nor did I consume more than 500 MB of data (latest usage data were shared with the customer care team, interaction ID[protected]. Disheartened, I then called up the customer care center where the executive attending my call didn’t had a clue about the problem. I asked him to transfer the call to his supervisor. Instead he put me on hold for 16 minutes and then discontinued the call. I then e-mailed the customer care office regarding the issue. They replied saying that I have to pay 893.62 rupees to unblock my sim as I have unbilled usage of the same amount (What the hell again!). Now you can imagine my disappointment and disbelief when I saw that e-mail. Since I have a monthly rental plan, how did I get unbilled usage in just 3-4 hours? Unless I cross the limits (data or voice) which come with the plans I shouldn’t be charged a single penny more than 349/- rupees. I emailed them asking the same question. But these guys with their scripted replies didn’t manage to answer it. Ever e-mail of their insisted upon me paying that amount. I subsequently escalated the issue to nodal and then central appellate authorities, but received unsatisfactory replies from them too. No one uses their brains. They just check the system and see usage and bill amount and reply with the same. What they don’t get or try to think about is why there is an unbilled amount in the first place when I have a monthly rental plan active on my sim and usage is within limits. It’s been more than a week now and I have reached the limits of my patience. The sheer dumbness of replies from Vodafone customer care executive makes me wonder about the future of Vodafone in this country. With this type of customer service and this level of proficiency of your service staff I don’t think you will have many happy customers. Finally, it’s a sincere request that please don’t contact me unless you manage to scrap the unbilled amount of 893.62/- rupees and admit that there is an issue with Vodafone’s system when it comes to new postpaid connections. Any other scripted rubbish reply from Vodafone will force me to throw the sim away. After all, since nationwide mobile number portability is here, I can keep my old number. :D