Vodafone India — Over charging

Address:	400084
Website:	vodafone.com

Dear sir,
I wish to draw your attention to the act of extortion by vodafone, from their post paid subscribers, in the form of temporary activation of roaming free services for short duration up to 30 days.
I am a vodafone post - paid customer vide mobile number [protected] and [protected]. i requested for activation of roaming free service on these numbers in the month of may 2016 for a period of 30 days. i was confirmed by the customer care that the service has been activated and one time charges of rs.75/- as roaming promo rental for a period of 30 days will be charged in the bill for the month. it was also confirmed that the services will be automatically deactivated on completion of 30 days and no amount will be charged as roaming promo rental after that, unless the services are requested again for further period.
On completion of my trip, on my return to mumbai in end may 2016 (well before expiry of the activated roaming promo) i intimated the customer care and requested them to deactivate the services on my mobiles. once again i was told that the services will automatically get deactivated and hence no request was required. the appropriate amount was charged on the bill for the month of may 2016 and the same was paid without any question.
On receipt of my bill for [protected] for the month of june 2016, i was surprised to see that an amount of rs.75/- was charged again in the bill as roaming promo rental, where as i never requested for this service for this period. i called up the customer care to enquire about the charges and i was told that it was charged erroneously and same was being reversed by customer care. on receipt of reversal sms, once again i called customer care and asked for the reasons for charging service tax on the rs.75/- which was charged wrongly and now reversed, the executive immediately made correction and reversed the service tax also and the bill was paid.
The apathy did not end here. once again, on receipt of my bill for another mobile number [protected], i found that same rs.75/ was charged extra. i called up and again got the amount reversed. again i called to enquire about service tax being charged for wrongly charged amount which has been reversed. this time the extra smart and highly educated executive told me that the service charges cannot be reversed once charged. however, after long discussion and justification from my end, i was able to get the service tax also reversed.
The question is not the amount of rs.75/- or service tax of rs.12/- on this amount, but the question is the ethics and intentions of the service provider. mistake can happen once, but in my case both the numbers were charged shamelessly and the rate of mistakes is 100%. this is not the first time when vodafone is charging unethically, but if you check my previous complaints on charging of roaming charges during two months for my number [protected], which was reversed after long chain of emails between me and vodafone under intimation trai, you will realize that the vodafone is seriously in to the unethical business practices and charging customers excess amounts fearlessly, thinking that no one would have time to cross check the bills. if it is happening with me, i am sure it must be happening with millions of other customers also. some of them may be aware of it and some may be ignorant. now the question is that
1. whether the vodafone is to be considered as “extornist” for charging extra amounts fearlessly, or
2. the company is to be considered as “bagger” for receiving alms in the form of extra charges, or
3. they are to be considered as “cheaters” for cheating the innocent customers.
4. whether there is any control of government telephone regulatory authorities or the authorities have permitted this company to play such foul practices, for the reasons better known to them, since the company and its customer care employees are very confident of overcharging in the bills and quickly reversing if cross checked by the customers. even there was no disciplinary action initiated on vodafone against my complaint for overcharging my number, few months back.
As far as i am concerned, i can switch over to any other service provider, but that does not solve the problem, since the company still continues to cheat millions of other customers.
May i request the telephone regulatory authority of india to initiate strict action against vodafone for over charging and playing unethical business practice? if required the license of the company should be suspended or cancelled to teach a lesson to all such habitual corrupt organizations.

In anticipation for appropriate action from authorities.

Binod bisht
Lt. commander (retd)