[Resolved]  Prepaid SIM Card — Purchase card Secunderabad not activated

P o Box 1086
Guilderton
Western Australia 6041

Vodafone Corporate Assistance
India

Dear Sir
My wife and I have just returned from a seven week trip to India on a family fact finding mission and our experiences with your company firstly in Secunderbad and later in Mumbai has left a very sour note on a otherwise very enjoyable and successful trip.

We arrived in Chennai on the 22nd November 2008 then traveling south to Trichy and then by car to Nagapattinam returning to Chennai on the 26th November 2008. From here we went on to Secunderabad via an overnight stop at Raichur.

It it was at this point that we decided we should invest in an Indian sim card. So on either the 2nd or 3rd of December 2008 we went out from our hotel (Hotel Taj Tristar) and within a kilometer of the hotel walked into an Airtel shop. After explaining what we were after the salesman directed us a short distance down the road to a Vodafone store. I have no idea why?

Here we appeared to be helped by the manager or his assistant. After explaining all our requirements (again)and that we were traveling to all parts of India he suggested a card that would cover our needs. The costs were discussed and these were:
R/- 155 Sim card (R/99) the remainder was a charge for something else?
R/- 100 Prepaid calls
After some deliberation and more questions we decided to go ahead with the purchase. A number of prepaid packs were produced and a mobile number selected, and all the necessary paper work completed.
Vodafone Mobile * [protected]
SIM *[protected]
Month of Mfg * Nov 08

The new card was inserted in our mobile and tested. It did not work. More questions from the salesman :
“This phone is locked, do you have a contract?”
“ No! This mobile was purchased outright as were the previous two mobiles and the same sim card used for at least ten years”
“Well it will need unlocking”
“How do we do that”
“You need to log on to the Internet but it can be quite difficult, so we can arrange”
“How much”
“R/- 250.
More deliberation on our part as this procedure was to be conducted somewhere else and not in the store.

The salesman could sense that we were quite anxious with all of this so he proceeded to record the serial number of our mobile and the battery, and handed the piece of paper to us. Some 20 minutes lapsed and the phone was returned. Again it was tested and the salesman appeared happy with the results advising that it would be activated within the next 24 hours. We paid the required amount in cash but omitted to obtain a receipt.
The next day we received a message from Vodafone welcoming us as users.
After further stops at Sholapur, Pune and Lonavala we arrived in Mumbai at 1pm on the 17th December 2008 and were booked into the Hotel Diplomat. As my cousin works for the Taj group of companies office in Colabra we tried to make contact with her to advise that we had arrived but could not get anything to work. Also tried ringing your office but to no avail. After checking with the reception at our hotel to ensure we were operating with the right codes etc we were given instructions in finding the nearest Vodafone office, some two to three kilometers away.

We located your office which at that time was quite busy. Eventually served by one of the staff who after listening to our problems and on checking our phone and his computer advised us to return to Secunderabad to have the situation corrected. I was dumbfounded by this absolutely stupid resolution to the problem and I am sure that my reaction to this comment was heard by all in the shop. I also suggested that he should not be wearing his name badge with a logo of “Happy to Help” if he was going to make such outrageous comments. Perhaps you should change your logo to “Tell someone that cares”

While we were away at your store my cousin had left a message at the hotel. When she visited that evening we advised her of the problems we had encountered and that was the reason we could not contact her. So she took the prepaid Vodafone envelope and the booklet and said she or her husband would try and sort the matter out. After two days of calls to your call center she advised that all had been sorted. So on Sunday the 21st of December 2008 when they picked us up for a family visit we were required to call into your store as apparently the paper work had not been submitted from the Secunderabad agent and we would need to go through this exercise again.

That morning we called into that same store, started filling in forms, showing passports and supplying photo identification. When all of this was passed over we were given the same old answer we can't help, you need to go back to Secunderabad to have the card activated. Well this comment went down (as we say in Australia) 'like a ton of bricks'. I don't think I need to explain what transpired next as my cousin's husband is a born and bred Mumbian. I could not understand what was said but I know it made my years burn.

So in order to have communication in India an Airtel card was purchased, installed and successfully utilised until our departure out of New Delhi on Sunday the 11th January 2009.

I realise that this letter is a long explanation but I feel that all the facts need to be put on the table. As I said in the opening paragraph the bottom line is we have been ripped off. We have paid in good faith to Vodafone a world wide company through your representative in Secunderabad to supply us with a service, this has not transpired. It has only succeeded in generating a huge conflict between the customer and the company.

To make things easier please refund all monies (R/- 505) to :-

Mr Michael Vas,
“Ankur” Flat No 7
Sector 9A, Vashi
Navi Bumbai – 400 703
Maharashtra, India.

Yours sincerely

Donald and Irene Moore