[Resolved]  Vodafone — APPEAL FOR REFUND OF EXORBITANT AMOUNT CHARGED ON THE VODAFONE MOBILE NO. [protected]

Address:

North Delhi, Delhi

APPEAL FOR REFUND OF EXORBITANT AMOUNT CHARGED ON THE VODAFONE MOBILE NO. [protected]
FOR THE PERIOD 03, 0CT, 2012 TO 02, NOV, 2012

I am citizen of India, has been working in Motilal Oswal Financial Service Limited (Company in short) , Motilal Oswal Tower, Junction of Gokhale & Sayani Road, Prabhadevi, Mumbai – 110 025 as Associate Vice President (Regional Manager- Business Associates posted as Delhi office since 1st August, 2009)

2. That before switching over to Vodafone by company the appellant has been using his personal Airtel Mobile connection bearing No. [protected] and bill upto Rs. 1500 /- was being borne by the Company itself as per the Mobile Phone Policy in respect of Grade 3 employees of MOSL.

3. That as per past official records of the Company since joining my earlier mobile bills never exceeds Rs. 2000 per month.

4. That the monthly bill for the above Mobile Connection as and when received the payment to the extent of Rs.1500/- is used to be reimbursed to the appellant on submission of the Airtel bills and excess amount is deducted from the salary after informing the appellant.

5. That the Company, for the reasons best known to it, decided to provide Vodafone Mobile Connections to all its officers including the Appellant having the same mobile number by them under Mobile Number Portability. Resultantly, the appellant was having no other efficacy but to accept the services of Vodafone as per eligibility mentioned in Mobile Phone Policy of MOFSL with the same number, i.e. [protected].

6. That initially on 14th September, 2012, the appellant was provided VMC plan for Rs. 500 (Unlimited) with 2G services activated on same day. Immediately the appellant came across with some problems in using the Vodafone GPRS services as find out due to slow speed internet connection facing delayed in downloading E-mails which required for the smooth functioning of the Company day to day communications with its associates. He therefore, made a request to Telehelp-MOSL on 16.09.2012 to change my plan. On option given by Telehelp-MOSL, the appellant opted for 3G facility with Promo Pack of Rs.650/- (Free 3GB downloading) which was activated through Telehelp-MOSL on 17.09.2012. Thereafter the mobile connection started working properly.

7. That in the meantime on 22nd October, 2012, the appellant was informed by E-mail from Mr. Dinesh Gupta (Manager-HR Operations, MOSL i.e. the Company) to note the excess usage mail from Vodafone and immediately the appellant sent an E-mail to Mr. Dinesh requesting him to mail the unbilled amount and in turn he asked to send a SMS to 111 stating “unbill” to get the unbilled amount but the same was not the correct number to send SMS to Vodafone. Rather, on the same day appellant directly enquired from Customer Care of Vodafone & applicant was informed that his billed unpaid amount is Rs. 1831/-.

8. On 31.10.2012, applicant again received mail from Telehelp-MOSL regarding excess usage & 10% standard deduction details of Mobile for September, 2012 amounting to Rs.481/- for the month of September, 2012 i.e. for Rs. 1831/- and the same must have been deducted from his salary This facts shows that up to 31st October, 2012, neither Telehelp-MOSL informed applicant about the exorbitant billing for the month of October,2012, Nor on applicant enquiry Vodafone Customer care inform about this excessive usage on the said mobile connection (Refer Para no. 6).

9. That with regard to billing of October, 2012 which was on very excessive side i.e. of Rs. 71,000/- (Approx.) and that too the same was deducted from appellant salary for the month of November, 2012, i.e. on 30th November, 2012 without giving opportunity to him to challenge this excess usage with the Vodafone. Therefore appellant sent an E-mail on the same day to Vodafone Corporate Care (corporatecare.[protected]@vodafone.com, corporate.[protected]@vodafone.com) with the belief that there is some technical/software fault as it is quite impossible to use at such a great extent on his mobile set and asked them to reverse the amount but applicant was informed that they cannot entertain his request individually and asked the appellant to come through the Company authorized person Mr. Dinesh Gupta as the Vodafone account is “Company owned Company paid Account”.

10. That appellant sent an E-mail to Mr. Dinesh on 2nd Dec, 2012 with the E-mail received from the Vodafone to take the matter with the concerned person of Vodafone to investigate the matter & rectify the bill. On instruction of Mr. Dinesh Gupta Vodafone revert to Telehelp-MOSL that the usage details from the 03/10/2012 to 02/11/2012 have been checked & found that the applicant has been charged for the genuine usages originated from his SIM card and he has been charge for Rs. 68,447.82 for 34223910 KB after getting the 3GB free discount for Rs. 6,291.46 & hence net chargeable amount will be Rs. 62,156.36 (Excluding Taxes) & also shown their inability to reverse the charges so levied towards the usage from said VF mobile number.

11. That it is all the more necessary to mention here that appellant has been informed about this exorbitant bill only after making the payment to Vodafone which has resulted into mental agony, pains, sufferings and stigma on my reputation and the same is causing an financial loss to the applicant and applicant also feel cheated or deceived at the end of Vodafone also through my Company for the reason that had applicant been consulted before making the said exorbitant amount, which is beyond the company limit of Rs.1500, applicant would have been in a position to fight the same or convince the Vodafone authorities. Aggrieved with the same the appellant sent a letter to Mr. Sudhir Dhar, Associate Director of the Company on17.12.2012 requesting him to take the matter with the Vodafone as undisputedly the bill is on very excessive side which is impossible on the mobile set of the appellant keeping in view his past billing of Airtel. It was very shocking that in a very short time of switching over to Vodafone, the billings started going on exorbitant side. The appellant submitted the following important facts to verify:-

(i) Appellant checked in the itemized bill provided by the Vodafone with effect from 17th Sept 2012 (the date on which 3G services was activated) on applicant mobile, each day usage was found to be very high & its shows that downloading shown in the bill was 24x7 in each every minutes/seconds over his mobile phone, which was not possible for any handset to standby for 24hrs & it needs charging atleast for 3-4 hours per day.

(ii) Total VF Mobile connect (GPRS- Usage in KB’s) shown for the period 02/10/2012 to 02/11/2012 was 34223910 KB (Means around 34GB), whereas the capacity of the applicant mobile handset is only 2GB & moreover his nature of job doesn’t required such usage.

(iii) Even applicant notice that on 18th Oct to 20th Oct he was at Motilal Oswal Tower at Mumbai for some HR- Udaan program & the usage for the aforesaid period shown in the bill for the VF mobile connect works out to 7251970 KB’s which in terms of cost comes to around Rs. 14,000.

(iv) Since the billing system is automated, obviously there may be chances of deliberate faulty meters in this case, or, there would be chances of issuance of duplicate SIM of the same number by the company.

(v) First notice/alert of excessive usage received by the applicant on 22nd Oct, 2012 by Telehelp-MOSL, by that time total usage by the applicant shown in the bills works out towards cost around Rs. 56,393/- , this shows that reasonable notice not given to the applicant after crossing of credit limit. Why Vodafone allow to reach the bill of an Individual to amounted Rs. 56,393/- without notice to the applicant or, to the Corporate & further Why keep the service continue beyond credit limit without further communication to the Applicant or, corporate Authorized person- Mr. Dinesh Gupta. It shows that Vodafone is guilty o[censored]nfair trade practice as exorbitant charges were levied in the bill for the usage not done by the applicant.

12. That accordingly the Company of the appellant took up the matter seriously with the Vodafone and in turn received the following reply on 17.12.2012 itself:-

“Dear Mr. Gupta,

Thank you for writing to Vodafone regarding the usages charge on your Vodafone mobile number [protected].

We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to you.We would like to inform you that as per our records, Vodafone mobile connect + Vodafone live @ Rs,500 with unlimited service is activated on dated 14/09/12 and the same has been deactivated on dated 17/09/12 as per your request only.

We would also like to inform you that as per our records, 3G data [protected]@ Rs, 650 with 3GB free service has been activated on your Vodafone mobile number on dated 17/09/12 with the service request number [protected] and the same service has been deactivated on dated 16/12/12 with the service request number [protected].

We would like to confirm you that as per our records you have been charged for Rs. 5,910.06 (VMC) + Rs, 7.00 (VL) for 2921430 KB (VMC) + 153520 KB (VL) after getting the discount for Rs. 5,909.86 (VMC) you will be charges Rs. 0.20 (VMC) Rs, 7.00 (VL) on your Vodafone bill i.e. 03/10/2012 on your Vodafone mobile number. We would also like to confirm you that as per process 2G and 3G service are fixed rental service, hence you have been charge rental and discount fixed basis.

We would like to inform you that as per our records you have been charged for Rs. 68,447.82 (VMC) + Rs, 1.64 (VL) for 34223910 KB (VMC) + 820 (VL), after getting the 3GB free discount for Rs. 6,291.46 (VMC) you will be charge Rs. 62,156.36 (VMC) + Rs, 1.64 (VL) (on 3G basis of 0.02p/10kb accordingly) on your Vodafone bill i.e. 03/11/12. Hence, post getting the above mention 3GB free usages you have been charge 0.02p/10kb accordingly. Hence you have been charge correctly.

We would like to inform you that as per our records you have been charged for Rs. 1,222.02 (VMC) + Rs, 75.42 (VL) for 611010 KB (VMC) + 37710 (VL) after getting the discount for Rs. 1,222.02 (VMC) + Rs, 75.42 (VL) on your Vodafone bill i.e. 03/12/2012 on your Vodafone mobile number. Hence we regret for the same.
Further, we would like to assure you that we cannot bill you for usages that are not made on your SIM card. As per the details mentioned above, we regret that we would not be able to reverse charges levied towards the usages made from your Vodafone mobile number.

Assuring you with best of our services and we value your association with us.

Happy to help,
Vishal Saluja - Vodafone Care”


13. That on receipt of the above reply to Mr. Dinesh Gupta who has forwarded the same to the appellant and perusal of which gave a great shock to the appellant that a person having field duties to perform has got the billing at a very exorbitant side is quite impossible keeping in view his previous billing on the same number and the nature of working of the appellant.

14. That it is pertinent to mention here that the Vodafone officials did not provide me the details of data alleged to have been downloaded 24x7 for the usage of which the appellant has been charged exorbitantly. It is again necessary to mention that it is very strange to note that a person seems to be omnipresent that on one side he is using the mobile 24x7 and on the other hand he is leading his team in performance of the officials duties including the field jobs assigned to him from time to time. It is also worthwhile to mention that the appellant also have a family consisting of his wife, two children, father and ailing mother, who also requires his constant help to visit the doctors for treatment. Meaning to say, the appellant apart from shouldering his high official, moral and ethical duties and obligations, he hardly finds any time to downloading the data at such a great KBs/MBs data.

15. That keeping in view my above submissions, it is ample clear that there are chances of getting my Mobile either paired with any other mobile or problem in the software of the Vodafone Company or the possibility of hacking of the SIM of my mobile cannot be ignored. Therefore, it needs thorough investigation in the matter at your end & as a special case this case will be escalated at highest management level of your company.

16. That now under these compelling circumstances, the appellant is very scared and afraid o[censored]sing the Vodafone Mobile phone after the above incident which happened in a very short span of 1½ months only and, therefore, has shifted from “Company Owned and Company Paid” to “Individual” and also got deactivated the 3G facility.


PRAYER:

It is, therefore, humbly requested that your goodself may be graciously pleased to look into the matter by calling for the details of the data usages from the Vodafone Company on the aforesaid number for a very short period of 1½ months for which the appellant used the said number including the technicalities involved by which any misdeeds may happen as the appellant is a layman and cannot understand the technicalities, if any, and after finding that the bill is prepared on some false and frivolous usages, the amount charged in excess may kindly be got reimbursed to the appellant.

Hoping for a favourable response at your end.

Thanking you,
Appellant
Dated: 24.12.2012

(Sunil Kumar Goyal)
Associate Vice President
(Regional Manager Business Associates)
Motilal Oswal Securities Limited,
801-806, 8th Floor, Prakashdeep Building,
7, Tolstoy Marg, Connaught Place,
New Delhi – 110 001.