[Resolved]  Vodafone — Data protection, privacy and misguidance

Address:

South Delhi, Delhi

Issue 1: I went to the Vodafone Store in South Extension on 9th Jan to upgrade my Blackberry data plan to 3G and avail a microsim as well for my businessphone. The store person, Mr Amit and Mr Kamal Patra advised me that it will be activated in 2 hours and deactivated my current plan. When it wasn't activated even after 4 hours, I called customer care who told me I was wrongly advised and it will take 24 working hours, with the result that I was left without a phone even now. The customer care person,Mr Sidharth Singh refused to connect me to the supervisor and said to wait or talk to higher authorities myself.

Issue 2: The bigger issue. When I probed as to why the Store misguided me they said they have no idea and have no control over retail stores and do not control them. Now as a consumer, it baffles me that Vodafone, that has its branding and all in retail store do not have policy and service control in retail stores however, they do give them access to their customer management software that includes all my personal, financial and business details. Should not mobile providers communicate this clearly to all customers? Is this a standard practice, if yes then it is dangerous. Forget the shoddy service and wrong information, but should not they take ownership of what the retail stores are doing? Are the stores to blame or the company? I am sure there is the risk of datatheft too in all these stores since they do not have supervision.