[Resolved]  Vodafone — Excess bill charged & service disconnected

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra

Hi,

I had been using this telecom service (cell #[protected]) since 2006 and had never defaulted any payment, the reason for which my credit limit was increased to Rs 9000/-

However a couple of months back when I started the Blackberry service (399 Unlimited plan) I had enquired the complete usage details with Vodafone customer support and was informed that the downloads were to be totally free, except for live streaming through Vodafone Live which would carry a certain charge.

Since then I started using the service for browsing the internet and for downloading songs through BB browser. But to my surprise when I checked my bill status in mid November, the unbilled amount (without discounts) was to approx Rs 1800/-. I once again the customer care, and was assured that this amount would get deducted once the final bill is generated and the payable amount would be only for the Blackberry plan plus the rental and other call charges.

Finally when I received the bill for the month of Dec 2012 on 28th Dec 2012, I was totally shocked to see the payable amount of Rs 6081.82/-. Again to my surprise, this time the customer care informed me that I had used Vodafone Live to surf the net on my handheld. It is hard to believe, how can I be charged for Vodafone Live when I have been using the Blackberry unlimited plan with the Blackberry browser. Further I was told to write a mail to corporate.[protected]@vodafone.com which I did.

I thought my query was answered as I had completely explained him that I was downloading the data from my Blackberry browser from normal websites and also I was not using any pay sites. Further, the back office team called me after listening to the call recording, and told that there was some confusion during the call and that the plan explained by the customer care was correct and hence the charges levied were also accurate. But I still fail to understand that when you admit that there was a confusion during the call, then how can you say the information given was correct? It seems like you are contradicting your own statement.

Secondly I was also informed that the settings on my phone were altered by me to Vodafone Live and not to Blackberry browser. But again I fail to understand that when I had set the browser settings as guided by the customer care, then how would I change the settings when I know that the usage of Vodafone Live is chargeable?

Moreover I was told by the back office team that I would be eligible only for a 20% discount on the bill considering my long term relationship with Vodafone. But why should I pay the other charges when the information provided was incorrect by your customer care?

Further I made payments of Rs 700/- & Rs 300/- to avoid disconnection. Then I visited the Vodafone store on 02nd Feb 2013 and registered a complaint (#[protected] and was told not to make any bill payments and was also told that the Nodal Desk Mumbai team would call me / mail me in a couple of days. But nobody called me nor did they mail me, and the service was disconnected. I myself contacted the Nodal Desk asking about the status of the complaint and was told that they are still working on it.

Its been 2 weeks now that the service has been disconnected and the bill amt has been elevated to Rs. 7889.09.

Hope that my grievance would be addressed on priority.

Regards,
Shrikant Sawant
Email: [protected]@yahoo.co.in