Vodafone India — international roaming

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka, 560066

Dear sir,

My wife and i recently subscribed to vodafone`s 999 pre-paid plans. We chose these plans because they appeared to include international roaming capabilities and discounts.

Upon our first trip outside india, we were surprised to discover that our phones didn`t work, and they could not be abroad used unless we activated international roaming packs and paid extra. We visited vodafone shops mutiple times before subscribing to these packs as well as reading the marketing materials, but this requirement was never made clear to us.

As we both travel abroad a lot, the ability to use phones seamlessly abroad is a very important requirement.in every other country where i have subscribed a mobile phone contract (Uk, germany, japan), there has been no need to activate roaming capability each time before travel - you simply travel abroad and are able to use your phone. When i asked the vodafone customer service representative why they make their customers go through the inconvenience of buying packs each and every time they travel, she simply said it was `the process` and was unable to give a good explanation.

If we had realized that we would have to buy international packs each and every time before travelling abroad, this would have influenced our decision on which mobile phone company and plan we would have subscribed to. I would like to ask vodafone india to review their marketing materials and practices to make the fact that international roaming requires purchase of add on packs and activation each time before travel a prominent feature of their sales materials, as well as providing training to their sales staff that they should highlight this requirement when speaking to customers.

It may be that india sales representatives think it is `normal` that customers have to purchase add-on packs and separately activate this service, but from the perspective of foreign residents in india, this is abnormal and odd. One can only wonder why vodafone has this requirement? Is it because it allows them to make additional revenue and profit from their customers without full transparency at point of sale? Or is it because they are do not particularly care about the inconvenience caused by making their busy customers complete an additonal procedure each time before they travel, because it suits their internal processes?

Regards,

Martin