Vodafone India — international roaming pack expired before travelling to france

Address:

560064

This is wrt to an international roaming pack for paris (France) for ten days that i had purchased on 4th sep for rs 4025/- via my citibank credit card for my daughter niharika shetty who has a prepaid number

I had bought this number specifically that day just so that i got activate her international roaming as i myself have used ir on my postpaid vodafone number in apr/may this year as i found the ir to be good.

At the time of checking options with vodafone customer care i asked why start date didn’t show for pack since on my post-paid number it gave a selection for start date. I was told my customer care that on prepaid no start date shows and it would have to be activated once she lands in paris and selects in manual mode. He told me that she had to select wither bouygues telecom on fr. He also said that a charge of rs 99 would need to be made as a one-time cost.

Niharika was to travel back on 8th sep but she fell ill and within 3 days, my dad expired. Naturally i had to postpone the tickets and she is booked to travel back tonite 25th/26th sep.

I called vodafone customer care through her phone and asked what was balance on her phone as she needed to have 99 in her account for the one-time charge for activating ir. He said that it was active and that i should send an sms “act ir” to 144. I did that. My daughter then got an sms that she saw in evening that her pack had expired. I immediately tried calling back customer care on 198/199 but it was just going into a loop. I then called customer care on [protected] from my phone and the lady said she would check. After putting me on hold for 15 mins she said pack had expired. I was livid and asked to speak to supervisor. The team lead came on phone and i asked him how can pack expire when she had not even travelled to paris. Also, how did the customer care executive tell me it was active in the afternoon and to only top up to ensure i send that sms that he asked me to activate ir. I told the team leader that it looks like both customer care executives don’t know their subject and misinforming customer. What is worse that this is outright cheating customer and no sign of empathy when we are devastated with the demise of my dad. My daughter has to deal with landing in paris with no connectivity to get a cab. This is the most deplorable behaviour from vodafone.
The team lead then called back and said i can credit the money back minus 18 % gst into her prepaid account which i said didn’t make sense as my daughter studying in paris and will not come back till next year. Further why will a student make calls worth 3600 or more?
On my official vodafone number, i sometimes make calls worth 2500 to 3500 but not on my personal phone. This is a lot of money to forego.

Pls note vodafone faq states as below. We sent message to activate pack on 25th sep evening as per instruction from customer care executive to sms "act ir" to 144. So technically as per your faq it should be valid from that day 25th sep for ten days. How can you say it expired as we purchased on 4th sep as i never activated the pack? At that time, her initial date of travel was 8th sep which was clearly communicated to customer care exec when enquiring about pack to buy. I never activated that pack as i was informed that she had to arrive in paris and then change settings. It was only on 25th when i called customer care, i was asked to send activation message. So it proves that voadfone is out to cheat customers.

“benefits of the ir packs will be applicable till 23:59 hrs ist of the day from the time of activation. I. E. Date/s you choose the pack for
- for e. G. I-roamfree 7 day pack - if you requested for i-roamfree pack at 15:00 hrs ist on the 1st of aug, you start availing pack benefits immediately on receipt of the activation confirmation sms (Approx. 30 mins after request). Benefits will be applicable till 23:59 hrs ist on the 7th of aug. “