Vodafone India — overbilling/overcharging, unresponsiveness, potential fraud

I had traveled to uzbekistan in june 2019 from the 21 to the 28. I used my vodafone number -[protected] sparingly and mainly by connecting to free wi fi services. The only service message i received on sms or other channels during my travels was that i was out of vodafone coverage and normal rates would apply. There was no service message as to what these rates would be and for what services.

I was shocked when 4 days into my trip i received a message that my gprs services would be disconnected to avoid misuse. I addition my voice services were also cut without notifications or any emergency number to call to find out the reason. I was left stranded by vodafone in a foreign country with no means of communications and any type of service.

Luckily, i was able to contact "the relationship manager" who told me my unbilled charges were inr 44, 000 in 4 days! I was shocked for several reasons : my credit limit was inr 20, 000, there was no message to the effect i was crossing any limit.in my 14 years as a vodafone customer and in all my travels globally, i had rarely exceeded even 6/7k. When asked why i had not been told all this and there was no transparency, he had no answer.

Returning to india, i was in for another shock when i got a bill of inr 53000 despite the phone services being stopped almost a week prior. I then complained to their customer care in writing several times without any satisfactory answer. Their stance was basically a vodafone user has unlimited liability when travelling overseas and no credit limits apply!!

I asked them where this was ever communicated and got no answer... This smacks of fraud and abuse of services and assumes vodafone users can be abused at will by the company.

I never received any response to my last letter for 2 months from vodafone care. Only when i wrote to the vodafone ceo, did someone call me to try and resolve this. And they tried bargaining with me by offering a 20% discount on inr 54000 when they had no right to even bill me this. It seems vodafones business strategy is to overcharge and then negotiate hoping consumers will settle and wont be bothered to complain and pursue this.

In the meanwhile despite no response from them, they sent me a bill on sept 3 with payment due on sept 18. Then i immediately also received a summons from their collection dept to appear on sept 14 in court to settle this via arbitration.

How is this even possible and lawful where a notice is issued without a service provider being held accountable or answering any questions before the bill is due?

I have now written to the entire vodafone management and the birla group who own idea highlighting the unethical and fraudulent practices among other things.

Vodafone needs to take back all charges that were made without any consent or information.