Vodafone Postpaid ripping me off, Vodafone Care won't help :-/

Rahul++

Rahul++

SuperUser
Skilled
Hello,

I am a Vodafone postpaid user since about 6-7 months. Service was very good for first 3-4 months then the sad part begun.

My phone's billing cycle is 19th to 18th of next month. I had activated VMC (Vodafone Mobile Connect) 198 Data plan (3GB per month @ Rs.198/month). I deactivated the same on 2nd or 3rd May. They started it again 8th June without any prior notice or any message. Again I deactivated the same on 8th august 2012. I received my bill (billing cycle : 19th August to 18th September) couple of days back. I saw VMC 199 plan is activated again on 18th September for which they charged 6.42 rupees in that billing cycle.

Immediately, I went to Vodafone Care and showed them that they have charged me for using VMC 198 on 18th September (198/30 = 6.6 rupees something). I asked him to show the plans activated on my phone. He opened the portal, there was VMC 198 plan activated on 18th September 2012 at 12.00.00AM. VMC198 plan is being reactivated on my phone on the last day of billing cycle (Reason was stated "Customer Executive called the customer but he didn't received the call"). I asked the executive, why they are reactivating plan without even asking me, he had no answer for that. He is just saying pay the bills we will waive off the amount in next billing period.

The day after I went to Vodafone care, I received message "MMS Facility has been deactivated on your number". Now I can't connect to Data connection anymore (I receive 500mb / month on tariff plan that I am using). I am fed up of going to Vodafone Care everyday and wait for couple of hours to get my number :-/ Ridiculous.

Anyone have contact information of higher authority?

I have got a premium number while activating this number. At the time of activating my number, the lady told me that I won't be able to port to other network for one year because they are providing me a Premium number for free (91 586 XXX YY).

No matter how many times I go and deactivate this plan, they reactivate it on the last day of billing cycle and charge me. I am being ripped off by Vodafone India :-/

When I call Vodafone Customer Care, they ask me to go to Vodafone Care store in my area. When I go to Vodafone care, they just deactivate the plan for that instance, it gets reactivated again on next billing cycle.

Should I raise this in Consumer Court?
 
Consumer Court is your only option Sire. Almost all telecom service providers are crap when it comes to reasoning with them.
 
Mail to the nodal officer of Vodafone and see what happens

You can contact our Nodal Officer with the complaint docket number (the unique complaint number you get when you register your complaint at Vodafone Care) anytime from Monday to Friday, between 9:30 am and 6:00 pm.

Name:Ms. Ajitha Raj
Address:Vodafone South Limited, Tower 1, 9th Floor, Beliciaa Towers, Block 94, MRC Nagar, Chennai 600 028, India
Phone:+91 98840 98844
Fax:+91 98430 12345
Email:nodal.tamilnadu@vodafone.com


 
None of these will help. Forget about the VIP number and move to new provider as per your requirement.

I have had a bad experience with them

1) They charged 5k for data usage inspite of me activated a particular plan like you (VMC 199). But they said in face that i didn't activate it, even they failed to provide any conversation i had with the agent
2) Since it was my company connection, i had no option other than to pay for it and put a disconnection request.
3) Inspite of disconnection request, i keep getting bill every month for 6 to 7 months and it did require 3 to 4 visits and escalation to finally conclude it.

Now i am being very careful with these so case ISPs. They are just a rip off of customer satisfaction and speak nonsense. We need more ISPs in India with broader coverage

Note: I was a loyal customer for 2 to 3 years and they still they had no problem letting me go :O
 
My story:

I converted to Postpaid from prepaid to get one number free. Along with which I asked for message pack of Rs.35 which gives 350 messages. I was doubtful about getting all my plan changes in one go. As suspected, in first bill which was there for only 18 days I was charged ~670. I checked my itemized bill on My Vodafone account. Found the jhol; no free number no sms pack activated. I went to Voda store next day and waited for 1.5 hours for number to come. I talked to lady about this. First she declined and said its your mistake. I tried to ask about executive who converted my number. On asking about her I got reply that she left the organization. Thanks to my sharp memory :p, i could recollect that lady that day wrote all details on their form. I asked about photocopy of form and VOILA..!! I was correct. Now starts bashing time. That arrogant lady suddenly became most polite person on earth. She took my reversal request asked to pay for full bill this time. I happily went home and waited for next bill.

To my utter shock I was still charged wrongly and my new bill asked me to pay ~750 bucks. But if calculated all correctly I had to pay only Rs.172 for that bill. I paid that much. but it was again bashing time. This time more waiting time. More aggressive bashing. Executive asked to pay full this time too and assured next time for sure it will be reversed. I told only one thing throughout I have paid whatever amount i was liable to pay and wont pay any single penny more. At the end of 30 minutes of argument he threatened me about service being affected. I told you just do that and wait for actions. He again tried to convince me but i dint budge. Took my request again. I was told before your bill cycle it will be done and I was suppose to confirm after 10 days, as my billing cycle was 14 days away. I was suppose to have Rs.580 reversed.

Waited till 12th day. On 12th day evening to my shock I got a call from their back-office. Lady told we have counted it and reversal amount comes out to be 227 :O. I asked to check it again and she reiterated that she is correct. Since I had all my stats with me after analyzing my itemized bill, I said fine I will visit my store again and bash big time. Within 56 mins got call from same lady apologizing and telling we re-calculated whole thing and reversal liable is Rs.1080 + tax on it. I quietly said its ohk :p and amount is correct :yahoo: Post which 2 months I enjoyed zero bills out of which for 1 month i was deserving and other took as my compensation.

NEVER pay extra amount to them for which you are charged wrongly.
 
@Rahul++ cant you just subtract the total amount what you feel is "JUSTLY" overcharged and make your bill payment. Vodafone is nowadays becoming Badassfone!

As Renegade pointed out, first shoot a mail to the appellate authority and nodal officer, you will get an acknowledgement for that. Use this acknowledgement and use your number just incase if it becomes disconnected due to non payment of dues.

Oh to my luck, i messaged them on the vodafone india facebook page and got a call from a top manager in under 24hours for a service they charged me for without my knowledge and the amount was deducted in my following month bill
 
Last edited by a moderator:
all these service providers are very protective of their public image to unknown customers.

Start posting complaints on their Twitter and facebook handles first thing in morning, and dont stop till the issue gets resolved.

I got Vodafone,Airtel DTH on their knees multiple times via these technique. Last time I used this was in july when I purchased Samsung galaxy S3, it came with free 3G plan of 3Gb per month for 2 months, it did not get activated automatically I tried C executives for 4 days then fired them openly on twitter and within 30 minutes the plan was on and they made it for exactly 60 days instead of bill cycle ending.

Persist and they will oblidge.
 
Rahul++ said:
Time to attack their FB and Twitter pages :D I hope the issue will be resolved soon.
Click to expand...

I agree with @medpal, just post on their twitter and provide your number and they will call you in a day then explain everything and warn them that if you are not doing anything then I am going to publish this daily on FB and twitter and convey all to my friends via social networking.
Around 3-4 times my issues got resolved via twitter posting.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top