I bought my first GSM sim (Idea) somewhere in Nov-Dec 2005. I have changed handsets almost every year but am still using the first sim card and same number for almost 6 years. And I never faced any major issues till this year.
In July, I recharged Rs.98 GPRS pack but it was not activated in their system. Without any GPRS pack, !dea loots customers @ 4 paise / KB or Rs. 40.96 / MB. So my balance was wiped out within half day with just email-syncs. I had to contact their customer care everyday + mail them every alternate day for next 10-12 days to resolve this issue. And at the end they just returned my Rs.98 in the form of account balance because they could not activate the GPRS pack
and my account balance that was cut @ 40/MB was not returned because I used GPRS when my plan was not active 
But I thought a single issue in all these years is not a biggie.. So I continued with the service.
On 27 August, my outgoing stopped working suddenly and when I checked *212#, it displayed message 'Dear Idea subscriber, you are not a prepaid subscriber' I have been a prepaid subscriber all my life and I have not changed my simcard till now. So how can I not be a prepaid subscriber out of the blue? Again I started calling their customer care everyday..mailed them everyday and it was resolved on 3rd Sept - after 8 days. I was without any outgoing facility (no other simcard) for a week due to no fault of my own! 
On 7th Sept I received a message from Idea 'Dear Customer your document not received since activation. Kindly submit the documents at nearest Idea office to avoid interruption in the services' I ignored the message on the first day. I received the same message on 8th and 9th. On 8th I again replied to the complaint mail but have received no response yet. The Customer Service has as always No Idea! On the fourth day i.e. today, Idea has stopped my service and anyone who calls me gets the message that my services are temporary shut off - which is embarrassing and most importantly causing a lot of inconvenience by making me unavailable as I don't have alternate number.
Since my outgoing is again stopped, I cannot send the message for MNP and I have about 100 rupees balance which I want to transfer to a different account before I stop Idea services - which I cannot do
As if tolerating the pathetic advts of Abhishek Bachchan wasn't enough torture :rofl:
What is the easiest way to restore the service? I am tired of the everyday CC calls and emails
And I want to change service provider for the first time....
- What is my next best option? Airtel / Vodafone..? I don't need any sms plans. Outgoing at 1 paisa per sec is enough. And a good cheap GPRS plan.
- Can I expect better service from other telecom providers or I may have to face similar headaches anyways so changing the service provider is not such a great idea? :S
- Is there any way I can screw Idea for all this? Like consumer forum complaint etc? is that in any way effective and worth the effort?
- Any other suggestions?
In July, I recharged Rs.98 GPRS pack but it was not activated in their system. Without any GPRS pack, !dea loots customers @ 4 paise / KB or Rs. 40.96 / MB. So my balance was wiped out within half day with just email-syncs. I had to contact their customer care everyday + mail them every alternate day for next 10-12 days to resolve this issue. And at the end they just returned my Rs.98 in the form of account balance because they could not activate the GPRS pack
and my account balance that was cut @ 40/MB was not returned because I used GPRS when my plan was not active But I thought a single issue in all these years is not a biggie.. So I continued with the service.On 27 August, my outgoing stopped working suddenly and when I checked *212#, it displayed message 'Dear Idea subscriber, you are not a prepaid subscriber'
I have been a prepaid subscriber all my life and I have not changed my simcard till now. So how can I not be a prepaid subscriber out of the blue? Again I started calling their customer care everyday..mailed them everyday and it was resolved on 3rd Sept - after 8 days. I was without any outgoing facility (no other simcard) for a week due to no fault of my own! On 7th Sept I received a message from Idea 'Dear Customer your document not received since activation. Kindly submit the documents at nearest Idea office to avoid interruption in the services'
I ignored the message on the first day. I received the same message on 8th and 9th. On 8th I again replied to the complaint mail but have received no response yet. The Customer Service has as always No Idea! On the fourth day i.e. today, Idea has stopped my service and anyone who calls me gets the message that my services are temporary shut off - which is embarrassing and most importantly causing a lot of inconvenience by making me unavailable as I don't have alternate number.Since my outgoing is again stopped, I cannot send the message for MNP
and I have about 100 rupees balance which I want to transfer to a different account before I stop Idea services - which I cannot do As if tolerating the pathetic advts of Abhishek Bachchan wasn't enough torture :rofl:
What is the easiest way to restore the service? I am tired of the everyday CC calls and emails
And I want to change service provider for the first time....
- What is my next best option? Airtel / Vodafone..? I don't need any sms plans. Outgoing at 1 paisa per sec is enough. And a good cheap GPRS plan.
- Can I expect better service from other telecom providers or I may have to face similar headaches anyways so changing the service provider is not such a great idea? :S
- Is there any way I can screw Idea for all this? Like consumer forum complaint etc? is that in any way effective and worth the effort?
- Any other suggestions?
