Vodafone may be cheating you !


My latest interaction with the Vodafone Customer Service Team  has left me appalled with the quality of service and customer grievance redressal, inspite of being a very old customer of Vodafone.
I am disappointed with the superficial and cavalier attitude  in handling my dispute over the incorrect charges billed for GPRS usage over the past 3 months.

The latest bill generated on November 28th is for an amount of Rs. 35,039.95 of which Rs. 27,453 is towards GPRS usage during my travel overseas in November. However, the GPRS setting were not active on my Samsung cell phone and more importantly the phone was switched off for most of time during my travel overseas with the exception of 3-4 days for just a few minutes each day.
I was travelling abroad to the US and Europe from Nov 4th to Nov 27th and can have proof for the same. During travel I used the hotel wi fi connections along with local data cards for my Blackberry only.

On December 2, 2013, I was surprised when  the customer service operator told me verbally that there were data charges by a Canadian operator. I have not even travaled to Canada in the last 12 months or more.

On going through my previous bills, I have noticed that out of the total October 28th bill of Rs. 5429.20, the charge for GPRS usage was Rs. 3343. Since I was extremely busy, I did not pay much attention to this billed amount and paid it without any dispute.

However the amount of Rs. 27,453  in the current November 28th bill towards GPRS usage has caught my attention and is completely unacceptable.

The September 28th bill also had a GPRS usage charge billed. So, in September itself, when I called Vodafone, I was asked to check the phone settings for an active data network. I checked the Samsung phone and would like to reiterate that the data network was in the "off" mode. I do not understand how the charges have still been levied in the subsequent 2 bills inspite of ensuring the data network was in the switched off mode.

The customer service reps call and say only one thing..we have checked and you have to pay.

Its been 24 hours since I wrote to the CEO Mr Peiters- have neither got a reply nor a call from him

Watch out in your bills. Vodafone may be cheating you too 











Comments

  1. I agree with you Rajitaji, I have also gone through similar stuff. On July 2, I changed a SIM card (Same company, same number, just the physical sim card I had to change so as to fit in my latest blackberry phone). My internet Vodafone Blackberry plan of Rs 399 per month that I use, did not start within the mentioned time limit of 2 hours. I called up the Customer Services and the representative asked me to Forward two SMS that he sent me, on 144. I followed his instructions with full faith. I cleared it to him that my internet services are blackberry monthly plan. He sent me messages of ACT VF, ACT VNC. I did not know what do they mean at that time. After sending the messages, within two hours, my internet got started. So, I used what's app. Now, there was a new version of what's app to be downloaded of around 6 MB, which I did. It costed me 70 additional rupees. It got cut from my balance of prepaid amount. When I called customer services, at first they did not accept my complaint, they were not ready to accept that it was a mistake of their representative. They asked me for all the call details stuff. Which, I had to repeatatively give to each of the customer service executive that I talked to. They used to keep me on hold for a loooooooooong time, but the end result NIL. For that one week, they did not provide me internet service at all, for which I already had paid 399 (as a part of monthly plan). Therefore, in spite of paying for 4 weeks for internet usage, I could use only 3 weeks. So in total my loss was 399/4 + 70 in INR plus all the time that I spent dealing with all their so called LEARNED customer service executives, who have not registered my complaint till date.

    I really wish that some action is taken against Vodafone. Because if they can cheat well educated people like us and we still can not do much about it, then I am thinking about those innocent village people, who just purchase the services with faith without going into much details. They are looting people.

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  2. Oh my god Bhavyata ! this is terrible ! pl write to marten.pieters@vodafone.com . He is the India CEO .. I dont know if much will happen, But we should fight

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  3. Rajitaji to b on safer side whenver u r going out of country u ask d customer care to stop d service. As they say this call may b recorded...u can at least have that information..or proof..

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  4. Vodafone is a company where even on a coldest Arctic winter dip their hands in your pocket. I have had a terrible experience with their services and mainly their Customer Care responses. Pathetic to say the least. Their response actually hurt more than the bill (which anyway is killing). Finally their technical team solution never works. I used my own expertise to fix problems each time I faced an issue in my family. Thanks to their services, I did a Mobile Number Portability (Port out) of all the connections in the family.
    Hope they are sued for distress and you don't settle if they reverse the bill (they did offer me once and I accepted it - on hindsight I felt I should not have settled but sued them for trouble they caused)

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  5. Ok...i hav gone thru similar issue n i did get d justice...u just hav to b patient n dont pay any amount yet....will give u details soon. Need to login to my laptop.

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  6. Ok, its me again....Jitendra Nalawade (Unknown from earlier msg). I faced same issue when I got 4 iphones for my family from USA 2 years ago and switched the old phones with iphones. I had wifi at my home as well and we used to connect to wifi. After a month saw all 4 iphone bills were high (not high as ur bill though). I am IT engineer working on mobile applications and know all technical details. So, I decided to ask them questions and fight on high bills sent to me. Vodaphone customer service had no clue....some stupid asses earning money for hearing abuse from customers.... I approached Vodaphone gallery thinking tht at least they will understand n make some sense...I was terribly disappointed. Hiring some average graduate in gallery is going to speak lines tought to thm by their smart graduate managers... :-)
    Finally I did not pay bill for 2 months and wrote email to nodal.mum@vodafone.com with all details. After 2-3 weeks they responded and give me credit for that amount and asked me to pay this bill for now. It was fine with me. If you wld like to see the email, mail me at jitun2007@gmail.com.

    If u want to fight...try
    https://www.vodafone.in/pages/vodafone_offices.aspx?cid=mum

    Nodal Officer - Ms. Zillah Vaz and Ms Jacqueline Mundkur - nodal.mum@vodafone.com (Phone: 9820015032)

    Appellate.mum@vodafone.com (Phone: +91 9820015713)

    Bottom line..... dont lose d spirit to fight n dont pay d bill until u get commitment or decision.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jitendra again...I told Vodafone to completely stop my internet access... they said they cant for PPU feature....Technically term PPU feature on smartphones..... PPU - Pay per use - Vodafone and other companies have no switch on their end to shut of PPU feature ... this gets activated when u play some games and intentionally or unintentionally on ads ...which connects to internet. :-)

      Delete
  7. Thanks Jitendra ! this is very helpful. Will definitely fight it out !

    ReplyDelete
  8. Please don't buy any postpaid Vodafone plan.

    They are cheating while billing. I purchased 3 months plan from Vodafone. But within 3 months, they billed me for 4 times. So I requested them to stop my number. But instead of stopping it continuously they are sending bill.

    So I went to Vodafone gallery, where they me promised me if I paid all dues they will stop my number.

    But again in this month I got new bill with penalty.

    I don't know now how can I disconnect from Vodafone. Please suggest : what to do.

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  9. Great, your articles are really very informative and easy to understand. Thanks for this special article. Do you know about the Turkish visa for US citizens ? Yes, and I will give you 1 suggestion . Don't waste your time behind the old physical visa system. A new electronic visa system is developed and it is very successful .It makes your journey easier and better.

    ReplyDelete

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