VODAFONE - HAPPY TO CHEAT, STEAL, COMMIT FRAUD ....?
Editors Note &Epilogue: Read this to the last. Vodafone took cognizance of my blog and took steps to address this complaint and set it right.. so I am now a happy consumer and happy to have been helped:) Do read this as an example of how social media works...
THE INCIDENT
You are travelling... say driving through Tirunalveli. It is the 13th of February and a pleasant Sunday evening. The time is 18.00 hrs and there are not too many people in the streets, though the weather is very inviting for travel.You stop at a roadside shop near the Palayamkottai Bus Stand off the Trivandrum Highway to recharge your Vodafone prepaid. You have a lifelong validity on your sim card. You need talk time and pay Rs 505. The shopkeeper assures you it is all talktime. Then suddenly you discover that your phone has been credited with only Rs 350 which is the next plan which you have not chosen. You ask the perplexed shopkeeper for the sms she has sent. It is for Rs 505, but then why has Vodafone selected the lower recharge plan for Rs 350? The shopkeeper complains to the local office in Tirunalveli and they refer you to the Kerala Office from where the sim card was issued. The call centre keeps playing recorded messages...as usual. You then hit the social media and complain of being cheated.
THE VOADFONE KERALA RESPONSE TO THE CONSUMER COMPLAINT.
The web site of the company where you log in a complaint refers you to Kerala Vodafone again. Here something bizzare happens. The person there by the name of Janzia Martin sends you a reply which states that Rs 150 was deducted to give you an added benefit of "safe customer offer--Number will retrained for 1 year". This is a little difficult to comprehend.
1) The vendor collects the money for full talk time of Rs 505 and is unaware of any "safety benefit". In fact Vodafone sents sms's to "roaming customers" advertising full talk time at these rates and slabs and there is no mention of any 'safety benefit for Rs 150/-
2) A card with lifetime validity is supposed to be retained for "life" and there is a talk time renewal every 6 months. This has been happening on my card. So what in God's name is a "safety benefit to retain the number for a year" is something only Janzia and her colleagues will know and will find it difficult to explain in consumer court or the TRAI.
3) Number portability has also been introduced and in this scenario this charge for retaining the number looks very fishy to me. I suspect this little invention is a means of fleecing innocent customers and since the amount is small, most people do not follow up and when they impose it on thousands the money is substantial for the wrong doers.
4) What makes this even more suspicious is that this "benefit" has not been advertised, nor do the dealers know of its existence. It looks as though it has been cooked up at short notice by the Vodafone Kerala people to cover their back sides.
UPDATE ON 25TH FEBRUARY 2011
There is a studied silence on the part of Vodafone. I have no idea if they will do the right thing.
My lawyer informs me that this is clearly a case of cheating, misrepresentation and fraud. The provider of service has taken money from a customer to provide a service of certain dimension and has pocketed the money and delivered only part of the service promised. It is therefore incumbent on the provider to return the balance, else it amounts to theft. By giving patently false reasons, the additional charge of cheating, fraud and misrepresentation is also evoked not to mention other provisions which pertain to provisions of the essential services act and those which specifically relate to the telecom services.
WHY IS THERE A CASE OF FRAUD AGAINST VODAFONE KERALA?
While on roaming mode from Mumbai on the 17th of February, Vodafone sent me an sms which I have saved. It clearly states" Hello, Recharge your vodafone prepaid with Rs 351, Rs501,or Rs 1001, roaming recharge voucher and get full talktime( less tax). while roaming."
This contradicts completely the claim from Vodafone Kerala's Janzia Martin that the Rs 150 was for "protecting the number" and furthermore now makes them liable to be charged for defrauding a customer and misrepresenting facts and unlawfully stealing Rs 150 from this customer.
IN PUBLIC INTEREST
While the amount is small, the fact that Janzia Martin and Vodafone Kerala have chosen not to do the right thing by correcting this anomaly seems to indicate this is probably being done on a routine basis with a multitude of customers. It is in public interest to investigate this and for law enforcement agencies to take suo motu cognizance of this before it becomes a widespread menace.
Secondly I did not create a ruckus when I discovered I was shortchanged. Some others may not be forgiving and the innocent vendor probably may get the "treatment'. This would mean law and order problems and would mean no vendor is willing to sell Vodafone Recharge Coupons. Vodafone Essar should be worried about this. They may not have a distribution chain in Kerala if this story goes around.
For the general public and law enforcement officials this is a warning signal. The telecom industry should also step in because if the "faith" in recharge is lost, prepaid connections will be hit and so will the profitability. Most people avoid post-paid due to arbitrary billing and accounting problems with connections being stopped due to no fault of the subscriber and paid bills being shown as unpaid. One bank official in Nagpur was threatened by a telecom company that they would send collection agents to his bank if he did not pay up, when the fact was that he was paying up every month for 5 years well before the due date!!
So from scams in obtaining bandwidth it is now looting the common man to offset the "start up costs" ?Probably some sharp investigative reporter may be able to get to the bottom of this story and check if this is a scam where a neat pile is being made.
UPDATE:
AS ON DATE THE 2ND OF MARCH 2011, VODAFONE HAS CREDITED THE RS 150 AND SEND ME A NOTE TO THIS EFFECT. THANK YOU VODAFONE AND WHOEVER ELSE TOOK THIS MATTER UP
Editors Note &Epilogue: Read this to the last. Vodafone took cognizance of my blog and took steps to address this complaint and set it right.. so I am now a happy consumer and happy to have been helped:) Do read this as an example of how social media works...
THE INCIDENT
You are travelling... say driving through Tirunalveli. It is the 13th of February and a pleasant Sunday evening. The time is 18.00 hrs and there are not too many people in the streets, though the weather is very inviting for travel.You stop at a roadside shop near the Palayamkottai Bus Stand off the Trivandrum Highway to recharge your Vodafone prepaid. You have a lifelong validity on your sim card. You need talk time and pay Rs 505. The shopkeeper assures you it is all talktime. Then suddenly you discover that your phone has been credited with only Rs 350 which is the next plan which you have not chosen. You ask the perplexed shopkeeper for the sms she has sent. It is for Rs 505, but then why has Vodafone selected the lower recharge plan for Rs 350? The shopkeeper complains to the local office in Tirunalveli and they refer you to the Kerala Office from where the sim card was issued. The call centre keeps playing recorded messages...as usual. You then hit the social media and complain of being cheated.
THE VOADFONE KERALA RESPONSE TO THE CONSUMER COMPLAINT.
The web site of the company where you log in a complaint refers you to Kerala Vodafone again. Here something bizzare happens. The person there by the name of Janzia Martin sends you a reply which states that Rs 150 was deducted to give you an added benefit of "safe customer offer--Number will retrained for 1 year". This is a little difficult to comprehend.
1) The vendor collects the money for full talk time of Rs 505 and is unaware of any "safety benefit". In fact Vodafone sents sms's to "roaming customers" advertising full talk time at these rates and slabs and there is no mention of any 'safety benefit for Rs 150/-
2) A card with lifetime validity is supposed to be retained for "life" and there is a talk time renewal every 6 months. This has been happening on my card. So what in God's name is a "safety benefit to retain the number for a year" is something only Janzia and her colleagues will know and will find it difficult to explain in consumer court or the TRAI.
3) Number portability has also been introduced and in this scenario this charge for retaining the number looks very fishy to me. I suspect this little invention is a means of fleecing innocent customers and since the amount is small, most people do not follow up and when they impose it on thousands the money is substantial for the wrong doers.
4) What makes this even more suspicious is that this "benefit" has not been advertised, nor do the dealers know of its existence. It looks as though it has been cooked up at short notice by the Vodafone Kerala people to cover their back sides.
UPDATE ON 25TH FEBRUARY 2011
There is a studied silence on the part of Vodafone. I have no idea if they will do the right thing.
My lawyer informs me that this is clearly a case of cheating, misrepresentation and fraud. The provider of service has taken money from a customer to provide a service of certain dimension and has pocketed the money and delivered only part of the service promised. It is therefore incumbent on the provider to return the balance, else it amounts to theft. By giving patently false reasons, the additional charge of cheating, fraud and misrepresentation is also evoked not to mention other provisions which pertain to provisions of the essential services act and those which specifically relate to the telecom services.
WHY IS THERE A CASE OF FRAUD AGAINST VODAFONE KERALA?
While on roaming mode from Mumbai on the 17th of February, Vodafone sent me an sms which I have saved. It clearly states" Hello, Recharge your vodafone prepaid with Rs 351, Rs501,or Rs 1001, roaming recharge voucher and get full talktime( less tax). while roaming."
This contradicts completely the claim from Vodafone Kerala's Janzia Martin that the Rs 150 was for "protecting the number" and furthermore now makes them liable to be charged for defrauding a customer and misrepresenting facts and unlawfully stealing Rs 150 from this customer.
IN PUBLIC INTEREST
While the amount is small, the fact that Janzia Martin and Vodafone Kerala have chosen not to do the right thing by correcting this anomaly seems to indicate this is probably being done on a routine basis with a multitude of customers. It is in public interest to investigate this and for law enforcement agencies to take suo motu cognizance of this before it becomes a widespread menace.
Secondly I did not create a ruckus when I discovered I was shortchanged. Some others may not be forgiving and the innocent vendor probably may get the "treatment'. This would mean law and order problems and would mean no vendor is willing to sell Vodafone Recharge Coupons. Vodafone Essar should be worried about this. They may not have a distribution chain in Kerala if this story goes around.
For the general public and law enforcement officials this is a warning signal. The telecom industry should also step in because if the "faith" in recharge is lost, prepaid connections will be hit and so will the profitability. Most people avoid post-paid due to arbitrary billing and accounting problems with connections being stopped due to no fault of the subscriber and paid bills being shown as unpaid. One bank official in Nagpur was threatened by a telecom company that they would send collection agents to his bank if he did not pay up, when the fact was that he was paying up every month for 5 years well before the due date!!
So from scams in obtaining bandwidth it is now looting the common man to offset the "start up costs" ?Probably some sharp investigative reporter may be able to get to the bottom of this story and check if this is a scam where a neat pile is being made.
UPDATE:
AS ON DATE THE 2ND OF MARCH 2011, VODAFONE HAS CREDITED THE RS 150 AND SEND ME A NOTE TO THIS EFFECT. THANK YOU VODAFONE AND WHOEVER ELSE TOOK THIS MATTER UP
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