This is a clear and detailed narration of the entire episode of my harrassment by Vodafone / Hutch. If anyone can really help me with an advise as to how we need to proceed on this and counter such ridiculous customer attention issues by a service provider. that would help the entire user community a lot.
Instead of making this as a formal complaint, I have just copied the entire series of mails exchanged over the last one week, looking and in fact begging for service from Vodafone, to address a genuine complaint of mine, wherein I was being harassed for no fault of mine. Even today, ultimately just to ensure that I am not on the roads, I have still made the payment today by credit card for the second time, even without receiving any clear explanation for the non-acceptance of my first payment.
Here you go...
Dear Ms. Saranya
Yet another proof of Vodafone / Hutch prioritised attention and customer care. The entire string of my correspondence is traced below, which has been going on since 9th Nov which is now almost a full week's story. But for the Autogenerated acknowledgements, I have not received any reply from your side.
You are the Nodal Officer and ever since my first mail on this subject, I have also intentionally been marking a copy to your Appellate Authority. Now both of you have really failed in your customer feedback / service commitments. Now do I really have any other point of contact within Vodafone / Hutch, to whom I can really address my problem and look for explanation or resolution or atleast a feedback???
The latest turnaround in the entire episode now is: Because of your lack of response and Vodafone / Hutch's demonstrated past track record of taking unilateral decision on deactivating services, I have been forced to behave as a coward customer and I have gone ahead and made the payment again today through credit card, for which I have received a transaction number and also a Thanks message acknowledgement confirming the payment.
But when will your service really begin to focus on understanding and addressing your customer and their needs??? I really feel you guys do not deserve a place in the service industry.
Thanks and Very High Regards
Ganesh
From: Acknowledgements [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Monday, November 12 11:48 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Auto-Acknowledgement: Will my problem be resolved??? Or pending resolution, will my account get DEACTIVATED, as has been unilaterally done in the past??? Mobile No. 98840 43462
Dear Customer,
Thank you for writing to us.
This is an automated response to your e-mail. We will respond to you within 2 working days.
If you want us to update your email id in our records, please send us an email or SMS to 111 (toll-free).
Open up a world of convenience on your desktop! Register on My Vodafone i.e. www.vodafone.in to know more click here
You can also activate/deactivate service via SMS. Send the command as a SMS to 111 (toll free) and the service would be activated/deactivated. To view the list of commands click here
In the meantime, if you need any further assistance, please do call us on 111 toll free from your Vodafone mobile phone. We'll do our best to assist you.
Warm regards,
Srinath Nalluri
Appellate Authority
Contact numbers*
Vodafone Care : 111 or 91-9884098840
(Toll free from Vodafone mobile phones within the home network)
Appellate Number : 91-9962099625
Fax number : 91-9884012345
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.vodafone.in
My Vodafone
Now you can manage your account all by yourself.By logging on to My Vodafone you can
View and analyze your bill/account statement
Pay your bill/security deposit
Change your talk plan/billing address and send us billing and tariff related queries
Request for a duplicate bill
Activate and deactivate services
Activate roaming
Order a new SIM card and block your old one
Top
SMS Service Commands List
To activate/deactivate the following services via SMS, you can send the corresponding code as an SMS to the mentioned number and the service will be activated/ deactivated.
Sr. No Name of service Activation Code Deactivation Code SMS to Timeframe for activation/deactivation
1 National Roaming ACT NR CAN NR 111 2 hrs
2 Vodafone Roaming ACT VR CAN VR 111 24 hrs
3 Basic International Roaming ACT BIR CAN BIR 111 48 hrs
4 STD ACT STD CAN STD 111 2 hrs
5 ISD ACT ISD CAN ISD 111 2 hrs
6 Caller Line Identification Presentation ACT CLIP CAN CLIP 111 48 hrs
7 Itemized Billing ACT IB CAN IB 111 48 hrs
8 Voicemail ACT VMS CAN VMS 111 48 hrs
9 Call Conference ACT CC CAN CC 111 2 hrs
10 Call Forwarding ACT CF CAN CF 111 2 hrs
11 Call Hold ACT CH CAN CH 111 2 hrs
12 GPRS - Postpaid ACT VL CAN VL 111 2 hrs
Ganesh wrote:
From: "Ganesh"
To:
CC:,
Subject: Will my problem be resolved??? Or pending resolution, will my account get DEACTIVATED, as has been unilaterally done in the past??? Mobile No. 98840 43462
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 12:57:38 -0500
Dear Saranya
This is in continuation of my earlier message regarding the payments made towards the Vodafone connection in my wife’s name Seethalakshmi. The connection number is 98840 43462.
I have not heard back from you as yet. After I sent out the mail, I received an acknowledgement stating that it would take atleast 2 working days for me to receive a response from your end and accordingly I only trust and hope once again that I might receive some reply from you tomorrow.
However, even if this happens within your stipulated timeframe of 2 working days, I think by then, the damage would have already been done, for no fault of mine. Because I already received a threatening auto-generated mail from Vodafone, reminding and requesting me to make the payment (once again, even before I receive the genuine clarification sought for) today, failing which my services would be deactivated. But just as it happens usually with your unilateral decision making processes, I think my outgoing facility might not be active from tomorrow. Thanks to you and your Team, for penalizing the Customer, just because you could not respond in time – when I mean time, it should not only be your generalistic timeframe commitments but it should also be customized to suit the timely needs. Either you need to keep this auto-generated actions stopped till you resolve open issues or you need to respond faster ahead of these auto-generated actions. Anyways, by not doing either of these, only your CUSTOMER will lose and not VODAFONE so that should be fine with you.
Spoke to one of your Customer care executives Mr. Veeramani last night (Feb 11 at around 10:30 PM IST) and provided him with the transaction references of the Debit and Credit on my Stanchart Credit card on 8th Nov for Rs.597, which was basically the payment I made against your dues. Asked him for the explanation for this reversal, without which I will not be in a position to make another payment. Because based on my request, it the reversal is revoked by Vodafone and in the meantime I also end up making another payment, I end up with a duplicate payment. This was also agreed upon by Mr. Veeramani and he assured that he would get back to me with the clear status and reasoning in 24 hours timeframe – reconfirmed as around the same time tonight. Nothing as a surprise, nobody called up but for an Agency call during the afternoon today to judiciously follow up only for the payment.
Spoke to another Customer care executive Ms. Priya, almost an hour back and yet again narrated my entire history of happenings and with a bit of understanding of my plight, she assured that she would have her Team Lead call me in the next half an hour. I provided her with an alternate landline number, as well. Right now I am at work, and some time back, I had 2 missed calls (which I had to miss since I was on an official call and that was no ideal time for me to attend to personal calls) from 98848 19230. After my official call, tried calling back and got a reply that this was an inactive number. Again I understand that as per standards of normal common sense, if a person is not able to be reached at a given number, we always need to try reaching an alternative number – FUNDAMENTALS OF CUSTOMER CARE / SERVICE, but I cannot expect all these from VODAFONE.
Spoke to your Customer care again to one of your officers Mr. Mohanraj. When I was looking to reach Priya again, I was given to understand that she had already left since her shift was completed. When I told him of the problem, he reconfirmed my discussions with Veeramani and stated that the request has been taken care for a payment update (I am really not sure of the understanding levels of your Team – I never requested for any payment update – All I wanted was to know the reason as to why a payment authorized by me against an outstanding was declined by Vodafone. Only based on this, I can decide on making the alternative payment) and it would take some time for someone to come back. He also assured me that someone from Vodafone would call me within 24 hours to discuss on this and since the request has already been taken, my services will not be deactivated.
Now I am just keeping my fingers crossed, looking for the Heavens to open up so that VODAFONE can shower its blessings on me, in responding to some logical and genuine grievance raised by me, for resolving this issue and moving forward.
But some snapshots of your customer service, based on my experiences so far :
1) None of your Customer Care Officers have the acumen to understand a Customer complaint in totality
2) Neither will they give responsible replies nor will they put a Customer across to a responsible person who could really resolve
3) Feedback from Vodafone will come in only in the manner and time, as is convenient to VODAFONE
4) Feedback from Customers also need to be given only in the manner in which VODAFONE like to receive it
5) Customer pays for a service, but is always treated as a BEGGAR at the mercy of VODAFONE, since VODAFONE always has the trigger to pull
Amidst my productive time at work, I have penned down this mail, because I am too much frustrated by the cooperation extended by VODAFONE, at this point of time. Certainly I am looking for someone who can really understand the situation and address it to resolve.
But responding or resolving, as has always been, is to your choice and I have no other options but to keep waiting………….
Thanks and Best Regards,
GaneshAcknowledgements wrote:
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 09:02:56 0530
From: Acknowledgements
To: [email protected]
Subject: Auto-Acknowledgement: Fwd: FW: Reg VODAFONE OUTSTANDING.,
Dear Customer,
Thank you for writing to us.
This is an automated response to your e-mail. We will respond to you within 2 working days.
If you want us to update your email id in our records, please send us an email or SMS to 111 (toll-free).
Open up a world of convenience on your desktop! Register on My Vodafone i.e. www.vodafone.in to know more click here
You can also activate/deactivate service via SMS. Send the command as a SMS to 111 (toll free) and the service would be activated/deactivated. To view the list of commands click here
In the meantime, if you need any further assistance, please do call us on 111 toll free from your Vodafone mobile phone. We'll do our best to assist you.
Warm regards,
Saranya S
Nodal Officer
Contact numbers*
Vodafone Care : 111 or 91-9884098840
(Toll free from Vodafone mobile phones within the home network)
Nodal Officer : 91-9884098844
Fax number : 91-9884012345
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.vodafone.in
My Vodafone
Now you can manage your account all by yourself.By logging on to My Vodafone you can
View and analyze your bill/account statement
Pay your bill/security deposit
Change your talk plan/billing address and send us billing and tariff related queries
Request for a duplicate bill
Activate and deactivate services
Activate roaming
Order a new SIM card and block your old one
Top
SMS Service Commands List
To activate/deactivate the following services via SMS, you can send the corresponding code as an SMS to the mentioned number and the service will be activated/ deactivated.
Sr. No Name of service Activation Code Deactivation Code SMS to Timeframe for activation/deactivation
1 National Roaming ACT NR CAN NR 111 2 hrs
2 Vodafone Roaming ACT VR CAN VR 111 24 hrs
3 Basic International Roaming ACT BIR CAN BIR 111 48 hrs
4 STD ACT STD CAN STD 111 2 hrs
5 ISD ACT ISD CAN ISD 111 2 hrs
6 Caller Line Identification Presentation ACT CLIP CAN CLIP 111 48 hrs
7 Itemized Billing ACT IB CAN IB 111 48 hrs
8 Voicemail ACT VMS CAN VMS 111 48 hrs
9 Call Conference ACT CC CAN CC 111 2 hrs
10 Call Forwarding ACT CF CAN CF 111 2 hrs
11 Call Hold ACT CH CAN CH 111 2 hrs
12 GPRS - Postpaid ACT VL CAN VL 111 2 hrs
ganesh muthukrishnan wrote: Date: Fri, 9 Nov 20:32:10 -0800 (PST)
From: ganesh muthukrishnan
Subject: Fwd: FW: Reg VODAFONE OUTSTANDING.,
To: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Dear Ms. Saranya
This is in respect of one of the connections being held by my wife - 98840 43462.
This had an outstanding against the last statement of Rs.616.94, out of which Rs.19.94 represents some old dues, not payable, but somehow not reversed by Hutch, even after repeated mails long time back. Towards the balance of Rs.597, I made a payment by dialling into your Customer care, and through my Standard Chartered Credit card. As per your service commitments, I am supposed to receive a confirmation by SMS within 1 hour, poviding me with a transaction reference and a subsequent confirmation once it has been cleared. But I have not got this SMS acknolwedgement till now, for the payment made at around 6:30 am on 8th Nov.
Called up your Vodafone Customercare officers and they have simply been telling me that there has been no payment received from my end. When I say this, they want me to talk to Stanchart, and provide them with the transaction reference for Vodafone to help me out.
Called up Stanchart, and am given to understand that based on my usage of the card, this amount of Rs.597 has been approved and blocked, pending to be claimed by Vodafone. Only when Vodafone claims this, they generate a transaction reference number. That too, at times, they reveal the transaction reference on specific request by the customer, and most of the times they do not, in which case, the customer knows about this only on receiving the subsequent monthly statement.
This was the similar situation with which my trauma on my number 98844 93461 started. Hence I feel the same amount of alarm and panic in this. I am also not sure if this is the right forum for getting this resolved because your committed timeframe for a reply, in itself is a week's time and I would not be surprised if this referred connection goes into outgoing facility blockageeven before you look into this query and respond back to me.
But I have no other options. Because Vodafone has a mechanism of recording calls and collecting feedback. The funniest part in this is EVEN FOR A CUSTOMER FEEDBACK VODAFONE DECIDES AND STIPULATES WHAT THE CUSTOMER HAS TO SAY. Because your Customercare officer refused to understand my concern, I thought of escalation by responding to your Quality tracking SMS, which was a mere waste of time, since it threw only stupid and irrelevant questions framed with just the Yes / No options an any other expression by the Customer will come back with anInvalid reply comment. Get into your website to offer a feedback, it has simply been rejecting my feedback stating "FEEDBACK NOT IN PROPER FORMAT" I feel that any interactive feedback mechanism created for generating criticism to improve upon existing levels of operational efficiency, should allow the customer a clear avenue to communicate open and free, and if at all i is guided by any format, reason for improper format should also be pointed out to the customer in a user-friendly web interface. Please correct me if my perception / expectation is wrong, since we do hail from industries which thrive focusing on customer service and grows only on customer satisfaction.
Coming back to the crux of the topic, payment which was due has been paid from my end and I am in no default. It is a sheer case of miscommunication between Vodafone and Standard Chartered and I am not sure as to who is really taking me for a ride. But if this miscommunication has been existent between Vodafone and Stanchart, atleast please do not propagate this facility for your customers. Because now that this payment remains in abeyance, till the time, I have a clear understanding of the scenario, I cannot make any alternative payment and Vodafone will automatically jump into this as a delay by customer, which I feel is absolutely customer-unfriendly.
May I look for some responsible reply from your end, to see me out of this problem?
Thanks
Ganesh
ganesh muthukrishnan wrote:
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 20:04:01 -0800 (PST)
From: ganesh muthukrishnan
Subject: Fwd: FW: Reg VODAFONE OUTSTANDING.,
To: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Dear Ms. Saranya
I had been holding a connection with Hutch / Vodafone for more than around 3 years now. The reference mobile number is 98844 93461.
Had been through yet another harrowing experience, since almost around 3-4 months back. The issue is yet to be resolved. The issue was created out of lack of awareness of existing procedural realities by Hutch / Vodafone Team, but just because I am only the customer at the mercy of you guys, unilateral decision of deactivating my account has been implemented by Hutch / Vodafone and till date, no one even bothers to understand and address the issue, but at times, some collection agent calls up asking me as to when I would pay up the money.
Your customer service orientation is highly deploring. None of your phone officers responsibly understand a customer complaint or problem. Your collection agencies are even more ridiculous. Neither of them really understand the sense of what they communicate. No responses from your end comes through within assured timeframes.Net effect, from almost around 4 connections in my family, till just about 3 months back, right now i am holding only one and also contemplating for getting that changed to another service provider. KUDOS and GOOD LUCK to VODAFONE and its TEAM!!! Forwarded below is the corespondence addressed to one of the Vodafone Collection officers, explaining the entire episode and looking for reasoning to understand the realities. Just above my mail is pasted the response received from your Team. Do you really think he has taken any effort to understand the issue and give me a proper reasoning???
Utilising your services for a cost, am I not entitled to adequate reasoning for ay concern / gievance raised, atleast in such situations wherein I am suffering for no fault of mine?
May I look for a comprehensive and understanding reply atleast from you???
Thanks
Ganesh
CC: Appellate Authority - While browsing through the website, I found some forms for addressing issues to Appellate based on feedback from the Nodal Officer. But in most of the occasions, even the Nodal Officer's response does not come within the timeframes committed. That is why, I have just marked a CC to you, to see if this atleast induces the Nodal Officer to respond in time and also with a complete redressal of the grievance.
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From: UGANDRAN AP (CHN) [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, October 13 9:54 AM
To: ganesh
Subject: RE: Reg VODAFONE OUTSTANDING.,
Dear Ganesh,
You have tried to pay thro¡¯ IVR and payment was not successfully transacted. The bank statement will show debit from your account on the same day of unsuccessful transaction but later the next day the same amount will be credited back to your card if the payment was not successfully transacted
If payment to be collected from your place, will organize for the same
Request you to give your contact no. to stay in touch
Regards
Ugandran
&--Original Message&--
From: ganesh [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Friday, October 05 10:23 PM
To: UGANDRAN AP (CHN)
Subject: RE: Reg VODAFONE OUTSTANDING.,
Dear Mr. Ugandran
Thank you for your mail to follow up on the outstandings. I am really overwhelmed to see positive things happening, probably after Vodafone-Hutch merger.
Anticipating the same sincerity in your approach to address a Customer concern, would like to take a few minutes of your time and run you through the ordeal / mental torture that I have been running through more than the last 1 month, ever since the first of these 2 outstanding bills, fell due for payment.
1) If I am not wrong, the first of these 2 outstanding invoices for an amount of Rs.324 fell due on 8th Sept.
2) I made a payment through my Stanchart credit card on 8th Sep at around 4 pm, connecting to Hutchphone and going through the payment online option.
3) I did not get any confirmation SMS for the payment made.
4) Tried reaching Hutchphones 2-3 times to confirm the status if the payment has been made and was assured that sometimes, it takes longer and probably i will have to ideally wait for around 3-4 hours for the confirmation. Even after this long, I never received a confirmation SMS.
5) Called Stanchart on 8th evening around 8 pm to check through the day's transaction and they confirmed a payment of Rs.324 routed through my card the same day.
6) On and till 10th Sept 07, when I continued receiving the SMS for Overdue on my account, I got a little perturbed and again called Hutch to find out and they mentioned that no payment has been received, which was to my utter dismay.
7) Immediately called up Stanchart and I was given to understand that the same amount of Rs.324 was reversed based on Merchant's request sometime in the late evening of 8th Sept (which I presume should have happened after I checked with them initially on Sep 8). When I was looking for details, they refused to divulge and directed me to request for the information and reasoning for reversal from Hutch.
8) Spoke to one of the Hutchphone officers by name Veera on Sep 11 and he mentioned that he had to check with some other Team for this information and assured me of keeping my line active and also that one of the responsible Hutchphone officers would call me certainly the next day to clarify on this and resolve. I cited my earlier harrowing experiences with Hutch wherein people do not even bother to respond to a Customer for any grievance unless and until it is escalated to the maximum possible extent, even in which case it takes a longer time. Still I was reassured by Veera and I was also hoping.
9) No calls from Hutchphones subsequent to this and after another 4-5 days, I regularly started getting calls from Hutch collection centres requesting payment. I was really not interested in getting into a longer call everytime and explaining things right from scratch, to a differently new person on every call, when I am apparently seeing and realising that none of these are going to get back with clear information or resolution to this problem.
10) To my utter shock and surprise, I received a call a couple of days back from one of the Hutch collection centres, for a payment follow up. When I got irritated with the lady who called up since she did not have any replies for any of my questions, the call was hung up. Another gentleman, presumably his colleague, called up again and spoke to me. When I was looking for reasoning, he mentioned that the reversal of Rs.324 was for non-usage and I had to make a payment of Rs.450 which has been billed in the subsequent invoice and fell due. This was the funniest incident to happen or the most terrible explanation on earth one could hope to receive.
Now I have a few questions for you below, which if sincerely replied will certainly address my concern / grievance and resolve this issue :
1) Firstly when the payment was made, how come the automated system failed to send out the acknowledgment SMS with a payment refernce?
2) Secondly, even while reversing a payment which has come in, why was the Customer not indicated?
3) Even after I explained the entire situation to Veera and he assured to resolve, why did none of the Hutchphone officers bither to even provide me with the clarification or speak to me to resolve?
4) Does any of the Hutch collection center executives really know and understand what they are talking about, with a Customer in any of their calls?
5) What is my fault when Hutch had not responded to my genuine request for clarification?
6) Even after making my intentions to clear all dues on time, and after enjoying a decent and good payment track record for around 3 years, does Hutch really feel terribly exposed with this overdue of Rs.324 which again is a mess up in their own back end and transactional support function?
7) Still I have not been provided any explanation or reasoning for this. Does Hutch / Vodafone really interested in customer satisfaction?
8) Without getting the info for this first statement payment reversal of Rs.324, would you prefer to pay once again, being in my situation?
9) For no fault at my end, when my connection has also been blocked for outgoing calls / SMS effectively rendering no use of my continuing this connection, do you really feel it is legitimate to charge me for the second month which I suppose is around Rs.350 or Rs.450?
10) Even after addressing these issues, can I expect someone in Hutch / Vodafone to really understand my plight and resolve this situation?
I am open for a discussion on this, if Vodafone sincerely wishes resolution of this issue. As my track records would also suggest, I have never been an intentional defaulter and never will I tend to be one. However, ingenuine charges are certainly unacceptable to me since I expect professional ethics in both ends of any transaction.
Awaiting your feedback.
Have a Great Day!
Thanks and Regards,
Ganesh. M
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From: UGANDRAN AP (CHN) [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Friday, October 05 12:05 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Reg VODAFONE OUTSTANDING.,
Dear Mr. GANESH M DESI: MANAGER BACK OFFICE OPS
Greetings from Vodafone!
Mobile : 9884493461 Acct Code : 5.10227.00.00.100011
As per our records there is an outstanding of Rs.774 /- till the bill dated 20.09.2007 for the mobile number mentioned above.
Kindly note that in view of the non¨Cpayment of the bills, you are reminded through this mail, to make payment for the pending bills at the earliest.
For online payment options visit www.icicibank.com / www.citibank.com and update us the payment transaction id for us to update the same in your account.
Kindly ignore this mail if the above said payment is already made and inform us the payment details for updating our records.
For any assistance or clarification, please contact the undersigned or Mr. Babu @ 98844 19387
With Regards
Ugandran
Sr Executive ¨C Collections
09884018165
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It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorized.
If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of the message,
or any action or omission taken by you in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
Please immediately contact the sender if you have received this message in error.
Thank you. Vodafone Essar South Limited.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&--
DISCLAIMER:
The information in this message is confidential and may be legally privileged.
It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorized.
If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of the message,
or any action or omission taken by you in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
Please immediately contact the sender if you have received this message in error.
Thank you. Vodafone Essar South Limited.
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