Below, I have explained in detail the series of events, which have led me to take this extreme step.
Purchase:
My husband spoke to the sales executive (Anil Kumar), who agreed to come to my office and take the required documents (such as ID proof – photo credit card xerox) and my signature. On 3rd July, I had requested that he should come to the office before 2 p.m. as I would busy later. As soon as I received a call that he is waiting in the lobby, I went with the required documents, and signed at the designated signature spots. I was not told then that the amount of Rs.4100/- that had already been paid by my husband, and for which I was signing now, is non-refundable. Nor had my husband been informed when he paid the amount. We also never received a copy of that signed document, which we at the time assumed that we would get when we received the data card.
Delivery:
We had been promised that the delivery would happen on 5th July at office before 5:30 p.m. We were traveling the next day on vacation, and wanted to use the data card during our journey also. On 5th we kept calling the executive, and we were told that we will get it. We never did, and we had to travel without using it. After returning on 15, we called the executive on 16th July, and we were told that we would have to wait.
Finally, on 19th July, another executive named Ramesh (9246591563) arrived at our residence, and gave the package with the Vdata Card, the CD. He asked me sign on the Invoice from (DIESL – Drive India Enterprise Solutions Limited – TIN No. 28170103041; CST No. ABS/03/1/3078-03 Dt. 21/09). In the Customer copy of this invoice which he gave me, there is no statement saying that the amount paid is non-refundable. Nor was I told again, this time, that it is non-refundable.
He asked me to test it on my laptop, and since there were issues with my laptop at the time, I could not. I told him that I could not test it then. He assured me that the SIM card (9246104673) for the Vdata card has been activated at their end. He then told me that if I had any issues, I could just call him the next day and he would help.
Vdata card not working:
I was shifting residence over the weekend, 21th and 22st July. There was no time for me to call the executive. However, we had tested the data card on 19th night on both our laptops and it was not working. It continuously gave an error message stating that the connection failed.
We had spoken to Ramesh on 20th, and he had assured us that he would check. He got back to us saying that it was resolved at their end, but we explained the problem and the error message we were getting.
Customer Support Case (Complaint No - 80306031)
After shifting, we tried testing the same data card on different systems at my husband’s work place, and it never worked. The moment we put another SIM in the same data card, it worked.
We again called Ramesh and he gave us a Vdata card customer support number (9246000121) and asked us to log a complaint. However, he assured he would also follow up on it. We also called Anil Kumar, and tried to ask him to help us resolve the issue. Neither did anything, and finally when on 27 July we logged a support case. We explained the entire case history, told them the problem and asked them to try it at their end. They kept telling us that the issue is resolved at their end, and it is at our end that the problem is persisting.
We kept calling, and on Friday evening 7:30 pm, one customer support person assured us that in 12 hours the case would be resolved. When we asked whether that means by morning 7:30 our case would be resolved, he said he meant 12 working hours starting next day. Sat – 28thJuly 9 am. The whole of Saturday, we sat at home, waiting for someone from Tata Indicom customer support to arrive and have a look at the issue. We called in the morning and noon, and we were told that a customer support executive would come post lunch. Lunch time over, and afternoon 3 and 4, when we called, we were told that the person is on the way.
We called at 5 and told that no one has come, and we were told that the person has started and Gachibowli is far, and we would have to wait. Finally at 6:30 we got tired of waiting, and called to check. No one was in fact arriving that day. On Sunday, 29, we again called and our case history was updated with our request again. No one arrived to solve the problem, and we were testing the Vdata card in between to see if it was resolved at their end, and it was working. It never worked.
Customer Support Center:
We are both working, and do not have time on weekdays to run after customer support people. We also expected at least a return courtesy call informing us why an executive never arrived to fix the issue. Nothing happened, and in between we were both traveling out of town and had no time to follow up ourselves.
On Saturday, 4th August, I decided that I had enough, and we called Ramesh to find out if we could go to customer support ourselves. I was angry and told him that I was going to return it and asked where I can return it. He said that the center is in Khan Lateef Khan Estates at Nampally. We drove all the way from Gachibowli and went to the counter as suggested by Ramesh – Mobitel Counter 5 – only to find that it is a payments counter, and did not deal with Vdata card.
We again walked up and went into a Sales department room, where a person informed us that Vdata cards are non-refundable. I was shocked to hear it, and no one had informed us of it earlier. I walked into the customer support center, took a token, and the number was 91. The token number 85 was running, I thought I will check with Ramesh if indeed the amount was non-refundable, and his cell was not being answered. After multiple calls, I also got message saying the phone had been switched off!
My husband dialed Anil Kumar, who asked us to speak to the customer support person. We inquired if we could speak to a manager and were told that Managers were on leave on Saturdays.
After about 30 min, we found that two of the support counter tables were empty with no executives and we and a few other customers were simply waiting. I asked the lady at the reception if it was break time or tea time. I told her that when so many customers were waiting, how could they take a break and be joking and laughing right in front of the customers.
We were then asked to be seated at Desk No 8 and the support executive came over. We explained our problem and that we wanted a full refund. He immediately said that we will not receive a full refund, and our area is Gachibowli which is too far, and that we should in fact have gone to the Kukatpally Customer Support office.
We were furious by then and informed him that we were not aware of the non-refundable policy, no one had told us. Also, if Gachibowli was too far why did they promise a service in the place. In addition, we were told to visit this center by the person who sold us the product!
He then started making phone calls to different area managers whose names he did not give us, nor did he let us talk to them directly. But he kept trying to find out the problem, was able to pull out the support cases and found that both the case logged on 27 July and the update on 29 July were still pending and open at their end; which meant that no customer service representative had attended to it. There were notes below it about “product deleted”. He then tells me that I have outstanding balance on the number. I told him that this was a new card given to me by their distributors, why would I have balance.
He then told me that I have signed on the document (he showed a scanned copy) which says the amount is non-refundable, and asked me to verify my signature.By now, I was seething with anger, and I asked him if he was trying to threaten the customer, because I was never told that it is non-refundable.
We kept waiting at that desk for more than 45 minutes, and nothing happened.
So I told them that I will definitely follow up and see what I can do and have my rights as a customer protected, apart from having a blog post on my experience.
Possible Bribe?
I then walked in to the Sales office, and asked for a person who was heading that day. A man told us that he is the “acting sales head” for that day, and we asked him if we could talk to him. He said yes, and we again explained our situation. He immediately said that the company is not liable to the distributors, and since this is the distributors’ mistake, they cannot refund. He also said that it was not his department, if it was his department, he would have gladly refunded us, but if we were willing to pay him Rs.100/- personally so that he could replace the SIM card in the data card, he was willing to resolve our issue in the next two day.
I was by now really angry; I told him how dare he make such an offer, his company’s product, which was to be activated and working after I paid Rs. 4100, did not work, and now, I have to pay him another 100 Rs, wait for another 2 days to hope that it would work. His name on inquiry turned out to be Rajneesh. Seeing my anger, he stopped talking, and then I told him that I really did not understand how he could say it is another department, because if the company has tie-ups with franchisees or distributors, should they not be responsible for their behavior and bad service too? What are customers supposed to do when post-sales and delivery by distributors, the customer support division still rests with the main company and they have no option but to wait till the company gives a solution? Rs 100 may be small to get it rectified, but why would I, a customer who has trusted the company and paid the amount in full, pay again to have it rectified?
I left the office disappointed, frustrated, and resolving to take up a case with the Consumer Court, and write this blog post. If anyone has experiences similar difficulties, please leave comments. I hope I can have my issue resolved, and for further updates, please know that I have not received a single call from any of them about the card or about arriving at a resolution. Looks like taking the case to a Consumer court will only help!
0 comments