I am a 5 year old customer of Vodafone/Hutch. Was very happy with service on my mobile phone till 5 Apr. I raise a bill of Rs 80-100, 000 pa on my mobile number and would have thought would be a preferred customer of Vodafone.
On 5 April I went to the Vodafone Gallery on SV Road, Irla Bridge, Andheri (W) and after waiting for some 30 mins got to see an executive. I wanted an add on card to my primary mobile number for data services on my I pad. He did the documentation. I gave my driving license and photo and credit card for billing and he used the address from my current mobile phone account for the add on application. That is on my office address and my license has my resi address. I told him he could do the add on on my resi address but he told me its fine to use the office address since it was an add on card and the system had my address. I signed on the application at 2 places he asked me to and I opted for the Rs 299 plan giving me I think 5 GB of data usage per month. I paid Rs 299 in cash for the card.
Then I also obtained another post paid connection that I needed for my children using the same documentation. This number had my resi address (the same as my license) and was activated in 2 hours.
Despite being promised that the service would be activated in 2 hours, it was not. I waited for a day and called up Vodafone help on 6th Apr and explained that I was getting “No Service” on the new post paid data SIM for my I pad. Was told to expect a technical call back in 48 hours. Since I did not receive any call back I waited a few days and called back at about 8.20 pm on 11 Apr. This time I was informed that due to some documentation issue my card was deactivated! I explained how I got the card and how the Vodafone gallery had processed everything and I provided all they asked for and how one of the post paid applications was activated on the same documentation. I was kept on hold for a few minutes and was then told that everything was sorted out and I would get the service activated in an hour.
When I checked at 11 pm I was happy to see I was connected to Vodafone. But I could still not connect to the internet- the reason I bought the card. After trying all technical solutions, reinserting the SIM, checking the I pad manual for settings, etc I called up Vodafone help again. After a long hold I got thro’ an operative named Rahul. After explaining the issue to him he said he will transfer me to the helpdesk! I thought he was the helpdesk! I got the ‘Happy to help’ recording again and was informed by a recorded voice that my hold time would be at least 12 mins. Painful but I persevered. I was on hold for 35 mins before I disconnected! I called back- this time on 111. Lady called Geeta attended. Went thro the same routing of explanation for the 3rd time in 4 hours. She checked and said that my data plan has not been activated! I was non plussed. Everytime I am getting a new reason for not getting connected. She said there was an issue withmy documentation and to set it right I would need to visit a Vodafone Gallery! No way I was going to do that after all this. I asked for escalation and was told can get a call back. Expained the issue to her and told her how could there be an issue on documentation and how my second no was activated in one hour, but this one was not on the same documentation. She was most unhelpful and said the system shows there was an error and there was nothing she or they could do about it and maybe I had not signed in all the places, etc!
So here you have it. After 5 years or no complaints, indeed being happy with Vodafone, I got this terrible experience. I would have accepted the whole thing if she had or someone had said there was an issue on the documentation probably at the gallery and they would set it right or send someone over with new forms or something that was helpful and that recognized that I was not at fault and Vodafone was and hence Vodafone would act in a manner of least inconvenience to me to set it right.
But since each of my 4 calls to Vodafone help (first three to 9820098200 and last one to 111) was not solving the problem and was now requiring me to go back to the gallery, I decided to quit Vodafone forever. She told me and I sent a portability SMS. Very efficiently I got my portability code inside 1 minute. Now I’ll figure our which carrier would be best for me and move with my number.
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