Hi
This article is to highlight the manner in which Vodafone has been operating in India and threatening customers to the extent of extortion for taking money from the customers.
This is in reference to vodafone numbers which was taken in the name of me and my spouse.
I got a call from a person called “Rahul” on 12-Apr-11 at 9.40 AM claiming to be calling from the Legal Team of Vodafone and asked me to do the payment of these 2 numbers outstanding amount which was roughly Rs. 9000. I assured him that the payments would be done after the settlement of the deposits paid to Vodafone.
He maintained his stand and asked me to do the payment of the outstanding amount as per the stipulated time set by him for the day i.e by 3:00 PM. He threatened me to do the payment in full else he would send his team of people to my office or residence to collect the payment on the same day failing which he threatened me of dire consequences.
This was the first ever call I had received from somebody representing Vodafone for the outstanding payment and to my surprise he gave me the deadline do the entire payment same day. I said that I cannot do the payment same day and requested him to wait for few days and I shall do the payments in full after deducting the refundable deposits accordingly in the coming weeks. But he refused to accept it and kept calling me 3-4 times till 2:00 PM and went on to threaten me again to do the payment immediately within 1 hour.
This kind of extortionists and coercive nature of people working in Vodafone to get money out of customers is highly objectionable.
In that case, when I was using the services and there used to be lot of call drops due to poor network, I should have gone ahead and compalined against vodafone and canceled the connection as it owed to me every single paisa of mine wasted due to call drops. But my number was shared with my clients and I had to stick with it. Even after such pathetic services, all the payments were honoured regularly by me for 2yrs.
I maintained all along that I would do the payment after the settlement but this person started behaving very rude in a manner that cannot be described in a professional environment and it took me by shock completely. I did not expect this kind of behavior from a professional company like Vodafone and therefore, it seriously amounts to coercion and openly flouts all rules and regulations of India’s Telecom Regulator TRAI’s guidelines of payments and collections.
Though I did the payment after the settlement of the deposit amount, I would never go back to taking a connection from Vodafone ever. This may not affect your revenue in a big way but it is to be noted that I used to be a customer from which Vodafone got Rs 4000 every month for more than 2 yrs and yet this is how they treat their so called valuable customers. Hence, in its own way, it will affect your business in future.
This is a complete failure of the Customer Services of the highest level as claimed by Vodafone.
I would strongly recommend all those who take vodafone connection to do the payment in time or else they would also be harassed same way and they would be given no time to do the payment. There is no time given to Vodafone customers to do the payment and one has to do the payment on the same day of the first call received for payment.
I would have happily done the payment if these people had behaved and spoken politely and in a professional manner. However, I am saddened by this act of armtwisting the customers and threaten over the phone again and again to do the payment to Vodafone.
Hope you would take some action against these kind of practices to atleast protect the interest of its customers and maintain the dignity of Vodafone customers in India.
I was planning to take a Blackberry phone in April with a Vodafone connection in Mumbai considering a lot of people said the network of Vodafone is good in Mumbai. However, customer service is more than than just good network coverage.
I would be now opting out of Vodafone and prefer Airtel / Idea as my service provider.
I hope someone in TRAI will take note of this illegal menace spread by Vodafone in India. Till then consumers like us will continue to be harassed and threatened by Vodafone.
0 comments