1. On the 14th of December, my mother purchased an IDEA sim card from an IDEA outlet at 2nd Market, C.R. Park. She completed the required form, supplied signed copies of all necessary documents (passport and visa for India) and a passport photo. The originals documents were also shown to the retailer.
2.By the 25th of December the number was suspended due to "non-submission of documents" (according to both IDEA's computerized phone system and IDEA staff). However, these documents had already been submitted. I was instructed to resubmit the documents. We could receive incoming calls, but not make outgoing calls.
3. On the 26th of December, I resubmitted the form, copies of the documents and another passport photo to the IDEA office in Greater Kailash II. The originals were also inspected by the staff, and I made a copy of the form for my records. The phone number was then reactivated on the 29th of December and suspended again on the 3rd of January due to "non-submission of documents". The documents had already been submitted twice by that stage. Both incoming and outgoing calls were blocked, however we were still receiving advertising text messages from IDEA and their advertisers.
4. On the 5th of January I contacted the IDEA office in Greater Kailash II via the telephone to ask them to resolve my problem. They were not helpful at all, and disconnected my call. I then contacted the IDEA helpline and was assured by the supervisor on duty, (who said his name was Mr. Raman), that the number would be reactivated by 11am on the 6th of January.
5. On the 6th of January, after the number had not been activated, I contacted the IDEA helpline again at midday and was assured by the floor manager, who introduced himself as Kapil that the phone number wold be active by 7.14pm that day.
6. On the 6th of January after the number was still not activated as promised, I was told by the senior supervisor, Mr. Ravindar Kumar Singh, that the number would be activated on the 7th of January by 2.18pm.
7. On the 7th of January, after the number was still not activated by the appointed time, I contacted the IDEA helpline and spoke first to the floor manager Kaushlenere, and after no resolution was transferred to the manager Vivek, who told me that the Concern Department would contact me that evening, and that my complaint with them had been registered.By midnight that evening, I had neither received a call from the Concern Department, nor had the phone number been reactivated.
8. On the 8th of January, I contacted the IDEA helpline again and spoke to Vivek, who seemed genuinely surprised that the Concern Department did not contact me during the previous night. I asked for a refund of the amount paid which was about R1400 for the sim card and about R1000 in calling credit.By this stage I still had R600 credit left on that number. Vivek said he could not do that, but promised me that I would receive a call within five minutes. Shortly afterwards, I received a call from Mohd Faqib from Customer Complaints. He assured me that they were working on my case on a "high priority basis". I laughed, as I did not believe that several days could really be considered high priority. Once I finished the call Mohd promised that he would return the call within 30 minutes.
9. About three hours later I received a call from Mohd who told me that foreign nationals who apply for mobile phones need to be physically verified by the telecommunications provider. He told me that someone had visited the address we provided, and that there was no evidence of us there, however he could not provide me with a date or time as to when this occurred. I again asked for a refund, and was told that was not possible. Mohd wanted to arrange a visit from an IDEA staff member to physically verify my mother's identity. I told him that I did not want to bother with such things, as by that stage I had already spent several hours on the helpline, and did not want to waste any more time. He could not tell me why I was not informed by the IDEA office in Greater Kailash II on the 26th of December that physical verification was part of the process. I then asked Mohd to disconnect the number I wanted to dispense with IDEA as a telecommunications provider. Mohd responded that it wouldn't be necessary as the number was suspended. I asked whether I would incur any future problems should I wish to engage another telecommunications operator in the future, however he said that it should not be an issue. Given my experience so far, I am not convinced by his assurance.
10. As I submit this complaint on the 13th of January, I am still receiving advertising sms' from IDEAs advertisers, which leads me to believe that the number must still be active to a degree, however we can neither make nor receive calls.
11. So far, I have spent at least five hours on the phone with the IDEA helpline; on the 26th of December I spent about six hours traveling between my residence in C.R. Park, the local retailer at the 2nd Market C.R. Park, the office in Greater Kailash II, home and then back again to the IDEA office.
• Other than offering apologies, the staff at the IDEA helpline, have not been helpful.
• None of the verbal deadlines that the staff provided have been met for when the phone number will be reactivated.
• No explanations have been provided as to why the documents and forms have been lost twice.
12. I have also contacted the High Commission office, who made calls to the IDEA helpline on my behalf. This did not help resolve the problem. The staff at the High Commission office suggested I contact the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Comission, however when I contacted them, they informed me that they would not help me, and disconnected my call within about 60 seconds of speaking to an operator. They advised me to contact the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, but did not furnish me with a number.
12. I would suggest that if an foreign national is contemplating arranging any telecommunication service within India, not to use IDEA as a service provider. (Perhaps utilising an existing service from their home country telecommunications provider, might be a better idea). This whole experience has been a complete waste of time.
I hope that this information is of useful to foreign nationals in India.
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