Vodafone biggest crooks

I had a balance of approx Rs.200 in my prepaid vodafone mobile phone when the next day it vanished all of a sudden.
I complained and was told that it's a technical glitch and my balance will come back in 4 hours.
It never came and upon my complain again the next day , I was again told the same.
It happened the same for the next 4-5 days and I was assured that this is a technical fault in certain series
of numbers and my balance will surely come back.

Finally I had to contact vodafone on facebook and I got a call back after another 4-5 days that my balance was deducted due to my internet activities !!
WTF !!
I never used internet so how come my Rs.200 vanish in that ? And why these idiots telling me this after 10 days while giving excuse of technical problems before ??

They are crooks and just cheated me with Rs.200.
Posting so all can be careful of these crooks and never keep extra amounts in your account.

Have you tried explaining to them that you have not used the internet atall? If you dont use the net atall then my suggestion would be to disable the data feature in your phone to make sure it is never used.

Originally Posted by Admin

Have you tried explaining to them that you have not used the internet atall? If you dont use the net atall then my suggestion would be to disable the data feature in your phone to make sure it is never used.

Yes , I did told them that net was not used at all.
It's not like I that don't use net at all. I do use it sometimes and than charges come like few rupees or sometimes even lesser than few rupees. This time they have wiped away Rs.200 and on the night when I did not use net at all.

Any suggestion , what action can I take against them ? I will do port all my numbers from vodafone to some other company.

I really cant think of anything you can do in this situation although if you keep calling their customer service every day they would eventually refund the money but in my opinion its just not worth the effort. Have you thought about getting an unlimited 2g data plan? so there wont be any issues in future. Airtel used to activate one service or the other on my number but I just kept calling every single day some times more then 10 times every day for over a week and eventually they returned my money back and till date I havent had another problem so that could be a way out for you aswell.

Originally Posted by Admin

I really cant think of anything you can do in this situation although if you keep calling their customer service every day they would eventually refund the money but in my opinion its just not worth the effort. Have you thought about getting an unlimited 2g data plan? so there wont be any issues in future. Airtel used to activate one service or the other on my number but I just kept calling every single day some times more then 10 times every day for over a week and eventually they returned my money back and till date I havent had another problem so that could be a way out for you aswell.

Many thanks for your reply.
Calling them daily is very tiresome with all the holds they keep on. May be I will try for few days.

Just wanted to add that after my follow up on facebook , they called me again and insisted that I used internet which I know I didn't.
They told me that will send me proof of usage and on what/how I used the net. It's over 1 week but never sent me any proof.
The CC person ( 1 lady who calls me every time I post on facebook ) talking with me every time is such a jerk that just telling lies
and sorry on phone again and again but not refunding my money.
Sick of them , given up on my Rs.200 to this cheaters and going ahead now with porting all my vodafone numbers.

Threaten to switch to another carrier. Not just words or on phone. Write a detailed but very polite letter, clearly stating the reason for dissatisfaction and your not-so-pleasant experience. Hand over the letter in duplicate and in person to the regional office/customer care center. Take a "received" signature or the duplicate. This may work wonders - at least in my case it did.

My carrier is IDEA. On my son's phone (on my name), he received an anonymous call (some call that originates from Madagascar and such fringe countries). He picked up and no call went thru. There were 3-4 such calls - just a few seconds (1s to 2s) international calls. But the bill showed a total charge of Rs. 400+ (postpaid connection). Idea at first refused to budge. Then I wrote them a letter that "I am seriously displeased with the attitude. I am an old customer have 3 connections. ISD service was initated without my approval. I am paying all due but terminating all 3 connections and switching elsewhere .... blah.. blah..". This galvanized them into action and the entire charge was reversed.

HTH.

Originally Posted by just4kix

Threaten to switch to another carrier. Not just words or on phone. Write a detailed but very polite letter, clearly stating the reason for dissatisfaction and your not-so-pleasant experience. Hand over the letter in duplicate and in person to the regional office/customer care center. Take a "received" signature or the duplicate. This may work wonders - at least in my case it did.

My carrier is IDEA. On my son's phone (on my name), he received an anonymous call (some call that originates from Madagascar and such fringe countries). He picked up and no call went thru. There were 3-4 such calls - just a few seconds (1s to 2s) international calls. But the bill showed a total charge of Rs. 400+ (postpaid connection). Idea at first refused to budge. Then I wrote them a letter that "I am seriously displeased with the attitude. I am an old customer have 3 connections. ISD service was initated without my approval. I am paying all due but terminating all 3 connections and switching elsewhere .... blah.. blah..". This galvanized them into action and the entire charge was reversed.

HTH.

Many thanks for your help and suggestion.
I received another call from the CC yesterday and was told that the matter has been escalated to some higher concerned department and will get back with some resolution in the next 24 hours.
Waiting.....................

good to know that....same happened to me on a different carrier (airtel), I just got an sms saying thanks for downloading some random song and they deducted Rs150 from my account. On calling them, they said you got a so and so phone, u must have pressed it by mistake. I told them I aint an idiot, I dont press random links and besides, i cant find that song on my phone anyways. They persisted that it was my fault and said there is no point in escalating. Then i kinda just took the hit and dropped the issue. I guess its because of users like me, they just take advantage of people. Next time, ill make a big issue out of it. I think reporting issues like this on their FB page might get their attention.

I once made a few dozen calls to Airtel customer service for Rs2 and I got it back and when they said they are refunding it out of good will I made it a point to make them say that its not a good will gesture and they are returning the money they wrongfully deducted. It took them a while to understand that I wont stop calling and wasting their time unless they said the right thing.
Do not get bullied by these telcom companies. Be firm and follow things up to the end.

If we all started doing this then these companies would start being fair and would know that for every Rs2 they over charge they be wasting thousands of rupees worth of man hours talking to "very angry" customers who wont take no for an answer. To get my Rs2 refund I must have wasted their few thousand rupees wort of time and it was not worth their while messing with me and if every one started doing that they would have no other way but to be fair in their dealings because they would know that people wont shut up unless they get things right.

Just to update , that finally I received my Rs.200 balance back in my Mobile yesterday.
They called me day before but I was unable to receive that call as was busy and just yesterday noticed that my balance is back.

I had no hopes of getting back my balance but thanks to everyone here , specially Admin for giving me moral support and suggestions to keep fighting.
Will continue using Vodafone for the moment for all my numbers but will be hesitant to keep a balance of over Rs.100 at any time.

Thanks all

Vodafone and Airtel are supposed to be a bit fair as compared to other telecom companies. Good that you got your money back. I hope other companies change their ways aswell in future.