Vodafone seemed to mock me when I came into their office for help.
When I procured a sim with Vodafone in Chennai I went to the main branch at TTK Alwapet. In an attempt to get clarity on the connection the assistant told me that I had a lifetime sim.
He told me that if I pay Rs28/ my calling charges will reduce. So fortunately I paid with a Visa Card & retained a receipt.
On another visit the same assistant once again reviewing my account denied that I was lifetime. I reminded him of our previous meeting and Rs28/ payment & finally after scrutinizing his check on the computer confirmed that I had a lifetime sim.
I returned with a follow up visit after another week & a different assistant again denied that I had a lifetime sim. So I began to question. I asked why I paid Rs28/ if I am not lifetime.
After much discussion with cohorts he exclaimed that I could not have paid Rs28/ as that amount is specific to only lifetime sim cards & as I do not have a lifetime sim I could never pay an amount of Rs/28 for anything connected to my sim.
He stated that each sim connection plan has specific rates connected to them & those rates do not overlap to the other plans. Therefore paying Rs28/ was impossible.
With this he laughed at me & was talking down to me as if I was mentally debilitated & he is a man of superior mentality. He continued with his insulting behavior as he stated that I had confused Rs208/ which I had just paid as a top up before talking to him.
I entertained his base behavior by asking him how he could even mention that I could confuse a Rs208/ payment made today with a Rs28/ paid over 2 weeks prior?
As it turned out the Rs28/ payment never matured (which means Vodafone has no record of it.) But I found both the receipts from the TTK Chennai store & from Visa.
Even after producing a receipt of the paid amount the Nodal Officer refused to even reimburse the tiny amount let alone acknowledge my lifetime status or even to prove of it's non existence by showing physchandru021y on paper how much I was charged per call.
You see lifetime members are charge a bit more per minute, which I am sure was happening but they never showed physical proof of my charges.
You can enjoy reading for yourself how they were telling me to go to my bank for refund of the Rs/28 even after showing receipt. They continued to claim the Rs/28 did not exist because it was not in their records.
The futile emails I entertained with the Nodal Officer have been included below for your entertainment.
Dear Ms. Sunita,
Please tell me what receipts are for? I displayed a receipt to Gopi and he copied it. Isn't that enough? Why should I have to also go to my bank? I have proven the Rs 28 with a receipt from your store. You are wrong to tell me that it did not mature, I have the receipt. That's enough of a maturity.
P
Thank you for your email about your prepaid connection.
We wish to reconfirm to you that the as the Rs28/- recharge transaction did not mature you would need to contact your banker for further details on the same.
We have provided a resolution to your dispute after going through the issue in detail and have taken into account the information you have provided.
We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused.
In case you need further assistance, please do call or email us. We'll do our best to assist you.
Warm regards
Sunitha M
Nodal Officer
To: sunitha.m@vodafone.com
Subject: Re: Lifetime, one year, six months??
Dear Ms. Sunita,
You see the level of customtakeouter service? You took Rs 28/ and do nothing
with it, never inform me about what you are doing. Make me believe
that you are using it for reducing lifetime local charges and then
tell me that it's up to me to go to my bank and find out what
happened because you know nothing about it. What about my receipt?
All this after I went through the trouble to find the proof, the
receipt and show it to Gopi in the Alwepet, TTK Road store. He
photocopied it and still you send this level of customtakeouter service to me.
A very poor company indeed.
Thank for at least getting back to me and giving your comments.
P
> Thank you for your email about your prepaid connection.
>
> We would like to inform you that regarding the Rs28/- recharge
> transaction which did not mature you would need to contact your
> banker.
>
> We hope we have addressed your other queries in a satisfactory
> manner in our previous replies.
>
> We have made serious note of the points raised by you regarding our
> Store executives and the same has been highlighted to our management.
>
> We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused in this regard.
>
> In case you need further assistance, please do call or email us.
> We'll do our best to assist you.
>
> Warm regards,
> Sunitha M
> To: sunitha.m@vodafone.com
> Subject: Re: Lifetime, one year, six months??????
>
> Dear Sunita,
> Actually that level of customtakeouter service is probably only in your
> mind. The reason for having paid Rs28/ has never been established by
> you nor even discussed. I also requested a breakdown of my calls from
> throughout December to present to have proof of how you have been
> charging my account. You have not provided this. customtakeouter
> satisfaction will be proven only by your success in maintaining them.
> I sincerely doubt your regret of inconvenience caused. Not even one
> individual has ever acknowledged that there was a gross error in the
> Vodaphone office on 2 separate occasions in December to have told me
> that I was "lifetime." Nor has anyone had the awareness to apologize
> for the error.
Please note that "Gopi" who is mentioned by me in the above emails was the shining light of this experience. Never did he act out of line as mentioned of other members.
Hopefully he has moved on to a brighter future with another company. He promptly refunded the Rs28/ upon view of the receipt as only a lifetime connection could have a Rs28/ payment, which I did not have.
Somehow the Rs28/ disappeared in their system with no trace other than my receipts.
