Is Vodafone taking subscribers on a dubious ride?

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Call it harassment or telecom companies' ingenious upselling tactic. GSM major, Vodafone, has drawn the ire of its subscribers, who accuse it of unethical business practices.

Meet Harnek Singh, a resident of Delhi's Kalkaji area. Being a Vodafone customer since 2005, he least expects anything to go wrong in their relationship. But that was not to be. He asked for a Vodafone 2G plan, and was shocked to discover that both 2G and 3G plans were concurrently active on his Samsung Y handset.

"On January 14, I asked Vodafone executive to deactivate 3G/300MB data plan and requested for 2G plan with Rs. 198 rental," he said. To his utter dismay, he got an SMS stating that 1.5GB data pack for Rs. 375 was activated on his account. This, he said, was in addition to the earlier Rs. 198 plan. "I lodged a complaint, but I was told to pay both," Singh added.

After he pursued the case, the company has now processed the reversal of Rs. 421 towards the monthly rental for 3G service.

Tilak Nagar's Tajinder Singh, another Vodafone consumer, got a whopping bill of Rs. 2,250 in just two days. That was with regard to his 3G/1GB data plans for Rs. 250. "Calls to company executives were in vain. Instead, I was told to pay the outstanding amount instantly to avoid disconnection. Now, I am planning to seek legal recourse," he added.

The government, too, is planning to empower consumer fora to address growing number of subscribers' dissatisfaction. TRAI currently doesn't look at consumers' complaints directly. "We are looking at providing jurisdiction to consumer fora to deal with subscribers' issues," informed telecom secretary R. Chandrasekhar.

Meanwhile, several Vodafone users in Bangalore and some other circles faced network-related issues on Friday. Despite persistent attempts, Vodafone India didn't react to CIOL query.

One thing for sure: these are not isolated cases. Many subscribers face similar data service-related problems. Most stories, however, go untold. Others narrate their tale of woes over online fora and social networks.

Have you ever suffered due to the apathy of telecom service providers? Tell us your story.