Mysterious Cell Phone Companies

So we had some issues with our Cell Phone service. (Nothing surprises us anymore when it comes to customer service, but at the time this took us by complete surprise). After about two weeks of using our cell phones we kept getting calls that we had to make a payment. I had recieved an SMS text that I had a bill due on Sept 9th, so I thought it was a reminder to pay. Each time we made a call we would get the same message. Then on Saturday at the end of August suddenly our phones would not work at all. Below is an email we sent to resolve the issue. All of the fuss was over some mistakes on our account when it was setup resulting in extra charges and our credit limit on the account being about $20.00 USD. After correcting the issues we get cell phone service and data on both our phones for about $18 per month (Cell phone minutes here are about $.01 USD per minute and incoming calls/texts are free. I wish it were that cheap in the US). They increased our credit limit to $200 USD after this incident so I doubt we will have the issue again, but you never know in India. The customer Service Mantra here seems to be "Overpromise to your customers and then underdeliver with no explanation and above all never appologize when things go wrong."


To Whom It May Concern:

We have some very serious issues with our vodafone account. Our numbers are 9581950999 and 9581960999. Our phones have been cutoff due to our charges going over our credit limit for the account of 1,200 Rs. We signed up for the Deloitte 199 NEW plan and the 500MB data plan for 199 RS (Total of 398 Rs/Month for each phone). This should have been around 800 Rs for both phones for the month of August. Additionally, Services were setup on the 9581960999 number that we did not sign up for and we do not want and this has caused us to go over our credit limit and lose the use of our phones for calls and data as of this Saturday.

Here is a list of the issues we have with our account that have cause the service to be stopped.

A) SLIR was added to 9581960999 with a charge of over 316 Rs. This has been a serious inconvience for us as we cannot see who is calling and people we are calling cannot see our caller ID. We have missed out on several social engagements becuase of this limit on the phone and because of this charge we have gone over the limit and cannot use our phones now. We did not sign up for this service and it has been a terrible inconvience.

B) Vodafone Mobile Connect on 9581960999 with charges of over 315 RS. What happend to the 199 Rs for 500MB of data?

C) SMS Charges on 9581950999 and 9581960999 of 3 Rs each when the SMS charges disclosed on your rate sheet shows 0.50 Rs per SMS to Local and National and 5 Rs to International. The line on the bill says SMS - Special Numbers. Why is this not 0.50 Rs per SMS?

D) Data Plan setup for 9581950999 (iPhone) are being charged at 200 Rs / Month and allowing only 100MB of free data limit each month. Why is this not 500MB of data for 199 Rs as stated on the fees sheet I received?

Below is a list of items I need resolved. Who is the appropriate party to resolve these issues as soon as possible so that we can continue our service?

1) We would like a refund/credit of the SLIR charges. We did not sign up for this and did not benefit from it at all.

2) We would like the SLIR service deactivated for 9581960999. I tried to do this online, but I am not sure if it worked.

3) We would like a refund/credit of the difference between the 315 Rs charged and the 199 Rs data plan we signed up for. this would be a Refund/credit of 116 Rs.

4) We would like the data plan for 9581960999 to be deactivated. I tried to do this through SMS but I am not sure if it worked.

5) We would like the proper iPhone plan with 500MB of data for 199 Rs/Month per your rate sheet to be activated for 9581950999 instead of the 100MB data plan for 200 Rs/Month currently on that phone

6) I would like an explanation for the 3 Rs charged per SMS noted in Item C) of our issues above and make sure that the proper 0.50 local/National and 5.0 RS International SMS rate is properly applied to both 9581950999 and 9581960999.

Thank you for your prompt response. We hope to be using our phones on Monday if possible upon resolution of these issues. In the meantime we have purchased a prepaid mobile phone and SIM Card to meet our communication needs. If these issues cannot be resolved quickly we may just cancel both or one of these postpaid plans and continue with the prepaid phone.