I am writing this discussion as an open letter to our Super Zoo Zoo.

Dear Super Zoo-Zoo

The intent of this blog is to make your Vodafone Senior Management aware of my experience, even though how trivial as a Customer I may be. I know you are not conversant with human problems like us, but I hope you can atleast land a punch on your Customer Care head.

Past few months, Vodafone has been unnecessarily charging me on data bills. I had been ranting about it on my twitter time line @rupeshkumarshah. So irritated I am, I had decided to switch to prepaid (never used a prepaid connection since last 7 years) to retain my number.

Here is my experience. I have spent a total of 5-6 hours on this issue which means significant to me

The logic by @VodafoneIN

U can’t convert a postpaid number to a prepaid without

1. Paying the extra rent for number of days (because they can only accept a request once the bill is generated). My rentals amount to Rs 2000. that logically implies Rs 70 per day till the process gets over. if Vodafone takes 5 days which means Rs 350 gone, gone for what ?

2. U have to visit a Vodafone store ( which I have already done twice) and submit the same proof. Why, when @VodafoneIN already has me as a client. Why doesnt Vodafone do an internal transfer of docs and users.

Few facts for @VodafoneIN to ponder :

1. I pay a bill worth Rs 75,000 ($1500) a year. Direct and indirect loss ( we have 30 plus CUG connections in our office. Atleast rs 4 lacs a year ) for Vodafone is approx Rs 4.5-5 lcas ($ 10,000-11,000) . What does you business logic says. Plus I am also (every client is) an influencer as well as saboteur for other connections.

2. The customer care is being ordinary and lousy day by day. On 2 occasions, My call is transferred to some random dept. ..kept on hold for 15-20 mins with no logic. Yesterday a prepaid guy picked up the call which was supposed to be transferred to a senior. He said “salle ne yaha transfer Kar diya”. If @VodafoneIN records, then please listen to slang used. One one ocassion When I asked for mobile number portability, I was told “Sir, aap please asia mat kijiye naa, sir, aap aisa nahi kar sakete naa… ” . Where is the sophistication which you show us in Advertisements ?

3. Few nitigirites : I was advised to activate a particular plan of 3G. I frequently travel due to my nature of my profession. So, during my first travel (after the plan was activated) , I landed in Delhi with no connection. No internet means no email ? Do you have any idea of the difficulty faced due to no internet when business are dependent on quick exchange of data And feedback ?? The epic reason given by customer care is that “sir, you have activated a 3G plan ( I activate a rs 1250 – 8gb plan) and since you are in roaming it wont work , so ‘we are sorry’ (saying ‘I am sorry’ is eventually an anthem for customer care chaps)”. I eventually was without internet on my phone as I saw no point activating yet another data plan and then see confusions in my bill. But, In my Bill , they had activated Rs 250 idata plan. Who on the earth gave them a consent for it ? Why didnt the Customer Care guy inform me that activating a 3g plan doesnt allow data usage in roaming ?

Thank God, I am in a habit of caring a Data Card, but the nuisance of opening a laptop to check emails are high, specially when it is the only purpose.

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My Take :

1. Please have neatly defined Data Plans and Call Plans with all mentioned fine prints. I mean whats the harm in being transparent ?

2. Please train you Customer Care so that everyone is on the same page, have the same info and do not just promise anything and everything. You spend crores on commercial. If some portion is utilized to bring a sophistication in your customer care, won’t it help to retain the customers or grow them too ?

3. In the era of FB, Twitter, Blogs.. where companies, individuals or a group where opinions, discussions are so instantly created, how can Mobile Companies afford to do a shody or a hanky-panky kind of stuff.

4. Why invest in Social media (for a mere presence) when you can’t have an expert run it ? I have tweeted a lot on this ? No calls received from an expert on this issue till now. I always believed that an oppurtunity used is an oppurtunity lost ? So what is Vodafone loosing ?

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I hope we see some responsible Indian Customer Care soon, other wise smart Customer Care like Flipkart, Book My Show may soon take over existing giants.

- Rupesh

My Profile can be seen at http://about.me/rupeshkumarshah and http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=56851767&trk=tab_pro