Vodafone case stand at the Appellate Authority Office

Vodafone's Customer Interface  Management- A Nagging Question in my mind

I had escalated the matter of the misleading and unpleasant customer  service of the Vodafone staff. This is the first time I interacted with the Appellate Authority Office. I was obviously very disappointed with their indifferent approach. I expressed to them that I am not satisfied with their response because they are clearly deviating from the issue and the details of my complaint. This issue cannot be ignored without fixing responsibility on the people concerned who have caused great inconvenience and harassment to me as well as my being compensated for being treated badly for no fault of mine. Moreover I require a written apology as well because this entire episode has caused me so much of stress and as a result I had a severe migraine attack which is concentrated in my left eye and my eye is swollen badly because of that. I told them that I could provide them proof to support my statement. Not only did this harassment affect my work but it affected my health too. The work related calls that I was expecting from abroad were interrupted because of Vodafone's rash and impulsive decision of  deactivating my account without verifying details with me. I may have lost possible job opportunities due to the barring of my incoming calls too. I had co-operated with Vodafone in all matters since 2009 but Vodafone has costed me greatly for being such a loyal customer.

They are wrong to urge me to treat this as an exception because such things have happened far too many times and so it is high time that their customer service be questioned. I informed them that I am not the only one who faced this problem recently. On the Vodafone Delhi Mobile FB page  you will find that Ms. Dhara and many others complained about similar bad customer service regarding updating of documents. Hence somewhere Vodafone staff is not working properly and the Nodal office is not doing their job and fixing accountability on those people. Instead of apologising or making up for their carelessness, they are harassing each and every customer. A Vodafone customer service executive that I would rather not name informed me that this is also happening because of the changed customer interface with their introduction of 4G or whatever it is and in that Vodafone ended up deactivating so many accounts for no valid reason at all. Vodafone's lack of efficiency and inability to handle latest technology and introduce or deliver that technology to it's customers smoothly is portrayed through this universal harassment of Indian customers in the latest updating of documents case recently. Updating of documents may have just been a camouflage to cover up their inefficiency to introduce the latest technology effectively.

 Even after my repeatedly informing the Nodal staff through mails and telephone conversation that I had visited the Vodafone store for submitting updated documents as needed, a proper investigation was not carried out by the Nodal Office. Instead I was repeatedly ordered that I should submit my updated documents which I had already submitted well within the time limit given. But they refused to accept that as they wanted to cover up their act of carelessness. In both the cases whether it be updating of documents or deactivation of the ISD pack 55, it can be found that the customer service executives misled me and due to their mistakes I have suffered immensely. Customers cannot find time to keep reminding Vodafone about each and every mistake of Vodafone staff. Why isn't smooth and pleasant customer experience given to Vodafone customers when that is their right ?

I have urged them to take my complaint seriously as I wish to escalate the matter further. From my side this case stands open as I am dissatisfied with their stand and attitude on the matter. They are asking me to ignore the entire inconvenience caused to me just because they decide to activate my account now after so much of confusion and suffering. I want to know why in the first place was my account disabled for a week or more when I had submitted my updated documents. I want to know why the Nodal Office harassed me continuously regarding this instead of personally visiting that store to investigate. Even in the last telephone conversation, Ms. Chauhan told me to go and submit updated documents and I had to remind her over and over again that I have done so. When I have already submitted my updated documents on the 4th of June,2015 why should I visit the Vodafone store again ? By asking me to do so again, the Nodal Office is simply trying to prove that they are right which is untrue. I have had enough of Ms. Chauhan threatening to deactivate my account on that basis when I can provide evidence that I had visited the store with updated documents. In fact from the Vodafone store , I had called my home and that call could be easily traced. In a similar matter, Reliance had sent an investigation team to Noida. But Vodafone insists on troubling the customers instead of taking action against it's staff.

Problems occur with customers even in Reliance or Airtel, but in the end after a lot of struggle atleast their seniors take actions there. Unfortunately Vodafone's senior officers are not interested in providing fair and positive resolutions.

It is time that the Appellate Authority also acts responsibly instead of being partial to the Vodafone Nodal Office through their deviation from the real matter and forcing the customer to forget the inconvenience caused. I expect a more just resolution from the Appellate office.  If a fair and positive resolution is delivered then it is good...if not then at least I have exposed their defective customer interface management to the world and have given a voice to all the Vodafone customers to work on and refer to.

I would like to conclude that instead of standing true to their motto " We are happy to help ", Vodafone is actually demonstrating that " We are unhappy to help !" . Naturally their customer services will be questioned and that will be a blot on their image and reputation if they help in providing me with a fair resolution in this matter...