I always stand up for what I believe in and what is right even if it means standing alone...In life standing up for your rights is never easy but it is very important to embark on this Long and difficult path to enforce and protect your individual and consumer rights.We all must be aware of our rights.In exercising our rights are we truly free individuals.

I have won many long customer battles against Banks,Phone Companies, Airlines, Electronics Companies etc. I have devoted time and energy to demand positive resolutions for myself and people around me. I hate it when one is denied what every customer has a right to...and that is when I find it important to address it and complain about it. I know it takes time to escalate matters but somehow I prefer to address it no matter what. Having lived in America for sometime, I give a lot of importance to Individual Rights.

It is my nephew who inspired me to write this blog. He felt the importance of his rights and the need to address this subject in a blog very early in age when he was unhappy with the services of a certain Airline. It was then that he suggested that I should write a blog concerning such matters too.

Everyone has certain rights but we are usually not informed about them or do not exercise them. We have a right to be heard...and we must never forget that. There is One Right for All and None should be discriminated. One has the right to question and a right to information. With growing middle class touch 400 million and consumerism, Indian Companies need to become responsive to Consumer complaints and grievances. Ignoring such complaints could lead to big financial losses for the company on consumer complaints being upheld by Consumer Courts.

In this blog, I would like us to share our knowledge about how best to address our complaints effectively as a customer or consumer. It is also important to inform people about the poor customer services provided by reputed brand names. But I would also like to hi-light the names of companies and brands who have co-operated with customers and given positive responses. Please do share your experiences too.

You do not win every battle in life but you learn lessons from it and hopefully live to win it some day. Through this blog ,I would like to inspire people to stand up for their rights and if needed fight for it but the fight for your rights has to be fair and honest. I aim to create a direction and awareness for people who are not given their due rights as an individual first and then as a consumer. There are always solutions and there are way to reach those solutions or alternatives as customers through proper channels.

Whenever you have been able to get your rights heard, you should generously share that knowledge as how best to achieve that so that others could follow that too. Pay it forward ! We should share knowledge and in doing so we will learn more from each other. Alone you can stand up for your rights but with people behind you and with you , there will be more force in it and consumers and customers will not be taken for granted. United we stand in getting value for our hard earned money...United we stand in ensuring we get good customer service.

When there is a will there is a way. When you stand up for your rights and for others , somebody will listen to you sooner or later. Your voice will be heard ! But for that you have to speak out ! Silence can sometimes be mistaken as weakness or indifference. Always know your rights and request for those rights to be implemented but if they are not then demand that justice be served.


Always stand up for your rights...

Consumer Rights Consumer Might !

" Sadaa Haq Aithe Rakh ! "

"Manzil mushkil to Kya... Humhe to us rah par chalna hi hai..."


Monday, October 26, 2015

Vodafone's Dictatorial Attitude

 Earlier on in June this year when Vodafone barred my incoming and outgoing calls based on the false feedback of their teams, I could at least access my Vodafone account but they have blocked my account as well this time due to the deactivation of my number. Would they have done the same in any other country where customers can sue them in an instant ? In any other country a customer would have been entitled to a complete investigation before Vodafone could take away the number. 
Why is Vodafone treating Indian customers differently ? In the worst cases of complaint too Reliance Communications has never done anything of the sort ! Then why is a foreign company like Vodafone getting away by treating customers this way all the time !? It is time they are held accountable for all their unethical business methods here.
They do not even easily allow customers to port the number to Airtel as it seems Airtel is beating them even in U.K now by giving good services and better rates to NRIs to call back home.
Vodafone seems to be threatened by Airtel's global presence and that is why it does not want to lose customers to Airtel. Reliance is doing quite well with NRIs in the States. More and more people are going with either Airtel or Reliance. At this rate Vodafone's presence in India as well as other countries will rapidly diminish and that too specially because of it's unscrupulous activities . 
We in our own country are letting foreign companies get away by treating the customers any way they want. Boundaries have to be established so that Vodafone does not harass and intimidate Indian customers all the way ! Any time any customers want to escalate a complaint, Vodafone threatens to disconnect their numbers. Why should Indian customers be subjected to such dictatorial attitudes of such foreign companies specially in our home country ? 
Vodafone should not be allowed to operate in this country if it cannot respect the customers here and continues to abuse consumer rights !


Vodafone's action costing me greatly !

Vodafone's delay in restoring my number has costed me greatly in my personal and work life as my life has in a way got paralysed and I am not able to receive calls of specially work related people due to the deactivation of the number. 

My business card carries this number and people are not able to access me directly for assignments. As a free lance Japanese Culture & Language Consultant my work relies on my everyday interactions with people regarding upcoming global assignments. I expect Vodafone to compensate me for letting my work life get affected through it's stubbornness to have barred my calls twice for more than a week in the last three months and deactivating my number recently. 

Addressing this case at all times to get my number restored is also taking me away from my work. As they say Time is Money but my time is being wasted by Vodafone for a very long time now ! As it is the international calling cards I had purchased from them are also getting wasted as I cannot use them on any other phone. Had they addressed this case on time or had let me port my number to Airtel then all this inconvenience would not have occurred.

Vodafone's rash action is costing me greatly ! They had no right to deactivate my number !

Vodafone delaying addressing this case everyday !


Vodafone India's social media team responded to my message that I had sent them on the 15th of Oct. 2015. It took them that long ! And now they want more details about the case and I had to remind them that I have already given them far too many details regarding my complaint in the past three months and specially since the 15th of Oct. They seem to be buying more time to address my complaint appropriately.
Suddenly they want me to fill out a survey form which I found odd because if they were really paying attention they would have seen that I have already written so many reviews about Vodafone on their pages as well as my blog in the last few months. My question was that " Is this the time to take a survey after so much of escalation of my complaint worldwide ! This is the time for action and investigation ! "
The matter has gone so beyond escalation that now I need answers and prompt action in the direction of my expectations from Vodafone. I have suffered immensely and seek justice in the matter ! And Vodafone could pave the way in that direction by first activating my number to start with ! But had they been fair, they would not have even disconnected my number in the first place.
They also wrote that their team would connect with me on the phone. And I reminded them again as always that time and again I have been insisting that I would want a written interaction with them now regarding the case so that everything is on record. 
I just hope Vodafone India has notified a more professional and impartial team this time as the team who has been handing my case all this while just complicated matters and spoilt our interaction through their harassment and lack of understanding. The matter has gone so beyond escalation that now I need answers and prompt action in the direction of my expectations from Vodafone. So much of time, energy and peace of mind has been lost in dealing with their unfairness in deactivating my number

Vodafone India will just end up tarnishing image of Vodafone Worldwide


27 Oct 2015 — Still more talks and no action ! My number has not been activated and the delay in addressing my complaint effectively for so long reflects just their inability to resolve sensitive cases. Vodafone India is still relying on it's junior representatives team to handle the case when actually seniors should be intervening and taking prompt actions to make up for the damage caused to the customer by their inexperienced teams. Vodafone India should realise the seriousness of the case considering that I have filed a petition and will continue fighting this case for others and myself who are experiencing such harassment at the hands of Vodafone. Accordingly a more experienced and professional team should have been assigned to this case to deal with this matter and as a gesture towards co-operation with me they should have restored my number to start with.

Vodafone avoiding investigation of matter...

 Just received a message this evening from them on their social media page asking me to complete a survey form. Instead of addressing the escalated complaint , they are asking me to fill up survey forms. They are just deviating from the matter! 
I have already given a lot of feedback on my unpleasant interactions with them and written so many reviews. What else is required for something to be done ?

Vodafone's bad attitude damages their image & results in more loss of customers

Vodafone's harsh and unfair attitude towards it's customers and it's careless way of handling customers' complaint is only resulting in bad advertisement for them because they are only getting negative feedback from their customers. 

Customers are in a way live advertisements and their discontent can really ruin Vodafone's reputation. 
Vodafone has now acquired the reputation of losing customers than gaining customers. They do not realise that each customer is important to their business.

 By slamming the door on customers all the time, they would only have loss of business and loss of good reputation. Unhappy customers would always go away.

It is very easy to lose customers but winning customers and that too the customers you are going to lose is even more difficult ! But Vodafone only knows how to lose customers specially because they do not believe in accepting their faults and apologising for it. Vodafone does not even know the art of winning back customers they have lost !

One has to act at the right moment or you lose that moment forever ! Vodafone has lost that moment with me as a customer when there was still time to apologise to me in writing and prevent the barring of my calls by owning up their fault. Now I want them to make up for all those times they harassed me and spoilt my festive season in the process !

Vodafone's Dishonest Business Tones