Vodafone customer points out anomaly in billing mobile internet services, a user experience

Aseem Manchanda

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Vodafone was found charging a customer luxuriously for using data on his mobile, reveals a user-experience. Aseem Manchanda, a reputed journalist who worked with firms like Zee Business, India TV and BBC World Services is the victim of the case.

Mr. Manchanda, a decade long Vodafone user activated Blackberry 399 unlimited plan before three years during which he found discrepancies in his billing. On enquiry, the company informed him about the presence of other data plans on his number, which the subscriber had specifically asked the provider to deactivate. Besides activating plans without his consent, the company blamed his for using YouTube on his phone, which the company said had resulted in huge billings.

Manchanda also found the presence of 3G services on his phone, which further shocked the subscriber as he did not register himself for 3G services. Vodafone called all his ‘extra activations’ as default services and continued to bill him. The company failed to provide any satisfactory answers to the subscriber, including about the fair usage policy for using 3G data on mobiles.

Manchanda officially registered a complaint to Vodafone via e-mail pointing out the discrepancies, for which the company provided vague answers. On insisting a written explanation, the company deactivated 3G as well as other 2G services activated on his number.

The saga took an interesting twist, when the subscriber decided to end Blackberry services on the phone. To the request of deactivation of Blackberry services, Manchanda received a text message informing him about the deactivation of ‘iPhone services’, which again was found to be activated without his consent.