Vodafone India charging extra for 'downloads'

I've been using a Vodafone SIM card on an Android tablet for the past few months. In the last two months, along with the monthly rental charge of Rs. 650, we've been getting "Usage charges" of Rs400-500 each month. When asked about this, the Vodafone executives first said only browsing is free and any downloads are charged. When I pressed them on how they distinguished between the two (both are HTTP traffic on the line), they switched tracks and said there were free downloads too, but outside their approved list any downloads would be "charged downloads". This was confirmed by two customer support agents in two different calls.

First of all, this sounds like a huge breach of Net Neutrality if true (not that there are any laws in India about that), and secondly they claim they don't even have a list of what a "charged" vs "uncharged" download would be. Has anyone else on Vodafone experienced this? Where we expected a monthly bill of Rs. 650 + taxes, we're getting about Rs. 1200 to Rs. 1300 every month. At this point I'm at the verge of switching to either Airtel or BSNL's 3G offerings.

Utter BS. Unless you've been downloading stuff from Vodafone's paid portal. Ofcourse, usage charges could be due to you exceeding the limit offered by your data pack. If that isn't the case, email appellate and lodge a complaint at pgportal.gov.in, demanding a refund.

agree total BS. i use a vodafone sim in a dongle and i have watched videos, downloaded stuff as well as for work. never got charged any special usage charge for anything. Bunch of oversmart fools just trying to push u ard.

Thanks x720 and kickass for confirming that this is BS. The customer service reps all give conflicting answers regarding this, one saying all downloads are chargeable, another that only following Vodafone Live links would be chargeable, another that only sites or downloads marked as non-free will be chargeable - the last one in particular makes no sense to me.

It appears that both Nodal officer and appellate authority need a Complaint ID to process anything, and neither customer service nor the complaint no. 198 is ready to register a complaint (according to them there's no valid complaint here!). So I've just now mailed vodafone.tn@vodafone.com according to one of those executives' suggestion, and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Googling for 'vodafone chargeable websites' tells me this is quite a common issue, and seems like a scam Vodafone is running even in Australia. Let's see if they can continue to run it here, I'll update the thread later (though I'm not hopeful of a positive resolution).

Source


:banghead:

I guess they're given scripts for Twitter responses too! 🙄
"Connect"ing with "Rahul" will probably only lead to more :swear: from my side as they confidently spout their technological illiteracy.

I'll try the complaint-ID-appellate route now and switch to some other provider if that doesn't work.

I can DM him your number if you want to give it a shot 🙂

Thanks, but my patience quota for today has gone completely dry. 🙂
I'll DM them myself tomorrow or the day after if necessary, referencing this thread again.

LOL.this is so stupid and funny at the same time 😀

so are they reading response packets to get file sizes and filetypes and then counting them as downloads instead of simple data transfer based on the file types.what file types exactly? and after what size do they count it as download.

WTF BS chargeable downloads try pgportal.gov.in

NEXT VICTIM-
I am a Vodafone prepaid subscriber from Delhi-NCR and using this number since 2011. Previous I was charged for Value Added Service. But since DND, I was no charged until today.

I will give details:
17th Nov 2014 (late night) - Main balance 260+. (Separate Internet Pack Active)
18h Nov 2014 (noon) - When I made a call I am old I have low balance. (Seperate Dataplan still have data Balance).

Surprised I call 111 and after about 7 minutes of waiting I am able to talk to a customer care. After abou 4 minutes of working he said: I have been charged (99+49+99= 247) for three DOWNLOADs. And He particularly stredded that THERE SHALL NOT BE ANY REFUND. And for this I did not receive any message for Deductions.

He said I downloaded some Chrageable Content/Adds. I asked to register complaint. But he said there is NO OPTION to Register Complaint. (So I do not have Complaint Reference No. )

I asked to talked to Supervisor. He answered He forwarded mail to and I will get a call back in 2 hours. (Its already 3 hours since then). I asked to forward me the same mail- He replied That Mail can only be Forwarded to Supervisor and not to any Gmail.

So, about 4 hours after caling Customer Support - I do not have a Refernce No. to Lodge Complaint anywhere.

As it appears- When I recharged I deposited money with Vodafone. Now they have transfered my 250 to some third party on my behalf without My Consent and not even informed me after Payment. Yes, I asked for details of agency to which money is Transferred. I was told to avail that detail I must apply for Item wise Prepaid Bill (paying 49) at end of November and I should get that bill somewhere after Dec 15.

Anyone like me Please Suggest way ou of this.

Just, so we're clear, Vodafone randomly deducted 250 bucks from your balance and is refusing to lodge a complaint.

As long as you're absolutely certain that you didn't activate any VAS from your side, complain here

pgportal.gov.in

And select department of telecom.

They pulled the same on me - Seven downloads with charges of Rs.550+. Customer Care refused to take complaint (raised this as a complaint with the www.pgportal.gov.in). I sent an email complaint to nodal.tamilnadu@vodafone.com, they gave a prompt response that I may have clicked on some advertisements leading to paid downloads. They gave me a docket number. I now sent a note to appellate.tamilnadu@vodafone.com. Don't know what to expect from them.

As "Digital_Carver" said who are they to pay on my behalf and what authorization do they have? A small Rs.10 transaction on credit card or debit card requires passwords. How come these people indulge in such day light robbery. I think Vodafone colluded with these third parties to fleece money from customers.

So after reading this thread, I think Vodafone is now fully Indian company like Airtel, and it is also looting like Airtel.
We faced such issue on Airtel where in random services were activated (like daily jokes, horo, etc) and CC use to say that we may have activated while browsing their WAP portal. Even thought we said that our mobile does not support such browsing (old Nokia phones), still they remain adamant. Only after forcing they refund amount. Then one fine day we ported from Airtel to Vodafone...

SVK said:

So after reading this thread, I think Vodafone is now fully Indian company like Airtel, and it is also looting like Airtel.
We faced such issue on Airtel where in random services were activated (like daily jokes, horo, etc) and CC use to say that we may have activated while browsing their WAP portal. Even thought we said that our mobile does not support such browsing (old Nokia phones), still they remain adamant. Only after forcing they refund amount. Then one fine day we ported from Airtel to Vodafone...

Click to expand...

No point in blaming Airtel/Vodafone. Just understand the population in this country and see the no. of transaction happening every second on their network in a place like delhi. The issue mentioned above are all system errors and speriodic issues, any best reputed billing system can fail with so much of customers cluttered in a given service area. On the other hand CC executive do not have enough patience/ time bandwidth to deep dive in these system errors and give you solution right away. Result they skip or try to dodge you folks(they are not outsiders but people among us). Consider a country like Malaysia or new zealand where total population is 30 million and you have 12 million in a small place like delhi and NCR. while networks in those countries will never have these issues but place like India there will be constant issues.
DOes this mean that airtel/vodafone should stop doing business in india, if they will not do who else can do. You have already seen companies like docomo/ aircel/Rcom stumbling down bec they didnt had stong balance sheet to withhold 2G license cancellation etc.