Cellphone Operator Reviews

[raj_5004]

I bought a new Vodafone Postpaid Sim for my phone yesterday & it was activated in 6 hrs. I asked the representative at the Vodafone store on how to activate the zero rental GPRS service. He asked me to SMS "ACT VL ZERO" to 111. i browsed through the manual i got with the SIM & also checked their website & found the same. So, i sent the same SMS.

In the evening, i just made my account in their website to check my details & found that my plan & everything is proper but my GPRS status shows Vodafone Live at Rs. 49 a month!!! Today morning i called them & asked them about this as why i would be charged Rs. 49 when i have not asked this service. they told me that i sent the message on 6/8/10. i checked my sent messages list & it was ACT VL ZERO as advised and that was for zero rental. but they kept arguing that i dint write ZERO!!!

anyways, i asked why my net is not activated till now. he asked my phone model number, kept me on hold & later informs me that GPRS (Vodafone Live) service would not be available on my phone since its Android! i was like .

I blasted them. it was ridiculous that they first deduct Rs. 50 without my consent & then tell me that GPRS wont be available. They tell me that i can opt for the "Vodafone Connect" service which can be available on my phone & it will cost me Rs. 200/month. I ridicule them saying that MTNL offers 3G net service at Rs. 100/month & you are offering 2G at Rs 200??!! moreover my net usage is very limited, so i was not ready to shell out Rs. 200.

Finally i ask them what should i do now? you have already added Rs. 40 in my bill & i am not getting net. So they say we are helpless as your phone is not compatible. so i ask them why do they offer such services which is limited only to nokias & basic handsets? what do they expect, people buying phones costing 25k+ will not use GPRS? or should we consult Vodafone before buying a new handset? they had no answer. i hung up totally frustrated.

Meanwhile, my friend called me saying that he found the net settings on another website & asked me to note it down. Then i noted that my phone showed 3 names with different settings- Vod Connect, VF Live, VF MMS. i set the default to VF Live, changed a few settings & it started working! Now, though i find the GPRS speed to be a bit less, its atleast working.

Now, i know its my mistake that i dint check the default settings, but why did Vodafane make an excuse that VF live wont work with Android? if it is so, how is it working now on my phone then? instead they could have asked me to check the default settings. Is this a common excuse they tell to all customers who have anything different from nokias? God knows...

 

[type-r]

I have excellent experience with Airtel! I have very bad experiences with BSNL. I never have tried Vodafone or Docomo or TATA.

 

[mukeshus]

Ha ha raj, Gprs won't work on android was a silly excuse. Atleast the representative could have connected to his superiors , if he doesn't have any info.
Airtel is providing the same facility at 95/-.

 

[*Arkin_Young*]

I used to have Airtel Postpaid for myself. I surrendered that number. But then I wanted the number back (it is a fancy no.), but my dad got it back, but with a prepaid sim. If find Airtel excellent, and very user/customer friendly. However, I find prepaid not very convenient, so I'm getting a post paid sim for the same no. next week.

 

[cooldhaya]

I am using only pre-paid till now. I feel in post-paid hidden charges are more , they try to loot some money unnecessarily!I first started using Airtel when this lifetime cards were not prevalent and so i found it costly to recharge for validity every month. So switched to BSNL as it was cheaper but it was like HELL! The coverage and signal was very poor and the voice clarity is very poor in BSNL. So again switched over to Airtel lifetime card within a year and now am happy with the same card. So used only 3 pre-paid SIM cards till now and i would rate Airtel the best within city limits.

However when it comes to roaming nothing can beat BSNL! During my recent trip to Munnar and Kodaikanal my Airtel SIM was almost dummy most of the time while my dad's BSNL had coverage almost all the time!

 

[raj_5004]

@ mukesh: i did ask them to connect to their superiors or someone from technical dept, but they refused!

@ all: i agree about Airtel's service. i have an airtel landline with broadband service & their service is awesome. but i have an airtel number from kerela, it has some network issues, both there & here. so i am apprehensive about their network coverage in my place. all my friends have vodafone so i have no idea about its network.

on the contrary, i have had very good experiences with MTNL, i used a dolphin card for 7 years. awesome network + good coverage. infact even today they are the only one to offer 3G. i have faced some minor issues but they have rectified it. but now, i had some problems regarding 3G usage & poor network, so i decided to replace it.

 

[sriharsha]

here is an e-mail that i sent to zonal manager of vodafone recently. hope the mail itself is self explanatory about the problem that i faced. if anything is not clear, then let me know.

hello sir/madam
this is sriharsha. a customer of vodafone prepaid connection bearing number-9742***666.

according to me, vodafone's tag line "happy to help" is surely not appropriate because the customer care executives are least bothered about the customer's problems and don't have the so called "polite approach" to the customer's problems.

date: 26/06/2010
i called up 111 to know about the mobile internet pack of rs 98 wherein i get to browse the internet unlimited with a max of 2GB valid for 30 days. i get the required information about the tarrif. i ask the so called "customer care executive" whether in this rs 98 plan, i'll be able to connect the phone to my pc and use the internet through the phone and he says "no sir. its not possible". i thank him and hang up. not really satisfied with the answer he gave, i call 111 again. now another so called "customer care executive" picks up the phone and i ask him the same question whether in this rs98 plan i'll be able to connect the phone to my pc and use the internet through the phone and he says yes!!! then i ask him how come the other person told me that its not possible? he says that some of them won't have the proper info. i was like what is this? two so called "customer care executives" of the same company givng different info regarding the same matter??
i thank him and hang up. but something was still under doubt. i called 111 again. and i did the calls for around 5-6 times. i was very much surprised that every alternate fellow whom i spoke to said that the connection to the PC was possible and the other alternate said that it was not!!!!

date:27/06/2010
the same saga continues. i call from a friends vodafone mobile(name-mahadev; number:9742***198) to 111 as call to 111 from my phone was blocked(really don't understand why). as expected the same act from so called "customer care executive" continued.

so i fail to understand what roles do these so called "customer care executives" have to play in their jobs? i have paid rs 98 for the same and i consider it as no small amount. i did activate the pack only after the so called "customer care executive" told me that i could connect to the PC. and when this is not possible i don't expect my money to just go down the drain. so i would want this money to be credited back to my account "IN FULL" without deducting any service charges or taxes what so ever failing to which i'll have to proceed with the legal fomalities.i really did not expect such levels of wrong information being provided by a reputed company boasting of being very happy to help.

another concern of mine is regarding the calls to 111. i fail to understand why that rule of calling to 111 only 3 times in a day is present. come on vodafone. we now are even paying for talking to the so called "customer care executives" and you want us to do that too in a limited amount? when problems caused by your side can be more than 10 times the same day, how can you expect us to just call the customer care only thrice in a day? if that's the case why is the customer care really present? to just pose as scare crows?

hope i am not just blurting out words on deaf ears. and would also like to inform that i am no where playing around in writing such a long e-mail to you. i am serious and i mean it. i would also like to remind you that lots of internet forums who take up things seriously in a legal way are present and i assume that you won't compell me to approach them.

thanking you
sriharsha

 

[*Arkin_Young*]

Yes, Airtel is undoubtedly very pleasing. We've had 5 airtel cards so far, and no problems at all.
@Sriharsha - It is very unfortunate that you are facing such blasphemous problems. The easiest way to get out of this tight problem, is to shift to another service provider, retaining the same no. if you want.

 

[raj_5004]

Bad reviews about vodafone. I hope their network is atleast good, the reason why i opted for vodafone is good network.

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Voda fone , the lazy people . I did my training there , then it was BPL , it was the time they were moving to a new name as HUTCH.

 

[sriharsha]

@arkin
AFAIK that convinience is not yet available.

 

[350Z]

I’ve been a customer of both, Airtel as well as Vodafone. The Vodafone is not used often, so can not comment much about their service etc. but overall connectivity has been fine yet, however the Airtel is indeed really good with stellar support and service.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[Akash]

Right now i am using Airtel and Tata DOCOMO.

I am very much satisfied with its service and have 4 Airtel prepaids at home. As for DOCOMO, i use it as my secondary number since it has good GPRS schemes. Basically, i got a DOCOMO sim as then, it was the only service prrovider with 1p/sec plan.

 

[cooldhaya]

Sad to hear about your bad experience Sriharsha. I have faced similar problems with my Airtel DTH service!

 

[type-r]

I experienced something similar to BSNL. BSNL has(according to my experience) the worst signal coverage. Airtel is best.