I was a happy customer of Vodafone until few months back when I was a prepaid customer. Things were not the same after I migrated to postpaid. I think Vodafone really panicked when Jio came in and did many things, which their systems not customer service never understood. 

While Vodafone is introducing unlimited calling plans and special plans such as FLEXI plans for prepaid customers, they are compelling post paid customers to migrate to prepaid with lack of unlimited plans, withdrawal, cancelling and delaying plans and service requests for plan changes etc. 

I had taken initially a plan of 385 RED4BUSINESS plan. Later decided to move to another plan RED4BUSINESS 666. I went to a customer care centre and provided the details before my billing cycle end date and they said it will take upto 72 hours, which is more than 100 times (actually around 144 times) slower compared to its primary competitor like Airtel, who will take less than 30 seconds for a plan change.

From the beginning, the data usage details shown in the vodafone android app was not consistent. It was also charging me for the usage. First when I called customer care,  representative said it is system issue and I can call in after bill is generated and they will immediately change it. Second time, another representative said it is due to automatic network selection in my mobile and I should manually select vodafone. Third representative said that it will stop at Rs. 500, but if I am not using beyond 5 GB, it will not be part of the bill.

By the end of 31st december, my usage was 4.7 GB. However, when I received the bill on 3rd, my usage was 11GB, which is double of what I had actually used. When I called customer care, they said many customers are reporting and issue might be resolved in few days. They had no clue about customers with auto pay registered with banks. One representative told me to call bank and cancel auto pay for this month.

Even bill generation, which should be an automated process happened on Jan 3rd 2017 afternoon after requesting. When I requested for bill on 3rd morning I got November 2016 bill in mail. Anyway the bill was still not correct and had charged me extra to almost near to my credit limit. Now system is asking me to pay money to continue using. Did I use that much data? Even customer service accept it is an error. Why wait again for another 72 hours.

After all these frustration, I decided to enquire on other plans. I called 199 on January 3rd 2017 morning around 10 AM. A lady rep told me about few unlimited plans similar to Airtel Infinity plan, but was later told as wrong information provided by corporate customer care. Plans were 499, 799 and 899. RED 4 Business special 899 plan had unlimited calls and 5 GB data, even while roaming. I asked to raise a request and request was raised. The representative told me that it will take 72 hours.

I happened to contact customer care for another issue over caht and then that representative told that my request was opened and closed. I was surprised. That representative asked me to send a mail to corpcare.kar@vodafone.com. I decided to call 198, but then they said they have closed the issue as the issue was assigned to backend team and they will generate a new request. 

By evening, I got call from another person called Shaharukh Mulla from Vodafone Corporate Relations. He said there is no unlimited plans for vodafone postpaid and I need to select from other plans. He sent a mail telling concern raised against customer care executive for wrong information is forwarded to our concerned team. Gave a request number of  217858082. I got no reply though.

By night 9.30 PM, I got another message that some service request 217926184 is registered as per my request. When I called customer care, the person who seems to be outside as it was not clear initially, said that the request is for vodafone play. I asked about the plan request. Then he said the plan was there as unlimited, but was withdrawn from market today.

All lies with knowledge of vodafone management? Or lack of coordination and communication? Should they have at least the courtesy to let me know before cancelling and withdrawing a plan, and closing my request. I finally decided to use my airtel postpaid as primary and got the same unlimited plan that vodafone explained, for the same price of 899 in just 15 minutes. 

I can see from vodafone websites and ads that vodafone is now providing unlimited plans for only prepaid users. What about postpaid users who had decided to stay connected giving a monthly fee? 

Here is my request for vodafone management. Please focus on software, infrastructure, customer care and also postpaid customers. Maintaining a postpaid connection with vodafone is really a pain. If you really don't care about postpaid customers, but only prepaid customers, please tell that openly. I am considering my options to convert to prepaid or do a port to another reliable and trustable service provider.