This is a summary of the events, mostly bad experiences, I had with Vodafone, which has made me take a decision towards leaving Vodafone postpaid after migrating to corporate postpaid plan 3 months back. Some of my colleagues has already ported the connection. Main reasons include very slow processes, fake promises, wrong activations, contradicting reponses by customer care, lack of proper care and plans for postpaid customers, especially corporate customers, buggy software and apps, and overall lack of transparency in things they do.

Summary

1. Not good for corporate customers
   1. Vodafone is the only company I think which has provided worse offers for corporate customers compared to regular customers. While general customers get unlimited calls for 499, corporate customers get only 2000 local minutes. Competitors like Airtel has special rates for corporate customers for the unlimited plans they introduced.
   2. Lack of proper care for corporate customers. Vodafone provides a corporate customer care email for Bangalore customers, which is corpcare.kar@vodafone.com. You immediately get a auto response that they will get back within 24 hours, but this get back has not happened properly for me many times. However, I always get a callback when I mail to airtel care. If I miss a call, they give an automated message.
2. Very slow processes
   • Example: a simple plan change could take upto 3 days when compared to competitors like Airtel that do it in 15 minutes. Billing inconsistencies take around a month to resolve.
3. Fake promises, wrong activations and contradicting responses by customer care. 
   • Customer care tell you about plan features and you enrol. But within the 72 hours required to activate the plan, they cancel the plan and allocate any plan of their choice which you have not even asked for.
     • Specific Example: I was activated a plan that I did not request which was around Rs. 250 more than my current plan, but with almost same benefits.
   • Contradicting responses provided by Vodafone customer care representatives. At least some of these has to be lies. The question is if these lies are planned or due to lack of knowledge and coordination.
     • Specific Example: Rep 1: There is an unlimited plan RED 899. Rep 2: There is no unlimited plans for Vodafone, takes a complaint against previous rep. Rep 3: Other unlimited plans are there. Rep 4: Unlimited plans not applicable for corporate. Rep 5: You have been activated a limited plan. Rep 6: Your plan is actually unlimited, but vodafone app is wrong. Rep 7: Your plan is actually limited, takes a complaint against previous rep. Rep 8: Actually they told they have activated unlimited plan.
     • Specific Example 2: Rep 1: Due to technical issues, you are charged extra, will revert. Rep 2: Due to technical issues, you are charged extra, will revert in next bill. Rep 3: You are charged as per usage (which never happened), no revert.
4. Buggy Software and Apps
   1. Software that has lots bugs or inconsistencies. Vodafone customer care itself has suggested the Vodafone app is inconsistent with actual data and shouldn't be trusted.
   2. Incorrect Billing due to software issues. You need to watch out for those and complain, else you will never come to know and your money is lost. I assume not everyone will look for it (especially in a corporate plan) and hence Vodafone would have already earned a lot in this area. Even to revert it, it will take about a month after Vodafone accepts their mistakes. 
5. Not good for postpaid
   1. Lack of good plans for postpaid compared to prepaid. Postpaid customers get lesser plans compared to prepaid. While prepaid has flexi plans, postpaid has traditional costly plans. Most competitors like Airtel who has flexi plans in postpaid.
   2. Less value for money compared to competitors, especially for corporate plans. The cost of recent unlimited plans for Vodafone were around Rs. 300 Rs. to 400 rupees higher than its competitor airtel. For example, unlimited local + std + roaming plans applicable for Vodafone corporate starts at Rs.1299 whereas it starts at Rs. 899 and Rs. 999 for Airtel corporate customers.  
6. Lack of transparency in things that they say and do. Lack of a system to easily see and track your queries would improve some level of transparency.

Event Log

I will describe the events happened around a simple plan change. Please note that this is the third month of connection and first two months was not free from issues either. During the first month there were lots of issues related to internet usage shown in the Vodafone app and most customer care representatives were giving contradicting responses. However most of them said if there is any issues after billing, please call us and we will immediately solve. However, when the issue came and Rs. 575 was charged extra, customer care had to take many days to come back with a decision that the amount will be refunded after one more month along with next bill.

The current series of events started along with a call to customer care to enquire about the refund of above mentioned amount. This was on January 3rd 2017 10.15 AM. The lady rep told about many RED unlimited plans like 499, 699, 899, 999 etc. She suggested I take RED 899 unlimited which has unlimited calls, 5 GB internet and free roaming. I said ok and she raised a request. 

Later another representative told that the request is closed as the plan is no more available. After some time, another representative told that the request was closed as the request was transferred to backend team and the backend team will open it when they approve it. Later it was opened and I could see it as being processed in the Vodafone app.

After some time, I was told again that there is no unlimited plans for Vodafone and was also told the first representative had provided wrong information. The current corporate rep also said he has raised a concern against other rep and gave a reference number of 217858082. He also said to be rest assured they shall also communicate the resolution on the same by 03/01/2017. Now it is already 06/01/2017 EOD. He also asked me to select another plan.

Meanwhile I had also shared an open letter to Vodafone on their Facebook page. The Facebook team responded and arranged a callback in half a day. The rep who called said 899 PLAN is no more, but there are other unlimited plans like RED 499, RED 699 etc. So I replied back to the previous mail telling I will go for 499 unlimited. But then the other person said there is only limited RED 499 and RED 4 business 499. I could also see that my original request was reopened in the system. So I said I will wait for that request. I also said in mail that I would not like to go for any other plan than the requested one, and if the request is closed due to change of Vodafone plans, I will think and raise a request later.

All this time, the Facebook team kept on telling they have forwarded details to concerned team and they will call back. I did not get a call after that, but to my surprise, my plan was changed to a limited plan, without even consulting me. I got a call immediately after the SMS saying that the new plan of 899 Individual has 2000 minutes, 2GB internet. When I said I had not requested for this plan, I was told to contact 198 or 199.

I contacted 198 on 6/1/2017 on 14.22 and the most irritating thing happened. The lady was talking as if she was convincing her lover to trust her that Vodafone app is wrong and I have actually got an unlimited plan. However she refused to give any written communication nor raise a complaint. Kept on telling don't worry, trust me, if you are charged, I will revert it back. Since I already had an experience of wrong information from a customer rep, I insisted to raise a complaint for wrong information in Vodafone app if this was really an unlimited plan and Vodafone app was having the issue. She raised an issue and number is 218756400. She also told that I should make sure I use only 5GB even if the app is showing my data limit as 12 GB, when I had asked why I was allocated 12 GB. Again blamed the app. 

To have a proof of conversation, I made a chat with Vodafone and that rep was quick enough to tell that whatever the previous rep told was clear lie and my plan was in fact limited and not the unlimited one I had requested. This time I took screenshots as well. The new rep also took a complaint against the previous rep and the request number is 218769810.

Every time I send a mail to corpcare.kar@vodafone.com I get a message that I will get a reply in 24 hours. For last few days I could see that this is not consistent. If they have an answer, they will reply. Else they will simply ignore. This would not have happened if I had gone with Vodafone's main competitor Airtel, as the plan change happens in 15 minutes against 3 days in Vodafone. And within this three days, Vodafone can decide based on many factors whether to withdraw a particular plan or not. If plan is withdrawn, they could close the request telling plan is no more available. But Vodafone's behavior really surprised me, as they chose another plan of their choice, which is almost Rs. 250 more than my current plan with almost same benefits. How can they change me to a plan without me requesting them or letting me know about it.

Vodafone Facebook team again told me that they have forwarded the case and to wait for some more time. I will definitely got to higher authorities if they are going to charge me for a plan which I have not requested.  I will wait for some more time and then will either port to another provider or to Vodafone prepaid. It is as if Vodafone has given up on postpaid and is going to focus only on prepaid. 

Looks like Vodafone has lost the race against Jio and Airtel, mainly due to systems that do not scale. 

The other two of my posts including an open letter are available in below links:

• an-open-letter-to-vodafone-management-please-do-not-lose-focus-on-software-customer

• my-experience-with-vodafone-after-the-open-letter