The Randomness of Randomness

Openly robbing the customer

// March 11th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Consumer Grievance

I had a particular problem on my prepaid Vodafone connection. I lodged a complaint on the Consumer Online Resource & Empowerment Centre. The complaint in itself is definitive of the whole case and conveys the point I want to make. So, I have pasted the exact complaint that I have posted on CORE’s website.

Given below is the complaint:

Title : Unauthorised Charge for Caller Tunes
Complaint ID : xxxxx
Complaint Details : I am subscribed to a Vodafone Prepaid Mobile
connection with the number 9xxxxxxxxx

Automatic incoming calls from Mobile Service Providers is a norm. One type
of such calls was missed by me on the morning of 09/03/2009. These numbers
are normal 10 digit mobile numbers and not distinguishable as promotional
calls.

I called back the number. I was told by the IVR its a free call. I
realised it was a call for Caller Tunes. Incidentally, I had been planning
to activate it around that time. So I thought of going through the options
of songs available.

I was listening to the songs on the Bollywood menu I had entered by
pressing the specified key.
After the songs in that menu exhausted(I had not pressed any key
indicating selection of song), I was asked whether Caller Tunes was
already activated for me. 1 for Yes. 2 for No. I pressed 2. Suddenly the
system tells me that the caller tune had been set. After disconnection of
the call I received their sms’.
I was charged Rs. 45 in an unauthorised fashion, without my consent.

I called up their Customer Care twice on that day. They heard me out and
said we’ll transfer your call. And in that process the line disconnected.

Today, I had called them up again & the call was eventually
transferred to one of their special CC executives.

I explained the whole thing to her & told them to reverse Rs. 15 &
I would change my caller tune to one of my choice.
She told me that what I said was valid, but they didn’t have any procedure
to reverse it if I had called in the number, and even if I visited their
Gallery, it wouldn’t be reversed. Only it had got activated on the
incoming call & not the outgoing call would have it been reversed.

Consequences:

The amount is small here, but the concern here is the
(maybe intentional) glitch in their system, which must be charging all the
users without consent. Most users think it is a small amount and let it
be, but with these drops they making an ocean of unauthorised revenue at
the cost of their customers. I would call this openly robbing the
consumers.

It would be great to have an explanation from Vodafone about the fact that
their systems are prepared or programmed to rob us, but when one of us
realises we’ve been robbed, they say there is no procedure(or their
systems arent programmed to reverse this amount). WHY?
And first of all, WHY should such a major glitch be existing in their
software.

Moreover, there is a small issue with the CORE website as well which I wanted to blog about right away alongwith this.

Today is 03/11/2009(11th of March, 2009) & I lodged the complaint at around 5 PM. Look at the snapshots below and they should be enough to convey what I want to say.

CORE Snapshot

CORE Email snapshot

OCC-Kol became OCC kAdda 2.x, I joined my first job, etc…

// September 20th, 2008 // No Comments » // BarCamps, Events, Gadgets, Life, Open Coffee Club, iPhone

The blog-lethargy is back..

There’s been a lot since I last blogged.

Now, I just got 1-month old at my first job at Convonix and I am enjoying it like anything. I find the environment much better and more flexible than those conglomerates around. Convonix has just grown out of the startup phase a short time back and is now over 4 years old. The learning curve is definitely going to be steeper and more diverse than what it would have been had I been with one of those biggies. Although there are some aspects I will miss out on, viz. large-teamwork and exposure to systems & operations of a company that is huge, but the diversity that I am in for here at Convonix clearly covers up for what I am going to miss.

Pulling off Open Coffee Club in Kolkata, which is now OCC kAdda 2.x, was a great experience in itself and it is really gratifying to see the shape that it is taking in Kolkata. Even more gratifying are the efforts of Amitabh right out of Bangalore, towards co-ordination of the kAddas.

The next kAdda is supposed to be held at the Oxford Bookstore, Park Street tomorrow(21st Sept 2008) at 12 PM. To be there check http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1103922/ and to join the Google Group you may visit http://groups.google.com/group/occ-kolkata.

Meanwhile, my desperation for the iPhone has been killed by the helpless Airtel & Vodafone. They have still not got their 3G licenses and they might have to pay premiums to acquire them. So, they priced the iPhone 3G as high as you must be already knowing, also banking on the Indian market trends of initial sky-high prices.

While my want for the iPhone 3G was already turned down, I evaluated my options, and zeroed in on the HTC Touch, but ended up buying the Nokia E61i after the Touch that was ordered for me by The Mobile Store guys had some issues with its packaging PLUS my friend recommended not to go for the Touch, because of his confirmed reports of service issues(he is a Dopod user). So, now my new 20-day young E61i is something that I am intrigued to use after having used Nokia 3315 for 2 years and LG RD3330(Reliance) for another 2 years.

With regards to events, here in Mumbai, we have been meeting up every week to plan the next BarCampMumbai4 which is happening on the 4th & 5th of October. The next meeting is tomorrow in IIT. For more about BarCamps & BCM4, check http://barcampmumbai.org

Airtel takes a sudden lead

// August 8th, 2008 // No Comments » // Gadgets, iPhone

I am a bit late to blog this, but was a bit tied up through the day to do it. The grapevine was abuzz that it would be Vodafone who would first launch the iPhone, and that would be 15 days before Airtel. But, Airtel has suddenly made the announcement today that it will be launching the iPhone 15 days from now, that is 22nd August. Although, Airtel has not given any hint about the price. Maybe they’re waiting for Vodafone’s offerings to be announced.

The quick action from Airtel may also be seen as an attempt from Airtel to boost up initial sales so as to avoid lower sales due to the bad name it has been earning. I have lately noticed that every now and then someone from Delhi/Mumbai is complaining on twitter, jaiku, kwippy and other microblogging platforms about their bad Airtel connections.

Anyways, it is too quick to comment on whether to go for Airtel or for Vodafone for our iPhones, and only time will tell who surfaces out as a winner in this race, which Airtel currently leads.

Too many rumours and too much hype about the iPhone

// July 29th, 2008 // No Comments » // Gadgets, Personal, Technology, iPhone

I agree Tech 2.0 is big and can be relied upon. It is the one which triggered the news about iPhone 3G launching on 18th of August by Vodafone. But the grapevine, as notorious as it is supposed to be, has added all sorts of rumours about its price.

But it is for sure that if the iPhone does launch for the price of 12,000, I would really consider buying it, but only after I find out a bit more about the data plans that are going to be attached to it.

I eagerly await Vodafone’s & Airtel’s press releases to tell us more about the iPhone in India. That would decide the fate of the phone that would reach into my hands.