Customers fume as Voda-Idea cuts Rs 99 intl roaming charges

Business Bureau :

Vodafone-Idea prepaid customers got a rude shock when they found out that the telecom company had deducted Rs 99 as international roaming charges without their knowledge on June 2. Vodafone Idea customer Sudhir Iyer while talking to The Hitavada that the outgoing calls and data usage services were stopped by the company even though they had not availed the international roaming package. Iyer approached the Vodafone Idea office situated at Bajaj Nagar - Abhyankar Nagar Square. After waiting for 45 minutes in the queue, the company staff assured him of a refund and asked him to pay Rs 150 for activation charges to receive Rs 121 as talk time.

As his family has three mobile numbers availing Voda-Idea service, he had to make extra payment for all the three numbers to get them activated. “Vodafone Idea had deducted Rs 99 for international roaming from all the prepaid customers and our outgoing calls got blocked even though there was balance for the talk time. Even my 82-year-old mother, who had not travelled out of Nagpur since 2017 and has no international travel history was charged for international roaming. We were made to pay Rs 150 per mobile. And they refunded Rs 121 to the mobile account which cannot be used for recharge, so even though the money is in my account it’s with the company,” Iyer said.

He said that the company should atleast refund the money in cash. By paying Rs 150, a customer gets Rs 121 as a talk time which is already free in the package. He said, “After scanning the company’s Tweeter account, there were plethora of complaints pan India from active users. It’s a major scam to compel people to pay.” The aggrieved customer has taken up the matter seriously and forwarded an email to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) the appellate authority to take action against the company at the earliest.