Mobile Number - ********80

My father has been a loyal customer of Vodafone for about 9-10 years and has paid all his bills well before the due dates. He took a trip abroad to Singapore and Bali for which he activated Internal Roaming services for getting incoming and outgoing calls. At the time of requesting for international roaming, he was at no point in time informed about the blackberry services/ GPRS charges while on international roaming.

Last month, we received have been charged GPRS usage charges of Rs 21253 from 18.07.2013 to 17.08.2013.

Issues/ complaint

At no point, was my dad informed by Vodafone service agents at the time of activating the international roaming about the ridiculously exorbitant data services charges he would incur. They should at least have the professional courtesy to inform their loyal customers and especially senior citizens who are not even aware how to use internet services, let alone knowingly use them.

I specifically called up Vodafone on my father's behalf but received a very docile response from their customer agents. I was hoping they would at least meet them midway because the charges are ridiculously high for inadvertent mistakes and they need to be held accountable for not being upfront and informing their customers about data services charges while on international travel. To make matters worse, even though the bill due date is on 5th Sept, my father continually receives phone calls everyday as to when the payment will be made.

I have posted this message on the consumer forum to enlighten other users, especially non-technology savvy mobile users who travel abroad and are not aware of these charges they will incur from telecom service providers like Vodafone who go out of there way to ensure customers are not informed about these charges.

Regards,
Nishit Mehta