Complaint Against Idea Cellular, Consumer Seeks Answer

Tadka Take

Internet connections in India are nightmares. And that is a serious understatement.

The issues are numerous, each graver then the last.

We already had referred to speed issues in a previous story Expecting 3.1 Mbps? You are in for a rude shock!

At promises that vary from 3.1 Mbps to 7.2 Mbps, most consumers are hardly fooled. When we get a connection, we KNOW that promised speed is not something that will be delivered and we will be stuck with an abysmal speed of 256 Kbps or a maximum of 512 Mbps (only if you are blessed with an exceptional luck,that is).

When it comes to mobile internet usage, the things get murkier. Between 2Gs and 3Gs, what most consumers are conclusively stuck with is less than optimum speed and absolutely no track of data usage. No wonder, most of us are caught by surprise whenever our data pack expires, wondering where and how we used it all up and even more importantly, why weren’t we intimated?

Most of the consumers have stoically accepted this reality and continue with their lives without as much as a whimper of complaint. What then hurts the most is that despite this exceptional cooperation from us consumers, who have completely unburdened the Brands of any expectations, they still end up bitterly disappointing us.

When Aditya wrote to us with some disturbing questions for Idea Cellular and its coveted internet services, it was as if he was not voicing his individual concerns but was a spokesperson of the entire harassed consumer community with respect to these services.

Here is what Aditya wrote to us.

Consumer Story

I would like to share my questions/objections about Idea cellular Ltd.

I want to point these out to TRAI also but not able to identify proper way for this.

While I figure out official way to convey these to official authorities, I request you to kindly publish these on your website also so it reaches maximum people.

I would like to raise objections about the service and practice being followed in Idea:

1.       This incidence happened with me during 6^th September and 9^th September 2012.

2.       I recharged with Rs. 300 (full talk time recharge for Maharashtra and goa region of idea) and Rs. 148 (GPRS recharge. 2GB day time + 2 gb nigh time data pack) on 6^th September. On 9^th September all my balance reduced to Rs. 0.

3.       I suspect it is because the 2GB free day time data has been consumed by me and then I got charged as per 10ps/10kb.

4.       I would like to know why there is no mechanism to warn customers when they are about to cross the free data limit and are about to shift to 10ps/10kb plan.

5.       Few of my friends and even I used to get the pop screen message mentioning my session details and remaining data usage from my data pack every time I disconnect my internet connection.

But now I don’t get any such sms/pop up screen messages.

Why this customer friendly feature has been stopped?

In case if it is technical glitch and temporarily unavailable, why it’s not been fixed on priority basis and why a backup solution not been provided to customers?

6.       When I have recharged for Rs. 148/- which includes 2GB day time and 2GB night time data usage pack, and when my day time usage is consumed,

i.         Shouldn’t I be informed about the same immediately during my running internet session instead of secretly switching to expensive normal 10ps/10kb plan?

ii.       Shouldn’t I be provided an option to utilize the night time data pack?

7.       When I call customer care seeking clarification and they are unable to provide me details because its not updated yet in system or their complete system is down,

i.          Shouldn’t my complaint be still at least registered by them?

Currently, in such scenario, they don’t register any complaints stating reason of system is down and they don’t keep any record of my call or my intentions to call them.

ii.       Shouldn`t they call me back whenever they are ready with my details or ready with a working system?

Currently they ask customer to call about the action taken back even though it was their inability to provide solution in first call by user.

8.       Since Idea sends lots and lots unwanted spam message everyday to every customer, why cant idea send informative messages to customers to educate and inform about IVR short codes, to check talk time balance by themselves, to check data balance by themselves so customer can track balance and proceed with usage accordingly?

 Tadka Take 2

Data usage pop-ups is one of the best and most convenient features that Idea provides. It is strange that the Idea chose to do away with or simply be careless with the most consumer friendly feature of its product. Is it callousness? Or they don’t take their consumers seriously enough?

Either way, this just goes on to show how  easy it is for the consumers to lose money to the Brands.

The data usage is a grey area for most companies and checking remaining talk time or balance is a perpetual trouble with most providers. One cannot help but wonder if it is a deliberate design to cheat consumers?

Internet is increasingly becoming a necessity for most section of the urban populace and it is high time that the concerned authorities take note of the consumer resources that go down the drain availing sub-standard internet services in India with absolutely no transparency or accountability of any sort. The consumers also need to stop shoving these issues under the carpet and voice their concerns as loudly as possible just as Aditya has done in this case.

Meanwhile, Idea Cellular, do you have any answers?

(Picture Credit : Topnews.in)