Mobile woes: 'They kept activating services and charging us!'

Everyone loves to hate their mobile service providers. On January 4, we carried A Ganesh Nadar's account of his cellphone connection going from bad to worse while on tour and asked readers to share similar experiences with us. Here, Pankaj Sinha from Rourkela tells his story:

My experience was too bad. We have a Reliance prepaid connection and value-added services kept getting activated without intimation all the time. We are using the phone only to make/ receive calls, but when we approach customer care, they reply that the service has been opted for by us only, they can't do anything. All they can do is then deactivate the services when we call, but in this manner, we have lost our money 5-6 times.

Recently, though, what happened was really amazing. We recharged the prepaid card and found that the money had already been deducted for value-added service, without giving us talktime. When we called customer care, 2-3 times we received the reply that their system was not working. Finally, I wrote them an e-mail, and got a reply saying sorry for the inconvenience, we will improve the service. I asked them to return the money which was deducted, but I received the reply that on the basis of the telephone conversation with me, the matter had been resolved and the money could not be returned! And I didn't even receive a single call from them!

Basically, if money has gone into their account, there is no chance of getting it back. And if we are talking and the balance money has finished then there is no option, the call is disconnected. If there is no talktime left, then value-added services are activated and the balance goes into a minus denomination. And when the mobile is recharged, the minus amount is recovered by them.

Have you had a nasty cellphone service experience? Share your mobile woes with us. Write in to us at getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'Mobile woes') and we'll feature your story, right here on rediff.com

And here is reader Dilip Bhat's experience:

I am an engineering student who was using a student scheme SIM from Idea Telecom. The call rates and SMS charges were quite low. I have been using it since June 2006, until the day my number was accidentally recharged by 11 rupees, which changed my scheme from student to lifetime!

I was attending my regular lectures in college when this recharge happened. Initially, I thought it must have been some prank played by my friends, because it was a 'e-recharge'. I inquired with my friends, but they didn't do it. Then I called customer care and asked them to locate the dealer from where the recharge was done. But they didn't do it. The representative said that it was not possible, because their servers don't keep a record of e-recharges!

I realised that the employee was faking the excuse and the recharge was actually made by Idea themselves, not by any dealer. I asked for a plan reversal and as expected, he was unable to do that also. One week later, the same thing happened with three of my friends who also had the same student scheme plan.

All four of us bought a new SIM from a different operator and moved on. Never did I expect such a cheap trick from a brand like the Adity Birla Group!