I have joined the long line of those who have been cheated by matrix cellular, by way of fraudulent billing, simply becuase, the salesman promised me something, but he went ahead and put me in a different billing plan not bothering to inform me, thus charging me close to rs.6, 000/- which i should not be paying at all.
I took 4 sim cards from matrix for travelling europe between 19th dec 09 to 10th mar 10, for using at netherlands, spain, gibraltar and france. Before leaving chennai, i was assured by the salesman, one cheat named kamaraj, that he was giving me a deal of no rental for all sim cards for the entire duration, and i was going to be charged only for the usage - text messages and outgoing calls, with incoming calls being free.
The mistakes i made were: 1. I signed all those forms given to me in a hurry, not checking the fine print and 2. Not checking the bills which were being emailed to me while on tour, as i was quite busy and had very limited internet access.
On returning to india, i have found that i have been charged rentals for the whole period, the reason being that, this was what has been provided me in the past, which is also not entirely true - i have been given free rentals as well as charged for them in the past 2 trips. But the point is, the salesman assured me a deal, took my signature, went back to the office, and coolly charged me rental, which is totally unacceptable.
On contacting customer service, i have been plainly told that it was my decision to sign the form without reading it believing the salesman, and they don’t care if i used the sim cards or not. It is obvious if anyone reads the bills, that i have been charged rentals for long stretches of periods when i hadn’t used it in any way - even when the mobilewas switched off, believing that i was on a rent free plan.
If i had picked up a vodafone or any other local provider in europe, i would have got a pre paid sim card for 50 euro valid for a period of one year, with only the usage being charged.
Stop press!!
This is (almost) unbelievable, but i am (almost) pleasantly shocked to state that, further to writing the above review, within 3 days, i have been contacted first by the head of sales in matrix chennai, and again by ms.sharleen rajput, asst general manager from matrix customer care - delhi, who has read this review(!) , who listened to all the facts of the case, and have further followed up with promises of reversal of half of the rental charges, and a redeemable voucher on a future usage. I am really impressed with these developments, and will revert back on this forum and really give a proper and fuller review, once the assured rollbacks / benefits really materialize.
To all of you who have (still) unresolved grievances with matrix billing, i suggest that u contact the same ms.rajput at harleen.rajput@matrix.in or by fax at +91 11 26808400 - she does sound customer friendly, and after all, she really seemed to have done something for me. (and i don’t think its fair to give her telephone numbers here in a public forum).
No - i’m not trying to advertise for matrix here . I am trying to pass on a genuine-looking source of help in resolving your grievances with matrix, who are caught with the local contacts who are typically unhelpful, and the customer care call center people who simply may not care for your case. Often, you will b lucky to get someone genuine higher up in an organisation willing to listen to you, and it will be great if any of u get to benefit because of this contact i am providing .
I am also amazed and happy about the power of a public forum like mouthshut . It does really help to take constructive and active steps to resolve consumer grievances!