I am not sure why I opted for this service provider for my wife’s mobile when we shifted to Pune! I had bought a Airtel connection and I was not very happy with the network coverage and I wanted to try some other option when someone(he is absconding now!) suggested "Idea".
What so ever, I took the connection which was a life time pre-paid option with full talk-time re-charge facility sometime in Feb 2006.
The connection was never good & most of the time I could never connect to my wife’s mobile(not sure if she had it configured that way!) but things were manageable.
Couple of months later, the full talk-time re-charge facility was withdrawn without giving us any reason. Sometime in Aug 2006, I got to hear a dialer tone on my wife’s phone and though knowing that she’s a no-nonsense mobile user who would never subscribe to any such service, I still checked with her if she has subscribed for a dialer tone. "What dialer tone?" came the expected reply. I tried calling up their call centre but could never reach them.
There was a deduction of Rs30 after this for every re-charge(& at the beginning of the month! randomly though!) that I made & this was getting on my wife’s nerve. She keeps low balances on her phone most of the time and to find the last 30 bucks disappear in the beginning of some month without notice is really frustrating.
Life really changed after this! I called up their call centre and the following is the excerpts of our conversation:
Me: Why are you deducting Rs30 for a dialer tone when I did not ask for it?
They: Sir, as per our records you asked for it.
Me: Do you have any proof? any written one or some SMS that I sent?
They: Sir, you spoke with our IVR system on 18 Aug & subscribed for it.
Me: I do not take any un-solicited calls but still can you give me the reference to this chat?
They: Sir, that is confidential stuff we cannot share
(Frustrated) Me: Okay, please go ahead & un-subscribe to it
They: Sir, you will have to call up SOME-NUMBER & speak with our IVR System and press ZZZZ and .
(More frustrated) Me: Hold On! When you so very easily subscribe un-willing customers to your dialer tones, why is the un-subscribing process so very complex?
They: He he he!(Bhakra!)
(Furious) Me: Look, I want you to un-subscribe me from this service right now or else I will approach the consumer forum!
(a bit apologetic) They: Sir, that would not be necessary. I have noted your complaint No which will be SMSed to you shortly. We will un-subscribe your dialer tone.
An year down the line, lot more Rs 30 deductions later, many more complaint numbers have been generated & SMSed but the situation has not changed much.
I have stopped calling them up after one of their executives mentioned that she could not understand English nor could she follow my broken-Hindi!
Sigh! Life has really changed after I bought Idea cellular for my wife! But I could have surely done without this change!