Dear Friends,
I live in a small, wonderful green city named Jamshedpur. Matrix cellular does not have any branch/office in Jamshedpur. Since I had to visit Brazil for some time and I came to know of Matrix cellular I advised my company travel agent to arrange a sim card for me.
Here I would like to mention that I advised my travel agent just 36 hours short of my flight time. My travel agent is very fast in action & got all forms signed by me on the same moment. Infact matrix was very prompt to issue me a connection at such a short interval. I received the sim card after Immigration & at departure gates. The person briefed me properly about matrix & also told me that I was supposed to return the sim cards after use.
Initially my plan of visiting Brazil was for around 40 days and the same was informed to Matrix during purchase of connection. However actual visit duration was around 26 days. There is no Matrix office in Jamshedpur where we can deposit the sim card after use. So immediately after my return in India in Kolkata I called the person who supported me for issuing connection (Bijoy) and asked him the place where I can return the sim card. I intended to return the sim-card before I left Kolkata for Jamshedpur & close the chapter.
However he told me that its not a problem & I can return the card conveniently to the Jamshedpur travel agent. However to my surprise I was charged for the rent of phone for the entire planned duration of trip & billed for more than 1 cycle despite the fact I was back in India in less than 1 month and informed Matrix of the same. Customer service people told me that the bill is issued by their partner so they cant help it & moreover the sim card was not received by them in time. (Apparently my travel agent delayed in returning the sim card to Matrix)
As Matrix takes credit card details & debit user upon generation of bills, user has no control on payments unless we advice credit card company to stop payments.(I did not try that) You also will not be able to do that since they ensure you sign on all relevant documents that will require you to pay money to them in event of generation of bill. There were also some issues regarding debiting money without providing bill to me.
The point I am making here is that they have charged me for mistake of their people and are not providing any redressal of grievance. I realized It would have been really much better had I purchased a prepaid connection from Brazil itself. I am going to do that where ever I travel in future.