Customer woes are not restricted to device manufacturers alone

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Customer woes are not restricted to device manufacturers alone. Aggrieved consumers like Rajesh Kinra says, "Reliance Telecommunication advertises a calling plan -- unlimited calls to any network inside India with a recharge of Rs 599 per month -- and I fell for it. Not only does the operator provide a limited time (30 minutes) every day, but it also cleverly never mentions this information in its broadcasted radio ads."

When Vodafone pre-paid subscriber Tapas Kumar Mukherjee received an SMS offering him unlimited music on a toll free number, he called back on the mentioned number which turned out to be an advertisement. The same day, Mukherjee got another SMS that claimed he was now a subscriber of Vodafone's music junction.

"It (Vodafone) had already deducted Rs 30 from my account without any requests from me," he notes on consumercourt.in.

Vodafone in its reply states, "We follow well-structured policies and standards for various categories of customer service activities. The turnaround time for each service activity is communicated to the customer and we strive to resolve customer complaints within the communicated timelines."

Airtel subscriber, Harjen, too, was automatically added to Airtel's Hello Tunes service with a subsequent deduction of Rs 15 for the service activation.

"I am going to the consumer court to settle things if necessary actions are not taken soon," says this irate customer. Despite deactivating the service and getting a confirmation for the same, he was again charged Rs 15 for Hello Tunes, for the second time in the same month. An email to an Airtel spokesperson remained unanswered.