Vodafone Idea Directed To Pay Rs 50,000 In Compensation To Senior Citizen For Mental Harrasment

A consumer commission here has directed Vodafone Idea to pay Rs 50,000 in compensation to a senior citizen for mental harassment following the abrupt disconnection of his mobile services and not letting him use international roaming pack data.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (Central Mumbai) held the mobile service provider guilty of service deficiency for causing "inconvenience, mental, and financial harassment and agony" in an order passed on Monday.

The complainant, a resident of Mumbai, had opted for an international roaming pack (I- RoamFree) on his mobile number for 28 days from May 2, 2019. In addition to unlimited incoming and outgoing calls, the plan provided 5.2 GB of internet data.

The complainant started using the plan after visiting Kenya on May 2, 2019. He consumed about 75% of the data (out of 5.2 GB).

He used the data during his visit to Victoria in Zimbabwe for two days believing that the region was covered under the pack. He claimed to have not received any message from the service provider informing him that the Victoria Falls area is not covered under the plan.

The complainant also didn't receive any cautionary message informing him about a roaming rate schedule which kicks in whenever one enters a new country.

After the consumer used a nominal 124 MB data, his mobile phone service was abruptly stopped by Vodafone Idea sans any intimation mail or message, the complaint stated. The service provider unreasonably imposed a heavy cost of Rs 72,419.

The complainant returned to Kenya within 2 days and requested the company to restore his services and allow him to use the remaining data from the 5 GB pack, but the service provider rejected his request and asked him to pay around Rs 60,000 towards service restoration.

The complainant raised the matter with the customer relationship cell, nodal officers, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), among others, but failed to get a response.

After being out of service for nearly 40 days, the complainant was compelled to pay a bill of Rs 86,290, including GST.

The complainant alleged wrongful loss due to service deficiency on the part of Vodafone Idea by illegally disconnecting the network services.

The mobile service provider argued that the customer knew only 77 countries were listed in the discounted rate plan. For the rest, standard international charges are applicable for usage under the I-RoamFree Pack.

As Zimbabwe was not among the 77 countries, the complainant was billed at the standard rate, the company said.

The commission held that the complainant was entitled to avail of the benefit of I -RoamFree Pack after returning to Kenya which he had availed for Rs 5,999 for 28 days and had not fully exhausted the data.

"We hold that the opposite party was deficient in the service to the extent of not informing the complainant in advance about the applicable roaming charges, arbitrarily letting him use the roaming services up to Rs 72,419, forcing him to clear the same and disconnecting his services abruptly and not restoring it even at Kenya," the commission observed.

The complainant, who is a senior citizen, was deprived of the services even in the country (Kenya) to which it was applicable caused inconvenience, mental, and financial harassment and agony for which he is entitled to be compensated and directed the mobile service provider to pay Rs 50,000 and Rs 10,00 towards the cost of filing the complaint.