Vodafone Anger The Masses: Social Media Backfiring On Them?

While Vodafone may be one of the biggest gainers from Mobile Number Portability(MNP), it certainly does not mean there are no unsatisfied customers. With the advent of new media and the rise of Social Media, customers have an outlet to vent if a company isn’t dealing with them satisfactorily.

Dhaval Valia, a consumer of Loop Mobile for last six years, switched to VodafoneIndia on April 15 because he wanted 3G services. Unfortunately the service was not available in Kandivali where he lived, which Vodafone initially communicated that the area has 3G network. Valia fought against Vodafones’s false service level agreement (SLA) that Mumbai had complete coverage of 3G (Kandivali is part of Mumbai).
After a month of debate, Valia finally got the Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone India to admit that it was misleading to the customers. As compensation, Valia was then offered a free two-month 3G plan worth Rs. 2500 ($55). Being a media-savvy person, Valia shared the incident with its community on Facebook as he knew that there were others too who were in the same boat.

His post soon garnered a lot of likes and comments, showing that other people too had similar grievances.  The case soon escalated with allegations of privacy infringement, hacking and tapping of phones thrown from one side, while allegations of harassment and continuous calling of senior executives from the other.

The case soon garnered a lot of media coverage, even getting a Mumbai Mirror front-page article. This could have been what forced Vodafone to drop legal action. He soon got an email from Samaresh Parida, director of Strategy at Vodafone India saying:

“I would like to reiterate that we sincerely and categorically regret the situation and the mental agony caused to you. The most important thing was that, as a customer, you were unhappy and our effort was to see how we could provide the service that would bridge the gap and make a fresh start in a manner of speaking. On our part, we have unilaterally stopped communicating to media. Please accept our efforts as genuine,”

The entire incident has been carefully observed by many, and there are a lot of opinions on what should have been done. It has been said that a company that says it is ‘Happy to Help’ cannot take action on a customer so publicly and it is better to concede a little for one’s brand image. However, the problem also shows signs of a deeper problem. The reason why the customer got so frustrated could be because of misleading and untrained Customer Care staff.I too have personally experienced this.

When you call 111 or Customer Care from your phone, the people who handle your queries have regularly given me false information, activated and de-activated wrong plans and in general do not have any idea what they are doing. The average customer is bound to get frustrated.

Vodafone have, however, used Twitter to their advantage. They have a handle on Twitter: @VodafoneIN and the staff handling the account and queries of people are refreshingly well trained, courteous and knowledgeable.  Numerous times they have solved the problems of mine and many other users. If they can find more employees like them, Vodafone will have a lot less problems.

What about you? Have you used Social Media to inform others about companies mistreating you? Do let us know