- Report: #1286159
Complaint Review: Vodaphone - Nationwide
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Author Not Confirmed
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Vodaphone
Nationwide, USA
Web:
www.vodaphone.com
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Vodaphone Fraud, criminal activity, theft Worldwide Worldwide
The following describes the fraud conducted by Vodaphone. We sent the below to Vodaphone some time ago and asked them to address the situation, but they did not provide a satisfactory response. So, we are publishing this to help others who may be subjected to the same fraud.
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I write to advise of apparent criminal activity taking place at your Vodaphone branch at Connaught Place in Delhi, India.
My partner and I attended there approximately two weeks ago to purchase a SIM card and add data and talk time. We were assisted by a young male employee who took certain funds from us in exchange for the SIM card, data, and talk time. He represented that we would receive certain data and talk time for the amount paid. He did not offer a receipt but, after some prompting on our part, finally agreed to jot down the amounts paid on a slip of paper for our records.
Once the phone became activated a few hours later, it was apparent that we had not received any of the data and talk time that we had paid for. Unfortunately, we were unable to return to the Vodaphone branch at that time because we were due to travel elsewhere in India. Instead, we purchased additional data and talk time from a third party, thereby paying again for what we should have received at the outset.
Approximately one week later, upon our return to Delhi, we returned to the Vodaphone branch to address this matter. The young male employee who initially assisted us was not there, so we spoke to a different employee about the situation. He advised us that there has been "fraudulent activity" at the Vodaphone branch in recent periods by which individuals like us had been deprived of the data and talk time purchased. He told us that the scheme effectively involved an employee or employees siphoning a portion of the proceeds paid into their own pockets and never adding the data and talk time purchased by the customer. The scheme presumably relied on the ignorance of customers and the probability that they would not receive or care to demand a receipt.
This report alarmed us, so we asked for him to rectify the situation. He told us that he could not do so because we didn't have a receipt. To his surprise, we told him we did, but that we did not have it on our person at that time. He told us to bring it in and that he would process a refund.
We attended with the receipt the next day. The employee that we spoke to the day before was not there, but the young male employee that processed our initial purchase was there. We approached him regarding the situation. After various evasion on his part, he effectively admitted that we hadn't received what we paid for. We pushed for a refund, and he spent the next 45 minutes giving us the run around, presumably in an effort to make us go away. Most notably, he advised that he was powerless to assist until the "manager" (an individual he said was sitting behind a glass door on the upper floor) was available to assist.
After waiting for a great deal of time and becoming quite frustrated, I opened the glass door and approached the "manager". The poor individual behind the door meekly advised me that he was not the manager, and said that a senior-looking employee standing on the sales floor was the manager. Interestingly, that manager had been standing by all along, presumably also hoping we would get tired of waiting and leave. After some further discussion, an employee reached into his pocket, gave us the money to which we were entitled and told us to leave. No apology was offered for the theft or waste of our time. The incident felt like an attempt to silence us and cover up a fraud.
By the admission of your own employee, there is criminal activity occurring at your branch and it appears that management may be complicit in that activity. In my experience, employees engaging in such activity should be immediately dismissed or suffer a very serious reprimand.
We look forward to hearing from you regarding the measures that will be taken by Vodaphone to stamp out this criminal activity. We believe it appropriate to warn the general public of this through social media and other channels, but we will not take that step if we are assured that proper steps have or will be taken to put an end to this activity.
