It is not uncommon to see Value Added Services [VAS] charges on your post-paid mobile bill or see your friend complain lot of times that Rs 30 got deducted from his pre-paid currency. All these are unsolicited acts of mobile service providers and Vodafone is the first victim.
TRAI has ordered Vodafone India to refund charges on such unsolicited acts to customers within 15 days. Most of such things are taken up by TRAI for investigation after complaints from customers and active bloggers. TRAI then begins the investigation and if needed asks for the entire system audit. TRAI said,
We have been corresponding with Vodafone for a long time and the service provider admitted to a technical error. Based on Vodafone’s explanation it cannot be concluded that the value added service was provided with explicit consent of the consumers, especially when consumers have denied having given any such consent.
Reliance Communications is another company activating Caller Tunes without customers consent. Bharti Airtel activated subsidized ISD calling [1/4th the prevailing rate] and withdrew it without informing the customer.
