Prepaid customers fume as Vodafone deducts Rs 99 towards international roaming without approval

Several users of Vodafone have complained of the telco arbitrarily deducting Rs 99 from their accounts for international roaming charges on June 2.

The company sent an SMS to the users that read: "Dear Customer, this is to inform you that a rental amount of Rs.99 has been deducted towards International Roaming rental for 30 days."

Vodafone offers a Rs 99 package to make calls while international roaming is activated. However, most of the users who received the “deduction” message in the wee hours of June 2, did not avail of the applicable services under the package.

@VodafoneIN @vodafone

Can you please explain the reason for deducting Rs 99 towards international roaming ? I am in India for last 2 years. Why you deducted for international roaming ? pic.twitter.com/IxdENcGphQ

— Mrinal Ghosh (@cricpost) June 2, 2020

VodafoneIN deducted Rs. 99 for International Roaming. Without customers' approval.
Every vodafone prepaid sim card user has received this message today.@VodafoneIN @TRAI #vodafonescam pic.twitter.com/JTVvDzrJJd

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— Atul Kore (@atulkore123) June 2, 2020

#vodafone
Early in the morning you guys sms me and deducted my balance by Rs 99 against international roaming days. I haven't activated any service. Since last one hour I am calling on customer care number it showing number is busy. I m unable to call other localno

@VodafoneIN pic.twitter.com/wFhMHf7gXX

— Ravi Gupta (@rguptakarma) June 2, 2020

Vodafone deducted Rs. 99 for International Roaming.
This is a scam. Every user (prepaid) has received this message today.
With a customer base of 33 crores this is a huge profit for them of over Rs 2000 crores.
Give my money back u Bellend

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Chor company @VodafoneIN @VodafoneUK pic.twitter.com/onMNC8KOG8

— Arijit (@arijitcoold) June 2, 2020

Hi! We apologize for the trouble caused. We have escalated your issue to our team. We will update you at the earliest - Arya

— Vodafone (@VodafoneIN) June 2, 2020

One Quora user going by the name Loren Eva wrote: "I did everything I could to deactivate the international roaming service for which Vodafone deducted Rs 99 from my balance. But every time I opened the Vodafone application or called 199 to check my 'active plans', it said 'there are no active plans on your number'."

An old Quora response from a Vodafone trainee named Shreya Nair to a similar complaint raised in December 2018 also, read: "In prepaid connections, international roaming is pre-activated at the rate of Rs 99 per month. If a person doesn't use the connection to make calls, send text messages, or receive incoming calls, the amount does not get deducted."

Later that evening, Vodafone sent out another message to all its prepaid users saying they had "erroneously charged Rs 99" and that the amount has been credited back to the source accounts.

A screengrab of the apology message sent out by Vodafone later on June 3

The telco also released an official statement on June 2, which read: "Due to a technical issue, a few customers received a message about an erroneous charge. The same has been corrected and appropriate credit is done for the impacted customers. We are fully committed to best in class service to all our customers and regret the inconvenience."