MTS India: Gross Cheating of Customer with a Serving of Agony

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider of our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

Having seen the TV ads for "superfast" MTS 3G Ultra internet, I contacted one of the MTS agents listed on the MTS website. The MTS representative lied telling me that Rs. 1299.00 postpaid bags me both the device and one month of 10GB "free" usage. I asked for a demo to which the agent agreed. He came to my residence with a package saying the demo "wasn't available at the moment". I anyway bought the package in good faith as I needed internet.

I was shocked when I learnt that 1299.00 is just for the proprietary dongle. There is no bundled bandwidth. I would have got prepaid if I wasn't deceived. Plus, billing starts retrospectively, even before activation of services!

The service itself is spotty and unusable. Top that off with an irresponsible customer service and you get a mother lode of crap. My woes began as soon as I attempted to use the "service". Here are excerpts of the correspondence with MTS India after telephonic attempts to MTS Supervisors were unsuccessful:

Aug 9:

Dear Sir,
I have bought a postpaid MTS Mblaze Ultra WiFi no. 8459545322 on 31.07.2015 from your Authorised Shop Aarav Communication.
I was told that 1299 covers the cost of the device as well as one month of your 12+12GB by your seller. However customer care told me this is not so.
I wish to point out that the device was activated on 01.08.2015 but customer care said prorata billing starts from 31.07.2015. How is this possible?
I asked to speak to the Supervisor but no one was available and the call was disconnected.
Your network either is down or very slow. YouTube and email are unusable.
Kindly explain why I should not file a case of cheating with the police.

MTS replies ad nauseum:

 Thank you for writing to MTS.
We regret the inconvenience you are experiencing in this regards. At MTS, we believe that our customers inputs / feedback helps to improvise our services and ensure that we strive towards achieving customer satisfaction.

We take pride in enhancing our customers with our response and friendly approach. It has always been our constant endeavor to ensure, that our customers are delighted by our inimitable approach.
Please do write in for further assistance.

They served me a bill for less than a fortnight. I paid it. But service didn't improve let alone work as advertised.

I followed up with MTS:

In your reply dated 10.08.2015, you have not addressed any of my concerns regarding the billing and performance of the said MTS postpaid number 8459545322 in my email dated 9th August 2015. Kindly answer the following completely and with integrity:

1. What is the assured speed of this wireless broadband service?
2. How much downtime is acceptable?
3. Why is there a disparity in actual and advertised performance and reliability?
4. Is internet traffic shaping employed?
5. Is the purchase date of the device the same as the activation date of the device?
6. What does the Rs.1299/- paid upfront cover?
7. Why was there no Supervisor available at the time of contacting Customer Care?
8. Why was no customer complaint number generated?
9. Why was the call disconnected by Customer Care without informing the Customer?
10. Why was no intimation by post or email sent to the customer regarding start of plan, billing, terms and conditions, acknowledgement of payment? 

MTS India issues the same reply, so I reminded them:

It is noted that you, the MTS Appellate Authority, refused to reply to my email dated 10.08.2015.
Answer the following completely and with integrity:

1. What is the assured speed of this wireless broadband service?
2. How much downtime is acceptable?
3. Why is there a disparity in actual and advertised performance and reliability?Is internet traffic shaping employed?
4. Is the purchase date of the device the same as the activation date of the device?
5. What does the Rs.1299/- paid upfront cover?
6. Why was there no Supervisor available at the time of contacting Customer Care?Why was no customer complaint number generated?
7. Why was the call disconnected by Customer Care without informing the Customer?
8. Why was no intimation by post or email sent to the customer regarding start of plan, billing, terms and conditions, acknowledgement of payment?
9. Provide the contact details of your CEO for further follow up. 

MTS doesn't even reply this time and I get fed up with their stalling and issue a cancellation request:

Sir,

In view of your refusal to answer my previous emails, your shoddy service, and misinforming me, you are hereby requested to cancel my connection postpaid MTS Mblaze Ultra WiFi no. 8459545322 with immediate effect.

Only billing upto 02.09.2015 will be entertained.

Besides your confirmation of my cancellation request, no further correspondence from you will be entertained.

Kindly refund the cost of the device and collect the same from my residence.

MTS issues same perfunctory reply along with a lengthy section on cleaning out your browser. 

On Twitter, MTS India notifies me that they have disconnected the connection:

Later, MTS harasses me and threatens action for a bill AFTER DISCONNECTION

Naturally, I file a complaint

MTS India,

I have repeatedly complained through the proper channels of your non-service to this customer – see trailing mail. As of 8th September 2015, MTS no. 8459545322 was disconnected and the same is public knowledge vide Twitter – see screenshot. This number was disconnected for the following reasons:
1.       Unusable internet service
2.       Deceitful sales practices – misleading the customer on cost, plans, benefits
3.       Inaccessible customer service
4.       Appellate Authority’s inaction and refusal to answer my questions – see trailing mail

I have demanded, fairly and as a right, that you as an ethical company make good the loss I have incurred by purchasing your now defunct dongle for Rs. 1299.00.

In spite of repeatedly informing you of your non-delivery of service, you have again levied another bill of Rs. 882.00  – despite the connection being disconnected and inactive. You have even closed my online account thereby preventing me from monitoring and verifying my account records. You have repeatedly made threatening calls to my family.

You will refund the loss of 1299.00 I have suffered for purchase of a non-functioning service and issue a public apology for harassment of this customer.

I am considering police action against you for harassment and cheating. 

To which they reply :

Dear Customer,
Thank you for writing to MTS.
We regret the inconvenience you are experiencing in this regards. At MTS, we believe that our customers inputs / feedback helps to improvise our services and ensure that we strive towards achieving customer satisfaction.
You have expressed your concern in the email dated Sat, 24th October '2015 regarding postpaid MTS number 8459545322 about billing issue, we would like to inform you that if the services of an account is in active status from our end and the customer has not requested for account cancellation, then customer is liable to pay the daily rental along with service tax irrespective of the usages done or not as it is a postpaid services. This is standard across all type of services. We can see that currently there is an outstanding amount of 882/-. We would request you to pay the same.
We wish to assure you that we have registered your feedback and would be working to ensure that this is incorporated in our service delivery in future.
We take pride in enhancing our customers with our response and friendly approach. It has always been our constant endeavor to ensure, that our customers are delighted by our inimitable approach.
Please do write in for further assistance.
Thanking you,
MTS Appellate Authority

So merely having an MTS account means you get charged, service or no service!

Here's the fitting reply for MTS:

Sir,

You have stated "if an account is in active status from our end and the customer has not requested for account cancellation, then customer is liable to pay the daily rental along with service tax irrespective of the usages done or not as it is a postpaid services".
Such an irresponsible statement from you does not absolve you of your responsibilities to your customer. 
The dongle you provided would not connect to your service. I have repeatedly complained to you since Aug 9th 2015 and you were informed of your device/service being inactive and unsable. Merely having a customer account with you without delivering services as promised to the customer and demanding payment for no service is an unethical malpractice on part of MTS India and a breach of contract. 
After non resolution of the problem and your repeatedly stalling, a cancellation request was intimated in writing on 2nd Sept 2015.
The short use of the services by this customer from activation date Aug 3rd 2015 to the first complaint vide email dated 9th Aug 2015 is proof of your gross deficiency in service. You would do best as a responsible company to cancel this fake bill and refund the cost of the dongle to me. 
This correspondence will be shared  with public authorities to facilitate accountability of MTS India to the nation.
I expect a written apology from you and the refund of Rs. 1299.00. Kindly collect the long defunct device from my residence against payment of refund to me.  

Now the correct, ethical course of action would be for MTS India to send a Management Executive to personally tender a written apology and deliver a Demand Draft of Rs. 1299.00.

Instead they tweeted on Oct 29th telling me to pay and made a contradictory statement that services were disconnected much later. Thus, MTS India violated TRAI regulations on disconnection timeline of services on customer request. MTS contradicted their earlier tweet saying that they disconnected services on Sept 8th.

To cheat the customer, they delay or don't respond in order to push you into the next bill cycle.

It is worth noting that MTS has not sent anything written - nada, not even a bill. They never answered any of my queries. In fact they now threaten this customer via Gmail accounts and spam calls.

Thank you for reading. I hope this exposé will help consumers get their value from and choose ethical companies. You may appreciate the malicious intent of MTS in using delay tactics to push the customer into the next bill cycle by ignoring their complaints - making the customer, the stakeholder, suffer. The customer purchases services in good faith in exchange for payment. Clearly, MTS has breached that good faith. It is absurd and abominable that MTS, instead of creating value and satisfaction for the customer, chooses to lose its bottomline by harassing and cheating the very stakeholder the company exists for.

Do try a service/product before you buy!