Seems like telecom service providers across Pakistan are resorting to desperate measures to make a quick buck out of their customers. I have been a loyal ufone customer for quite a number of years now but I have been driven to a point of utmost disgust!
Last year my postpaid billing experience was a super nightmare where I ended up paying Rs. 8000 in one month without even having used the service worth that much. Even after making countless visits and calls to the customer center in Clifton I was never given any clarity on this exorbitant bill amount. Even then they drove me to a point where I lost my patience chasing their managers without getting a single satisfactory response for the various requests I’d filed to see the detailed bill. Losing so much money I converted back to prepaid letting this billing fiasco go as bygone. But ufone doesn’t want to give up! It wants to fleece the customer even by a Rupee whenever they get the chance, even if that means NOT INFORMING THE CUSTOMER. Let me outline what all they have subjected me to since the past few months.
First they start bombarding you with promotional SMSes. Then the unnecessary and uncalled for deluge of useless value added services. If it was just a notification it could surely be ignored. But a “Dear customer your VAS has been activated” SMS I’m sure is followed by a thought that screams ‘Here, use our VAS that you never even requested for. We will give you this for free for a month. We are confident you will forget to deactivate it and we will then get the license to rob you off your credit every month for activation and daily charges for the same’.
My first reaction to such underhanded tactics is absolute confusion. The first proper thought I have is ‘Oh! I must deactivate this so that I don’t lose all my credit for something I didn’t even subscribe to. I should do this now before I am punished in case I forget to deactivate this “FREE VALUE ADDED SERVICE”’. The fact that this interesting detail about the ‘FREE VAS’ is only revealed after way too many holds and after wasting 10 to 15 minutes on the helpline, which I might add is also charged, talking to a customer services rep who can’t wait to hang up your call.
A few days later another SMS read “Dear customer you are now subscribed to ubuddy. Now you can track your friends anywhere they go”. Now why would I want to do something like that?! Do I not have a life? Or should I buy a cat and call it life to prove it?!?! I called up the helpline to ask what the hell this is. The far from eloquent response I get from yet another near suicidal helpline rep was “Oh Maam, its free”. The thought that I read behind that was ‘We want you to experience our desperate measures to undermine competition. But we are hiding the costs of this activation from you unless you ask us the dreaded cost question’. I asked “So am I being charged?” The ufone helpline rep casually utters “Oh yes! Ofcourse Maam. Until you deactivate this service you will be charged Rs. XYZ per month.” I can recall that I couldn’t help but think ‘WOW! I absolutely MUST deactivate this stalker VAS. Even a single Rupee is precious to me. And why shouldn’t it be?! Why should I just dish out my hard earned money to these uncalled for value added services? As it is the taxes they cut from our credit transfer and card recharges have never been disclosed. Who knows where they go? More so the so called ‘Amazing Packages’ namely Uth package offers a call to Friends and Family (FnF) for Rs. 2.99 for the first two minutes and then free for the hour. What they conveniently omit to mention is that ‘We (ufone) will cut off signals and give you bad network coverage so that you have to cut off your call every 10 minutes in order to dial again for the R.s 2.99 and then FREE! If we don’t give you bad network how will we make money? And yes, we are competing with international call rates and we claim to be best but we go on compromising QUALITY because we don’t want connections. We want MONEY, MONEY AND MORE MONEY! So if you’re dying and your call is not getting through please remember someone is making money out of your death. This may help you die in peace!
Oh no! I am getting carried away. I need to talk about the very important and very essential VALUE ADDED SERVICE.
It was a fresh evening of Ramzan when I am about to indulge in the goodies at Iftar when I receive a pleasant SMS from ufone which read “Dear Customer, your requested VAS has been activated”. Samosa has now been put back on the plate and confusion has taken over my fasting mind. Without waiting even five minutes I call the ufone helpline. “Hello Ms. Beenish, this is Essa, how may I help you?” I go on to explain “Sorry for disturbing at Iftar time Essa but I needed to clarify this SMS I got from ufone about activation of VAS. I did not send any requests and I am confused about this activation.” Essa requests “Please wait on line while we check” Meanwhile the clock is ticking and the samosas are waiting. Minute later surprisingly I am put off hold and Essa says “Thank you for holding Ms. Beenish. As off today 31 August 2010 no VAS has been activated on your number. You can ignore the SMS.” I thank him for his assistance and continue to eat all I want.
1 September 2010, I find myself staring at an SMS that read “you have a missed call from xxxx at 1:37 pm.” Interesting SMS but wasn’t my VAS inactivated?! I called the helpline in severe puzzlement! Some lady from customer center picked up and here I am too angry to remember her name. “Yes so I checked yesterday, ufone help said no service was activated and now I get this SMS proving otherwise. Why?” The lady responded “Yes, it’s activated.” I question “Why is it active? I never sent any request. How much credit have you cut off?” She responds “Please wait on line Maam.” Holding listening to Quranic Ayats wondering how much integrity is ufone left with. The lady hits the off hold button and says ”Yes Maam, would you like to deactivate?” I instantly retorted, “Hello! That’s a secondary concern. My primary concern is how did it activate itself in the first place, knowing I sent no request.” She tries to explain “Yes Maam, you sent NO request but let me confirm that without permission of the customers ufone does not activate any services.” I couldn’t help but respond in anger “Really, that’s what I am saying HOW did it activate itself?” She goes on to explain “Yes Maam, we are confirming that we do not activate without permission. An automated call was sent to all customers. If you did not follow instructions it would not have activated.” Still confused I say “Okay so I missed the call does that mean it got activated? “ She responds “No Maam, if you missed the call it could not have gotten activated.” Still puzzled I say “So how did it activate?” Yet again she says “Maam, would you like to deactivate this?” Furious now at the implication of lying “Arghhhh! So I am lying? Is that it?” Ignoring my annoyance “Maam, would you like to deactivate? If so please dial blah blah blah blah…” and then line is cut off. How? Bad network or did the lady feel that this customer is going to start with a list of things so I must cut her off now….
Oh might I add, this is a seemingly small amount of 83 paisas + tax DAILY but with 20 million customers imagine how much money 83 paisas+tax along with activation charges makes them?
Is there any explanation to all of this NONSENSE? Is this what I get for being a loyal customer? Or loyalty and quality are now the least important aspects of this once glorious industry? How much more credit am I donating to this company without my knowledge? Are they really in need of these donations? Maybe we can have a chandaper year for them also. Atleast we will get a better service!
ufone: Cheap call rates, CHEAP Service, CHEAP attempts to make money, CHEAP COMPANY!
Yes ufone tum hi to ho!
The recent “win a house” and a “GLI” car promotion was a big scam. Apparently, the winners shown through their advertisement turned out to be their own employees.
I am also a victim of Ufone great services. Ufone is a crap.
@Beenish
The fact of the matter is there nothing what we may call Customer Service in Pakistan. You may not even be able to give 1 example company. Secondly all businesses operating in Pakistan are ready to rip off a shred of what you own. In your story is a BIG Scam … its a day light looting by a licenses company. Great. 8000/month wow in any other developed country in that money you will get perhaps you will easily get 1200 free minutes unlimited text, high speed internet and ofcourse some phone like iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S. In Pakistan what you are getting is lousy SMSs… have fun
Ufone is crap.
Warid services are the best in Pakistan.
Agreed with Beenish. they r cheap people, cheap mentality, cheap ways to suck money like the cheap president of Pakistan-Zardari. So in fllowing him everyone is runnign after the cheap ways to suck money from other’s pockets.
Country is at the edge of collapse.
@Beenish
After reading whatever you have written I would say that it is not your fault normally in our country we have people like you have a habit of criticizing anything and everything that comes their way and they never appreciate. Anyways, I have been a user of Ufone as well as some other networks from quite some time now and I do not have similar experiences as quoted by you. Rather I would like to say that other networks have been making false commitments to their customers. They show something else on their TV Ads and when you use their services they charge you differently.
Try using some other networks I bet they will Jazzzzz your anger to another level
Since you have been a user of Ufone from the beginning and based on your experiences why are you still on Ufone then 
leave it please (Teri Mehrbani).
Over here it seems that you have exaggerated the complete scenario based on some small experiences I think you are influenced by our news channel or you must be a strong follower of GEO News
just as they start whining about issues and leave them in the midst, for the audiences to solve…… Why don’t you publish your number as well so that people may help you out toooooooo.
My advise to you get some experience from other cellular companies as well and then comment.
I am also one the Ufone victims. I am in qatar and my prepaid sim had balance of RS-200/. after one month i went to pakistan and checked balance, it was RS-94/- only. I called UFone call center and complaineed. i was replied we found nothing, we don,t know what happened that your balance dropped. i am unable to understand while every thing is recorded in uFone server why this balance dropped not in their record.
All mobile companies in Pakistan looting the people of Pakistan.
Imagine they have have to deduct tax from your Balance if you done Shaukat Khanam, sahara of for flood afectees.
Mr elusive seems to be a paid spokescow for this disgusting u fone service.
PPP ZINDA BAAD. RULERS DAAKOO, ALL CHOORES. I AM SUBSCRIBER OF ZONG, THEY ARE ALSO THE SAME. ONE DAY I WAS DISCUSSING THE PRESIDENT WITH MY FRIEND, I SAID ” PRESIDENT IS A BIG CHOORE”. HE REPLIED ” NO NO SAZA WE ALL ARE CHOORS OUR PRESIDENT IS DAKOO”, I AGREED. I HOPE ALL OF YOU WILL AGREE TOO.
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