Hi Max,
Since I did not get a response from Nodal officer I wrote an email to Appellate Authority at Hutch telling them that if a proper response is not given in 10 working days, I would file a case with consumer court. Today I got a call from that department:
This is what they said:
All calls to Maharashtra and Goa are charged at local rates (i.e 1.99 for prepaid). But on promotional offers given, hutch has no restrictions on fixing charges made to any phone. So since its a Promotional offer Hutch deserves the right to fix the charges and limit the promotion to only Hutch Mumbai numbers and charge normal rates to Hutch Maharashta numbers.
So this female was very smart in saying that we are following all directives by TRAI and treating all calls to Maharashtra and Goa as local calls but Hutch deserves the right to govern charges on additional promotional offers.
Then I inquired about why sms is charged at Rs.2 (which is a charge for National Sms) instead of charging 1.50 (for prepaid) when Maharashtra and Mumbai are one circle? This is what she said:
TRAI order on Maharashtra and Mumbai to be treated as one circle only specifies about calls to be treated as local calls, the order does not say anything about sms to be treated as local. She suggested that I can write to TRAI and seek clarification on sms to be treated as local and if we at Hutch receive any such directive by TRAI we will surely abide by it as we always abide by all directives of TRAI and exhibit fair play and good service to our customers.
This female who called and spoke to me was definitely not a call center employee but someone from the management because she was well prepared to answer me and also had the TRAI directive and guidelines handy as she read it out to me when I raised the issue of sms.
So no use of taking the issue to anywhere else like the consumer court etc because they will surely win the case as she proved me that Hutch is not going against any guidelines set by TRAI.
