Vodafone Mobile Shield is complete scam

I had bought the Vodafone red plan hoping to get the amazing benefits they claim, one of them being the mobile shield which covers accidental damage and protection for your phone.

It was only when I had a harrowing experience when I realized it is all a scam. If you are a vodafone red customer and hoping to use the insurance, please read this. To sum it up, my smartphone which I purchased for Rs 21,500 just six months back had the screen broken due to an accident. In the end, they forced me to sell it to them for Rs 7k. Seriously WTF right? Read it all below.

Vodafone has a tie-up with Shotformats  Pvt. Ltd. for providing the mobile shield plan. As soon as your device is damaged, you are supposed to inform the insurance company within 48 hours. They will ask you a tons of questions to get started. Their documentation rules are also very stringent but somehow I got lucky as I had all the required documents and phone box (very important). After providing the necessary proofs and completing all the formalities (which in itself is a very lengthy process by the way), they collected my phone to have it repaired. I thought the battle is finally won but I was so wrong.

After a few days, I received a message that the claim has been approved which was of course, good to hear. However, it was mentioned that the phone is approved under “Total Loss” which I had no idea what that was. Subsequently, I received a call from one of their agents that I had to courier them the original bill, box, charger, earphones etc. and they will transfer me approx Rs 7000. I was completely shocked. I am not selling the phone but claiming insurance right? What happens next is a complete horror story. Read it carefully to see how pathetic and one-sided they have the set the rules in their favor.

1. The rules are mentioned nowhere

Seriously, I searched their entire website http://dsspro.in about the rules I was told. They are not mentioned anywhere and I have taken a archived snapshot of their website so they cannot add the rules in future when I sue them in court.

2. They have ridiculous rules entirely in their favor

First, they calculate your phone’s current value (without damage). For my case, even though it was just 6 months old, they put 40% as the current value.
Then they get the estimate for repair and subtract further 10%. If the value comes out to be smaller than the repair estimate, they won’t process the claim. Basically, if the repair cost is approximately more than 30% of the purchase cost, you are screwed.
Let’s evaluate the situation with an example to understand better. I purchase my Oppo phone for Rs 21,500. After a ridiculous huge depreciation of 60%, its value becomes 8,600. Then they estimated the repair cost to be Rs 8620 (which is also inflated as I checked with Oppo and it came out to be Rs 6990). They told me since the final value of Rs 7738 is less than repair cost, I can do one of the following-

• Sell the phone to them for just Rs 7738 which is completely absurd.
• Forget about the claim and get damaged phone back.

If you have noticed the huge depreciation rule has got them a double advantage. First, their maximum expense is capped. Second, they always get claim in their favor because no one would sell their phone for a loss. Note carefully that if the repair cost had been Rs 7,000 they would supposedly get it fixed. Tell me what should happen logically if the repair cost shot up by Rs 1000. Even if they had their maximum cap set, you should at least get Rs 7k to fix the phone yourself right? No, you have to mandatorily sell it to them for a huge depreciation which they decided themselves in the beginning. This rule is as unfavorable as it sounds.

4. They choose not follow their own rules as per convinience

I knew that the repair cost was inflated so I thought might have a narrow window of succeeding. I asked them that I will get a new estimate from an authorized service center of Oppo. But they simply refused. When in fact, they have at least this thing mentioned in their website that one can go to an authorized service center for the repair estimate. When I asked why are they not allowing their own rules, the guy simply hung up the phone on me. At this point, I totally lost my cool.

5. Their own employees will tell you the truth

I looked at online reviews of this company and guess what? Most employees and customers are frustated as can be seen from these excerpts below:

I agree with most of the reviews which say that Vodafone is damaging its own reputation by working with this fraud company.

What Next?

I already have all the necessary proofs against them including the recorded phone calls. I will probably file a lawsuit against them in consumer court. The amount at stake is not huge but I don’t want other people to get to the same torture and having this company get away with the scam.