TourismGossip

Let me start it from a few years back. Dhiraagu was the only Telecommunications Company in Maldives who at that time had reached its maturity thought long-term monopolization of the entire industry across the country. Poor locals had no choice except take part in the growing trend. I bought a Prepaid and same did my friends. Every time I recharged they used to send an SMS telling the amount credited and the expiry for the in-coming calls. The validity kept on adding up and I reached to 2012, one of my friends was around 2016 as I remember and it was like a competition. I kept on buying more recharge cards and all of a sudden I made a shocking discovery. Famous telecom company Dhiraagu eliminated 5 years of active in-coming from my number, reducing it to 2007 and so did to my friends. When I checked with the Customer Service, they confirmed it was done to all Dhiraagu Prepaid customers.

I didnt intend to use it till 2012 without a recharge. I had no plan to quite Dhiraagu either. But it was a shock of the out standing customer service, loyalty and ethical values of the company, and the image of cause.

They curbed a part of what the customer had paid for over many years. I felt ‘Dhiraagu was not trust worthy’. They did it without asking the customer and never informed it. I felt ‘they cheated the customer’. I asked the Customer Service to provide the same duration of validity I had before or a reasonable refund and ended up with bare hand. I felt ‘customer is not important for Dhiraagu’.

Make a promise, sell the product and seize it! Sell a car and get the four wheels back the next day. Business sounds good with fewer costs, all thanks to the management.

The Customer Service staff also explained that company reserves the right to change the terms of service without prior notice, meaning the customer had no right to complain regarding the issue. But it did sound funny to me, simply because;

* They had all sorts of right and customer had none.

* When you finish your call, they could decide how much to charge, even if its a million dollar per minute for a local call, as per the term explained by Dhiraagu Customer Service.

* Isn’t it playing fool with the customer?

We never had a Consumer Rights Protection Authority in Maldives, but it is likely that we do have commerce laws or regulations in place. The relevant government authorities must check those terms and penalize the companies who go above the law or even terrify customers with such explanations.