That Vodafone has sent a legal notice to a customer is this morning’s news – mighty old, by now.

Who hasn’t complained about their service provider online? The interesting thing in this piece of news are a few other things. Here are those other things along with my observations.

1. Dhaval Valia is very well known in the PR circles. He is a journalist, after all. But, he did not use his media clout to spread word about Vodafone’s alleged poor service. He did it in his personal Facebook profile.

2. That brings us to the second point. Search for ‘Dhaval Valia’ on Facebook’s search – go on! There are just two who surface, and one of them is the Dhaval in question. Being in PR, I have 16 mutual friends with him, but here’s the deal – he does not have his wall in public mode (at least at the time of checking his page for this post). That simply means, technically, the audience size of his anti-Vodafone rants is 611, the number of people who are friends on Facebook with Dhaval. Does the size of people matter in a defamation case? Of course, one needs to take into account the network effect – of his friends sharing and spreading the otherwise-limited reach of his updates.

3. The fact that Dhaval alleges about hacking. He is quoted in the Business Standard story,

Valia has raised concern on how Vodafone traced his updates and even photographed it. In a letter he sent in reply to the legal notice, he says Vodafone cannot legally access his private conversations.

I believe he has a point here since his wall is not ‘public’, but the Mint story that features his issue today makes public many of his Facebook status updates. Were these part of the legal notice? Or, did Mint see his wall (owing to being connected to him via Facebook perhaps?) and added them here?

4. Just last week, Dhaval was quoted in one of the publications that has carried the legal notice update – Business Standard, by the same journalist (Katya Naidu). That story published on May 23rd says,

Dhaval Valia, who loves watching mobile TV, says the live streaming would freeze at least three times on his way back home to a Mumbai suburb. â??It has improved since the past one week but earlier there would be at least seven interruptions.â?

And, without connecting that paragraph, elsewhere it also says,

The maximum complaints received were from Vodafone subscribers. However, the operator refused to comment on the issue.

Doesn’t a negative mention in a publication like Business Standard seem more damaging to Vodafone’s brand than random Facebook updates by one person? Did Vodafone consider suing Business Standard too?

5. If you take on face value the claims by Vodafone in the Business Standard story,

…sent unwarrented (sic) SMSs to the top management and posted their numbers and contact details on Facebook

…had a heated conversation with a female officer regarding their service

…certain unusual and improper dealings and communications by the customer, especially with our women employees

…they don’t necessarily seem the type that will go away if Dhaval removes those allegedly inflammatory Facebook status updates as quoted by Mint. So, I wonder if Vodafone has a larger play for the legal notice than just Facebook status updates. From that perspective, this line from the Business Standard story seems too far fetched,

It could be a wake-up call to consumers who vent dissatisfaction on Facebook and Twitter about their service providers.

6. What does Vodafone plan to do about all the other customers who are complaining about its service elsewhere on the net with far more reach compared to Dhaval’s limited Facebook network? Take the website Consumer Complaints, for instance. Vodafone is listed under a ‘Stay away’ list. Doesn’t it fall under “It is just a way to spoil the goodwill and reputation of our client” part of Vodafone’s legal notice? What criteria is Vodafone India using to decide whether a complaining customer is worth suing or not? Is it restricted to only those customers who also happen to be in media and can do more potential/possible damage eventually? Or, would aam janta be part of the legal notice jamboree too?

7. What is the potential fall out of this act by Vodafone? All Dhaval seems to be asking (if you go by Facebook status updates ‘exposed’ by Mint) is adherence to service level agreements (SLAs) by Vodafone. Now, many of us in India don’t even see an SLA or, if we see it, we sign only the last page of the document. This case is perhaps a wake up call for customers to take a serious look at the SLA and make service providers accountable.

8. On the other hand, this is also a great opportunity for a service provider to walk the talk – not promise the moon in the SLA, under-promise feasible things and over deliver…and eventually delight the customer.

9. Finally, trying to silence a customer, for whatever the rant, seems like a very poor tactic on behalf of a brand. If a brand cannot deliver what it promises in the SLA, the best it can do is own up if the customer’s allegations are true. Has Vodafone even considered the PR fallout of an act like this? Do they realize they are putting themselves into a us vs. them situation as regards their customers? All this, in the era when MNP has already been launched! Some guts that, from Vodafone’s side. It could also mean that they are sufficiently annoyed…enough to overlook the negative PR fallout.

The fallout is already on. Take a look.

I’m in +100 @23jacob: I will be giving up my @VodafoneIN numbers on account of – http://t.co/CIyxQOD you don’t treat customers like this. (Link)

Le_reveur: are we the dogs? and will i too be served notice for tweeting this? — Vodafone tries to silence Facebook critic http://t.co/FZEijFw (Link)

Rishi: Vodafone India is suing customers. That’s a news! So they gonna send terminators after everyone who craps about them online? (Link)

gautham1016: Cant believe Vodafone is asking customers to shut their mouths. Don’t realise ppl do it out of sheer frustration after try to deal with them (Link)

prashreach: Ideally the company representative should have met the customer and sorted out. Vodafone tries to silence critic (Link)

really quite foolish of Vodafone. The statement seems pretty general and if true, won’t amount to defamation (Link)

I don’t blame these people at all, after all, it is Vodafone India that has set this Zoozoos vs customers state! I couldn’t find a single pro-Vodafone tweet on this issue – they are either anti-Vodafone or plain links to media coverage without an explicit opinion.

Comments

comments