Reliance Communications - Telecom Provider
September 30th, 2006 by ashish
Reliance Communications is one of the largest cellular service providers in India. It is used by an incredibly large number of people and is cheap. There must be something in it, which is why it is so successful.
My experience is totally the contrary. Except for the first few months, all my experiences later have not been good. I originally got the Fixed Wireless Phone to use as an internet connectivity tool to connet to the computer for net browsing. For the first few months, it was pretty decent. I got a fast enough speed that I could download songs and not have to sit back and wait ages. Connecting to general web sites and company VPN network was also painless. I did not use it much as a phone, it somehow was a big clunky device when compared to cordless or mobile phones.
Then after a few months, performance started going down. Internet connectivity speed came down to around a third. I phone up customer support to complain, but did not get anywhere. Actually, I could not even find a page on the net that told me what number to connect to get to customer support. Finally I found some other number and after a bit of querying, got the proper customer support number. I need not have bothered. Customer support was practically useless.
Next attempt, I went to the website to see whether there was a place where I could leave feedback. There were actually 2 pages - One for general feedback and the other to leave a letter to the MD. I tried both. The note that I left for general feedback bounced with something like “mailbox full”. The note to MD got a response from somebody in the MD’s office. This note is a proper example of what not to do. In effect, the email stated that since the number of users has increased, there is essentially nothing that can be done, and I should get used to the lower speed. In effect, what they stated is that because of higher usage, they are not able to meet the initially agreed upon customer service agreement, and I will have to live with that. You can judge as to how happy I felt about Reliance after that. In the meantime, the phone as a instrument for making calls has almost stopped working, I get all kinds of weird non-connection sounds when I try to use the phone.
So after paying a monthly rental for quite a few months, I went to the Reliance Webworld to try and return the phone. It has now been 3 tries that I have made so far. The first time I went, it was pretty crowded. After around 20 mins, I finally got to talk to the frowning executive. What he told me was that you need to have identification to submit along with the form. I did not have a copy of any identity, so beat a hasty retreat. The next time that I went, 2 of the 3 counters were manned. It took a fair amount of time to get the attention of the lady behind one of the counters, she directed me to the third counter for which somebody had just come to man it. After another 10 minutes, this chap told me (but he was smiling, so I did not feel so bad) that they are having a system upgrade, and I need to come after 1 hr. This was end of attempt number 2.
Attempt number 3: I had around 30 min free, so I went to the Webworld. There, it was so busy that around 20 min of waiting, I decided to backtrack and went back. I never thought that it would be so difficult to do something so simple as terminating an account. I really wonder whether Reliance has any policies on customer handling and customer satisfaction. I contrasted this with the few times that I have been to Airtel service centers, where the staff is normally always signing, polite and tries to help you. I thought that Reliance may have changed after the management change, but this does not seem to be the case. Maybe Reliance after is not so good at direct customer handling.
