Oh boy. It was an impulse decision to subscribe to Reliance Mobile’s “One India” plan. I was “seduced” by the idea of having a single number and talk “unlimited” to any other Reliance number.

Unfortunately, I ran into network issues. I faced the maximum number of call drops, static and overall terrible customer care. It was pathetic to know about their billing cycles which very way off the mark. They charge for the time you connect on to call any other GSM network which is usurious.

Any amount of pushing the customer care to do their bit did not help. I had to request, cajole, shout at them to make the thing work. It would have been worthwhile to stick on to their plans had they improved “customer delight”. Their bills delivered by email were way too late and the printed bills reached me at the end of the billing cycle.

At any given point of time (whenever I used to be in Reliance Showroom to pay the bills), I saw angry customers shouting at the front desk.

Reliance, in my opinion, is a lousy service and one could just get on to them if you have tonnes of money to spare or burn. Or else, if you are suffering from masochism that you take delight in being served the wrong end of the stick being stuffed up through your back side. It’s that kind of an experience with them.

I am glad to be out of their “clutches”. I feel that they have lost their bearings and are hanging around as also rans in the market. With the sole exception of concenterating in the smaller moffussil towns like Jhumri Taliyan where you’d find their lousy signals and dumbstruck village idiots paying through their nose without realising the way they are screwed.

Anil Ambani perhaps has better avenues to concenterate on.

An open letter to Mr Anil which I wrote in recently. I think it’s appropriate to share here.

Dear Sir,

I must congratulate you for the recent listing on the bourses. I got your email address from the website.

Sir, I write in to say that lack of Broadband Access from Reliance is really hampering the choice available to consumers. It has been in the air for too long that Reliance was to debut it’s services long time back but due to unforseen circumstances, it has been pushed back on the agenda.

I have had the roads dug up near my place with the laying of the ducts. Enquiries from local Reliance office revealed that initial access would be limited to voice calls and Broadband would be delayed by another 3 months. This is the best case scenario, though.

Sir, I am a practising doctor. During the course of my practise, I often need to have access to journals, streaming radios and videos. I am presently stuck up with BSNL, whose insipid plan offerings restricted to 1 GB overall has lead to much heart burn. To add insult to injury, the main head office is incommunicative about any new plan offerings.

I wrote back to Reliance Broadband division asking about the probable date of access. True to their word, they replied in 1 working day but are non commital about the same. They advice me to wait for media announcements to the same effect.

Sir, I would pick up Reliance Broadband for two reasons. First, I have been a long time user of Reliance Mobile services and the quality of access as compared to GSM, left me in no doubt about the same. I am sure, you must have had something similar in mind for Broadband access. Secondly, is the media reports for the content distribtion plans and perhaps a nation wide IPTV roll out would spoil consumers for a choice.

Sir, the future battles would be won on content and content delivery. You own the upstream via Flag and the downstream via last mile access which would leave no stone unturned for your market domination.

However, in my personal opinion and in the forums elsewhere, we all have a reason to hope to Reliance Broadband would do the same thing to access as in the mobile telephony arena which was virtually a stranglehold of few private players prior to your entry in business. I hope this mail be taken in favourable light and your efforts are directed at rejuvenating the Broadband access. Frankly, otherwise, it would take a miracle to make the people switch, given the fact that Airtel is getting aggressive in Wireline access and BSNL virtually owns the last mile access owing to Government monopoly. I have a reason to believe that wireline access would sell on the rider of value added services like Broadband access and content delivery. If BSNL gives me unlimited access at affordable tariffs, it would be difficult to convince my parents to down money to shift over to Reliance.

Finally, customers want choice and superior service. Given the track record of Reliance, I am sure Reliance is perfectly poised for the same.