Reliance Broadband- A Bad Bet

People have different sorts of experiences with different broadband operators or providers. In my extensive search of various online forums and social medias where people lodge complains I did find there there were complaints regarding almost every single company possible. So it is safe to say that if things have to get screwed up they will get screwed up for you.

When you look at the types of complaints for different service providers that is where you can see the difference between different service providers.

Where as maximum complaints against other broadband providers are regarding faulty or excessive billing one such service provider tops the list for non-availability of the services.

Once upon a time I did believe in the change brought about by the Reliance Communications limited in the country. Though people kept telling me that the cellular services be it gsm or cdma suffers from poor network coverage and auto-activation of VAS (value added services) for example activation of ringtones, bhajans, sms alerts. Thanks to TRAI that one could not block all such services in one single step plus the added advantage of DND (do not disturb) registry cuts down such misadventures significantly.

I briefly used reliance GSM services in view of the cheapest 3G services as compared to other services providers. A difference of 100Rs is too much for me or possibly for anyone.

When I moved to Delhi some time back I finally settled for a broadband connection because mobility was anymore not a problem. A dongle or wireless service would burn a big hole in my pocket given the fact that my data use is high in range of 20-40 GB per month a significant amount of is goes to youtube and many other tutorials.

While I searched for the services in my area Reliance Communications Limited (A Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Company) appeared as the biggest player. Their unlimited usage plan and no cap (FUP-Fair Usage Policy, i.e. a cap of max download speed) is a big bait and I fell for it.

A call to their field executive (sales man) was responded quickly. But sadly that was the only thing that had a quick response. The installation of the services took about 8 days and numerous calls (almost daily to the sales man, and also to the free service helpline the 1800-CRAP-CRAP which was never answered).

The reasons sighted for this delay was surprising. From the salesman being busy collecting applications in a different area, lack of service cable to being arrested by the police for stealing cable. How the hell in this world is it possible that a company which has one of the largest OCF network in the country, a company whose net-worth is much more that many other companies has deficiency of supply cable (CAT 7-CAT 8 type cables, probably).

But finally after several complaints it was installed.

It only worked for few days (about 5) and then stopped working.

After few complaints I obtained number of the local network engineer (not sure if that is the designation). He told me their local switch box was stolen and currently they are out of stock for the switch boxes gave assurance that it will be installed in a day or 2. Its now 20 days. No service.

Frankly I paid 1300 Rs for 5 days of internet service.

In the end it is not about the money I paid. It is about the ethics of service.

i might have made several calls both to the 1800-CRAP-CRAP and the sales executive, the network engineer. At a point who threatened me to stop calling and making complaints or else he would create trouble for me. The customer care kept calling asking if the problem has been fixed and they are escalating the problem. I never understand whats the level of escalation and how high it goes.

I finally understood that sometimes a company who over bills is better than company who does not provide you service at all. in simple words a restaurant which bills you extra is better than restaurant which refuses to serve you food after billing you.

It remains a mystery how a giant company like Reliance Communications can have shortage of cable or that of switch boxes. One has no idea.
Even severed under-water sea cables are repaired faster than the home internet cable connections.

It neither worth the time, nor worth the money.