Reliance Broadband Sucks

Reliance Broadband – Poor Products and Pathetic Service

After living in Japan for over 18 years, when I decided to come back to India, one thing that always disappointed me is the service and attitude of Indian companies. The poor service and attitude towards customers of Indian companies stand in stark contrast with the exceptionally flawless service and serving attitude of Japanese companies. And surprisingly, the so called big names in India like the ‘Reliance’ are epitome of poor customer service and high degree of unreliability.

My experiences with Reliance broadband services had been pathetic, and here I am giving a vent to my frustration with them as it has crossed all boundaries.

Reliance Netconnect Sucks

Reliance has an impressive ad on the TV about their product – Reliance Netconnect Hi-Speed Wireless USB Internet Modem – which can allow you to enjoy music downloads, gaming, video chat, live TV and much more at an ‘outstanding speed’ of upto 3 MB per second. I paid Rs. 3,000 (US$67) for this modem and went for a 10 GB/month plan at around Rs. 1,000 (US$22) per month. However, when I received the USB modem and tried to connect to the Internet, the maximum speed I could get was around 10K per second! It was like moving the clock back by 12 years, when we had those slow modems. I reported the problem to the salesman and asked him to replace the modem.

The Reliance salesman assured me that he would replace the modem. He took away the modem and came back with the same modem after three days. He said the modem could not be replaced, but he has got the firmware in the modem changed and now it should work properly. When I tried the modem again, there was no difference at all. My modem speed hovered at around 10k per second. It was a big disappointment. After trying the service for few days, I went to a nearby reliance service center and canceled my monthly plan for this service. I was told to pay extra money for one month if I wanted to terminate, plus I was told I would not get any refund for the modem. Reluctantly, I paid the money as I wanted to get rid of this lousy service. However, to my surprise I kept on receiving bills and reminder calls for paying bills for three months after I canceled the service. Finally I had to blast at their billing department and the bills stopped. My advise – Never go for Reliance Netconnect. It sucks big time!

Reliance Broadband Internet Sucks

I also tried Reliance Broadband service when one of their salesmen offered a free landline phone with this service. This service had a good connection speed in the day time, but I was never able to connect to the Internet after 8 pm. I had pointed out this problem to the Reliance technical support, but they always replied with blanket replies

We cannot commit on a timeline but we are trying to resolve your problem within the next 24 hours, please take down your customer complaint number

And, about three weeks ago, both the landline phone and Internet connection stopped working. When I reported this problem to the Reliance technical support, I received a reply that the problem was solved and the case was closed. However, the Internet and phone line was still not working for me. I checked with other reliance broadband users in my neighborhood, and they had the same story. So the Reliance technical support team went to the extent of telling blatant lies in their replies.

So I reported this problem again to the Reliance Technical support. I finally came to know that one of their routers which was installed in the neighborhood was stolen. But the company did not want to spend even a small sum of Rs. 15,000 to replace the router. A company owned by a multi-billionaire can not afford to replace a small router to keep its services uninterrupted!! This was the message I received from one of the chiefs of their technical service department and also from the office of the Reliance chairman!

What a pathetic attitude! Let the customer go to hell, we don’t care about you – we just care about our profits! Reliance broadband are behaving like an ostrich burying their head in the sand – but consumers in India are not that stupid now. And Reliance should also realize that such stories originating from India can reach other countries at the speed of light and tarnish their reputation.

In short, I’d say Reliance Broadband and its management really suck. Better stay away from such companies. I just want to make Indian consumers aware of how unreliable Reliance is. Their name is a misnomer – in fact their products and services show that they are just the opposite of being reliant.