Reliance mobile is such a nasty fraud

Ok, I agree others do fraud too. I have used vodafone and got bills for unused amounts, I've used tata indicom and known how irresponsive they are. But they never made me write a blog so late into the night. But Reliance did. So, read on!

Imagine receiving an sms like this from your service provider "You should marry atleast once in your life. If you get a good partner, you will be happy. If not, atleast you will become a philosopher". I know you curse me for wasting a minute of yours. But imagine if I had to pay for this- one rupee per day. For getting an sms like this daily- many times in a language (Hindi) I don't even understand. Imagine if I got auto-subscribed to this without me actually asking for it (I know, you know me better than to think I would have subscribed for it). This service is aptly named 'bakwas'. Now I send an unsubscribe sms as per their instructions but it never gets done. I keep receiving these sms for 10 days. One day, I get an sms that "Your subscription has been auto renewed at rupees 10 for next 10 days". I send an unsub sms again and get no response. I call the customer care and tell them what happened. The sweet service person tells me "You explicitly subscribed for it and you will have to inform us to unsubcribe. Now I will place a request and it will be deactivated in 24 hours". After 24 hours, I get a bonus. That day's bakwas sms comes to me as 20 duplicate copies. Now, will u permit me to start getting irritated? I call the CC again and they tell me no such request for deactivation has been taken. I tell them, please take in a request now atleast, they tell the same irritating "dialogue" that they are trained to say. After waiting invain for three days, I call the customer care again. This time I get smarter and ask for a service request number. They give me too, cho chweet. This goes on two more times and then I think it's time to react.

I call the customer care and they tell me that there are no services subscribed for me right now. I demand they give me back all the money they have stolen, they tell me they don't have records of the money they have stolen beyond three days. (wow, reliance keeps records only for three days, awesome, and it's my problem if I don't complain within 3 days). I say "I will not put down the phone until u give me back my money". I told you they are sweet, they simply cut my call, giving me no bothers. This cycle happens five times within half an hour, each time me having to repeat the same story to a different "officer". After that, it stops for the day. How? When I call the customer service after that, my call automatically gets disconnected (wow, what an advanced technology reliance, could you use some for ur customers too?!). I try registering a complaint in their website, and the complaint never gets recorded after three attempts. I give up (Isn't that natural?). When I give up, I assume that I won't be taken the 10 rupees one more time. But I get an sms after two days saying "Your next subscription amount will be taken on 31st oct 2009. If you don't want, unsubscribe". I send the unsub sms two times, each time getting a reply "Request can't be accepted now, please try later".* I call the customer service (That was this night). Isn't it time I shout at them? (My state of mind doesn't allow me another choice). The CC officer tells me "Maam you are talking badly, I will have to cut your call. But you know what, he is the only honest person I've talked to in reliance so far (Right from the day I entered reliance web world to actually enquire about getting a reliance connection). Well, hez polite enough to tell me that he will cut the call. I tell him "Ya I know cutting the call is what you guys do, it's your choice". He gives me a lecture that I have to let him finish his sentences and continues the call on that condition (I sarcastically tell him, "we are here to listen to you, please go ahead sir"). He tells me that no such request has ever been placed for unsubscribing. He checks and tells me that I have called them 18 times this month, but never logged a complaint. I give him an interaction number that his colleague gave me for the complaint few days back. He checks and tells me that the interaction number doesn't even exist. (Hello, am I really talking to reliance or is this a wrong number?!) He says one more time that he has placed a request and gives me the interaction number. Now, the game will continue, even from tomorrow, until I will finish my exising balance (and I am sure Reliance will help me in that like a dear friend). After this, I will throw off the phone. I googled for reliance fraud and I saw so many similar complaints, even an opinion poll on how reliance deducts money from customers by unfair means. I have vowed already that I will avoid using Reliance as much as possible- be it reliance phone, reliance fresh, reliance foot print or their broadband or mutual funds or their calling card.

Everyone knows that there have been so many accusations on reliance-Example: How reliance fresh, by providing items at cheap rates that only they can afford (for initial advertisement) have grossly affected the road-side vendors. Let's stop the monopoly of the family. Let's let others live too. So think about it, if you really need to patronise reliance....

More developments on 1st nov 2009:

My bakwas service is still not deactivated ofcourse, again cc officer has taken another complaint today for that. (BTW, yesterday, in a couple of my calls, which I have recorded, they did admit that I had placed some deactivation requests on 22nd and 24th october and it has not been completed due to technical problems. My complaints on other days are yet to be admitted). No reply for my escalation email to reliance nodal officer.

*I have many times seen 2 or 3 rupees deducted from me on days I never called or smsed anyone. (When money gets deducted, reliance prepaid doesn't send alerts of last call or sms charges the way other service providers do.) Today, I tracked it closely and called CC for this. I learnt that they have charged me for the smses i have sent to unsubscribe for that same bakwas pack (It's supposed to be a tollfree number- 155223. But they say that I smsed to 0155223 and so I have been charged. I have checked my outbox, there is no 0 before the number I smsed. Infact I had even received reply from 155223 for those smses (What else, they were "request could not be processed, please try later"). When I asked her to take a complaint, she told she cannot take a complaint for this coz their records showed a zero in front and cut the call. That's reliance for you. If you are already using reliance services, monitor them closely, I am sure you will find out a lot of discrepancies in your bills.

Update as of 6th nov 2009:

Another 10 rupees got deducted on 3rd nov 2009. My BP rose again and I gave a complaint. For the past couple of days, I haven't received that bakwas sms. Now that I've got into the addiction of calling reliance to give a complaint whenever I am bored, I called them right now. To say, thanks for deactivating, but please credit me back atleast this 10 rupees (Afterall, I had complained within 3 days as per ur requirements!). The first person I spoke to, told he'll place a complaint for that and cut the call. The second time I called, a person tells me that I have subscribed to another pack by IVR on Nov 3rd (That's something similar to bakwas, couldn't understand the name). My God, that's the beginning of whole new round, OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!