These Reliance people are CHEATERS, ROBBERS! They promise you speed upto 3.1 Mbps but actually what you get will be 1x speed (max 512Kbps). Please read on my story and learn a lesson. PLEASE DONT GET CHEATED BY RELIANCE!
I purchased a Reliance Datacard without much background check and that’s what was the mistake I did. I purchased the datacard online with a 10GB day 10GB Night plan for which the rent is Rs 1200. I paid Rs. 1899/- for the datacard and started using it. Earlier I was located in the Bannerghatta Road area of South Bangalore and the speed was pathetic.
When I called up the Reliance Netconnect customer care, they asked me to perform a series of steps, which I followed obidiently thinking they would solve the speed issue and get me at least 1Mbps speed. But even after repeated calls to customer care and performing all operations that they had instructed on my laptop, there was no improvement in speed.
Finally they said its a coverage issue and washed their hand saying Bannerghatta road is a remote area and hence speed is less. They asked me to check in Bangalore city center. Since I had plans to move to the Malleshwaram area in few days, I lived with the below average speed for few days.
I was still optimistic about getting a decent speed on my Reliance datacard at least after moving to Malleshwaram area, which is at the heart of Bangalore city, but I was again disappointed. Here also, the speed was below average - around 500Kbps during off-peak hours and merely 130-140Kbps during peak hours. I once again lodged a complaint with Customer care. This time also they asked me to perform a series of checks on my laptop, and finally when they could not do anything to improve the speed, this time they said this area is center of the city, and hence lot of users so there is congestion and hence the speed is less! When I was in Bannerghatta road area, they said its a remote area and there is no coverage and when I came inside the city center, they say its a congestion issue! I asked the customer care executive to specify one location in Bangalore where I would get at least 1 Mbps speed, and the guy was baffling to answer. I asked him to send a technical service personal and witness the situation themselves. For this, he asked me to contact a reliance broadband service center and get my datacard and laptop checked. There are only two reliance netconnect service centers in Bangalore and they wanted me to waste a precious day of my life and money to roam across to get it checked. I clearly told I cannot go to any service center, instead asked him to send someone to check it at my doorstep. After around two weeks of pursuation, they agreed to send someone.
One fine day, a person from Reliance Netconnect technical team arrived at my flat and started investigating the issue. Even with his own demo datacard and laptop, he was not getting the speed beyond 500Kbps. All speed tests were doe using speedtest.net. He took a screen-shot of the speed displayed on speedtest.net and sent it to his superiors. He said he will report the issue and someone from Network team would visit again to check signal stregath.
I had to again follow up with them for weeks and get a person from Network team visit my place. One fine day he also came, did some tests and concluded that there is indeed a speed issue. He said there is only one carrier in my area and around 11 users, whereas usually in every area there would be at least two carriers. He spoke to his managers over the phone and explained the issue to them. He told me he would escalate the issue to his seniors and went back.
Now it was again my headache to call the cust care executives and ask what is the status. They kept on telling they would get back soon, but they didnt get back with any answer for around a month.
Then I wrote to the Nodal officer of Reliance Netconnect explaining the situation. By this time it was well over five months after I purchased the Reliance datacard. Evenm after writing to the nodal officer and waitin for around fifteen days there was no response from the nodal officer too!
As a final attempt to get my issue resolved, I wrote to the Appellate Authority, which is the higher most authority in addressing customer complaints. But Alas! This was no different. As soon as I failed a complaint with appellate authority I got an automatic mail confirmation saying my complaint has been received and they would get back to me within 7 working days. I was still patient in waiting to hear back from them. But even after 12 working days there was no response from the appellate authority too!! I sent a reminder to them again and asked them to update the status.
Meantime, I was pissed off by their inaction in addressing the speed issue I was facing, I intentionally skipped paying a month’s bill. Now they got very proactive and started calling me and asking me to make the payment. I told to whoever called me that there are four complaints regarding speed issue I am facing and I would not pay unless they get resolved.
Around a week after this, they suddenly suspended service to my datacard and my datacard stopped functioning. I called up the customer care, they said it has been suspended because of non-payment of bills. When I asked about the status of my complaints, they said its the billing dept who has suspended the connection and technical team which looks into complaints, and billing dept has done its duty! So rude!! One dept does the duty of disconnecting the service for non-payment of bills, and other dept which is responsible for resolving complaints doesn’t do its duty at all!
I had opted for a 10GB day 10GB Night plan thinking I would be requiring unlimited download. But with their third-class service and speed of just around 400-500 Kbps, every month I used to download just around 2GB. If the speed itself doesn’t let you download more than 2GB per month, what is the use of a 10GB day & 10 GB night plan?
Around two weeks of disconnecting the service, the appellate authority replied back saying there is indeed a speed issue due to congestion and they would upgrade the signal strength in my locality, for which I will have to wait again indefinitely!
It was enough for me now! I told them since it is your issue and its you fault that signal strength is not good enough and I have been made to pay for broadband speed while I got just 1X speed, I asked them to take back their datacard and refund my money. For this they said, once purchased datacard cannot be returned and no refund would be provided. Though I paid 1900 rupees and purchased the datacard, it is dead now; neither I can use it with other service providers nor I can use with reliance!!! I am duped by Reliance, the Anil Dhirubai Ambani group! I WROTE THIS SO AS NONE OF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE LIKE ME BY BUYING A RELIANCE DATACARD, FOR WHATSOVER REASON!!! Check Tata photon Plus or MBlaze, I have heard from my friends that they are comparatively better than Realiance. But before buying a datacard, ask them to give a demo in your area or wherever you would use the datacard the most and check the speed issue. Ask him to demo using the card that would be given to you!!! DONT BE CHEATED BY THESE SCRUPULOUS SERVICE PROVIDERS, ESPECIALLY RELIANCE CHEATERS!!!