I am an extremely old customer of Reliance and this connection was taken under Dhirubhai Ambani scheme when the Reliance mobiles were initially launched. Needless to say I have been through it all. Bad customer service, barred services and ridicules bills.
But I have stuck with reliance due to two reasons 1) I make lot of STD calls to family members who have reliance connection. I believed reliance is a good choice if majority of calls are reliance to reliance STD. 2) I have shared this number with lot of people.
Recently after another surprising bill I decided to analyze my usage against different schemes of reliance so that I can choose a better scheme. My usage is:
Intracircle onnet 28 call units
Intracircle other 136 call units
inter Circle onnet 127 call units
inter Circle other 92 call units
STD from roaming 26 call units
local from roaming 6 call units
Roaming received 39 call units
Under my current scheme “Delight 499”, the rates are:
Intracircle(local) onnet Rs. 0.4/call unit
Intracircle(local) other Rs. 1/call unit
inter Circle(STD) onnet Rs. 0.4/call unit
inter Circle(STD) other Rs. 1/call unit
STD from roaming Rs. 2.4/call unit
local from roaming Rs. 1.4/call unit
Roaming received Rs. 1.75/call unit
“Delight 499” scheme includes a discount of Rs 160 on the calls made. Consequently my bill, after counting discount, taxes and cess comes to Rs 863.
I put the same data under various “STD” schemes and here are the bill amounts I’d have paid under them:
RIO299 – Rs. 842.00
My STD 375 – Rs 913.00
Unlimited 440 – Rs 894.00
NJ 499 – Rs 994.00
Then I tried to count a “local” scheme - NPJ124. Surprise of surprises! I’d have paid only Rs 695 under that scheme.
Further I decided to compare it against an airtel scheme(AES 300, yearly rental Rs. 700, all local .5/min, all std 1/min). Under that scheme I’d have pain ONLY Rs 500/-(counting the monthly rental of about Rs 68.00). The myth has been broken.
Under another corporate scheme offered by vodaphone where vodaphone-vodaphone STD is Rs 0.5/min and they offer 400 STD minutes free, I’d end up paying only 313.00 if my family members also switch to vodaphone.
I am happy to have done the homework. I have decided to switch to free lifetime incoming prepaid scheme of reliance. Switching to that scheme has been deliberately made very difficult and bureaucratic, but it does not compare to the troubles I have been through.
GOOD RIDDANCE!