I was wary of Reliance mobile’s poor reputation even before I considered going with them. Unfortunately, I was forced to go with them because most of my calls were going to 2 people both of whom work at Reliance and so are forced to carry Reliance mobiles.
So here’s my review of Relaince mobile, including ratings for each category:
(0 to 5, 5 being excellent and 0 being quality lower than a pile of doggy doo)
Sales
Rating: 2
Walking into a Reliance mobile store to buy a new post-paid connection was a lousy experience - somewhere between forgetful and harrowing. The sales personnel don’t give a damn, half the counters are unmanned and the sales service takes forever to be completed. If you have some place to be after buying the mobile, plan to be there 30 minutes late.
When the sales personnel finally deign to look your way, they give you a look reserved for lowly pond scum - the look that seems to say "now what? why the hell are you bothering me?"
I doubt if they’ve ever heard of being courteous, leave alone friendly. Their sales personnel lack any customer-facing training whatsoever.
They’re ignorant, unhelpful and have all the charm of fungus.
Activation
Rating: 0
My phones took 8+ days to be activated! And during that time, no one from Reliance customer service bothered to call me. I had to go back to the Reliance store twice to remind them to activate my connection.
During the whole process, they didn’t even give me my number! They promised to call me and give me the number that I had been assigned(I didn’t ask for a special number). No call, no number. 4 days later, I went back to the store to yell at them, and still no number. I called Reliance customer service, and still no number. 8 days after buying the mobile, I again went back to the store to cancel the connection and they reluctantly gave me the number and activated the connection.
Local Network
Rating 2:
Definitely below average. Reliance-to-Reliance call quality is below average, with the voice cutting out every few minutes.
Reliance-to-Non-Reliance call quality is poor, with the connection itself cutting out within seconds of calling. It’s incredibly frustrating and angering. Often, when I try to call my Reliance mobile from my non-Reliance mobile, it continuously gives me a "busy" signal(even though call-waiting is activated).
Roaming network
Rating: 0
Stay away from Reliance if you’re going to be communicating with a non-Reliance mobile that’s roaming. Every call to and from a Reliance phone drops within 0.5 to 3 seconds. It’s like being in the dark ages. The worst part is that Reliance charges me for a full call even though I didn’t even connect to the other party, leave alone talk to them.
I guess that’s how these cheats make their money - Re. 1 per call @ 50 dropped calls a day. Imagine the revenue without ever using the network infrastructure.
After sales service
Rating: 0
Ever tried calling Reliance customer care(hah! a contradiction in terms) from a Reliance phone? That call drops ever so often.
If you do manage to connect, the staff sound incredibly bored. They are ignorant(like their sales counterparts) and liars. They assure you that the problem will be "addressed in 24 hours". Yeah - I will wait for my Reliance mobile to work within 24 hours when I’m desperately trying to call a loved one or say, the police.
Naturally, nothing gets fixed in 24 hours. Scream, threaten, yell, and maybe it might be solved eventually.
An update to the after-sales service. My connection was abruptly terminated within 2 weeks of activation, with no warning or notice. After calling the support number I was told that I needed to visit a Reliance store because, get this, "my number had been given to someone else since they store never bothered to register my details". So now, after having given my number to friends and family, I’m facing the prospect of having to get a new number, fight with Reliance to have it activated, and redistribute it all over again.
Oh joy!
If you have a choice, stay away from Reliance.
If you have a choice, boycott Reliance completely. They’re undoubtedly the worst customer-facinbg organization in India.