I had earlier written a review on Reliance FWP. This is the latest update. I had selected this phone after a careful study of the tariffs and features, and also with warnings from mouthshut.com. Almost everyone seems to be complaining of the billing. Hence I decided to take extra precaution. I brought a special pad where I recorded every outgoing calls. I even recorded SMS and Internet usage. I also have spoken to the customer care plenty of times and noted their service and capabilitiies. When I received my first bill, I observed it was exactly as I had expected as per my record.This surprised me....I thought Reliance is reputed for wrong and erroneous billing.
In the meantime my Airtel Mobile postpaid bills were giving inconsistent and wrong billing. But I guess with Kareina Kapoor and Shahrukh Khan in every Airtel ad we would ignore that. Moroever Airtel is more famous for Prepaid....not post paid, right? Then I also took precaution on paying the bills. I made a xerox copies of the bills and cheque before submitting to cheque drop box. I even attested the copies with a govt. officer. Within 3 days I woke up by an ’’alarm’’ which sounded unfamiliar from the Reliance FWP in the morning.
I received an SMS saying thanks for the cheque payment against bill!! Daily I keep track of my calls from the R-bill page of <A href=’https://relianceinfo.com’> http://www.relianceinfo.com</A>. With this I get a chance how much free calls is available from Plan500, hence I am able to use it effectively. I then decided to test to Network. Its up most of the time, and gave good service on various parts of the city. But my residence is in the heart of city in Kolkata, so perhaps network is good here.
I am not sure how it would work for areas far from the city centre. If there is any weakness its the Customer care. Unlike Airtel, and perhpas BSNL......Reliance Customer though nice and sweet are powerless. I asked them to provide me the CUG service, but they tell me to visit the nearest Reliance Webworld. I asked when I will receive the bill....and they say please visit web world!I ask how to activate Call Divert...and also they say to visit Webworld!!So I guess this probably frustrates. But they are good listeners and sympathiser....and feels helpless as they are unable to help. In contrast, a mere call to Airtel I got my Voicemail activated.
A mere call to Airtel I got a duplicate bill. A mere call to Airtel I get Call divert facilities etc..... It took me just 3 days to get STD(or NLD as they say) activated. I received SMS when it was activated. Please do not think I work for Reliance or anything like that. My earlier review, I was bombarded with threatening emails to write bad reviews against Reliance, or they commented that I work for them, which is not true. Someone even suggested that Reliance paid me bribe! The review which I wrote is strictly my opinion and experience from Kolkata, nowhere else. This does not mean that Reliance in general i.e all over India is doing well. Since most are complaining, obviously there must complain elsewhere..I understand that.Airtel was great in Bangalore, but in Kolkata there is a lot of scope for improvement.