Reliance Screws its Net users. Review on Reliance Mobile Operator

I am adding more details to this as per some of the comments I recieved...

Friends, I am one of the most experienced 'Reliance India mobile' users. I bought the phone as early as March 2003, almost immediately when it was launched. Since then I have seen umpteen changes to its scheme, and un-fulfilled promises.

1) Reliance had launched with the promise of 15 second pulse. They changed this to 60 seconds, claiming that TRAI had disallowed it (When I called customer support). If so, then how can TATA provide a 15 second pulse.

2) Since march, they have promised SMS, It didnt work properly (with GSM) until late July. Even now, it does not connect with all GSM providers. It works ok with BPL/Hutch, but not with Escotel (Goa) Trump(MTNL) etc.

3) You cannot SMS to short addresses like 8888 or 6388.

4) Atleast in 3 to 4 places, I have seen very poor signal, where other GSM phones had full signal. Top of the list is 'Big Bazaar' in Lower Parel, which is right next to Reliance infocomm headquaters in Kamala mills ! I get 0 signal level inside, whereas all other GSM phones are working fine.

5) For the 5 months where SMS was not working at all, Reliance should reimburse part of the rent paid.

6) The handset quality is very poor. The rubber keys are tough, and if you are a SMS user, your fingers will pain.

7) Absolutely NO software is available for connecting the phone with the PC. Unlike for Nokia phones where you can get software to manage phone data like addresses. And since these models are proprietory to Reliance, no open software is available either.

8) Incoming voice calls have huge congestion problem. I mean people who try to call me say they have to try a number of times. I can call out without any problems.

9) Voice mail is charged. only activation is free. This is misleading in the brochure, which makes it look like voice mail is free.

10) You are dead stuck with the handset. At one point you get so frustrated, because even if you are willing to pay, you cannot change your handset. They have been forming a policy for this since last 3 months. They dont seem to be in any hurry.

11) In addition to the above, They will now be charging 200pm access fees for internet access. This is very very wrong. I bought the phone becasue I calculated that I would use about 200 mins for data and 200 for voice. My caculation have gone topsy turvy. In all their advertisements they mentioned that data call was part of the package and would be charged @40p per minute only. Now suddenly they decide to charge a subscirption fee. This is a backdoor technique of changing the contracted price. So the consume is locked for 3 years, and has to pay any new subscrption charges that they come out with, or lose that part of the service !

I Cant believe they can get away with this.

After getting people to subscribe for 3 years, promising R-Connect internet connectivity @ 40 paise, reliance today announced that it would start charging a monthly subscription fee from October of Rs. 200/- for internet connectivity. I think this is black and white cheating. They promised data access @40 paise per minute within the 400 minutes that a DAPO user gets. I feel so frustrated and cheated by reliance. I am really really sorry I opted for it.

I am sure there must be some legal recourse to this problem. I know they must have made sure that via some line somewhere in the documentation they can get away with this.

The brochure clearly says that the 400 minutes given contain all data calls. This implies that the subscription free applicable to voice calls in DAPO applies to data calls too.

I am definitely thinking of moving towards legal action, if I get some support from people.

8-9-2003 : Just decided to add some more information, since I find a number of people are reading...

Tunes - So you like polyphonic tunes ? Say good bye to your desire of having your favourite tune on the phone, because only tunes provided by reliance ''R-World'' can be selected. Tune on R-World change once in two months, and are some of the worst you can get your hands on.

Games - The B/w handsets features Java games. The games are a joke, if you are a nokia user. The java games feel like 1980 machines. Big dots, slow as hell, and hard on the fingers. I dont know about the color handset.

Address Book - The search for a name in the address book is case sensitive ! This is a pain even for an experienced user like me, becasue if I accidently enter a letter that is in another case in the saved entry, the search fails !

STD @40p - This must be the biggest con job this country has seen. NOTE very carefully, that the STD @ 40p (only to WLL) is only for the initial 400 minutes. This means you have paid Rs. 600 pm for 400 minutes of airtime. This works out to 1.25 (assuming Rs 100 is handset installment) per minute. Subsequent to the initial 400 minutes, the charges are @2 or so per minute. So the question is HOW can they say STD is @ 40p ?

Multimedia / Songs / Videos - You should see them for yourself. The bw handsets are a joke. You can only see ghosts for pictures, and crackling for sound. I think one should just insist on seeing this at the web world.