Say TATA to Reliance! . Review on Reliance Mobile Operator

I'm feeling miserable. I have every reason to. Afterall, I'm the not-so-proud owner of a Reliance India Mobile (RIM) phone. Yes, I know I have SMS free for 3 years and can freely forward all the non-sensical messages I receive. But hey! That's the finest and only lining of silver on my dark RIM cloud. Let me introduce you to my Reliance India Mobile phone...

The Handset:

I have a nice, sleek silver Samsung handset that can ''sing'' a lot of tunes. English, Hindi, Devotional, SFX and also smart alec voice rings that mimic everyone from Laloo and Veeru. Its got a few games which aren't really fun to play, ''R World'' where I can view clips of movies, view news updates, send greetings (that never reach), check web mail etc. Sounds like good news, eh? Well, 6 minutes of continuous speaking makes my handset develop a ''high fever'' forcing me to terminate my call or switch to the handsfree kit.

The Customer Care Service: Remember the old days when you had to wait endlessly on your MTNL phone listening to ''Aap Katar Mein, Kripya Prateeksha Keejeeye..You are in Queue, Please Wait...''. Finally, a voice would come to your rescue, solve your problem and put you at ease. Well, RIM customer care makes the MTNL telephone operators seem like Angels of Mercy, P.T.Ushas and Speed Thiefs. You have to call endlessly for days together and battle with voice messages and your keypad to get through to a human voice. And when you do, they claim to transfer the line to another human. You're transferred back to voice messages and your call is automatically terminated.

The ''Tariff'':

If you think that you're ''lucky'' and are a subscriber under the Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Offer, well you better re-look the definition of lucky. The salesperson at the store I bought my kit from, promised 400 minutes of free talk time. Well, the ''400 minutes of free talktime'' applies only for RIM to RIM calls. YOU'RE BILLED SEPARATELY FOR CALLS YOU MAKE TO LANDLINES OF OTHER OTHER MOBILE PHONES. I discovered that only after I received my first bill 2 months later! The balance unused minutes are transferred to the next month and ONLY FOR A QUARTER. So every DAPO subscriber inevitably ends up with a 600+ bill.

The Club: As a subscriber to the scheme, you also pay to subscribe to some club that gives you discount coupons that can be used at various restaurants, shopping centers, to buy branded products etc. Well, imagine my plight when NONE of the stores and restaurants that I regularly visit and listed in their club book accepted the coupons!!!!!! Some of them have even stuck posters saying ''RELIANCE COUPONS NOT ACCEPTED HERE''. The Exit Policy: Enter Tata. After successfully launching their landlines all over Mumbai and giving you impeccable and personalised service, Tata introduces their own cellular phone service. Free SMS for two months, different models and brands of handsets, lower entry costs, no frills and no hidden costs plans seem honest and apt for the average Indian. But hey! You own a RIM under the DAPO! You want a Tata, go return your handset and shell out 5000 rupees and be free of your RIM!!!

RIM India definitely doesn't live up to the great name of the late Dhirubhai Ambani. SMS jokes are being widely circulated mocking the Ambani family. The management of RIM should get their act together and set things right and make RIM a fitting tribute to the great man's vision.