Reliance Communications — Wrong and unauthorized billing by Reliance

Address:

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

Hi,

I took a reliance netconnect+ connection on 30th January, 2013 with a plan of Rs. 250/- pm (NCPKUS_MyBestValue1GB). And my connection details are:
NetConnect+ number: [protected]
Account Id/Relationship no:[protected]

To my utter surprise, I got a bill for Rs. 407.76, for first 20 days! The bill details are:
[protected] to[protected] : Rs. 266.13 and[protected] to[protected] is Rs. 96.77, and the rest are taxes.

I called up Reliance support number[protected] and they don't have clue of the billing (why there are charges of Rs. 266 for first 10 days while my plan is Rs.250/-pm), so suggested me to visit the web world to get that rectified.

I visited the Reliance web world in Kondapur, Hyderabad and explained them the issue. My first bill which includes the welcome letter too, clearly mentions that my plan is Rs.250/-. So the executive at web world agreed that is is billing mistake and raised a complaint number,[protected] and said that someone from billing dept shall contact me in 48hrs. Also he said that I need not pay the bill, as this is under a complaint (for excess amount) as the last date is 12th March. But I never got a call back from Reliance. So I called up the support number again on 22nd March and when checked, they said that the billing dept tried to reach me, but couldn't hence the compliant is closed mentioning that 'not able to reach customer'. So I again raised one more complaint on 22nd (compliant number:[protected] and gave my both numbers (primary and alternative numbers). In the meanwhile, I got the bill for March, with a Rs.100/- as penalty for non-payment of Feb months bill (for which the complaint is pending). As usual, I haven't got any call from reliance till 25th evening, so I called the reliance support number on 25th March (around 5:30pm) and talked to their executive Ms. Kavitha. She checked and said that the compliant is still active and I shall get a call. I again gave both my contact numbers to her. And at that time I realized that my connection was put on hold on 22nd March and so cannot use my card.

And as unusual, I haven't got any call till today 29th March, so I called up the reliance support again at 8:00pm and talked to Mr. Raj. After keeping me on hold for nearly 21 minutes, Raj confirmed that he checked with his counterparts that the bill is correct. His explanation is that every customer shall be put on a default plan (irrespective of the plan the customer has signed) and later shall be converted to the customer's requested plan. So I was charged for a default plan a Rs. 266 for first 10 days and later moved my connection to my signed/requested plan. When I questioned him who asked the reliance to put me in a higher plan (when I asked for Rs.250 plan), he mentioned that that is how all the customers are done!. And he don't have clue, why my connection was not changed to my plan on the 2nd day (instead of waiting for 10 days and charging me Rs..266 for 10 days). So I asked Mr,Raj to raise one more complaint with full details along with my both contact numbers. As expected his prompt response is 'my system is slow and going for re-boot and I cannot take the complaint now'. When I shouted, he said that he shall raise the complaint and give a call back to me with details. Its nearly 30mins, as expected, there is no call back or SMS (with complaint details) to me!

Then my next question to him is how can the company place the plan as per their choice when the customer signed for a different plan? And he doesn't have an answer. When I confronted him, he said that I have again need to go to a reliance web world (and I am sure they cannot help).

Few questions needs to be answered from Reliance:
- How can they place the customer into the plan of their choice or a default plan when customer signed for something else? As per TRAI, they cannot activate the plan for their choice.
- When and how they move the customer to the customer's asked/signed plan?
- And how can they charge the late payment fees in the next billing cycle, when there is an open customer complaint for excessive charges
- When we give the phone/contact numbers along with alternative numbers, if they enter wrong data (purposeful?) whose fault it is?

Can anyone look into this and get back please? Can anyone advice me of the next steps? Do I need to approach TRAI? If so how?

Thanks
Viswanath