[Resolved]  Reliance Netconnect Broadband — Data Account Balance Lapse

Address:

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

Hi,

This regarding my prepaid wireless data account plan with Reliance Communications. My Reliance NetConnet+ consumer number is [protected]. I had recharged my account on 10/28/2011 with Rs.180/- for a balance of 250 MB which already had a balance of 250+ MB. So the total data balance on my account was around 528 MB originally when I had recharged on October 28, 2011. In the interim I had used a bare minimum of about 26 MB and hence the data balance worked down to 502 MB. I was regularly reviewing the recharge date in their system and as per their online system reference the date of recharge was November 27, 2011. I had been reviewing this almost once every week before the recharge date and also had set up the date in my Outlook calendar as I had heard that there are some hidden tactics or business rules which are not exposed to customers.

As per Reliance's system information I recharged my account on November 27, 2011 for Rs.180/- at 7:27 PM and as expected when I rechecked the account balance after returning home I was surprise to learn that my balance had converted to only 250 MB which is what I got after the recharge on November 27, 2011. I immediately reached out to Mohana at Reliance's customer care who confirmed that the balanced had elapsed on the same day between 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM. I informed Mohana that I had not used my Reliance NetConnect broadband for almost couple of month till then, she said that she will try to check why the elapse happened on my account. There was no response for almost a week and then I get an email stating that there was no data lapse. I was really disturbed with this odd message and reached out to customer care of December 15, 2011 and discussed the same with a new customer care agent Sowmya. Sowmya too was courteous to state that she will have once again someone check on my account and confirm if the lapse could be reinstated. Again a week passed to get me a same response by email. I was really astonished the way I was being treated for a system error. I wanted to check what was my actual fault and why this discrepancy was happening, hence I sent email to the appellate authority for the andhra region.

I received a response from Chetan Pedamkar who was from the customer care team, though my request was sent to the Appellate Authority who was kind enough to shrugg of an acknowledgment email. Me and Chetan exchanged a few interactions after my 2 emails to Appellate Authority and Chetan confirmed to me that the data loss cannot be reinstated to my account. I inquired in specific to Chetan why the elapsed happened between 2:30 to 3:00 PM on November 27, 2011. Chetan then confirmed that this could be a possibility if the recharge was before 3:00 PM in the month of October, 2011. It rang a bell and I was able to understand where the lapse had happened, I had recharged my account at 3:00 PM when I was picking up my kids on October 28, 2011. But Chetan warned me that I need to recharge a day ahead of the recharge date to keep my balance which I think is a good suggestion when we have days of National Holidays. However, I was not able to digest this business rule of Reliance that implicated I was really feeling deceived as this business rule is not referred to a customer up front at the purchase. Generally, most companies provide you the complete 24 hours of the day to get your recharge done hence I was feeling betrayed.

I reached out to customer care once again on December 27, 2011 to confirm if they can try to help me out with the reinstatement of my balance. I got to talk to a person named Teju who transferred me to a self proclaimed supervisor of the floor Ms. Shiny, who once again transferred me to the real floor Manager Mr. Hari once she was made aware of the issue and the arguments that I had presented. Mr. Hari was courteous with managing a customer temperament but did not provide even a call back as promised. I know how good a manager he can prove to be if he is unresponsive to a customer. I tried to reach him on January 5, 2012 and got to talk to Gowthami who transferred me to Arun who said that he will inform him to call me once he is available. Till date I have no communication from him.

I demand a reinstatement of my lost account balance and also insist that this specific business rule by Reliance be glorified to every customer the day they prefer to be a customer.