[Resolved]  Reliance Communications — illegal demand through excessive billing

Address:

Kolkata, West Bengal, 700070

My Mobile No. is 74******46.

From the very beginning (Dec-2011) RELIANCE has been charging excessively. Its agent had visited my house requesting my favour to subscribe another number, although I was already using one RELIANCE NUMBER with which I was totally disappointed, because of frequent disruption midway through a call. Many well-wishers had advised me to throw away the RELIANCE SIM to the dust-bin, because of its unethical practices to the level of cheating innocent subscribers. Yet when the agent nearly touched my feet I obliged him by taking another number (as above). This was supposed to be a Rs.149 Post-Paid plan on a CDMA device, without any VALUE-ADDED SERVICE. And I started receiving bill of around 180-190 including Service Tax. So far so good. Seldom any calls were made from this second device for the first 6 months.

But soon its intention became clear. Its service began to deteriorate. Call disruption was frequent, and billing went on increasing, although calls never exceeded 50 minutes talk time in a monthly cycle, it began charging on FLIMSY value-added service without obtaining written consent from me. Within a year billing rose to nearly Rs. 300. It still was so up to May-2017.

In Jul-17, they suddenly billed around 840+, showing a month's advance charges, knowing fully that it is ILLEGAL, because TELECOMMUNICATION Company can collect in advance only in PRE-PAID CONNECTIONS. Apparently, the purpose is two-fold.
(A) To bind the fleeing customer by collecting illegally advance amount.
(B) To amass as much money as possible and dump the money in foreign accounts, before Courts declare the Company as BANKRUPT. The management know their Company has no future, so this is the last effort to ditch the Indian public.

As a telecommunication Company, it never looked like a professionally managed business entity from the very beginning. It is known for the following manipulative practices -

1) In the name of Customer Care (Support) it has unskilled / unprofessional staff who cannot be accessed in 9 out of 10 attempts, and for that you may have to wait a horrific 30 minutes or more on a call. They are expert in draining out your patience so that you are forced to withdraw in a huff and never raise any SERVICE REQUEST, as is required under the rules made by T.R.A.I.
Customers (most of them don’t have the time, patience or skill) have no option but to send their grievances through an E-mail at the address available in their monthly Bills. But here too, the Company has started ignoring the mailed complaints, threatening customers that they have NOT MADE COMPLAINTS PROPERLY at all, and hence they are BOUND BY AGREEMENT TO PAY TILL ETERNITY whether you get the service or not.

2) Its manipulative practices are the best in the criminal world. It does not provide you with the record of discussion and agreements, if any, arrived at in a telephonic conversation. So, by simply dialling you, it shows that you have consented to a higher CASH paying plan, without your knowledge. Moreover, Pre-paid or Post-paid, it comes out with big plans (stealing from the brochures of other telecommunication companies) but it does not have the technical infrastructure to offer what it promises, and dupes the customers of their hard-earned money.

3) Its record of accepting PORT OUT in Post-Paid Plans, is ridden with controversies. Once you are in its grip, it will violate all T.R.A.I. Rules to forcefully retain you to its fold. It will offer all excuses, even when it owes money to the customer, it will show vice versa, and WILL NOT ACCEPT PORT OUT. Even migration from POST-PAID to PRE-PAID is seldom allowed. There are numerous instances of cheating by the company on this score too. I am one such victim. Although, I have learnt from my mistakes, and have alerted all my contacts that I may leave the Reliance fold any moment, be prepared for that.

4) Its network strength is one of the poorest in the country. Except Metropolitan cities, and their suburbs, it has less than 50% coverage in the rural India, which they never agree. For example, it has no (or poor) network in UTTARAKHAND, J&K, North Eastern States (including North Bengal, Sikkim). Its internet service / speed is also the worst among the lot.

5) Its Grievance redressing system is infested with duping the public. It will simply act or respond publicly (specially in public domain) as if it is working out amicably on all complaints and resolving complaints, but in fact, it has no intention or infrastructure to serve or attend the aggrieved public.

6) Of late it has started hiring criminals, for threatening disgruntled customers leaving its services, with fake legal prosecutions. They are threatening over phone with dire consequences. For this purpose, as per reports, they have even enlisted the favour of some local police force, in some notorious belts, on commission sharing basis. That's why I have not disclosed my Phone number, although I am prepared for any threat from Company's hoodlum force. There are thousands o[censored]nresolved grievances pouring from various websites.

Therefore, I have decided to launch a CRIMINAL proceeding against the Company, before its Management tries to flee the country with the booty.

Let's hope to stop this trend of victimising public, who have suffered financially, psychologically, socially, etc. in the name of telecommunication service.