The Great Reliance and the Not So Great Customer Service

When you talk about great service, you think of the excellent experience when a provider hooks you up — the sales pitch, the installation, the warm handover. In the real world that enthusiasm rarely translates into equally great customer service when something goes wrong.

The Problem

I had just signed up for a second broadband and phone connection from Reliance. The connection came with a login page that required me to enter a 10-digit number and password every single time I connected to the internet — forcing me to land on their homepage on every session and keep a browser window open for the entire duration I was online. A deal-breaker for everyday use.

I was told that the seamless no-login experience is available only to corporate customers at a premium rate — not something I was in a position to pay for. Fair enough. So I called to disconnect.

The Runaround

What followed was 45 minutes of being passed around, escalated once, and ultimately stonewalled. The customer support representative told me he could not take a disconnection request because — and this was stated with a straight face — it would take three days to update their records and therefore no request could be logged on the same day the connection was activated.

The floor manager's position was even more remarkable. He stated that no one in the company has the authority to process a same-day disconnection request — and to drive the point home, he added that not even Anil Dhirubhai Ambani himself has that power. Therefore, he said, there was nobody to escalate to beyond him.

His resolution: someone will call you tomorrow. He has put all the information in the notes.

The Irony

I was on the verge of giving up my reliable BSNL government phone and DSL connection in favour of this private provider. After this experience I find myself reconsidering. Government organisations are slow and steady — but they do eventually process your request. A private provider that cannot log a disconnection on the day of connection is a different kind of problem altogether.

And as for the floor manager — he told me the next level above him is a manager named Anil Ambhani. I had always thought of Anil as a visionary industrialist. I did not know he was taking escalation calls from broadband customers at 10pm. That changes my view of the organisation considerably.

Case Details