If you’re reading this, and want to catch up, here’s Part I and Part II.

Right, after realizing towards the end of the previous scenario that there was no hope in the angle I was taking, nor does a company like Reliance care much for the complaints of a dissatisfied customer, or his blog posts. However, the social media push somehow (details left out intentionally, sorry!) got me in touch with their head of enterprise services. I sent him this:

Dear Punit,

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read through this e-mail.

I’m writing with regards to my frustration by Reliance Support and Reliance Customer Care over the last month.

After only recently signing up with your broadband services, both at home and at our offices, my modem at home failed on 8th November. I filed a complaint …

[The details and facts specified here are pretty much outlined in Part I and Part II, so I’ll skip it here]

… and that I would need to e-mail broadband@relianceada.com to state my case and claim.

I have now had (3) e-mail communications back, each stating that no waiver would be approved because the problems had all been resolved within the committed time.

Sir, as an extremely frustrated customer, I wish to highlight:

• As a fellow IT person operating a NOC environment, I cannot understand how Reliance Support engineers can close complaints without (a) showing up (b) contacting a customer and most importantly © solving the issue
• I cannot understand why Customer Care are unable to do anything beyond reading that the technical/someone closed my complaint and that it is solved, and opening newer complaint numbers
• Repeatedly e-mailing broadband@relianceada.com only results in being told that the issue has been resolved even though it should be clear that I would not have had to make multiple repeated complaints in the same week had that actually been the case, and that failure of Support System to continue running on the same case number is the reason I have 3 separate ones.

After dealing with this unprofessional attitude, I request that

1. An explanation be available as to why customer complaints are being closed without problems being solved or at least some notification to the customer
2. I should not be paying for the period wherein Reliance technical team & support failed to restore my services (Nov 08-Nov 16)
3. Any additional charges that are incurred because of the delay in my resolution due to Reliance’s billing and support teams past the billing date be waived as well.

I believe that such a request is both fair and just considering the circumstances, and I hope we reach a speedy resolution; one that is not my cancellation of Reliance services from any of my locations.

Sincerely,
Chirag Desai

Summary:

• Original complaint: 140684488, 8th nov
• Second complaint: 140803041: 10th nov
• Final complaint (Durghesh): 141112992: 15 nov
• Billing complaint: 142081510 — filed nov. 30, 1.51 p.m.

I got 5 or 6 calls from different technical guys, all asking me what was the status of my problem. Seriously? After 5 or 6 re-explanations, I got wonderful sympathy from each one, “Yea that should not have happened” or “Yes that makes perfect sense, you should get a refund” and one going to the “Yea that part of support is outsourced to a third party and we pressure them to meet targets so sometimes they do that.” Are you kidding me.

Each one told me they would put in a request from someone in billing to call me. Three days later, my account is now suspended.

Hi Punit,

I’m hoping that the numerous calls I got from reliance last Thursday were a result of my e-mail to you. However it seems that no one really read my complaints, so the only people I got calls from were from the technical team. After I explained the case over and over again to some 5–6 different people, each person told me someone from billing would contact me because what I’m asking for makes perfect sense, and that it should be sorted out.

No one from billing has called and my account has since been suspended.

I’m sure you can’t blame me much when I say that not only am I dissatisfied with the service (and the complete lack of anyone in the team spending 3 minutes *reading* my complaints), but I really do not even wish to continue this conversation further.

Chirag

Not that it matters or anything.

Update, 20 Jan 2011: The issue was eventually resolved, and my last email got me a call from Billing who eventually sorted me out with a refund.