In the last three years of existence as Reliance India Mobile (RIM) operator, Reliance Infocomm has earned enough notoriety, mostly for inflated bills, and vague and confusing plan details doled out to the RIM subscribers.



Who can forget the days when there used to be serpentine queues outside Reliance Infocomm outlets to get mobile phone connections to “talk @ 40 paise/minute”. However, the dream of going mobile for just 40 paise turned out to be a misleading ad gimmick, as it was possible only among the RIM subscribers, and any duration exceeding that initial one-minute time limit was to be charged separately!



Again, some time later, similar serpentine queues were seen before these outlets, but this time, it was for an altogether different reason: the RIM subscribers were there to lodge their complaints of erratic and inflated billing. They were completely disillusioned with the Reliance Infocomm’s “Kar Lo Dunia Mutthi Mein” slogan, which was nothing more than a farce for them now. And thus, Dhirubhai Ambani’s dream to bring about mobile phone revolution in India was put to disgrace by none other than his heirs themselves.



However, the story of treachery doesn’t end here. The latest tool to rob RIM subscribers of their money came disguised as the Reliance India Card (RIC). This pre-paid card came in conveniently-packaged denominations, and with promises of offering some of the best features a mobile user can have.



But the entire brouhaha turned out to be a short-lived affair, as one fine morning, the RIC users came to know that service provider had terminated the scheme! So, even though the users did have account balance left on their RICs, they couldn’t make use of them. Repeated calls to customer care executives suggested that even they didn’t have much idea as to why this scheme was withdrawn suddenly, without any prior intimation to the subscribers. All they are left with is a six-word refrain: “We will look into the matter.”



While Reliance Infocomm people will take their own sweet time to look into the matter, the subscribers are running from pillar to post to stay connected with their near and dear ones.