Part II- Another Open letter to Anil Ambani

Dear Anil Ambani,

Again I am back on this blog, this time with a different version of getting cheated.

One of those two awful connections, I gave it up after a series of mails to you & your minions. The other one having number 9380946699 I retained and upgraded it to a lifetime activation, and it was used sparingly.

The last time I used this mobile was in March 2009. At that time it had a balance of about Rs.70/=. Afterwards, the handset got misplaced in my residence when some renovation work was going on. As I am using two other connections, Airtel & Aircel regularly, I did not bother much. A few days ago, I could locate my mobile and charged the battery.

When I tried to make a call, I got a reply that I am having insufficient balance. When I checked up with *333, I was told that I am having a negative balance of Rs.18/=, the reason offered was I have subscribed for some non-sense scheme called Symbiotic Masala Jokes. To my horror, I was told that the dates of these debits have taken place during the time when my handset remained switched off .

When I lodged a complaint on July 01,2009(complaint no. 102709094), the customer care guy assured me he will reverse the wrongful debits in 48 hours. Today, after 48 hours, I just received a message that "As per my Service Request, my Requested Pack has been deactivated".

When I again tried to speak to some responsible person at customer service, I was made to hold the line for more than 15 minutes, while the guys were probably debating who should take on the call of this irate & vociferous customer. Ultimately, whoever took his sweet time to answer me, simply told me that I should have made a representation within three days of such a wrongful debit and now nothing can be done.

Dear Anil Ambani, are you reading this? Then please answer my queries below.

1. When your system will not allow anybody to make a call if he is having a zero balance in his account, how will it allow debiting the account for " Requested Packs" so as to take the balance into the negative territory?

2. When my handset remained switched off all the time, who permitted debiting my prepaid account for some nonsense jokes that I never asked for?

I know I am not the only one to have been defrauded in this manner. A search of the Internet revealed that there is another subscriber having number 9379658331 who has suffered a similar fate and there should be many others who have suffered such wrong debits for unasked for "services", but have not thought of reaching out to the humanity through the web.

Just a word of caution Anil Ambani. I know you guys deserve an equivalent of an OSCAR for coming out with newer methods in cheating customers. Since I am not in a position to offer any such award, I have simply decided to gift you back my handset if you are not going to set this matter right.

After all what use is it for me now. If I try to top up my connection, Rs.18 will go away for the negative balance that you have so artfully created, while Rs. 70/= of my hard earned money is already gone. Again, there is no guarantee that you will not repeat the same trick in another form to siphon out my money. Now your handset with the Reliance name imprinted on one side and embossed on the other has just become a useless piece of shit. What better option do I have than to dump it on you?

I expect a positive reply from you or any of your minions at Mumbai within a week. If you don' want this issue to be settled, I will go ahead with filing more such blogs on your dirty tricks and dirtier jokes that are played on the consumers by the reliance mobile. After all I have already lost enough and I have nothing further to lose in this game.

Anil, as usual, I am mailing you the contents and also the link to this blog. See, I prefer to be pretty transparent and straight forward in my dealings, so that you get a first hand account directly from me. Have a great time.