I had taken a broadband connection from Reliance nearly 3 years back. It worked just fine for nearly 6 months and I was regularly getting my bills and making payments (which were as per my plan and amounts ranging from Rs. 800 to 900 per month). Then suddenly I got a bill for Rs. 6000/-. I am a single user and when I complained, they insisted that somebody else is using the internet and there has been heavy usage (which is impossible as I am the only person who used internet and have a single computer). I had called them up several times and complained, but they would not do anything about it. Thereafter, I got my next bill of the old amount as arrears (since I had not paid the bill) plus an additional amount of Rs. 4000 of the next month. I once again called and complained, but they refused to acknowledge anything I said and insisted the bill amount was correct and I will need to pay it if I wish to use their services. Finally the 3rd bill arrived and the dues mounted to over 11,500, and since I had not made payments, they disconnected the line.

I had emailed and complained several times and nobody had cared to respond or reply and try to sort out the matter.

The highlight of the entire episode is that suddenly, I get a call from an unknown person, who says that he is calling from New Delhi and that I had been served a legal notice 3 times at my registered address and even after I have received the said notice (for which they claim they have a signed copy), I have not appeared in the Court??????????????

No such Legal Notice was ever sent to me and besides me there is nobody else at my office (which is a small 75 sq ft place) where I was using the connection. But he insisted that it had been sent to me and they have acknowledged signed copies and since I have failed to appear before the Court, action had been initiated against me. He further said I must speak to a certain Lawyer (whose name and cell no was given to me) and that I must attend the Court the next day at 11 am (which was at Delhi whereas I live in Mumbai). Upon calling up that cell no, I was told the lawyer was busy in a courtroom and that the person on the other end was his assistant, who heard me out and told me either to be present tomorrow with my lawyer or to pay the amount today itself before 4 pm and to provide him with a receipt number as proof of the payment being done.

As anybody would generally get afraid, I too had no option but immediately go and pay the amount (11,672 to be precise) and avoid any legal action. However, I am attaching below my old Email correspondence with Reliance which had never been addressed or resolved by them in 3 years. And with this new tactic, they must be getting many customers, even if they have valid complaints, to pay up their dues. I could fell that the whole story he said of legal notice and action against me if I fail to appear next day was a lie, but being helpless and not wanting any undue problems, I had to pay up.

The old email I had written to them on 4/12/2008 is pasted below:
Dear Sir,
I am writing with regards to my Reliance Broadband connection - Subscriber ID 247226089243, registered in the name of Ajay Shah, Mumbai 400067.

I had received a bill in October for Rs. 6118 and on 1-11-08 I have lodged a complaint (Docket no. 79221399) with the customer care department, regarding the excessive bill amount. I am the only individual in my office who uses the internet and my previous 3-4 bills have always been in the range of Rs. 800 - 900. I am unable to understand how the bill can increase so drastically, and I firmly believe that this is a problem at your end, and for reasons not known to me, the bill has got inflated to such a great extent.

I had received a few calls regarding the payment of my last bill, but I have not received any prompt reply to my pending complaint, and now, my broadband service has been suspended due to non-payment of the bill. I also mentioned that when I had attempted to register an online complaint through the Reliance broadband website, wherein I entered my Subscriber ID, I was taken to a page where I can enter the complaint, and on that page I could see that against my Subscriber ID, the User Name appears as "Metro Adlabs". I believe that there is definately some mix-up in the usage of the internet service and the Metro Adlabs usage is getting billed to me. I am attaching the pages that I had visited to register my online complaint, wherein the User name appears as Metro Adlabs, for you to understand as to what I saw. I can understand a minor change in amount of +/- 10% but not 700%.

I request you kindly look into the matter on an urgent basis and resolve this issue.

Thanking you,

Ajay Shah

mail to: broadband@relianceada.com

So this is how they are now extracting money from customers, instead of looking into the genuine grievances or problems. I also have captured images of the Reliance Broadband website, where, when I used to login using my User ID, the page opened up with User name as Metro Adlabs against my ID number. I believe their usage was being billed to me. But nobody from the Reliance Broadband company ever bothered to address my problems or even reply to my complaint (as per above email).

EVERYBODY ELSE - BEWARE.