Smart or Dumb??

Two days back, a friend of mine ( actually a senior ) asked me to add my blog id to a list maintained by a 2k2 passout. A very noble idea I suppose aimed at bringing the fellow bloggers of BIT together. I myself found a few interesting blogs from within the list. One of them talked about the Reliance Smart mobile connection and the wonderful....er .....irritating consequences of opting for that connection.

Yours truly has himself suffered a lot after he decided to go for Smart rather than Airtel or BSNL Cellone( getting a Cellone connection was something similar to moving Mt Fiji in those days ). And I didnt stop there. I went to the extent of upgrading my connection to Smart Life. I had my reasons. I only made calls home and so, needed a connection which provided low STD rates. Also, the SMS came at a rather cheap 25p/msg. I had a few problems here and there, with the messages not reaching the destination by the time I wanted it to reach. And the occasional " Network Busy ", only that occasional meant once every 2-3 hours! So here I was, without any complaints cause I as still able to call up home, and talk to them for about 10-15 minutes, every 2-3 days.

The real irritating part started a few days back. The only SIN I committed was recharging my credit with a 300 bucks voucher. It was supposed to be a top up card, mine being SMART LIFE. I dialled the number which would let me recharge my phone. The recorded voice said, " Your new Balance is so and so....The services associated with it would be activated shortly". Little did I know that the supposed service that they were going to provide was " Barring of STD facility " as well as undelivered National msgs even though my balance decreased by 25p every time I tried sending a message. I thought or rather hoped that this would be alright in 24 hours. But that was not the case. I could nt call up home from my phone any more. I used my friend's phone to give missed calls and they would call me back. The problem with this the first time was that my mom actually thought that I d lost the phone and was trying to cover it up with such a story of recharging and STD facility getting barred. She even told me that she ll send over some cash to buy a new phone! I asked them to call up on my phone whenever they felt the need to.

This is not the end of the ride that I had to take. I tried calling up the customer care.( I wonder how they call it CUSTOMER CARE when they are least bothered about customer grievances ) They wouldn't answer the phone! When I finally felt that I d had enough, I decided to visit their office and lodge a complaint. I was asked to keep my phone switched off form 8 30 pm to 10 00pm. I still dont get the logic behind asking me to keep my phone switched off. Though it was a Hope against Hope Hopen as Ogden Nash would ve put it, I still hoped that it woul get alright. As expected, it didn't. Now, I could go to them only after my midsems. So the weekend after midsem, I headed for the Smart office once again. This time, I tried to act as if I was the most pissed off person on earth. And I threatened to move court if they didnt rectify the problem by night that day. The utterance of the word 'Court' seems to have done the trick. The time they said by which my STD facility ould be back was 8 30. At 8 31 pm, I made my first STD call for more than a month by my phone.

So the next time someone has a problem with the Reliance Smart ( Dumb ) people threaten to go to the court if your complaints are not heeded for more than a week. Things which may usually take more than 1 month to do will get done in less than 6 hours!