This was my email content...
Subject: How are sales generated through existing customers or advertisements?
Respected Mr. Anil Ambani
I have been using your Reliance Global calling card for a year and I am extremely satisfied with the product. I have never contacted your customer care department as I have never faced any problems till 18th of June 2008. Unfortunately on 22nd June 2008 I was really upset with the services of your customer care representatives, show room executives, help line & managers.
I had an amount of approx. Rs 400 plus balance still left in my mobile phone. The validity was going to expire on the 18th of June 2008.
I called customer care before the 18th and asked them how many days grace period I had left. They said 15 days in which I would have to get my cell renewed or else the amount will get lapsed.
I went on the 22nd of June 2008 to get my mobile validity renewed.
I have been using Reliance Global calling card for nearly a year from which I can make only ISD calls to my sister & brother in law who reside in the US.
When I went there they told me the validity & amount had lapsed when I still was in the grace period.
They told me the card had two validities. I was not aware of this and neither had any of your customer care people informed me when I inquired with them somewhere before the 18Th of June 2008. Had they informed me I would have immediately got my cell renewed.
Your customer care people should have paid more attention to my question I had asked them around 18th of June 2008.
The question I had asked them was, “I have a Global calling card & its validity will expire on the 18th of June 2008 what is the grace period?”
Answer I received was “15 days”.
They could have given me a much better reply by saying,
“Your validity will expire on the 18th of June and you have a grace period of 15 days but please keep in mind that if the main validity is not renewed before the expiry date (which I am still not aware of) then your total money will elapse within this grace period of 15 days. So I suggest you get it renewed today itself. Is there anything else I can help you with?
This process would have hardly taken 10 min. He/ She could have asked, ‘may I please have your phone number’, which would have been fed in the computer to give the exact balance & validity of the cell. After that the correct and precise information would have been shared with the customer and not led to any misunderstanding, harassment etc. The customer on the other hand would not only be satisfied but also delighted. Why? Because the customer care rep was not trying to sell him anything but educate him and also retain a customer.
Later I spoke to your helpline number and asked them if they could resolve the problem. Their immediate reply was “NO COMPANY POLICY”I am sorry to say that it seems the company does not value its existing customers.
If you have satisfied & delighted customers it will generate sales automatically and you would not have to spend money on advertisements, endorsements, salesmen merchandising or for that matter customer care.
Advertisements and other sales promotion activities would only then become a means of providing information to people of new product launches by the company.
Sir the loss of rupees four hundred is not hurting me but it is the attitude of the employees of not wanting to help or retain the customers which is.
Sir I don’t mind spending 1000 rupees on something where I see my money has been used wisely but if I am cheated by even two rupees it hurts a lot. I work very hard for my salary. I am not begging but trying to bring to your attention how India’s No. 1 company can improve customer satisfaction with a little bit of feedback which it receives from its existing customers.
Reliance has started its business from scrap and it is now one of top companies in Forbes Magazine which I & every Indian admires & is proud of.
You spend crores of money in customer care but they still give wrong information & it is the customer who is made to suffer. Then what is the meaning of customer care?
I have lost at least Rs400 plus harassment from the one of India's most recognized company. I have argued with them for hours with the staff but they seem to enjoy the customer leaving the office dissatisfied and hurt.
They only want new sales.
They are not bothered about their existing customers. They want me to beg in front of them.
I also know that you might never read what I have written as you are an extremely busy man and have such a big Empire to run
Regards
Aditya Agrawal
