Reliance BIG TV Review
By Review Boss on Nov 12, 2008 with Comments 29
Welcome to BIG (BUG) TV, India’s Best (Worst) DTH Service Provider!
The DTH war among BIG companies is up in India. There are already half dozen players on the market and soon there would be more. While the competition made DTH affordable for consumers, about 50% DTH users are completely dissatisfied. The reason is all the companies are competing with each other by providing WORST possible service quality and pathetic customer care.
India’s most trusted companies like TATA and Reliance have been losing their reputation by selling cheap, imported China made TOYS in the name of “Latest & Greatest Technology”. (Think about Reliance and TATA’s mobile phones, and Internet service)
In the past I used both companies’ mobiles phones, Wireless Land-line, Internet data card and USB internet modem and thrown those useless toys to dustbin and promised myself NOT to buy anymore toys from these two companies. So when TATA in association with UK’s Sky tech started their DTH service in India in the name of Tata-Sky I didn’t go for it besides getting plenty of special offers from Credit card companies…and I’m glad that I didn’t buy TATA-Sky.
But I had to buy Reliance BIG TV when my wife fell into BIG TV’s BUZZ & Hype…after all, just pay Rs 2,200 and get one year subscription free…more than 150 channels. I’m paying Rs.200 to local cable service provider just for 80 channels. So BIG TV launch was undeniable offer.
As a result, on 10th September 2008 I bought BIG TV though I was little skeptical. Initially BIG TV had installation problems due to huge demand and it was acceptable. So I had to wait for 20 days before my BIG TV got installed and had to make countless calls to customer care jokers.
BIG TV finally got installed!
And I was told by the installation guy that I should wait up to 24 hours for my account to get activated. He asked me to keep my Set-up-box switched on for 24 hours and left… I anxiously waited for 24 hours…nothing happened…48 hours …nothing…1 week…2 week…1 month…
It’s been 2 months since I’ve bought BIG TV and still my account is not at all activated! During this period I made countless calls to BIG TV’s illiterate morons called customer care executives who just don’t know what they are talking about!
(See the picture above; my account is not activated. Though I’ve subscribed it’s asking me to subscribe again!)
Around 20 days back I called CC and finally warned them that I’d go for Airtel DTH. But CC guy begged me NOT buy Airtel DTH and promised me that my BIG TV would get activated within 24 hours -101% sure. He also told me that there is no problem from Reliance end, he blamed and scolded their IPO. Nevertheless, I waited another week and finally bought Airtel DTH which was installed and activated in less than 3 hours after I bought (though I was told that it would take upto 3 days)
Well, that’s my case. I’ve observed lots of interesting facts about Big TV in my area.
My apartment house has 16 flats. While most of the houses are using local cable operator’s service, there were 3 Dish TV’s, 1 Tata-Sky and 1- Sun TV. When BIG TV was launched 2 Dish TV and 1 Tata-Sky customer bought BIG TV. So BIG TV managed to hijack their competitors’ customers. In my opinion both DISH-TV and Tata-Sky lost at least 30-40% customers to BIG TV through-out in India.
But here is the shocking NEWS.
In my apartment alone BIG TV lost 2 out of their 3 customers to Airtel DTH in less than 2 months! Within a year BIG TV would lose 50% of their customers to Airtel unless they improve their services incredibly, which I doubt. (Because Airtel has millions of satisfied customers though it is little expensive) If there is a company in India, other than Maruti Udyog Ltd, committed to great customer experience then it’s Bharti-Airtel. (I’m talking about Indian Companies- Not foreign companies like “Vodafone”)
Of course, to reduce cost Airtel too outsourced their customer care department to some third-class company which they must improve. Currently Airtel DTH’s CC is no better than Reliance, TATA or Dissh-TV’s CC. The difference is Airtel’s CC executives are reasonably well trained and their technical department is being handled by their own staff.
I’m really wondering how long TATA and Reliance would sustain if they continue to provide WORST services. (Both companies have already started selling another useless CRAP called Wi-Max broadband internet) They Bribe politicians and get favorable policy; they bribe both print and TV media and make sure that negative comments about them are not published. They are spending so much money for acquiring a customer…but doing nothing to retain them. How long this strategy will work?
Just now my wife put down BIG TV STB and Remote to dustbin and asked me to throw it away! (See the pic) I’ll sell both Big TV Dish and STB to local scrap collector and keep the cable with me. That 20 meter cable is worth at least Rs 500. Because, Reliance would never refund your money.
In 2004 I returned their useless Wireless Land line and asked them to refund my security deposit. They collected the phone and told me that I’d get a cheque from them within 3 months…it’s been 4 years and I still haven’t received my refund…WOW. So, if your Reliance toys are not working don’t return it to company. Because you won’t get refunded; instead sell them to scrap collector and make few bucks.
Now Reliance partnered with Microsoft to offer IPTV. I’m sure that Reliance would use and heavily abuse Microsoft’s brand name to fool millions of Indian techies.
Feel free to share your experience with BIG TV
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I was about to buy BIG TV tomorrow. But after reading user comments and reviews on this site as well as other websites, I have decided not to buy BIG TV. I will go for Tata Sky since it is lesser of all DTH evils!!!!!!!!
I am thankful to all of you, as i was about to go for some DTH services. It seems the technology has to mature, till then it’ll be real chaos. I am very comfortable with local cable guy. You call his mobile and shout, the next moment he is there. Though the picture clarirty cannot be compared with DTH, but still, these guys provide some service for the face value. If you are in an appartment complex or housing soceity, then you can demand better service through your association.
The STB in the dustbin…. Soooo funny. Thanks for making my day enjoyable
thanks,it is very nice and It was working well and I found the customer care very helpful.
hey guys bigtv is the best
ise ek or mouka to do
Even i am facing problem after purchasing BIG TV… Frequently i will see signal lost (Connection in Rural area) when i ask customer care about this they will take complaint and when it comes to ISP people ..Those ISP buggers ask petrol charge and 100 Rs tips to come and sort out the issue. I am not understanding one thing is Reliance so poor not able to pay ISP people. If Reliance feels it should be better DTH provider then these problems should not exist else you will see these kind of blogs again and again.
Same is the case with me; I took the higher package where I was supposed to get the three premium sports channels, and Malayalam regional pack was selected for me. I was a tatasky subscriber before switching to BigTV and the BigTV installation engineers broke my tatasky cable while trying to drill a hole.The fun was over with BigTV after the first two months of full viewing period, after this I was not able to watch the three premium sports channels or the Malayalam pay channels. I booked a complaint on Nov 1, 2008 and wasted atleast 20~30 hours of my time waiting for/talking to/and even educating their so called customer care, several email followup. Even after 6 months of booking complaint it was "in solving state" and they don't know when it would be solved. Finally one year got over last week and I have decided to switch to SUN Direct. Actually I don;t want to go with another provider at this point of time as I would be shifting my house within a few months time, but what is the guarantee that I would be able to watch the channels i BigTV after making the payment? If only I had some free time I would have take the issue to a consumer court.
Today I received a funny SMS from BigTV:
"Dear Reliance BigTV customer, your freeview period of NEO channels ends on 15 October '09. Order sports 2 pack at Rs. 40 and win exciting prices! Call 18002009001".
But as mentioned above I was not able to watch these channels after the full viewing period (I think it's one month and not two). Also I had to educate several persons from CC and even the marketing guys who visited my apartment recently (they were not aware that I am an existing customer, otherwise they would not have dared to visit) the three premium sports channels are included in the 2190 package. Here is how the conversation went like:
cc: Neo sports, Neo cricket and star sports are not included in the 2190 package, Sir; You will have to subscribe for viewing these channels
me: OK what is the difference between 2190 and 1990 package
cc: In 2190 you will get three additional channels Sir
me: What are those three channels
cc: <puts me on hold, comes back later> Star sports….Neo Sport and Neo Cricket….Sir
Thanks for all But by my experience in all the features quality,packages airtel and the dish tv are best.Big tv is a worst dth company in the world.Sun direct is also one of the worst dth.I am having dish tv and airtel both.So in that I like and love airtel lot because all the priority goes to ultra pack subscribers.U can watch all the 8 sports channels(Star Sports,ESPN,NEO sports and cricket,ZEE sports,star cricket,ten sports ) without any top up!!!!!!!!
there are all the utv channels,home shop 18 added,all the movies channels and you will not believe the tariff rate ONLY RS 364 (TAXES INCLUSIVE) .YOU ALSO HAVE MPEG4 QUALITY THEY ARE ADDING CHANNELS EVERY MONTH.THAT TOO MINIMUM 4 T0 5 CHANNELS.GO FOR AIRTEL AND EXPRESS YOURSELF.TATA SKY IS THE EXPENSIVE LOOTER.DONT MIND BUT LOOK AT THE WEBSITE AND ADD AND SEE THE PACKAGE RATE UNBELIEVABLE RS.500+ TATA SKY LAGA DALA TO LIFE BARBAD KAR DALA.
WOW MADE ME HAPPY BY PUTTING THE RELIANCE BIG TV IN DUSTBIN .IT SHOULD BE SOMEWHERE ELSE LIKE TOILET FLUSH,DIRTY DITCHES AND FINALLY ON THE RAILWAY TRACK.
I read all the post an I must say I AM THE HAPPY CUSTOMER of Reliance BIG TV.last 11 month I used it And I never facing any issue.I have a sony LCD(321inch) and picture quality is good. but only in little rain it sucks.
At the time of selecting your assist I thought that Reliance is always better in assist when compared to Tata, as I am also using a Reliance post-paid ambulatory connection for last 4 Years.
sir
i want to recharge it online . what is the procedure for that.