After the Jio Cinema fiasco during the telecast of the first match day of the much awaited FIFA World Cup Football 2022, the nation is miffed seeing the stark contrast between the quality of service assured and the quality actually delivered. Twitter is flooded with memes and posts of angst on how Jio has failed to live to the sky high expectation. We had experienced similar unprofessionalism long back on Sony Liv but nothing much was said as those were mere club matches and not a supreme platform like the World Cup. Going by the bandwagon, I too had posted a tweet and the response I received was ludicrous. It read like “Hi Saptarshi, we will sort this for you. To help you better with the problem you are reporting, we would request you to send an email at the given address JioCinema@jio.com – Rashmita”. I mean, come on ! You have disappointed crores of football fans and you expect us to send you a mail ! How could you expect to see a bot suddenly appearing from nowhere and posting like this in response to an apparently funny tweet. I am sharing the screenshot for you reference. They are not even sincere in addressing genuine grievances or in understanding humor. Seriously speaking, I have not seen such unprofessionalism ever in any other Corporate behemoth. And truly, I was missing the golden childhood days of watching such matches by adjusting the tv antenna placed on the rooftop and asking elder brother if the picture quality improved or not. The privilege of staying at the room and delivering a judgment on the quality was always the prerogative of the elder ones. The younger ones had to make it to the roof. But those funny ordeals usually used to result in stable picture not something horrible like what Jio Cinema delivered last night. After every three seconds the streaming started buffering and after a couple of minutes, it stopped. This went on. We missed the Gala Opening Ceremony. We missed the goals. Thankfully it was a match of not much importance. Just imagine Messi shots the ball, the screen is buffering and when it resumes the Argentines are celebrating. The wait of four long years goes to the dump yard just because those buffoons working at Jio do not have an iota of sincerity and they launched yet another marketing gimmick by providing so called free telecast in order to entice more customers. And who will oversee the failure of such gigantic measure? The one at the helm of affairs is more concerned about how Amazon ruined his dream of becoming the retail king of India or how Adani is continuously pushing him backward in the quest to be the richest in the continent. The reason for the downfall of the empire is clear as sky.

But this is not the first time we have experienced such unprofessionalism from them. I remember, a couple of months back I had ordered Jio Fiber online. Immediately two suspicious looking guys arrived at my house. It was late evening. They insisted on making the payment and sharing the screenshot with them. I obliged. They left my house with the promise that the connection will be installed the first thing in the morning. The next day, none of them was picking up calls. One even disconnected. I sent WhatsApp messages. Those were seen but none bothered to reply. I had already paid an amount of around Rs.2500/-. Finally, the next day I received a call from a lady that they could not install the connection as the port outside my house was full and it would take around a month to get the connection. I was appalled to see the noncommittal reaction of the tele caller. While I was speaking in English, there was a strange reply from her. ” No English, only Hindi sir”. Just imagine! You are dealing with a telecaller from a corporate like Reliance. Later on I twitted to Jio Fiber about the incident and asked them to refund my money. Every now and then, I received bot messages like ” We are extremely sorry to hear your problem. Give us a few working days to address the issue”- something like that. I sent them mails. Replies were ambiguous. Then I finally called one relative who was working in Jio and with his help, I recovered the amount paid after a month. My only piece of advice to that relative as a thanksgiving gesture was- quit the company and join anywhere else. Meanwhile, I had already installed Airtel Xstream.

When the mobile services were launched in India, Reliance Smart was the only mobile connection available in the North-Eastern region. We used to recharge the mobile and as soon as we got up after a night’s sleep and checked the balance, we used to notice a substantial amount was gone. I mean gone without roaming charge, without calling, without even receiving a call. Pure cheating ! The ethics of the company have a long history of being shady. Years passed, decades went by, but Reliance is still the same. A name you cannot rely upon.

A Corporate is known by its integrity, its ethical codes, the ways how it deals with the customers. Unfortunately, Reliance does not belong to that list. They minted money by palm-greasing, they built an empire by siphoning. And now they are paying the price. Jeff Bezos first exposed them in the battle for the supremacy of the retail kingdom in India. Their second major blow was from the Adanis. And this time, FIFA fiasco is something going to haunt them for a long time. May better sense prevail!