Switching tracks

So in January this year, Poonamia like thousands of other DAEs (50,000 to be precise), shelled out a Rs 10,000 deposit. He paid another Rs 23,000 for a Reliance cell as it was mandatory for every dealer to own one.

The officials from Reliance Infocomm came and hung a board outside his shop alongside stainless steel spoons and kadais. They gave him application forms and WLLs and the know-how to fill these lengthy forms.

Poonamia was to get Rs 100 per customer. He thought there was no easier way to earn Rs 100. Three months later, Poonamia says he would jump the queue, if there were any, to get dealerships cancelled and deposits refunded.

He says the problems begin with filling the forms. ‘‘Ration card, permanent account numbers, salary certificates, income-tax returns documents… it was a headache. Then again some signatures on the post-dated cheques didn’t tally with those on the application form. A verification letter from the bank had to be attached,’’ he says.

Soon he found that being a DAE took more of his time and his primary trade began to suffer. Then complaints from customers started to pour in. ‘‘Till date you cannot SMS from a Reliance WLL to WLLs/mobile phones of other companies,’’ he states.

‘‘The network is poor. Calling on landlines is next to impossible.’’ He has sold 25 WLLs so far and has decided to add no more to his customer list.

Most likely, Reliance Infocomm would be pleased that dealers like Poonamias opting out. “We are cutting our DAE’s by half, and accepting all resignations,” says a highly-placed source at the company who added that Reliance plans to refund all dealer deposits with sales commissions.

With many dealers operating out of small-time roadside shops, educating them about the intricacies of products has been a stiff challenge.

“We found many DAE’s weren’t able to adequately explain the products to the customers and that was reflecting poorly on the brand,” says the official, adding “Indians don’t like reading brochures and they need the features spelled out to them — something dealers weren’t able to do, because they didn’t completely understand it themselves.”

Essentially, Reliance Infocomm has decided to abandon its much-touted mass dealership strategy in favour of a more formal retail relationship with the customer.

“Yes, we are changing the strategy. The idea is to give an opportunity to the dealers to exit as many of them written to us asking for an exit route. We will fully refund their deposits,” says Anil Ambani, vice chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries. “Those who failed to perform will be naturally asked to go.”

“Although we’ve garnered nearly a million customers in two months, only the performing DAE’s — who have displayed the necessary acumen and salesmanship — will be kept on as dealers; we expect most of our future business to come through our own service centres and Web Worlds we are opening throughout the country. Our new strategy aims at having the customer interacting with specially-trained Reliance representatives,’’ adds an RIL official.

The Web Worlds, the first of which opened last month in Mumbai, will include a customer care centre, a food and beverage section called Java Green as well as broadband connections for high-speed net usage.

“So what does Poonamia think of Reliance Infocomm’s decision to do away with a large chunk of DAEs? ‘‘That’s what I wanted. It’s good news for me. But will I get my deposit back? Or will that be another event of hurdles?’’

While RIL has agreed to refund the basic deposit, the dealers stand to lose a part of the Rs 23,000 investment they made towards a Reliance phone.

“The dealers will be governed by the same rules and face the same penalties as other people who break out of the contract; also, the cost of the calls they made for free as dealers will be debited from their accounts,” says the Reliance official.

News of Reliance’s strategy shift hasn’t filtered through to all their agents. “I wasn’t aware that they’re cutting the number of DEAs and if they are, I don’t care,” says Lokesh Shah, who runs a furniture store at Andheri where he also sells Reliance Mobile subscriptions.

“I’ve sold about eight units in the last two months and I’ve had so many complaints that I’m fed-up; the only benefit I get as a dealer is the free calls,” he adds with a wry smile.

Preetesh Parekh, another DAE, owner of a bookstore, located just a minute away from Poonamia’s shop has infact applied for cancellation of his dealership.

‘‘I sent the letter 15 days back. I just want to wash my hands off this business,’’ he says. He sold 15 WLLs and got Rs 1,500 in the last three months. ‘‘Even the instrument brings problems. It has four mini bulbs for the screen, unlike other sets like Nokia, which have only two. That means the instrument gets heated fast.’’

For Abhay Karandikar, a DAE and retailer of readymade garments in Borivli, it’s his ‘Virar fast’ customers who come with most complaints. ‘‘Absolutely no signal in areas like Bhayander, Virar and beyond. They have not used their WLL even once there. It’s not easy to explain things everyday to half a dozen angry customers,’’ he says.

Advocate Yusuf Abrahani, a Mumbai customer says the signals are poor. ‘‘In the advertisement, they show a dad telling bed-time stories to his son in Delhi.

Here I cannot even contact my family which lives in the same city. For the last three days, even when I’ve called my residence, I just get the recorded message ‘this number does not exist’.”

With dealers and consumers speaking to media freely all over the country giving the brand name a bad name, Reliance honchos admitted that they made a mistake by offering dealerships to every second shopwallah in the country which reduced the brand’s exclusivity to a joke.

“We are facing some teething problems, but no operator in India has had a flawless launch,’’ said the Reliance official. “Despite these issues, we have logged three crore minutes in our first two months of service — nobody in the world has had that kind of initial impact.”

With inputs from Dev Chatterjee