Reliance Jio’s Welcome offer sounded too good to be true; free 4G data messages and calls, for all 4G smartphone models, all that until December 31st, is a freakishly good offer. But, as it usually goes, things aren’t what they supposed to be.
Many users complain about long wait times for activating their Jio SIM card, many of them waiting for more than two weeks. There’s been a month since RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani stated that Jio’s offer was available to all 4G-enabled smartphones, but people are still waiting in front of Reliance Digital, Xpress and Xpress Mini stores for a free SIM. The huge interest in Jio’s unlimited Welcome Offer has led to a serious shortage in supply.
The (supposedly) lucky ones, who managed to get their hands on the free SIM, are facing different problems. They are waiting for weeks for their SIM to activate, making users complain about Jio Care and their lack of customer support.
The potential solution, announced some time ago, was the installation of an e-KYC facility that should’ve happened in all stores. But, at the moment, only stores located in Mumbai and New Delhi are equipped with e-KYC. According to Ambani, e-KYC should provide a user with an activated SIM card within fifteen minutes, but the reality is way different. Hundreds of people are waiting in lines in order to get their SIM cards “instantly” activated.
Those who got Jio SIM cards before the installation of e-KYC are still waiting for the card’s activation, you can check out some of the Tweets from frustrated customers below. Beside activation problems, customers face with annoying number portability issues.
@Airtel_Presence Why am I not getting a response for my number portability request. Waiting since 2 days @JioCare @reliancejio @TRAI pic.twitter.com/nsluAKEuCS
— saju (@sajusherief) September 23, 2016
@reliancejio _ my sim not activated yet.. I am waiting for 16 days.. what can i do ? pic.twitter.com/rGrwWkSBqj
— Jishnu Raj (@Jish_aj) September 23, 2016
https://twitter.com/jaynath65/status/779252558057598977
https://twitter.com/Saimanbobbypins/status/779216894767144960
Users who managed to activate their Jio SIM cards are complaining their data speeds have dropped compared to recent weeks, probably because of the high demand.