Yesterday, on 24th Feb 2010,I had gone to a NIKE showroom close to the RA Puram Overbridge in Chennai. They had extensively advertised that a Flat 40 discount percent sale was on at all their showrooms and i wanted to purchase something for my child. There was an inviting colorful huge board too at the entrance to the showroom that the discount sale was indeed on.
I picked up a pair of sandals and another pair of flip flops(as bathroom chapals are now called in a rebirth) and asked them to be billed. They created a bill but wanted me to sign the credit card before receiving the bill and checking it. I succumbed to the system but I saw on the bill there was no discount on the flip flop which cost about rs 1500. I asked the cashier for the promised discount and asked him about the flat discount sale. He said that there was no discount on the particular product and when i asked him to enlighten me on the meaning of a Flat Discount sale, he called the sales guy and began questioning him. The sales guy said that I didnt enquire whether there was discount on the particular product and hence didnt inform me so.
As I had already paid the bill by credit card, I had to leave the Nike shop without the promised discount. Taking the customer for a ride, the Nike way.
Words have no meaning in Indian conditions and so was service at commercial establishments. Six months ago, there was a sale in the Lifestyle showroom in City Centre Mall and I purchased a pair of Nike(yes, Nike again) walking shoes. I brought shoes back home and didnt unwrap it for a week. When i tried wearing it one day, i found that one shoe was two sizes smaller than the particular shoe that fit me feet when i tried at the show room. I had to take the shoe back, argue and get it exchanged for the right pair of shoes. Careless service?
On 4th Jan 2010, on the eve of my wife's birthday, I wanted to buy a pair of sun glasses to gift her and visited the Odyssey show room in Adayar. There was a 15 percent discount on for sun glasses but i was told that for the particular product which i had purchased for Rs 6000, i will be given just a 5 percent discount. After being billed and just a second before my credit card was rubbed in the machine, i asked for the amount and the guy on the bill desk said Rs 12000. Shocked, i asked him to check the tag on the sun glass which he did after unwrapping the pack. The bill was raised wrongly and he asked me whether he can bill the new amount..i refused to take the product and left. No apologies to the customer here too.
Before a product is purchased in India, the customer indeed is king. But after a product was purchased, the customer is treated a slave and service becomes harassment with the customer being repeatedly asked to show understanding for the failures of the company.
If Nike is so bad in India, just imagine the service standards we have in India? God save Indians!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteBut, why eulogise Nike? Even they are manned by Indians - we as a society do not understand quality or service. We are used to taking any trash and call it "tolerance." We fight for all the wrong things, are too loud for sanity and reason to prevail, and then think that the Government is responsible for our stupidity over day-to-day living. Are we willing to fight and get things right, even assuming this notion is right - No we can't. We won't.
We are too indifferent to set the system right - Our neighbour is jobless, has a retired old man at home and he can do the dirty job of setting the system right. I have my job to attend to, an EMI to pay at the end of the month, an education in the USA and a career in Australia to plan for - And you know, the roads there are pucca clean, and so is the civic society - India is trash. We work so hard in this deprived country, so that we can save ourselves and our progeny from the troubles of having to live in this debauched land.
This is the land of the untouchables and less privileged. And why are you talking of quality. Nike too understands this - So they give you bad products, cheat you in the name of "for sale only in India" products - because anywhere else they will be sued and be out of business over just one consumer complaint and we lament that "if this is Nike quality, imagine the others."
We are a flat land and everybody is equal - everybody sells bad stuff, because we deserve only bad stuff.
Time for change? Does the average Indian consumer understand that we are the largest market for any of these transnationals? Do we stand up and fight for quality? Maybe it is time to do that - when we instill this quality of consumer awareness in our people, we may sow the seed in their minds to question and ask for accountability in all walks of life. Lets start with the paruppu, uppu, puli, milagai. Questioning Governance in India will be a natural transition.
I still believe that we are what we are, despite the system, despite the in-congruences in civic society. We will certainly leave a better country for our children. This is a not a dream...we don't have the time to dream. We will be there, soon.