The understatement of the century - Customer service in India has got nothing to do with customer and it should not be called a service. There may be some exceptions but I am sure they exist for the sole purpose of proving the rule. How difficult must it be to purchase a simple water filter? I thought that I will be able to walk in to the local outlet of Vijay Sales, select one, pay for it and be able to walk with it in no time. No such luck!
After going through the 5-6 models on offer, wading through terms such as RO (Reverse Osmosis! I still have no clue what it means!) and debating about the capacity, I finally zeroed in on one, only to be informed by the salesman that they don't keep any in inventory so it will have to be delivered from their warehouse. Part of me understood the rationale (and economics!) behind not keeping any inventory in the store but that didn't prevent me from groaning, almost visibly. The salesman must have noticed it because he said, almost apologetically - "it will be delivered tomorrow for sure.'. Yeah right! I have heard that song before!
But there wasn't much to be done except to grin and bear it. 'Can the delivery be made after 5pm? We are going out in the morning' I said pleadingly to the guy at the payment desk, all the while praying that a burglar wasn't within an earshot. 'Yes mam, don't worry. They will call you before they come'. He assured me and I hoped that they won't leave a little 'We missed you' note behind. I further hoped that I won't be miles away when they call. Superman is no relation of mine.
Cut to next day. I wasn't naive to expect the doorbell to ring exactly at 5pm. But around 6:30, I started becoming restless. I fished out the receipt, located the customer care number, dialed it and poured out my sad story. 'Your query is about the delivery. We won't have any information. You will have to call the store you did purchase from'. The guy kept rambling on to the same tune. Frustrated, I said 'Can you please give me the store number?'. As he dictated the number I realized that it was printed on the receipt and I could have easily found it if I had taken the time to look for it. I dialed that number and repeated the yarn to the first human voice that came on line. She switched me to another human where I had to repeat the story. Can someone please put in a place a system in which a frustrated caller's complaint is recorded first time he/she describes it and the message is then played to all the others that the call is directed to?
The person listened to what I had to say and then again assured me that the delivery would be made before 9pm. 'They will call you' he repeated.
8:30pm and no delivery. I called again. This time a different person answered when the call was transferred. When I repeated my tale of woes (this was the 4th time!), he shocked me by calmly saying that the delivery was scheduled for tomorrow. 'What?' This was the only word I could get out. Then I got my voice back and completed the rest 'I was assured that it will be delivered today. We can't stay home all day tomorrow waiting for the delivery.'. 'But madam, it says here that the delivery will be made on 20th. They will come in the evening.' I hung up and then realized that today was in fact the 20th! I searched deep within me but couldn't come up with an ounce of energy or will to call again and argue.
9pm. The phone rang. It was the delivery guy asking if he could come and make the delivery. Hell yes! Though in the nick of time, they had fulfilled their promise of delivering on the 20th. I just hope I don't have to purchase anything that needs home delivery anytime soon. I need some time to recover.
After going through the 5-6 models on offer, wading through terms such as RO (Reverse Osmosis! I still have no clue what it means!) and debating about the capacity, I finally zeroed in on one, only to be informed by the salesman that they don't keep any in inventory so it will have to be delivered from their warehouse. Part of me understood the rationale (and economics!) behind not keeping any inventory in the store but that didn't prevent me from groaning, almost visibly. The salesman must have noticed it because he said, almost apologetically - "it will be delivered tomorrow for sure.'. Yeah right! I have heard that song before!
But there wasn't much to be done except to grin and bear it. 'Can the delivery be made after 5pm? We are going out in the morning' I said pleadingly to the guy at the payment desk, all the while praying that a burglar wasn't within an earshot. 'Yes mam, don't worry. They will call you before they come'. He assured me and I hoped that they won't leave a little 'We missed you' note behind. I further hoped that I won't be miles away when they call. Superman is no relation of mine.
Cut to next day. I wasn't naive to expect the doorbell to ring exactly at 5pm. But around 6:30, I started becoming restless. I fished out the receipt, located the customer care number, dialed it and poured out my sad story. 'Your query is about the delivery. We won't have any information. You will have to call the store you did purchase from'. The guy kept rambling on to the same tune. Frustrated, I said 'Can you please give me the store number?'. As he dictated the number I realized that it was printed on the receipt and I could have easily found it if I had taken the time to look for it. I dialed that number and repeated the yarn to the first human voice that came on line. She switched me to another human where I had to repeat the story. Can someone please put in a place a system in which a frustrated caller's complaint is recorded first time he/she describes it and the message is then played to all the others that the call is directed to?
The person listened to what I had to say and then again assured me that the delivery would be made before 9pm. 'They will call you' he repeated.
8:30pm and no delivery. I called again. This time a different person answered when the call was transferred. When I repeated my tale of woes (this was the 4th time!), he shocked me by calmly saying that the delivery was scheduled for tomorrow. 'What?' This was the only word I could get out. Then I got my voice back and completed the rest 'I was assured that it will be delivered today. We can't stay home all day tomorrow waiting for the delivery.'. 'But madam, it says here that the delivery will be made on 20th. They will come in the evening.' I hung up and then realized that today was in fact the 20th! I searched deep within me but couldn't come up with an ounce of energy or will to call again and argue.
9pm. The phone rang. It was the delivery guy asking if he could come and make the delivery. Hell yes! Though in the nick of time, they had fulfilled their promise of delivering on the 20th. I just hope I don't have to purchase anything that needs home delivery anytime soon. I need some time to recover.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment