I am not a Jet lover or traveler, however business exigencies forced me to travel last week on Jet to Aurangabad (being the only morning flight)

The entire previous day, web checkin was not working, though finally managed at around 1 am in the morning for the 6 am flight.

Reached the airport, felt like trying to enter Virar local, except there was scented BO, given the fact that there was a line, right till outside of everyone wanting to enter the airport.

Inside was no better, some 5-6 jet staffers waving their hands, walkie talkies like gymnasts or traffic constable at Dahisar check post.

On the web check in it had said, that I could go straight to counter 63 which incidentally was empty. Then began a tug and war with one of the staff bent on pushing me to some other counter. Finally managed to check in and with 1 hour left was being pushed to the security and gate.

Once boarded, found that all the overhead bins were occupied, not that I needed them, but still. The seat was a nightmare come true - reminded me of ‘Baby’ the tuk tuk of Bangladesh where you actually end up with your face between your legs, trying to breathe and live.

They seem to have cut corners on seats - squeezing in a couple of additional rows; followed by seat belts - or else why would they announce extension belts availability?

In this 45 minute flight they also tried to fit in sale of juice, breakfast, snacks - which meant that people occupying the aisle seat had to watch their elbows.

On landing, the luggage took it’s own time, in spite of that being the only flight at that time of the morning. So some rules to fly Jet Konnect:

1) Do not carry hand baggage, if you do rush to your seat the moment gates are opened.
2) Opt for aisle seat only if you are short, thin or can squeeze in the seat.
3) Carry your own extension seat belt in case there are more than 4-5 people that require it.
4) Learn to become a contortionist in case you forget to keep money in your top pocket, in case you want to buy.

Hopefully, they will learn that you cannot have the same attitude as a full service airline!

Passing by the road, saw Rolling Beans had been replaced with a more sedate color and a new name, but looked still in the opening stage.

A week later, on a Sunday, decided to try it out, thinking it was a south indian restaurant. We walked in to a warm place, with just 2 tables occupied, one of them complaining about delay in service. But consoled ourselves 1) It was still early - around 7 pm 2) new place, teething troubles, hence took a seat.

Looked through the menu and were pleasantly surprised with the menu which was a mix of gujarati and rajasthani. Being a sunday evening, decided to try out some light eats and hence went with Bhel (quite a nice taste, though they gave us sukkha bhel); Khapoli vada (excellent preparation, yummy, with just the thin batter coat like the gujarati vadas); Patra ( good taste, a tad oily) Dal dhokli ( ok taste, not really the gujarati kind, but a thicker combination) finally topping it up with methi thepla (excellent, thin, gujarati style with the right amount of masala.

And, yes the service was excellent, more tables filled up quickly too. Whilst waiting for the desserts, unfortunately they did not have the kulfi, the young owner Bhakti came to chat up and take feedback, which gave me an opportunity of giving my marketing gyan:)

A good place with bit of teething problem, given the fact that it is just couple of weeks old, but a must visit.

Address: One, Aram Nagar, J.P. Road, 7 Bungalows,
Andheri (W), Mumbai Tel: 9819032132

Post updated on 29/11/2010 at the bottom

I have written about my need to purchase an IFB dish washer here which ended on the 5th November.

During the Divali holidays, my wife surfing realized that there was an offer for the same IFB machine on Indiatimes.com with an added benefit of some freebie and so after the discussion “Indiatimes does not have a good reputation of service delivery etc. etc.” Her response being, “I send small gifts to the US and they are able to manage”, being left with no option booked the product on 7th November and then we went out.

A couple of days later, my wife logged in to be shocked, since Indiatimes had canceled the order, reason “We were unable to verify”.

I tweeted about this and @baxiabhishek said @anaggh You might want to point that out to @urbaneye. I did so and got a reply asking me to email to him, which I did so.

He helped out by asking a colleague, who probably looked after operations to revert to me. In the meantime, I had updated the profile details with residence & mobile number and booked the product again.

To my shock, the same cancellation, same answer and then the trouble started, with Mr. Jaspreet Babrah responding that the numbers are not visible to them (in spite of screen shots sent at different times); Dual verification for safety (right, but not communicated anywhere on the site and when the CEO of the company flags a complaint, does not make a difference, all are equal).

In despair, I sent a mail, tweeted, procured @urbaneye mobile number and called him yesterday afternoon, who again promised that he would get someone to look into this and revert. It’s been 24 hours and there has been no response or assistance.

I guess they have enough suckers to worry about someone like me. What would you do in a scenario like this?

23/11 Mr. Jaspreet called me a couple of days back, meanwhile my wife had booked it again. But post that no call, in spite of his repeatedly assuring me that he would be in constant touch.

29/11 Whilst the issue is still being sorted out, the experience provided by both India times & IFB is something that I would never recommend. It is my opinion that the exclusivity means the customer can bugger off.

Updated post on 20th November 2010 at the end.

I had been meaning to gift my wife a dish washer for our anniversary that is in November and she had narrowed it down to IFB brand.

Whilst checking out their retail outlets, we happened to check out the website, which was supposedly e commerce enabled, with an offering of a deal too, hence on the 3rd November decided to order from there, and my travails began.

Every time I managed to reach the payment gateway and it hung. After trying the entire day, called up their customer service, who gave me another Kolkatta number, which kept on ringing for a couple of hours, before actually being picked up on the 10th try. The person sounded as if “Why the hell do you want to disturb my sleep, after macher jhol”; promptly said “Oh this is website, I shall get someone to call you up in the next 5 minutes”

Finally after a couple of hours, tried again, did not get through so left a complaint on the website.

Sometime on 8th or 9th afternoon, they called up my wife and asked “Do you want assistance”

I wonder what kind of a service would they actually provide, however it is difficult to convince my wife to opt for some other dish washer, so the fight still goes on, though I have no clue when, if at all they would assist or deliver.

29/11 - Even after writing in their contact, feedback, president’s page, they are yet to revert in any kind whatsoever. Guess they believe that once the customer has bought, then he has no option, so why bother.

On the 7th of November, someone made a purchase of Rs. 12000/- + via ngpay on my wife’s credit card, which we came to know only on the 11th November.

My first reaction was to call the bank, block the card so that further damages could be avoided. Post that late in the night I tweeted about the problem, which got RT a couple of times and people referred it to @ngpay.

Surprisingly, the first thing next morning I got a call from Siddharth from Ngpay, who took down the details and explained what had happened and asked me to raise a dispute with the issuing bank who would sort it out, however in case I was interested in knowing the details of the person who had used it, then they would require a FIR (first information report) filed and a copy sent to them.

An impressive use of twitter and more importantly responding to the customer, which means as a brand they are listening.

If I ever decide to start buying through the mobile portal, I would sure give them a shot.

I had earlier written about Samsung customer service here having been completely satisfied.

In the past fortnight I have had an opportunity to review the same service. Having bought the TV and succeeded in getting the panel changed here, however exactly a year later, the same panel went off.

On calling the service engineer, who definitely came promptly and informed me that the warranty was over and hence the panel would cost me 25000+. On debate with the customer service, that it was exactly 2 days from the warranty date and more important, how can the same TV have panel problems thrice in a spate of 18 months, there was no answer besides the routine “Sir, sorry we cannot help, you will have to pay for the panel”

Working in a retail business, I appreciate the stance of warranty dates, the fact that the panel problem is persistent, the TV is at fault and hence an explanation is required, which in spite of a fortnight having passed is not forthcoming.

So, in all likelihood, I am left with either having to pay them (but to what warranty?) or dump the TV and buy a new one.

I wonder if other brands are the same?

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague dropped in for a chat over coffee.

Whilst discussing, he mentioned that they were thinking of getting into the publishing business and in this regard, he had read a novel, that he found exciting and would like my view.

Promptly the book was sent, which I dutifully carried with me and left it in the pile of unread books on my bedside table.

Cleaning the sides as part of my virtuous diwali spring cleaning, decided to riffle through the book.

Once upon a time, I was a voracious fiction reader, finishing a Ludlum on a Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai flight and probably remember the plot even today:)

Five pages into the book my suspicions arose; flipped through more pages and the end.

My suspicions were right - ‘Society’ by Mehernosh Kapadia is a straight lift - probably page by page - from ‘The color of law’ by Mark Gimenez with the names and locations changed, a book coincidentally read by me only a month ago.

Why, when, what and other questions are probably best addressed by both authors.