Da Milano one of the fastest growing retail chain, giving a tough fight to Hidesign etc. etc. is someone who has received respectable business from me over the past year or so.

As a normal AD Policy, I do not give out my mobile number to any retailer, however they seem to have bought out the entire Airtel database and hence received an SMS from them on 11th June 2011 at 14:10 “First Time Ever!! Da Milano brings EXCHANGE OFFER. Get your ANY old bags, wallets and belts and get 20% off at Da Milano. Offer valid all across India” Read the rest of this entry »

I have been a loyal LG Electronics user, what with automatic washing machine cum dryer, airconditioner etc. of the same brand for the past couple of years.

Recently two episodes involving both the products happened that left me Happy/Sad. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of months ago, I became the proud owner of Apple Mac Air, thanks to my wife. This decision was not easy to arrive at, but thanks to this Sidin chap who had bought one & corrupted my brain too. Then the argument of MS office was taken away by this Hardik chap and so agreed to be gifted with the Mac Air 11″ note book. Read the rest of this entry »

I have earlier blogged about Tata Motors here & here

To continue the saga….

Twitter friends helped out with some email ID, to which I wrote and one Ashmita Pillay responded with having forwarded the complaint to customer service and asking for contact numbers, that I provided. Around 12:50 pm on 5th July one Ravi called up from Service, listened to my litany of issues and said he would get the Sales in charge to investigate. Read the rest of this entry »

I had blogged about Tata Motors Saga… the beginning here.

On the 3rd July, we were leaving around 12 noon, when Mayuresh from Fortune motors calls “M’am your car is not ready, I have been trying your number since morning, it may be ready by tomorrow or so, I will call and inform you” My wife could not speak at all, I took the phone and asked to speak to the manager, the phone went dead. We drove from Lokhandwala to Marol Andheri East which is 45 minutes away and there was no call back.

On reaching, I asked for the owner, luckily being a slow day, there were no barriers and we managed to meet him. Mr. Sanjay Chandra received us, listened to us, looked at the system and started apologizing, accepting his staff had goofed up on the following counts:

1) Giving false commitment
2) Invoice paid on 21st June but car not ordered.
3) Letter of authority not taken for fund transfer till the 29th of June
4) No documentation done for RTO registration till 29th of June
5) RTO person on leave, nobody else referred etc. etc.
6) Accessory approval delay Read the rest of this entry »

A month ago, my wife started acting a bit suspicious, but after supporting me for god knows how many years, I felt she deserved it.

One fine morning on the 18th June, she threw a bomb shell “I am buying a car and it will be delivered in a week - 10 days” Whoa! where did you get the money? Which car? Why now? all were thrown out of the window and I knew it was a losing battle for me.

My enthusiasm waned a bit when I heard ‘Indica’ not that the car was bad, in fact like it much better than the old esteem and have traveled quite a lot in it; but more from the service horrors that I had heard being related. But I felt extremely happy and proud of her, because this was her first car bought with her own savings, in her own name. Read the rest of this entry »

I had earlier blogged about my problem with Costa Coffee here

After sending a text & reminder to their CEO Virag Joshi who promised action, it took them more than a week to remove the offending part of tile. Post this their Regional Head Kaushik called up to invite me to visit them again etc. Being in no mood to entertain, I had however promised that if and when I felt like it, would visit one of their cafe and contact him.

Finally, on a store visit last week at Inorbit Malad, waiting for someone to arrive, decided to have coffee at Costa. Ordered my regular and gave my card for payment, telling the person at the cash, that someone would be joining me soon. I was told that they would collect it together.

After we had finished, went to settle at the cash, but was informed that I would have to pay cash, which normally should not have been an issue, however had used up most of the cash for fuel earlier. When I expressed helplessness, was told that somebody would accompany me to the ATM for withdrawl, which was a no starter, on account of not having an ATM card.

This is when the two young lads - Sunil & Aasif - won my heart ” Sir, don’t worry, please settle next time when you visit” Mind you, I am NOT a regular at Inorbit Malad.

The friend who was meeting me turned up & I quickly borrowed and settled the due, besides writing a note for Kaushik.

Same company, different locations, different service, how does a brand target & maintain consistency?

I have been patronizing the Arrow brand since they launched, maybe in 1994. I used their bespoke collection, which was discontinued without even a communiqué to their so called Aristocracy club; they discontinued their big tall with the same attitude; cloth became
thinner, buttons cheaper, different, I still hung on. They always had ‘low or no stocks’ of size 48” citing variety of reasons.

A couple of years ago, some problem about the product, had made me
write to them, with their Area Manager responding and trying to sort out problems, not completely, but at least it happened.

A year ago, their Bandra store called up saying please pick up shirts
of your size, since the sale would commence soon. I went over and
picked up some 20+ shirts, tried out all of them, some were baggy or length was incorrect, till finally I was left with 12+ shirts, in which 2 favorite colours – blue, pink grey were extremely baggy, the store manager promised to alter and asked me to pick up the
next day.

Promptly they called up off I went, pleased with the customer
service approach of the brand. And the nightmare began – they had changed the size by cutting the sides making the shirts useless. Again
the apologies flowed and promises made.

Like clockwork I would call up every 15-20 days to enquire if my replacement shirts had come, 2-3-6 months passed, till I had finally given up, when one fine day I received a mailer and wrote to the email id. No response, however the
store called saying they had received one pink shirt and I could pick
it up.

I rushed to the store took the shirt and also another colour just so
that my account could be closed, besides this two half sleeve shirts
also were made available. Fool that I am did not try out the shirts.

Two weeks later, today morning, rushing for a meeting carried the pink shirt to wear it under the jacket. Mid-morning changing into the shirt realized with a horror that the sleeves were so tight that I resembled a south Indian heroine.

This time I intend to take it up with their top brass. I know they
would just apologize, say QC was at fault etc. etc. but not give a
damn, because there is a sucker born every minute who would pay that horrendous amount just because it is a brand.

I have been a long and mostly satisfied customer of our national carrier, due to having had to fly to sectors that they only flew, options available, and my belief that the travel period was totally ‘ME’ time. I hate to eat on flight, hate pompous self important people sitting next to me opening their laptops only to play solitaire or scrabble, try to start business conversations etc. (All this from a person, whose bread butter was Sales Marketing:))

So over the years flying on IC/AI fell under my ‘Theory of Least Expectations’, because it was always late, food was bad, business people did not travel (so got better seats) etc. But was perfect for me.

Also the accrued benefits to me by way of points, upgrades, offers were unbeatable.

Then came a lull of couple of years, when my travel just stopped.

I did travel intermittently but as a guest/consultant, airlines were not my choice so - Indigo, Spicejet, KingFisher - all were tried.

Last week having flown to Aurangabad on Jet Konnect, had an option to return on Air India so jumped at the chance.

And boy, what a surprise - smooth check in, comfortable seats, good service; lovely cookies, coffee; on time take off and landing besides better deal price wise!

What more can one want? At least not me.

So begins my love again.

I had earlier written about Dell here.

Exactly a year later, it stopped working a couple of days back 4th May 2010 to be precise. Since my wife has been using it for basic surfing, chatting, skype, I thought it strange; however the problem was diagnosed as the adapter not charging the battery correctly; the plug being lose; some issue with the motherboard on the 5th May 2010.

She lodged a complaint on 6th May 2010 at around 2 pm. They verified everything and assured her that it would be sorted out in the next 24 - 48 hours.

They walked in at 2.30 pm on 7th May 2010 and replaced the motherboard once again; changed the socket in the computer and gave a new adapter & walked away at 3.30 pm

I know, I know some people told me that with some brands you would not have this problem etc. etc. however my reasoning is simple:

1) For an additional 4000/- I got an onsite warranty in which the total changes would have ordinarily cost me 40,000/-
2) The time saving & customer service commitment which leads to peace of mind is worth it.
3) Having used other brands in the past & even currently, I still think DELL is VFM for product & service particularly for hard usage.

AND hence I see no reason to say that I would have no hesitation to recommend it all over again.