Consumerism @ India

Consumerism: “A movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers.”

In Indian context the word doesn’t carry much weight. The typical attitude of an Indian shopkeeper is like, once he gets the money whatever happens to the buyer he gives a damn. Let the consumer suffer whatever he is destined for. There have been several incidents where such an attitude has been consistently noticed, I am citing just one in this blog.

I bought a Study table last weekend from a Godrej showroom. It appealed to us and because it was in our budget so we immediately placed an order for it. In an hour the study table was delivered to our home. We were happy.

While we were deciding on where to place the table, I noticed a Godrej sticker on one of the edges of the bookshelf attached to the table. When I peeled it off, to my surprise there was a patch! Almost one square inch of the wood was chipped off and another wood chip was glued on to it externally.

This was really upsetting.

I immediately reverted to the Godrej showroom and apprized them of the situation. The manager at the show room said they were not aware of such a defect and they said that a replacement will happen but it will take another 3 weeks!

I was shocked to hear the time line for replacement. When I asked for the deal to be revoked and amount to be refunded the Guy said to me:

“You can continue to use the commodity and you can ‘Trust’ us for a replacement as soon as the stock arrives.”

See this guys audacity he is requesting me to have ‘Trust’ on him when in the first place he betrayed me.

Can it happen that, they failed to notice the “one inch” wood chipped off the study table and to hide the defect, they did not stuck a Godrej sticker on it?
In a normal situation the buyer will ignore the sticker considering it “Godrej Brand” label unaware of what was under it.

Eventually I had to accept his proposition. I had no choice! I had already paid for it!

Although I have the study table at my home now and it is serving our purpose but the whole episode was upsetting.

Consider this, you buy something new with a lot of wanting and then you find a scar on your object of desire, doesn’t it feel awful?

I am definitely going to raise this issue to Godrej management, unless the study table is replaced in their suggested 3 weeks time.

Moral of the Incident:
Its time now that consumer of India should realize that they have to be taken seriously by the vendors and the business community. They should not hesitate to raise the concerns and fight for the value of their hard earned money.