Friday, April 24, 2015

I got a defective cooler; fought a consumer war on Twitter and won too

I got a defective cooler; fought a consumer war on Twitter and won too

"Consumer is King/Queen" they say and I experienced it last month, when I bought Ecoline’s insulated tiffin box from www.amazon.in.
When it turned out defective, my money was promptly returned within a
few days, and the box taken back, without questions asked.



However,
when, on April 18, I bought a Bajaj Cooler from Vijay Sales, Tilak
Road, Pune and tried to operate it, the next day, it didn’t work
effectively. When I asked my tech-savvy husband to check, he said that
the cooler’s pump might not be functioning.



I visited the Vijay Sales Shop the next day, on 22nd which
happened to be Akshay Tritiya. The sales person said that I should come
the next day as he would not get sanction to consider my case. Earlier
we had tried the contact number on the bill and surprise, surprise it was not the right number.



I tweeted on 21st April
addressing the tweet to @vijaysales and was assured that the matter
would be looked into. On April 23 morning, the Pune manager called up
and said that I had delayed my complaint as four days had passed. After
an altercation, I met Shashikant, the manager, in the evening and said I
would like a cash refund. He refused saying that only exchange was an
option. Though I said that I wasn’t interested in any exchange; he was
adamant. So, I accepted the credit note which he was ready to give -
told him I am accepting out of duress and would continue to fight for my
refund. He said okay.



When I told him he was losing a client in the face of tough online shop competition – he didn’t seem to care less.


I
remembered that my friend Kishore Sidhwani who is on Twitter had told
me last week that he could manage to get his money from HDFC Bank thanks
to a tweet.



I
returned the cooler, took the credit note and reached home. From 9pm, I
began my Twitter tirade, tweeting to Vijay sales at my disappointed
visit; asking them under which Section of which Act is it written that a
consumer cannot get cash refund for a defective product; asked my
fellow Twitter-ers to guide me on how to slam a legal notice and so on.
After a good one hour, Vijay Sales finally responded; asked for my cell
no. through Direct Message. At 10.30 pm Mr Sunny of Vijay Sales called
me, apologized for all the inconvenience and assured me of refund in the
next 24 hours.



I felt a sense of triumph to have campaigned as a consumer and succeeded through the social media.


Following
are the tweets which helped me get my rights as a consumer. You too
should do the same – never take injustice lying down.






On 21st April






- See more at:
http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/i-got-defective-cooler-fought-consumer-war-twitter-and-won-too#sthash.vGYU5Dek.dpuf


Read my story on how I fought on Twitter to get back refund for a Bajaj Cooler I bought and turned out defective.





"Consumer is King/Queen" they say and I experienced it last month, when I bought Ecoline’s insulated tiffin box from www.amazon.in.
When it turned out defective, my money was promptly returned within a
few days, and the box taken back, without questions asked.



However,
when, on April 18, I bought a Bajaj Cooler from Vijay Sales, Tilak
Road, Pune and tried to operate it, the next day, it didn’t work
effectively. When I asked my tech-savvy husband to check, he said that
the cooler’s pump might not be functioning.



I visited the Vijay Sales Shop the next day, on 22nd which
happened to be Akshay Tritiya. The sales person said that I should come
the next day as he would not get sanction to consider my case. Earlier
we had tried the contact number on the bill and surprise, surprise it was not the right number.



I tweeted on 21st April
addressing the tweet to @vijaysales and was assured that the matter
would be looked into. On April 23 morning, the Pune manager called up
and said that I had delayed my complaint as four days had passed. After
an altercation, I met Shashikant, the manager, in the evening and said I
would like a cash refund. He refused saying that only exchange was an
option. Though I said that I wasn’t interested in any exchange; he was
adamant. So, I accepted the credit note which he was ready to give -
told him I am accepting out of duress and would continue to fight for my
refund. He said okay.



When I told him he was losing a client in the face of tough online shop competition – he didn’t seem to care less.


I
remembered that my friend Kishore Sidhwani who is on Twitter had told
me last week that he could manage to get his money from HDFC Bank thanks
to a tweet.



I
returned the cooler, took the credit note and reached home. From 9pm, I
began my Twitter tirade, tweeting to Vijay sales at my disappointed
visit; asking them under which Section of which Act is it written that a
consumer cannot get cash refund for a defective product; asked my
fellow Twitter-ers to guide me on how to slam a legal notice and so on.
After a good one hour, Vijay Sales finally responded; asked for my cell
no. through Direct Message. At 10.30 pm Mr Sunny of Vijay Sales called
me, apologized for all the inconvenience and assured me of refund in the
next 24 hours.



I felt a sense of triumph to have campaigned as a consumer and succeeded through the social media.


Following
are the tweets which helped me get my rights as a consumer. You too
should do the same – never take injustice lying down.






On 21st April






- See more at:
http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/i-got-defective-cooler-fought-consumer-war-twitter-and-won-too#sthash.vGYU5Dek.dpuf

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