[Resolved]  Living Media India Ltd., India Today Book Club — Payment Reversal for Reebok Fitness Kit

Living Media India Ltd., India Today Book Club — Inoperational website for claim of free gift

I am a subscriber to the periodical India Today. I have not been receiving the periodical for the last 4 weeks. The last one I have received is the issue of August 25, 2008. I am at a loss to know why and how it happened! Besides, I have not been able to open the web site http://offers.indiatodaybookclub.com/greatoffers.htm for claiming the free gift that the company has offered vide written communication.

My membership No. is ITBC08533938

Kindly do the needful in the matter.

Bharat Bhatt

Living Media India Ltd., India Today Book Club — Unable to log on to the site for free gifts

Hi,
As I have received a mail from your end that by subscribing to your products, subsequently I will be elegible for the contest and free gifts. I have received the three CDs despatched to me on 04th DECEMBER 2008. It is suprising to me that as your letter says to log on to your site, I am getting a reply like "SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION". I cannot beleive that a company like Living Media of very good reputation is cheating the public OR not ? Pls advise me the next course of action.
Thanks and regards

Dear Mr. Neeraj kumar Your complaint has been resolved on 5/04/2009.
Please refer to the email sent to you on your id. If you have any further queries, please mail back to us on the given id:

[protected]@indiatodaybookclub.com

Would request you to kindly mention this subject: ONLINE COMPLAINTS
Whenever you mail us for quicker response,

or call us on our customer care No.

[protected]

Dear Mr.Rajinder Singh Your complaint has been resolved on 5/04/2009.
Please refer to the email sent to you on your id. If you have any further queries, please mail back to us on the given id:

[protected]@indiatodaybookclub.com

Would request you to kindly mention this subject: ONLINE COMPLAINTS
Whenever you mail us for quicker response,

or call us on our customer care No.

[protected]

Dear Mr. Narender thapa Your complaint has been resolved on 5/04/2009.
Please refer to the email sent to you on your id. If you have any further queries, please mail back to us on the given id:

[protected]@indiatodaybookclub.com

Would request you to kindly mention this subject: ONLINE COMPLAINTS
Whenever you mail us for quicker response,

or call us on our customer care No.

[protected]

Dear Mr.Vishal Modi Your complaint has been resolved on 5/04/2009.
Please refer to the email sent to you on your id. If you have any further queries, please mail back to us on the given id:

[protected]@indiatodaybookclub.com

Would request you to kindly mention this subject: ONLINE COMPLAINTS
Whenever you mail us for quicker response,

or call us on our customer care No.

[protected]

Dear Mr. Ranjan Kumar Your complaint has been resolved on 5/04/2009.
Please refer to the email sent to you on your id. If you have any further queries, please mail back to us on the given id:

[protected]@indiatodaybookclub.com

Would request you to kindly mention this subject: ONLINE COMPLAINTS
Whenever you mail us for quicker response,

or call us on our customer care No.

[protected]

Dear Mr.Karthik Shetty Your complaint has been resolved on 5/04/2009.
Please refer to the email sent to you on your id. If you have any further queries, please mail back to us on the given id:

[protected]@indiatodaybookclub.com

Would request you to kindly mention this subject: ONLINE COMPLAINTS
Whenever you mail us for quicker response,

or call us on our customer care No.

[protected]

Living Media India Ltd., India Today Book Club — Breach of Trust

Dear Sir
In December last year in response to an advertisement by Living Media India Ltd., and India Book Club, I purchased a set of Music CDs’ worth Rs. 2499.00. This included Rs 1999.00 for the CDs’ and Rs. 500.00 for processing the gift voucher. The deal included free 3 days holiday at the place of my choice. I bought the CDs’ vide invoice no. ORA[protected] dated 31st December 2008 against the order no. OGA[protected]. On receipt of the CDs’ and after contacting ITBC I was given a unique code no. 97314505A[protected] and ITBC membership no. ITBC08813145 and I was told to download the free gift voucher from the internet and give the details to IndiaHotelReview.com who will arrange the hotel booking etc. The voucher was downloaded and e-mailed to IndiaHotelReview.com who then activated the same and asked me to send details like PAN No. photo and a draft for additional Rs. 800/- as processing fee. As requested by IndiaHotelReview.com all these details and a draft for Rs, 800/- were sent to them on 22nd January 2009.

I was told to give at least 30 clear days for the first preferred booking date and to avail the holidays before 10th of April 2009. I sent the request on 22nd January for 1st preferred date as 23rd March giving IndiaHotelReview.com clear two months to arrange the accommodation. When I did not hear from them for more than two months I telephoned them several times without any success and sent emails. I was finally advised only on 20th March that no accommodation in any hotel is available and that I can get the accommodation only after 10th July. I subsequently expressed my inability to avail it after 10th July since we are leaving for USA on the 6th June and would only be back in December 2009. I requested IndiaHotelReview.com to refund the Rs. 800/- that I had sent to them. I have not received any reply from them so far.
I made several calls to ITBC also and every time I was promised that they will look into it and inform me soon but no one so far bothered to reply.

Firstly Living Media and ITBC made the process so cumbersome that an ordinary person, not having access to the computer and internet, cannot easily avail the holiday package offered by them. Secondly there has been no response from them and they have failed to arrange the promised holidays. This seems to be a way to make additional Rs. 1300/- and getting away with it. As per recent ad by ITBC the same CDs are now being offered for Rs. 799/- instead of Rs 1999/-

I shall request you to please get me the refund of Rs. 2499.00 plus Rs. 800.00 from Living Media for the breach of Promise. In addition I shall request you impose fine on them for hoodwinking public by giving a false promise.

Thanking You

Yours Faithfully

(A.K.Bhargava)
B 123, Vivek Vihar
Delhi - 110095
Ph. 22144462

India Today Book Club — book club context

My membership number ITBC 07292479. I am participate India today book club context.
It offers number of prizes. As a contexent of this context i am pressured for purchase their CD'S and Books almost 5000/- Rs. But till today i have no information about the context and other winning details. I am successfully completed their terms and conditions and i am placed the final round of sweepstacks.
I think this is a cheating dealings of a reputed firm. I must wanted to know the context deatails.

Manoj Manayil
ITBC07292479

Dear Mr.Manoj Manayil. Your complaint has been resolved on 13/06/2009.
Please refer to the email sent to you on your id. If you have any further queries, please mail back to us on the given id:

[protected]@indiatodaybookclub.com

Would request you to kindly mention this subject: ONLINE COMPLAINTS
Whenever you mail us for quicker response,

or call us on our customer care No.

[protected]

I have never received any communication regarding the winners of the ITBC Sweepstakes. Are they really held or just a scam to push people into buying products? Also are the cars gifted to "early birds" as mentioned ?

Dear Sir

I have bought a sun glass of reebok from India Today Book Club. At the time of purchase i was told that i will be getting the Holiday Package totally Free. But with the product I have not got any free voucher. Thereafter I have contacted the ITBC for detail. Good the information that I have to Claim from their WEB with Some number. Which was not their in my Invoice. After waiting for some time i got that no.

When i went to the web page to get my gift a long procedure was written with at least 2 time post communication has to be done. But the surprisingly for the free gift they have asked to me to Pay Rs. 800 by DD as service charge. I don't know how its free when we have to pay Rs. 800

Moreover it was mentioned that if after booking if canceled we have to Pay Rs. 2000 to 4000 as charges for cancel by way of debit or credit card.

This means that once we pay Rs. 800 for booking they will again rob us in the name of free asking more money to be paid for some XYZ charges. This is clearly a cheating because before booking the product it was clearly mentioned by customer care person that no additional charges is required to be paid.

Kindly some one please guide me how to go for consumer court against such malpractice done by one of well known business house in media

Living Media India Ltd., India Today Book Club — SALE ON WRONG AND FALSE INFORMATION

Dear Sir,

This is to bring to your kind notice that I was sold A TRAVEL PACKAGE from India Today Book Club over phone, order date being 12th May 2009 and Invoice Date being 15 May 2009. Order No for the same is OGA[protected] and Invoice No ORA[protected]. I was sold the package on wrong and false information that I could avail the holiday of 7 days in two to three installments and also that the same could be availed on public holidays.

But when the time came for me to redeem the voucher from their Bangalore office..Premier sales Promotions Pvt. Ltd., both the promised were denied and they said that the entire holiday package could be redeemed at one go and also that the same could not be availed on public holidays. On this I got quite angry and insisted on refund of my money of Rs. 5943.00(Rupees Five Thousand Nine Hundred and Forty Three Only) incl of Service tax & Cess of Rs.552.69.

I am now forwarding you all the mails exchanged between Bangalore office from where I had to redeem my voucher, Delhi from where I was sold the package and Me - the CONSUMER.

Dear Ms. Ranjana,
This is with reference to my VOUCHER CODE REQUEST FORM NO. 002276. We had a tel con on 10th August 2009 and consequently due to wrong information from the Sales Team, I had requested you to kindly hold my Voucher Form and do not process it for further for generation of Coupon.

I had also lodged a complaint for the same to the Sales team in Delhi, my complaint no. being 173674 against ORDER NO. 0GA[protected] on the same date. They asked me to get in touch after 2 days. So today, that is on 12th August 2009, I called to the sales team and they asked me to call the Bangalore Call Center for a mail in my name that my form has not been further processed and that it is lying in Bangalore office.
So I request you to please mail me the same information, that the form is not processed due to wrong commitments from the Sales Person to me so that I can forward the same mail to Delhi Sales Team and get my refund processed.
Hope the matter is clear to you and you would acknowledge by replying and reverting to my mail and request.
Regards
Kavita

For the above mail I got the reply, rather a confirmation that my redemption of the coupon has been withheld and the same informed and mailed to the Delhi team. The mail was as under:

Hello Sir

This customer is asking us for refund as she claims that there was some false information given to her by the Sales Team. We have not issued the promo code to this customer. Please look into it and advice the next course of action.

Regards
Kunal

Then I called the Delhi team at[protected] and they confirmed that they have received the cancellation request and that they would refund the amount in next 28 days, that was on 14th August. so accordingly I should have got the refund around 10th September 2009. For my satisfaction I called them again on 24th August, 2009 to confirm from them that I would receive my cheque in next one week but they said me again the same thing that they would refund me the amount in next 28 days which comes to be 22nd September. so again I called them on 18th September and now they said that because I had requested the refund through cheque they would be needing some more time as they require approval from the concerned department. I argued that this should have been informed me on day one or before giving me a time duration of the refund amount but they didn't adhere to my complaints and insisted for some more time. Seeing that they are least bothered about my pains, problems and harassment, I finally asked them to give me a latest date by which I would be receiving my cheque, so they said on 5th October. On the same I wrote another mail to the Delhi team, but to my utter surprise they are least bothered to reply back even once or call if they required any further information. The mail was as under

Dear Mr. Negi,

Following the trail mail and consecutive talks and confirmation from you dated 24th August, 2009, I am still awaiting for my refund amount of Rs. 5943.00 (Five thousand nine hundred and forty three only) which was supposed to reach me within 28 days from 24th August, but I was informed yesterday that it would take another 10-15 days.

Is this you way of commitment and that to selling the entire thing from a salesman, who does not know anything and he is not even sorry for the same. On the other hand he is selling me another stupid idea of yours. And isn't it your responsibility to inform me about the delay. How can I believe you now that my money would be refunded and why should I?

Who is going to pay for my mental harassment and interest on my money lying with you.

Don't play or fool your customers because you yourself are one of the customer to someone or the other. And I sincerely hope something of this does not happen with you...and if it does you would understand my pain for cheating for my hard earned money.

And as per our talks which was a mere waste of my precious time, you have confirmed me that the amount in cheque would be reaching to me latest by 5th October 2009.

And I sincerely now hope after having a word with you that you face such problem from one of the stupid companies like yours and see how you react and go by it.

Moreover you people have not also bothered to reply to my mails and calls. Keep going like Government owned companies where it takes ages to pass a cheque.

Also take note of my mailing address so that now you dont have any lame excuse that we did not have your address. ENJOY THE GOVT JOB.

Now comes TODAY, that is 30th September,2009 the day I am forced to finally file a compalint against them to the Consumer Redressal Forum.

I again called them, as by now I realized that they are not serious and least bothered about Consumers, and to my utter astonishment they are now asking me to return their book before they would return the Refund Cheque. I again argues that this requirement must have said to me the very first day of my filing a request of refund but they have no answer to it. The person, Mr Negi was insisting and insisiting that "IF YOU WANT YOUR MONEY YOU WILL HAVE TO RETURN THE BOOK". On this I said that "AAP KOI EHSAAN NAHI KAR RAHE HAI...", but he is such a shameless person that he banged the phone.
I also said him that wasn't it your duty to inform me for the same, when I am calling you then you people are giving one excuse or the other to refund the amount, isn,t it your responsibility and duty to give a call to your customer and especially when I have been calling them at every step. Had I not called them today, I would not have come to know about their GOOD INTENTIONS and would not have taken this step of filing a written complaint.

I have already wasted lots of time, energy and money . I bought the package as it was offered from INDIA TODAY GROUP, but I fail to understand that they can be so unprofessional. I know the amount at stake is not too big, but with wrong and false promises things sold and then on complaint no one adhering to it in the right spirit, I am compelled to ask you to come between us.

I sincerely hope that this episode would be adhered to at your end at the earliest.

As of now they have not bothered to reply to any of my mails sent to them nor given a call about the reasons for the delay, whatsoever.

Regards

KAVITA MOHTA