Bata India — a complaint against an obviously unfair practice by bata with reference to gift vouchers

Address:

Bata, BEL Road, Bengaluru, Bangalore, Karnataka

Dear support member,

We had 18 rs. 100 gift vouchers and went to redeem these at bata showroom on new bel road, bengaluru, today (21 april 2019) at about 17.30 and encountered the following difficulty.

We identified 5 items for purchase with the following item numbers and prices:

Item no. Price

[protected]

[protected]

[protected]

[protected]

Carry bag 3

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Total rs. 1929

We handed over our 18 vouchers of rs. 100 value each to the billing counter. At this stage, we were informed that a maximum of 7 vouchers can be redeemed against a single bill and we made the obvious request of raising 3 bills, since we had 18 vouchers. Since we were not asked by the billing person how the items are to be split between these three bills, we trusted it to be done the way that is the most beneficial to the customer. It is also evident that the best way to split these items over 3 bills would be as follows:

1 bill for rs. 499 + 3 (For 5 vouchers + rs. 2)

1 bill for 1099 (For 7 vouchers + rs. 399)

1 bill for 179+149 = 328 (For 3 vouchers + rs. 28)

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Total of 15 vouchers and rs. 429

We were instead presented with 2 bills as follows:

1 bill for rs. (499 + 179 + 3) (For 7 vouchers)

1 bill for rs. (1099 + 149) (For 7 vouchers + rs. 548)

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Total of 14 vouchers and rs. 548

We do not understand why only 2 bills were prepared instead of 3 bills, as requested. We also do not understand why the items were distributed in a way that amounts to the worst possible choice for the customer, requiring a much larger cash payment (Rs. 548 instead of rs. 429) and worse use of the existing vouchers, as if the attempt is to maximise the profit of the shop! If bata is not able to provide suitable training to its personnel at the billing counter, the least it should do is to train them to ask the customer how to bill items according to the preference of the customer. This was not done in our case and the bills were directly produced for our acceptance.

When we pointed this out and asked the billing to be changed to the one benefiting us as indicated above, leading to the best use of the vouchers and the lowest cash payment from us, we were told that this cannot be done, since the process of selling have already been implemented through the billing process without our consent or permission.

We found it objectionable and left the shop in protest of such a wrong approach, without purchasing (Or bringing with us) any of the items. I also stress that besides the inconvenience caused, we also wasted more than an hour to go to bata and return empty handed, though we found items that we wanted to procure and we hold bata responsible for both the loss of money and time in this case.

As far as we are concerned, we have not purchased anything from that shop, and we assume that our vouchers remain valid for being redeemed. We were told by mr. Vineet, the manager of that outlet, that the vouchers have already been redeemed in your computer system. Since we have not collected any item in view of the irrational and grossly unfair billing implemented by the obviously untrained billing person, we request you to kindly revalidate all these vouchers and inform us, so that we may go back and make our purchases the way it is beneficial to the customers.

Hoping to hear from you soon and thanking you for your efforts.