Bata Shoe — Manufacturing defect-Bata non responsive

Address:

Thane, Maharashtra

I had purchased a shoe (code[protected] from Bata show room at Sector 17 Navi Mumbai on 16.10.2010 and within few weeks the front of the toe got 'torn' in both the shoes. (Pictures attached). I could not go and complain to the showroom since I was away for 2 months travelling on official assignment. Since the shoe was not uasable, I kept it aside.

On 15th Jan 2011, I went to the Bata show room and met Mr Santosh, the incharge but he expressed his helplessness in helping me since 75 days period was over. I explained to him that one can make out from the condition of shoes that it has not been used much but he was just not able to help. He agreed that the shoe has to be rplaced only and cannot be repaired. I then took the DM Mr Shafiq's number and spoke to him. He also advised that I write to customer care or accept a 50 or 60% as settlement. Surprisingly, the show room does not have any complaint book even. Showroom should be the place where customer gets in touch with you for purchase and should be the point of redresssal also.

I then was forced to email to customer care at Gurgaon, who did not even acknowledge my complaint for the first few days and then finally wrote back to me on 28th Jan 2011 that since the shoe was bought MORE THAN 4 MONTHS back, it cannot be replaced. Point to note is that when I complained to them it was just 3 months from the time of purchase, whereas the central customer care mentions it as more than 4 months. (Finding some or the other excuse to escape!)

From the pictures uploaded, it can be very clearly made out that the problem is related to manufacturing defect and the company should not look at the time period but the type of defect. Instead they decided to overlook all of that and stuck to their stand. I have been trying to get Bata’s attention for the last 2 months after their last reply but they are not even acknowledging the emails.

I am publishing this on all the grievances portals as well as appealing at Navi Mumbai consumer forum to bring the matter to public about the attitude, behaviour and customer unfriendly approach by Bata Company.