[Resolved]  Chingu — Deceiving Ignorant Tourists

My husband and I went to Manali for our honeymoon. Out of curiosity we bought something called "Chingu".

The Chingu is a quilt kinda thing. It wasn’t for sale. It was for lease. The cost was 7K; after a period of 21 months, a person from their side will supposedly come and collect the chingu from you after paying you 9K...! And why so? Because Meneka Gandhi has banned the furnaces that were earlier used to heat the chingu stuff to make out shawls from it… 1 chingu once heated expands to make 5-6 shawls each of which sells for around 20-30K. Now human body is the best furnace in the world as claimed by them! Moreover in order to lure the customers they are offering a lot of free products as gift such as bed sheets, angora shawl, carpet, dress materials etc. After 21 months you return the chingu but can keep the gifts all for yourself!

We paid them 2K (1K as advance + 1K for membership). We were told that the products will come to us in Chennai by VPP.

After returning to Chennai we've had certain suspicions about the authenticity of this entire thing. Except for the present contact no. of the dealer in Manali & a receipt provided by him, we dont have any other document of authenticity. We searched online for any previous customers or their experience but found none. We would like you to help us by sharing with us any information that you have on this matter. The VPP is on its way and on receiving it we are expected to pay another 5K.

Incase we've made a blunder in buying this product we would atleast console ourselves with the fact that we've lost 2K but are saved from paying the remaining 5K. Also we would be able to save other ignorant tourists from making such a costly mistake.
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Aug 14, 2020
Complaint marked as Resolved 
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Even, I feel, I have been cheated... although I just happen to purchase the "Chingu" stuff just ten days ago. When I with my wife and some family friends were touring Manali.
We bought this after paying total amount... by convincing ourselves... if not as the scheme atleast we are buying some stuff which might be worth 3000 or so.
but after all this complains I really feel it all is on bad taste for all the tourists visiting Himachal.
If this is not so ... I am also with you all people to lodge the complaint.
We also booked Chingu at Patnitop near Nag Mandir on 4th of feb'2009 ( 600 Adv + 300 Reg + 6000 Bal= 6900) and shopkeeper told us he will dispatch chingu + 5 gift items next day. but till 2day i did not recv. parsal. hope we recv. same in one or two days. after recv. i will write again.
I too bought the chingu quilt.
Honestly for 7 k we got one king sized chingu quilt 2 huge king sized Angora rabit blended with some stnthetic fiber quilts and a carpet !
This really is a fantastic bargain. The rabbit fur blended quilt is awesome and extremely soft and cozy- the chingu is fine not great- but u get what u pay for. Also this 7 k also included courier charges which saved us the burden of paying excess baggage and carrying bulky parcels on the flights. I think this was a gr8 deal.
We visited manali for our honeymoon and near Hadimba temple our driver also insisted to see what is "CHINGU" as we did't know about the same.The scheem was same !!!...we returned back without purchasing.I'm delighted that we did the right thing
I was also went to Himachal last week along with wife for honeymoon, at the guru Vashishth temple the shopkeeper came and told that just see the chingu iten and i[censored] like than only buy otherwise not, than we went to that shop and shopkeeper started tricks on us that i[censored] would pay rs. 6900/- to us than we will refund you rs. 11800/- after 21 month than i ask why? he replied we will earn 3-4 lacs rupee from one shawl of chingu and we are govt. employee than i suddenly asked that u have not puteed any board at u r shop than he make excuses as i belongs to markting i keep silent and understand all of story of free gift and refund value but my wife pressurize me for the shawl but i says that we can purchase ten shawla in 7000/- from indore. but i understand all the frod things of chingu.
We have purchased chingu from Ladakh Textiles near Helipad in Shimla. We were suggested to purchase it by our Taxi Driver and we were quite satisfied by the the scheme. It is a exellent investment.
I have suscribed a 5 year scheme in which we will get more money than we have invested .

If anyone has any query please contact me at [protected]@yahoo.com
I have also order the "Chingu" from Manali and I think its worth paying that much of amount.
I also don't believe in any such products so I check them in detail before I get into any such purchase.
They have register where they keep data of all buyers. I called couple of them confirmed with them about the result and then I bought the "Chingu". Now I am using it from past 2 months and it really works. But final call will be yours.
I purchased 2 Chingu from a shop near Manu temple manali, after reading this blog I went the next day to return the same, They paid me 6600 back while I paid 7600, they told me that Rs.1000 is towards the membership of some handloom, which I will receive back afyer 40 days. Let me see, if I get it. Though while purchasing I was told that only Rs.50 will be cut in case I return the items with in 40 days.
Still I am satisfied that I got 6600 back & lost only 1000.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! its true!!! YuPPy!!. I als got my product.. U shuld ve bought it frm authorised shop... Hahahahaha ..:-)

Freak!!!
Freak!! its all true!! HAHAHAHA.
Hi
We were ona vacation in Manali last week and had same experience. The shop keeper promised the gifts along with Chingu shawl with the same crap as you had been told. When I saw the chingu shawl it looked fake. Even after lot of persuausion from shop keeper we just avoided buying and later if we should gamble by paying 6k. Luckily my wife insisted to verify the next shop and we were shocked to listen that all this was bogus and lot of shops had been under lock & seal.
we still verified with other shop keepers who told that all this was bluff.
so we are lucky to save our 6000k.

Regards
Badrinath
I bought a chingu with few gifts for 6600/- and 500 for "card registration" from a shop near Manu temple in Manali. The card suposedly comes from Ladakh or some other place in Kashmir and serves as the guarantee card.

I have called the guy from whom i bought the stuff some 10 times and everytime he gives me vague reasons for the card not being delivered. Though 6600 rupees for the chingu and gifts may seem worthwhile for some, giving 500 for a card is ridiculous and also the talk of leasing it out for 21 months and getting paid back is bull .
Recently in mid may 2009 I had been to Manali with my family and friends, the car driver took us to Hadiamba temple and beside the temple there is this CHINGU showroom without a name board . There one Mr Vimal gupta who showed us the CHIGU blanket and the 6 gifts, we were amused about the scheme and the CHINGU itself.Intailly Gupta asked us to pay Rs 1000/- to open an account in a nationalsed bank, when after 5 years if CHUNGU is returned the payment will be credited in that account and an advance of Rs 600/- to be given alongwith and rest of the amount Rs.5900/- through SBI Demand draft(DD) at the time of delivery. I paid in cash and my friend in his credit card and we left to our hotel. The next day we were on sight seeing trip where on the way we went into a big Shawl shop, there we casually inquired about the CHINGU because there was some stuff which looked similar. But the personnel there blankly refused telling that there was no stuff called CHINGU and we were cheated. On our way back the same day we went to the CHINGU, beside Hadimba temple. We told what we heard to VIMAL GUPTA, he told us that was propaganda against them. He assured us that package will we sent through GATI COURIER and the docket number will be passed on to us the moment he gets it. We returned back and in week's time we called Vimal Gupta and he gave us the docket nos which we in turn checked with Gati courier's website which told us every day where the package was and we were contacted soon after by GATI office for the delivery.Finally the package arrived and we passed on the DD to the delivery boy.When we checked we found The so called CHINGU and the 6 gifts we choose at shop. This is our experience in fifteen days.
we have also purchased the same from manali, but this time they came up with anew story, like...there was a factory related to the furnaces but it caught fire one day, so now we r using this body heat for that purpose.and the money back offer and all that.let see what happens.
We bought the Chingu in Manali near Hidamaba temple. We purchased in cash for 6900 Rs. and took evry item offered by the shop keeper with us. But at the time of buying, I never believed the story told by them. I told the shop keeper that you have a nice and innovative marketing stretagy, but i am buying this because we like the items and it would probably cost us similar amount if boughyt in our home state. The story is fraud and I checed with some other shop in Mall area and they confirmed it. But as I said, we like the items and bought it.
We visited Manali in May 2009, bought Chingu from Bashist with 10 free gifts. Paid partial amount upfront and on receipt of other product in a week time, we made the balace payment. there was no such issue. The fact of receiving the products by VPP is absolutely fine and have no clue whether I'll be contacted after some years for any buy-back

Fuad Januhasan
I have also purchased two chingus from manali and postal advice for taking delivery has been received. But if the refund story after 21 months isn't true, we have literally been hijacked to purchase the item with all free gifts. No one seem to have got the refund, although the scheme is more than 3/4 years old as advised by the shop keepers.
we bought this chingu quilt at himachal handloom shop near hidimba temple manali just before a week arnd 18th june 09, as shared by ramkumar we also came across another shop on the mall rd at manali, and found that the chingu quilt we bought in the previous shop was being given as a free gift along with a chingu quilt, alongwith free gifts (15 nos) . not only that we were also shown variety of chingus ranging from 4k to 32 k

but my comment on it is neutral as we all know tourist places are all flooded with such things and the free gifts what we got if not worth 7-8 k would be atleast half the price, , so its ok with us. however, we have the video of the entire script being told by the shop guy let us know if that helps us all in any ways.
It seems we were also fooled by these Manali shopkeepers. We purchased this Chingu ( + additional gifts on12th June, 2009). We paid 3.4K thru cr. card and are supposed to pay 5K after receiving item through VPP. Am calling the shop owner, to know about status. I don't know even if these items are worth at least 60% of what they say.
CHINGU STORY FALS

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