Reader's Digest — Multiple lapses by ROAD India in honouring Subscription

Address:

Karnataka

COMPLAINT regarding Subscription No.: RD[protected]

Summary of suffering so far

{Missing Copies}
I, Pramod Padmanabhan, subscribed to RD as a gift to my wife (Mrs. Mamta Pramod) sometime in the last quarter of 2009 and eventually paid for the VPP in Nov 2009. After which I received only 1 issue (Dec 09). Though I had paid for an annual subscription in return I received ONLY ONE COPY.


{Incompetent Customer Service via Call Center}
I have since then called the RD India Customer Service desk (both Mumbai and Noida) on several occasion to highlight the issue of "MISSING COPIES". To my utter surprise and deep disappointment I always spoke to highly incompetent people handling your Customer Services call center. I am sure that due to high incompetency of contact center staff, RD India must have created a great fan following by now. They just do not understand the problem and keep repeating their part of the story without even bothering to get to the root of the issue. All I was told repeatedly was that my ‘Annual’ subscription ended in Dec 09 – not one person checked how could an ‘Annual’ subscription end in one month!!!! They were just not getting the point!!!



After having several frustrating and mind-numbing conversations with RD India Call Center team I decided to lodge ‘Missing Copies’ complaint on the RD India website, frustration continued. I did not receive any response from RD India and continued to be in the dark about my missing copies. In the meantime I had lost all hope and even decided to write off the Rs.500/- that I had paid RD India but then it struck me that you guys shouldn’t be let away that easy and that’s when I took the help of my friend in Mumbai, Mr. Vikram Misra, who volunteered to follow this up and get to the root of the issue.



Here starts the real drama – after several collective hours of conversation RD India finally accepted their MISTAKE – of having updated the duration of the subscription from Nov 09 - Dec 09 (one month subscription after taking Annual Subscription fees). RD India realized that this could turn ugly for them and immediately agreed to renew the subscription from June 2010 for a year. This was sometime in May 2009. On one of the tri-party calls during this time that I had along with RD India and my friend, Mr. Misra, I was told after multiple apologies that RD India will start sending the copies starting June 2010. To my utter dismay the copy did not reach me in time (if I’m right your commitment is that the copy should reach me by the 5th of the month) – on once again calling your Contact Center I was told that they had no clue where the copy had gone missing however they promised to immediately courier the copy to me. And eventually on the 11th of June 2009 I received my 2nd copy after the one I received in Dec 2009.



The horror story does not end here – more is coming. A week back my neighbor drops in to hand over a copy of an old issue of RD (early 2010) requesting me to ‘change’ my address coz the wrapper had ‘5093’ instead of ‘5091’ which is my address. The same day another neighbor drops in to hand over another old issue (early 2010) with the same request – this time the flat # is ‘5094’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The date of posting on both the wrappers is 18 Jun 2010 – what does this mean – were you using the trial and error method to check the correct address?? The fact that I received your courier (June issue) is proof enough that you already had my ‘correct’ address – can someone explain to me the reason for sending the other 2 issues to my neighbors?? I seriously went berserk this time and have now decided to pursue this case through the Consumer Forum – I have also scanned the wrappers that I referred to above as evidence.


I hereby give RD India 7 working days from now to respond to me with the action they will take to

a) An apology letter from your Head – Customer Services acknowledging the mistake from your end

b) Commit to me that that I will face no more problems related to my current subscription

c) Immediately refund the subscription amount that I paid as a goodwill gesture

d) Compensate me appropriately for the hardship that I have endured in the last 6-7 months – I leave it to you to decide on the amount; you can guess what the Consumer Forum will levy on you for the above!

e) Stop all kinds of promotion mailers enticing me to buy books from you showing big wins as a carrot – I simply can’t stand those, especially now!!

Pramod Padmanabhan

Services Head – Client Operations

Infosys BPO

Bangalore

D: +[protected] | M: +[protected] |