[Resolved]  Tanishq — Cheating

Address: Bangalore, Karnataka

Last year, I started investing Rs.5000 every month in Tanishq's much publicised Golden Harvest scheme. After paying 11 installments, you are supposed to get the 12th one invested from Tanishq and you could buy some jewellery from the store for the matured amount. I have opened the account with ECS (Electronic Clearance) and saw all the installments getting cleared every month. However, the 11th installment was not cleared for over a month.

Today I went to buy jewellery from Tanishq with the matured amount of Rs.60000. They told me that the last installment was not cleared and asked me to pay the amount by cash. I did so and was thinking that I would get to buy something for Rs.60000. Since I could not buy for anything less than 60k, I purchased jewellery for Rs.64K. I was asked to sit and wait for the bill while the salesperson was trying to coax me into another such payment. I looked at the bill while leaving and to my surprise, found that Golden Harvest scheme did not give me the promised last installment of Rs.5000 but paid only Rs.4150. When I asked the sales person, he told me that it was reduced as there was a delay in getting the last installment. Now when I have opted for ECS, how could they blame it on me? The salesperson could not help me with that question.

Normally, I would never invest in any suspicious gold schemes but I invested my money in Tanishq only because it is a TATA enterprise and did not expect any foul play. The amount of Rs. 850 constitutes the total return on this scheme and this is clearly much less than what was promoted as an *attractive* return. The feeling of being cheated and shortchanged has spoilt the whole shopping experience for me. People need to be wary of the trap Tanishq is laying. Only now I started wondering if this scheme is even protected under the consumer protection act. If the returns seem too good to be true, they probably are. Don't trust the returns they are promising on this scheme - they are tricking you. Why don't the advertisements at least say that the returns are uncertain or conditions apply? How could they get away with wrong information?