[Resolved]  Hometown Marathahalli — Beware… FRAUD!!! Won't deliver and won't return money...

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka

BUY FROM HOMETOWN MARATHAHALLI IF AND ONLY IF YOU ARE TAKING THE DELIVERY ALONG WITH YOU WHEN YOU LEAVE THE STORE.... IF DELIVERY IS SET TO FUTURE DATE, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET THE ITEMS - NEITHER THE MONEY BACK IF YOU ATTEMPT TO CANCEL YOUR ORDER.... BELIEVE ME - THESE GUYS ARE BIGGEST FRAUDS IN THE CITY AND WILL TORTURE FOR DOING BUSINESS WITH THEM.. WIERD..HUH...? READ MY STORY BELOW:-

On a bad day I decided to get some furniture to my new home from so called one stop home making solutions – Hometown’s Marathahalli store.

30-Mar 2013 : Paid in full an amount around Rs. 50000 and booked wardrobe, dressing table, study table etc.. They gave a surprise gift - cake decorating stand. At this point I did not realize that this is ALL I would get for ~ half a lakh... They offered furniture delivery by 22nd April 2013..

23-Apr-2013 : No calls from hometown. No delivery... I called their office - Of course - according to them, it’s on the way from Nagpur/Kanpur/or somewhere and I will get the items by 30 April.. Consoling myself, I waited..............and still waiting...

1-May-2013: I called their store again. This time, they had some different reason.. Luckily it was not the truck from Nagpur/Kanpur this time… but one of the item was not ready.. they promised to will deliver by 5th may... They asked me to call Jobi (I don't know how to describe this person's attitude). This person will put you in his reject list once he gets to know your number. If you call from a different phone, he will pick up and say " Will call you back in a moment" That moment will never arrive.. And you will realize that your new number is again in the 'REJECT' list.

5-May-2013: Called up customer service again.. this time they asked. “So you have ordered one 3 door wardrobe rt?” According to the customer service people sitting in numbers 66621122/23/24/25, my order has transformed somehow(how???)
from
One 4 door wardrobe, a dressing table with mirror & chair and one study table - (which I actually paid for..)
To
3 door wardrobe and a study table of honey color (cheap wood - not the one I paid for...but what they want to deliver to me in case if at all they decide to deliver..)

I had photo of all items I paid for..and the receipt.. They said - they will deliver me one 3 door wardrobe by 7th May if I am OK with that... and study table whenever it is ready. (interesting option…hmmm..). Basically they were saying that they CAN deliver two few thousand rupee items that they may want to get rid of from their store in place of the items for which I paid around rs.50000.

Please don’t' assume that all the above events happened in a single attempt to reach them over phone.. They will say, will check and call back.. and will never return a call. Will try Jobi- the Manager??…. Oh. Come on.. Did you forget? I am already on his reject list.. Try the customer service number again... again.. again.. trust me.. they will never give you a call back.. nor anyone will say their name.. They are not accountable.. not responsible.. A bunch of people to take your frustration to the levels that you can’t even imagine!!!!

Story continues.. So Again and Again.. We continued calling them to know where the item is.. Every time we call they push the date by two days and will give a false promise it will be delivered THIS time for SURE.. and they will definitely give me a call when the delivery truck start from their store...funny isn't it??

11-May-2013: Tired and Fed up.. Called their Customer service number.. Someone picked up.. I said. “You are not delivering on time.. I would like to cancel the order”. CSR sounded as if they are concerned about my concern (No.. they are NOT). And tried to make another promise to deliver by 13th. I insisted on my decision and they said they will cancel the order and inform the ‘Manager’ (hope you know who…).

12-May-2013 : I got a call from Hometown rep. She sounded so desperate and requested me to allow the furniture delivery by 13th. I initially rejected and narrated my entire story to this person. She said it won’t happen again.. she promised “Consider it happened this time” (sounds familiar?? ).. Finally I agreed to give them a chance.. You know the result… of course..

14-May-2013: I went to Marathahalli store.. asked them what to do to cancel and get the money back..I was directed to go to their 4th floor to meet Jobi..This floor seems like their carpentry workplace – was filled with wood and was suffocating...perhaps the best way to treat angry customers.. By the way, I was curious to meet this person (you can guess why…is a good example of how a store manager / customer relations manager should NOT be).. I found that there are other customers waiting for him to talk about delayed delivery, cancellations.... I could see the frustrations in their face.. I am sure by now their frustrations would have become hopelessness as happened in my case.

After a warm welcome followed by an unsuccessful attempt to promise delivery in another 2 days, Jobi finally said he will cancel my order and refund me in 5 DAYS..

“Customer already purchased item from somewhere” he muttered scratching his head...I wondered for a minute about this out of context statement but soon I realized that he is more worried about what to put in order cancellation note than he worried about dissatisfaction of a customer. “…because Hometown delayed delivery of purchased items indefinitely” .. I quickly added..

I said to him I will return the free gift by next day.. but he resisted and said “ Don’t worry sir.. you return it when you get the refund back”. Please take a note this statement as it will be referred again below… I didn’t fall for it.. I called my wife and she came all the way to hometown store with the gift they had given during purchase. We returned the gift and got signed confirmation from Jobi. At this point we got nothing with us for the big amount we spent.

This is where the torture began to take a new course... The crooked guys at Hometown called me every day from 17th May till today, a few minutes before I started writing this..
17-May-2013: “You have an EMI on your furniture, so we cannot cancel your order.”
 They definitely know that there is no EMI and I paid in full. Was this an attempt to scare me??
18-May-2013: “Sir, we will deliver the furniture in 2 days – when will be the best time? “
 Really? I thought I requested to cancel it.. To confirm, I called back at later point and confirmed that their system had recorded my cancellation request. So the call was a fake again.
19-May-2013: “You have a free gift with you that you have not returned. We will not be able to cancel the order until you return the free gift”
 I thanked us thinking of this possibility in advance and returned their so-called surprise GIFT. I said them that I have returned it.. I was on top of my voice.. they said they were JUST CHECKING… .. I had no words.. I just thanked them for JUST CHECKING.
20-May-2013: “Sir, we are set to deliver your furniture in 2 days”
 This guy acted as a good child and pretended that he is not aware of all the cancellation stuffs that he could see right in front on his system.
21-May-2013: “Sir, when do you want the delivery for your furniture” ?
 We asked if he could give us his name : he did not have one.. They preferred to take the name “Hometown”. Hmmm.. nice name..
22-May-2013: “Sir… We can deliver your furni…...”
 $#%@$@# %%!#!!%# %$#@@# !@#!#! @#!@ ? Are you smart enough to read it?

I am tired…. Everyone in customer service team in Marathahalli hometown knows that I cancelled my order. They are making this call just for the purpose of provoking me… It’s a mental torture they seems like enjoying very much..…One question “Is it the vision and mission of FUTURE GROUPS to steal customer’s hard earned money like this???”

Ok back to calls I made between these days.... Mr. Jobi picked up my call two times (see below). I was the luckiest person among many similar customers I guess on those days.
20-May-2013: I asked Jobi – why their customer service calling us as if they are not aware of cancellation. He said there was a miscommunication and now he made everyone aware that order should be cancelled. I asked about the free gift and EMI attempts and he gave similar reply. He promised I will get the money because the refund process has been initiated.
22-May-2013: Jobi said he has an email stating that my refund was getting processed. I said I do not see any money credited to account. He replied, nowadays, refund is processed from Mumbai and hence it is getting late. I might have to Wait.. (UNTIL WHEN????) I do not trust this guy.. neither anyone from hometown…

Jobi said he will forward me a copy of the email showing that refund in getting processed.… and he has my email ID (because I gave them during purchase).. Also he will give me a call back with details of refund… . AND YOU KNOW WHAT… I am again in his REJECT LIST…..

A long story short - F’d up because I bought something from HOMETOWN – The one STOP destination.