| Address: Vadodara, Gujarat |
We booked a chimney and stove worth INR 20,000 from the Prestige Smart Kitchen store in Baroda and made an advance payment of INR 10,500.
We were told we would receive a gift coupon of 1200 INR which we could use against purchase of Prestige Smart Kitchen products. The disgusting story begins here -
Chapter #1: We get a gift card for 400 instead of the 1200 promised. We assume the rest of the amount will be sent using another gift card and don't raise any issues. The card expires on 30th September and the India Post speed post stamp shows that it was posted on 21st September from Bangalore. Shows how much they take the consumer for granted - its the consumer who wants the freebies anyways, so lets put the onus on them to make sure they encash the card is less than a week.
Chapter #2: Baroda smart kitchen shop guy is EXTREMELY RUDE to us. The tiny store doesn't stock most of the products advertised in the brochure we received along with the gift card. The guy doesn't know when the stock arrives nor does he bother finding out. All our queries are met with 2-3 word curt responses - "I don't know", "no clue", "we don't have it".
We show him the gift card and tell him we plan to make a purchase and use the card on that purchase. He agrees. He doesn't respond when we ask for a particular tawa model we need. Instead, he calls us back after two hours (the store to our place is a long drive that cost us 100 bucks each time) and tells us it will be available 'soon'. We ask him to place a booking in our name and tell him that we will be using the gift card and would like the booking date to be the purchase date. He AGREES and tells us he has MADE THE ENTRY in his register. This was around 24th-26th September.
Chapter #3: 30th September, the expiry date of the card is on a Sunday. We lost the last 4-5 days as my wife encountered dengue. Note that the booking has been made a few days back and it has been spoken for that the card will be used. My wife calls up the store 1st October 1 pm (less than half a day after the deadline) to confirm that we would pick up the tawa and surrender the gift card. The guy agrees again. When I drive there in the evening, I am told they can no longer accept it, because apparently his boss was present and his boss didn't agree. On the contrary, he blatantly tells me I need to buy at MRP (with whatever discount they have) if I want the tawa that I had booked a few days back. The guy humiliates me and forces me to return back empty-handed.
Lets put things in perspective here - we were barely half a day late in submitting the card and we had already made it known that we would be using the gift card and an entry was made in their register a few days back. The card's value is 400 bucks. The actual loss to the store was more like 200-250 bucks because there was a 15 or 20% discount offer if I bought on MRP anyways. SO HERES THE MESSAGE - PRESTIGE SMART KITCHEN STORES WILL NOT LOSE 200 INR TO KEEP THEIR WORD TO A CUSTOMER, ESPECIALLY THIS PARTICULAR CUSTOMER WHO HAS ALREADY BOUGHT 20000 WORTH OF STUFF FROM THEM.
The experience has been so disgusting and appalling that never again will I ever consider a Prestige product. On the contrary, I am considering shifting my chimney+stove booking for my new home TO A DIFFERENT BRAND THAT DOESNT TREAT ITS CUSTOMERS LIKE , despite having paid 10,500 INR in advance to this horrible company.
Proof: Please contact me if someone reading this requires proof. I can share the gift card number, the envelope showing the date of posting (21st September 2012) and the proof of purchase of my chimney+stove (Rs.20,000).
