Your credit card shows a wrong amount! Your mobile
suddenly shows calls debarred! A free offer along with something you purchased
did not come! There could be more to the list. It could be problems with the
new automobile you purchased or it could be problems with channels being
provided by your cable operator. The simple question is how do you handle such
situations.
In this series of articles I will discuss with you,
some of the initial measures you could take even before thinking of going to
the consumer forum or a court of law. In fact, most of the problems could be
solved even without approaching any of these forums, if you have a systematic
approach. This series is not a theoretical or legal discussion. This is simply
some of the systematic and structured approach to such issues. It could finally
result even in a change of the style of your life. At least that is what
happened in my life.
The Free Stuff
Many of you would have had a situation of purchasing
something where something else was offered “free stuff”. Whether it be an
organizer with some software or it be a wristwatch with a refrigerator, you
would be tempted to buy the nonfree stuff, because you feel that the free stuff
is someway useful to you. For example, I had opted for the subscription to an
international magazine through their Indian agents in August 1995. There were
two attractions. One, a discount in the subscription charge itself. Two, an
Executive Garment Bag. Since it was a magazine subscription, it was to take some
time before I got the first issue. Naturally the free stuff also would have
taken some time to come.
In fact they had mentioned that it would take at
least 6 to 8 weeks before I started getting my subscription I was working in
Bombay at that time. In October, I got moved to Madras (it was not Chennai
then). It was 8 weeks. The magazine never came. Then I wrote a letter to their
office at Delhi mentioning my payment and nonreceipt of both magazine and the
executive garment bag. I had also shown my new address. I got the first copy in
Bombay address and my erstwhile colleague sent the copy to Madras. And then it
stopped again. So in December, I wrote them a letter mentioning that I did not
get a second issue of the magazine and never did I, the garment bag! Nothing
happened!
So I sent a serious letter to them showing the full
history of transactions and mentioning that this is a deficiency in service and
that I may have to take this to the consumer forum. Then did I get a letter
from their office asking me to quote my subscription number? But alas! I did
not have it, for I had already sent the wrapper to them, which had a column to
mention the change in address. Interestingly the copies had stopped coming to
my Bombay address also. The second copy never came. I was in touch with my
Bombay office to verify if any further copies came there. None. So I wrote a
letter to them describing the situation and requesting them to query the
database (well I know I am writing this article to my IT colleagues!) on my name,
at least once. I had also stressed that, whichever way, I had not got my free
stuff!
On retrospection, I know that I had got to the first
step. Getting a written communication from them. Then I got a fax from them
with the name of person who was writing it (yes, till then it was impersonal
communication). This letter asked me to mention any other reference like the
mode of payment, date of payment etc.
I had made the payment through my credit card and
had been filing the statements from the bank. (Well, that file anyway came to a
better use. Will tell that some other time). I sent another fax to her,
thanking her at the outset of the letter, for the effort she put to help me and
also giving all the details of payment. I had also stressed that I had not got
the free stuff. By then it was the second half of January. And then came my
free garment bag.
I sent her a
letter thanking and requesting her to send the future copies of the magazine to
my Madras address. Since till the middle of February I did not get any more
copies, I sent them a letter asking them to refund my payment, which of course
was another offer they had made in their original ad. Then I got a late
February and early March copies.
I had lost my patience. I got their HO Address at
Bombay and sent a letter with copies of all the 8 letters I had sent and those
of the two I got from them. I had insisted that I should get 56 copies with no
old ones. At last I started getting copies regularly to my Madras address. But
finally they stopped the subscription in August. I did not get 56 copies. But
then I was not a good fighter at that time. Anyway I had learnt my first
lessons.
Lesson 1: Get
some written communication from the supplier
Lesson 2: Keep your file organized.
Tailpiece: For your info all those
letters are still available in an archive in my hard disc.
-The Consumer
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