Customer Ecstasy is a Big Hahaha!

Marketing pundits will tell the average MBA class that the customer should be delighted, nay ecstatic.  But this lesson does not seem to be taken very seriously by the guys in the industry – they seem to be thinking that customer agony should be aimed for!

Have you bought any stuff recently and been assured that it is just right for you, by the smooth talking sales representative?  Like a mobile phone or a MP3 player or some such similar stuff?  Or maybe been assured of prompt after sales service, warranty or guarantee by these guys?

The showrooms of most of these popular electronics brands are located in very upmarket locations.  They ensure that their showroom is close to if not next to the friendly neighbourhood market.  Their displays are very nicely lit and air conditioned showroom keeps you cool till you pay up. The problems start when or if your equipment develops some problem. 

The AIKON name which was very prominently written on the front of the shop suddenly ceases to be AIKON.  The shop dissociates itself from you and AIKON also.  They tell you that they are Bundaldass & Co., and that the after sales service is provided by AIKON itself.  In your innocence, you ask him if he could send it across and get it repaired as the warranty for the product is still on.  He tells he cannot do so.  Bundaldass & Co., who sold you the equipment, does not offer to take it from you and send it over there.  The company or their sales representative does not want to make it easy for you.   It is your product and so you have to go there yourself. If you push too much they would show you some small print on your bill!  You ask them where the service center is located and you get an address written on the back of an old bill.  You would expect a Company like AIKON to have some printed leaflet telling you how to reach them and also have some phone numbers you could call them on.  Well, you expected wrong. 

Here is the catch.  AIKON, through Bundaldass& Co., which sells you their products from morning till mid night, keeps their “service centre” open only from 10 to 5 pm.  They suddenly turn “sarkaribabu” and you have to take time off from work to go there.  You try to locate the service centre which finally turns out to be in the back alley of some strange building.  After a couple of false starts you locate the place.  You have to park somewhere far off, as this service centre is in the middle of a crowded market and parking is impossible there.  You jump across a few puddles of some unrecognisable liquid and try not to get skewered by the clutch levers of the bikes parked there.  And you sometimes have to clomp up a couple of ill-lit and dingy looking flights of stairs to reach these guys. They do not tell you immediately you what is wrong.  You just have to go back or call them up after their “engineer”has inspected it. (I did not know you needed an engineer to check out something put together by just about literate girls in Korea or Indonesia or wherever)  You have to pay an advance before this inspection can be done!!! Post inspection, they tell you how much the repair would cost you when you can decide whether all this running around and what it costs you is worth having it repaired. Of course, sometimes you are told it cannot be repaired.  Just like that!!

All this in the name of after sales service.  Disservice centers ought to be the name for these places. Customer ecstasy, my foot.  If you have not paid too much for the stuff, just dump the stuff and buy a new one – you would at least escape the mad feeling of frustration.

Bala@Kozhikode