RutSum

Computer Empire Tortures Its Customers For Repairs & Warranty

Yes, I am talking about the over-hyped computer hardware shop at Nehru Place, Delhi. Before I tell you what happened, I want to warn you.

No matter what you do, where you live, or what you think, DO NOT buy anything, ever, from Computer Empire, Nehru Place.

If you know and understand that, you’re good to go.

I had bought an Altec Lansing AHS423 ‘Behind-The-Neck’ Headphones With Mic from Computer Empire around 2 months ago. As the post mentions, the audio quality was so-so and the connector was damaged when I opened the package. Me, Uncool Shitty, Sneezy Melon and Irfan decided to visit Nehru Place to get an idea about the kinds of laptops available in the market. Since I live quite far from Nehru Place, I decided this was a good chance to avail my warranty and get my headphones fixed.

When I went to the customer support section at Computer Empire, instead of listening to my problem, they grabbed the headphones from my hand, and told me to go to B-5, Chiranjeev Building, which is also in Nehru Place, and is the office of the importers of the headphones. They acted as if they didn’t give a damn about my problem, and that they were too busy to listen to trivial complaints like mine.

Next, we went to B-5, Chiranjeev Building. The importer’s name is Trifin Information Technology Ltd. The office over there was empty, with a few Altec Lansing cardboard boxes lying on the floor. A guy over there told us that the company had closed down, and had shifted its business to the well known Rashi Peripherals. He wrote the address for Rashi Peripherals on a piece of paper and told us to leave.

We then moved on to Rashi Peripherals, where there was a whole mob waiting to get their things fixed. The security guard told me that I had to register with them and take a token first in order to avail warranty. I did that, stood in the queue, and waited for my turn for 20 minutes. When I finally got my turn, I was told by the dude over there that though they were offering warranty for Altec Lansing, they could not replace my headphones, because they “didn’t have sales” for that particular product. They told me to go and ask for warranty from the dealer whom I bought it from.

So we move back to Computer Empire, and narrate them the whole story. A stupid dude who had no idea what was going on, started dialing numbers and asking people what is to be done. He told us to wait in the mean time. This wait went on for about half an hour, after which I blew off my fuse. I told him to direct me to a higher authority at the place. He blankly pointed towards a cabin at the far end of the room, with a “I’m used to show-off guys like you” look on his face. I went into the cabin to meet the manager (or whatever that guy was) and told him my problem and how I had been walking all around Nehru Place in the scorching summer heat since the past 3 hours. He too acted callous and told us to wait outside. He then picked up his ‘oh-so-costly’ touch phone and started dialing some numbers and talking to random people, pretending that he considered the matter to be important.

We waited for another half hour outside and then went back inside to ask him what he was doing to solve our problem. He said that he had sent an email to the Altec Lansing head officer and he was sending a reply in a few minutes. He said that he would give me a print out of the reply, which I could show to the Rashi guys and get warranty from them. We kept waiting for another half an hour for the email. The guy was using Yahoo Mail and apparently he was unable to receive the email. He sent his boy to get a hard copy of the email from somewhere else (no idea where). The boy came back after another 15 minutes with a letter (wasn’t an email).

The letter was by Stella Chan, VP Sales and Marketing, Altec Lansing Asia. Since there was no date on the letter, I didn’t know if she had sent it right now, or had sent it earlier when the shift of distributor was made. I took the letter back to Rashi Peripherals, where a guy took the letter from me (I was smart enough to get it photocopied before I went there) and went inside a cabin to talk to a senior official about the matter. He came out after about 40 minutes and told me the same thing he told me before. We don’t sell this piece, so we can’t replace it. I spent 20 more minutes fighting with him on consumer rights and the importance of customer satisfaction. The end result was that we had to leave and go back to Computer Empire.

This time I was too frustrated and lashed it out at the manager. He was smart enough to understand my anger and finally ask his dude to replace my product.

From this incident, what I want people to know is that businessmen in India still don’t have a customer satisfaction policy. I understand that there was some kinda confusion between officials regarding whose job is it to replace my product. But I’m not the one to be facing the trouble for that. If I have a warranty, my only job should be to bring back the product to the place where I bought it from. The rest of the job should’ve been done by some employee at the store. If the process was taking long, they should’ve apologized for their mistake and have taken my address and gotten the thing delivered to my home through courier or speed post.

What was most surprising was the attitude of the officials at every step. Nobody really cared about what I had to go through to get a silly 500 rupee headphone set replaced. I had spend more than 6 hours of my time on it, run around through Nehru Place on a day when the sun was at its peak in Delhi and the temperature was around 38 degrees Celsius. And finally when the job was done, nobody came and apologized to me for wasting so much of my time. The guys were more focused on arguing with other customers like me who were screaming at them for ignoring their complaints.

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