Cafe Coffee Day.
I went to a CCD a couple of days back and ordered a gourmet hot chocolate. Price on the menu – Rs 120.
I place the order and it is being billed. When I ask for the final amount I am being told Rs 200.
I take out my wallet and search for 2 Rs 100 notes to pay.
Wait. And then it struck me.
Rs 200 for a 120 drink? No. That’s not right. There seemed to be something wrong. Maybe, I heard it wrong?
I ask him again for the bill amount. Yes, it is Rs 200. I ask for the break up, he fumbles a bit and I ask him in a more stern manner.
And that’s when I get to know, he wants to add cream to my drink worth Rs 50 odd without asking me whether I want it or not. Apparently, he assumed that I needed it.
I point it out to him. He doesn’t seem to have an answer. I ask for his manager’s number and get his manager on the call. I am looking to explain the entire situation to him. But, as soon as I tell him that the manager that I was overcharged, he apologised and said that he understood that the representative must have added add ons without asking.
Again, wait. He sort of knew that this is what exactly happened before I even explained it to him? I would say that was because it has happened before and it happens on a regular basis.
Imagine, this happening to even 10 customers per outlet everyday for an average of Rs 30 to Rs 40. Or say even a small percentage of the many thousands of people that come to CCD to chill, relax, work over coffee. It turns out to be a huge sum across the approximate 2000 outlets that CCD has in India.
I would say CCD is a pretty big scam.
Update – So I didn’t realise so many people have faced such similar experiences. I have posted the link of this answer on your FB page. Hopefully, they take note and work to improve. Cheers!
Yesterday, my wife and I had gone to Elliot’s beach in Chennai. An old lady very close to the shore was selling roasted corn.
PC Google
We tried one and loved it! We ended up buying 2 more. Each roasted corn is sold for 30 rupees. We didn’t bargain and gave her 100 rupees and got 10 back.
As soon as the transaction was over, we started walking towards the beach. My wife was holding corn in one hand and the 10 rupees note firmly on the other. I kind of saw partially/sensed some kind of hand gesture from the old lady behind our back and in no time a young woman holding a tiny baby approached us and started asking us for the 10 rupees in my wife’s hand to feed her baby.
It was a real awkward situation and after a couple of minutes we caved in. My wife handed her the 10 rupee note. The young woman turned quickly, walked towards the corn lady and dropped the 10 rupees note in a box next to her. I JUST COULDN’T BELIEVE I SAW THAT!
By the time we realized they are in the same team and we got scammed, it was too late. I understand 10 rupees is not a very big amount but the way the whole thing was orchestrated left me sad and angry.
I bought a Titan edge in Jan 2015 worth RS 16,000/-. It had a warranty for 2 years. In September 2017 the watch stopped. I thought may be the battery has drained out.
Went to Titan world, Park Street, Kolkata. They took it, they said they will check but since it’s beyond warranty so I have to pay. I was ok with it.
After a week received a SMS saying please collect your watch at your convenience. I went again . To my surprise, I was told that the watch is irreparable. I was shocked. Just within two years without any physical damage how can a award winning technology of edge just become irreparable?
The service centre informed that company can take the watch back since it is just out of warranty but would provide me a Titan coupon of 50% of the buy value.
I insisted I want to repair. Now the service centre told me if I don’t take the offer now they won’t even provide me any coupon in future. So it’s now or never.
I asked them to write in the bill that the watch is not repairable. But they denied to do so. I asked them to show me the company policy of 50 % , that also they couldn’t provide.
I requested to talk to the manager. After listening to the situation he took back the watch and asked the service person to check once again and didn’t hand it back to me, nor he gave to me anything in writing.
The scam here is the service centre will take back the watch and provide a 50% coupon with which you have to buy another titan watch within 3 months.
Your watch may have only got a battery to replace, so that will be replaced and put up for a sale on full value. They won’t give you in writing that the watch is not repairable since they very well know it is not true.
It’s the latest scam trending in Titan to improve the sale at the cost of customers.
Is this the Tata value and code of ethics?
Edit on 07.10.2017 (after almost 1 and half month of putting the watch for servicing)
Today after many a calls to customer care and threatening to approach the consumer forum got back my watch after a month.
It has been repaired and working fine. The cost for repair is INR 1650. Now you can understand pretty well why they refused to provide a documentary evidence that the watch is irreparable.
Infact if I would have taken the offer of 50% coupon I would have lost straight away 8K.
Pizza delivery scam
So this happened a day before Diwali. I had ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut through Zomato app. Since it was my first time ordering through Zomato app I got a discount of 100Rs. and I paid the entire amount through card.
When the delivery guy came to deliver my pizza he said that I had to pay 100Rs as the discount was not applicable on holidays. I told him that if there was any such condition then the coupon would not have applied. But he said that is not his problem and demanded the remaining amount. But I was in no mood to pay the remaining amount and i told him to give me the number of his manager so I can talk to him.
As soon as I asked him his manger’s number he suddenly changed his tone.
He said “Sir there is no need to talk to the manager, I will myself resolve the issue on your behalf and if you still have to pay then I’ll call you.”
After that I never received his call.
Later on I talked to his manager and told him about the entire incident and he assured me that necessary actions would be taken.
The most common scam is done by the popcorn sellers. The popcorn which is of value ₹20 are sold at ₹200- ₹1000 in Movie Theatres.
In INOX FARIDABAD, NCR, I went to watch NEWTON where the show ticket was of ₹120. During interval, I went to buy some snacks and popcorn the cost of popcorn was starting from 260 (medium sized) and the small one was not available.
After this I have decided that I will never be a part of this scam. And I will never buy these from Theatres.
Why this is a scam?
My Father is a farmer and we produce Maize or corn (मक्का) and sell it @ ₹5–10 per kg and in market, it is easily available under ₹30 per kg.
If we add the making charges, packing and labour charges it will cost ₹50 per kg and people from PVR and other Theatres are selling at ₹3000 per kg.
So a net scam of ₹2950 per kg is being done by them.
Movie Theatre scam
I had gone to watch IT movie with my friends in PVR Cinemas. I had checked on BookMyShow application that the movie tickets were priced at Rs. 90 and seats were available so I decided to buy the tickets directly in the theater instead of spending extra money for online booking.
When I reached PVR Cinemas, the tickets seller told me that the cheapest tickets were priced at Rs. 190 . I told her that I had checked the price on BookMyShow which was for Rs. 90 . She didn’t listen to me. Moreover I couldn’t book from BookMyShow as the window closes 1 hr before movie starts.
I had to give a treat to my friends so I was forced to buy 3 tickets for twice the original price. Then she gave me 3 coupons of Rs. 100 each for popcorn and Pepsi. I realized that she had tricked me and all the other customers to buy the combo offer tickets though we did not want it.
I tried complaining about her to the officials around but they wouldn’t listen to me. This is one of biggest scam that I have encountered.
“Many petrol pumps are thieves.”
When you tell the guy on petrol pump to fill petrol for Rs.500 and loose attention from him or pumping machine. May be due to rush, It’s a normal situation for everyone in India.
After few seconds
pump attendant:- Sir that’s RS.100s for petrol.
You:- I told you, I want RS.500s petrol.
pump attendant:- Ohh… My mistake, I will fill more RS.400’s petrol.
You:- ok fine.
(Pays him RS.500 and leaves happily).
Now here is the back story:
You told him to fill him Rs.500 petrol. He did listen you clearly. He Puts pipes neck in petrol tank and push 100 number (Sometimes never make it zero & start’s from old number). But he did not start the machine. You were already busy checking your money or anything else. The moment you looks at him he says that’s your petrol for Rs. 100. You correct him and he fills more RS.400s petrol. This time you pay attention that he is actually filling it.
So at the end of the story you get only Rs.400s petrol by paying Rs.500.
PVR Cinemas
I was scammed hard one day and i made sure it won’t happen again.
I went to a PVR with a friend of mine.
Since we were just on time and the movie was about to start, In a hurry i ordered a bucket of popcorn and a regular pepsi.
The bill came around 700 rs. I hastily paid the amount by card and without asking for the receipt proceded for the movie.
Later on i realized that there was no way the bill would have amounted to 700. I was furious but couldn’t do anything since i didn’t take the receipt. So that was it.
Fast forward to another incident.
This time again we reached a bit late due to traffic and rains. We ordered 2 buckets of popcorn and 2 regular pepsi.
The bill came something around 12–1300. I paid it and asked for the receipt.
While proceeding towards the auditorium, i just checked the bill and noticed that it showed 3 buckets of popcorn instead of 2.
I immediately went back to the counter and demanded an explanation. As expected the guy started apologizing, saying it was a mistake and returned 200rs to me.
But i know it wasn’t a mistake. These people deliberately do these things. They know most of the people who come late wouldn’t want to miss the movie and mostly won’t notice the receipt.
Well i made sure i gave him an earful and even told the other people standing at the counter to re check their receipt.
Movie theatres already charge us a lot for snacks and i am not going to let them loot me of my hard earned money.
Tanishq Showroom!
Why?
I bought Gold bangles for my mom for about Rs 1,44,234.00. The design was okayish and the Gold was top notch, I mean equivalent to 916 Hallmark Jewellery. (Tanishq never use hallmark sign on their jewellery). My mom used it for like 2 years or so, and she wished to changes it. I said fine.
We went to Tanishq yesterday, 22ct Gold Jewellery price was about Rs 3003 per gram, as per them. No problem. They showed us the design, we didn’t like any one of them this time. I asked for refund and thought to buy it from another 916 hallmark jewellery showroom. They said, If you will take cash, we are afraid we have to give you from the price of Rs 2890. I asked wtf? Why? They said, it’s our policy, if someone take cash, we reduce the Gold value.
For the same set of 22ct Gold, the rate they told me, now clearly trying to scam us with the lesser rate. I mean why? I asked for their manager but no use.
Then I went to a nearest another showroom, th checked my bangles and offered us to buy it at 2990 INR. If u say the bangles was about 43 grams, they were scamming us for about 5000 INR.
I request everyone here, don’t go for Tanishq to buy jewellery from your hard earned money. They are just scammers, with making charges roofing 600–900 per grams. The local showrooms are much better at designs, making charges, flexibility and customisation.
