It is a well-known fact that people have scant respect for showrooms in Jamshedpur - be it apparels, footwear, consumer durables or the like. Further, it is not an uncommon sight to find students returning from Kolkata or Delhi or even Ranchi loaded with items one would consider to find in any decent city. I had always wondered why. I got my answer to this question yesterday.
My room mate from last year had during his internship managed to finally exterminate his computer beyond repair. While borrowing from friends (including me) and the occasional visit to the Computer Centre had sufficed till now, with the workload barometer rising, the need for a new system has become palpable.
However, my roomie's a stickler for details when it comes to the purchase of electronic goods (shares an inverse relationship with his care for them), and after a decent amount of information search (which I was not privy to), he decided to buy the Sony Vaio CS27 - in white. (Great Expectations?? We were soon to find out)
There is to our knowledge a single showroom of Sony in the city, housed in Barucha Mansion, adjacent to Novelty restaurant in our dear old Bistupur - and we headed for the same.
While asking for a specific model in a particular colour may be asking for a bit too much in even some of the showrooms in the metros, it was surprising to find that this shop had only two models in the CS-series, CS27 of course not being one of them.
What was even more irritating was that when we inquired about the model of our choice, the agent blatantly lied saying that production for the CS27 model had been stopped by the company. It was only when we affirmed that we had come to the showroom after considerable search on the internet did he accept the fact that the model was out of stock and would need to be sourced from Ranchi.
When asked about the time that such a transaction would take, his reply was: "Minimum ten days". As for the maximum, he said that it was impossible to give any assurance, as that was dependent on the company production. Further, he added, it would not be possible to order any specific colour for the model, and we would have to remain content with whatever was available. For a moment, I was perplexed as to whether we were the customers, or whether we were being obliged by being granted a computer for charity.
We tried to explain the gravity of our need saying that we are students of XLRI, as it generally does the trick, especially in Jamshedpur - but this man was unmoved. Finally, since my friend was persistent about getting a Sony CS27 and nothing else, we asked the person to kindly take down the specifications, so that the order could be placed.
The sheer lacklustre way in which the specs were taken down speaks volumes (with a negative connotation) about the services offered by the shop. A crumpled piece of paper is what came out from the dealer's pocket, on which he grudgingly took down the details. Since by now we had got a hang of the absolute unprofessionalism in their dealings, we asked him for the contact number of the shop - which he scribbled on the catalog itself and handed over to us.
Also, we asked him whether there was a chance of the model being sourced from Kolkata - to which the reply was that the jhanjhat (trouble) can be undertaken only for bulk orders, not for a one-off case.
We were told that they would contact us before nightfall with the status of our order, but not contrary to our expectations, a full day has passed without any such occurence. My friend is also finally convinced that it would probably be better to go for an e-order for a Dell laptop.
However, the entire episode just makes me wonder, if such is the sorry state of an authorized showroom of one of the world leaders in this sphere in a developed city, how much are the corporates losing out every day this way? Not only did Sony lose a prospective customer to a competitor, but also losses in terms of intangibles in every such service encounter need to be factored in. Maybe, its time for Sony to change its tagline for Tier-II cities from "Like. No Other." to " Like no other than what is available"!!!
SERVICE RATINGS
a> Reliability - 1
b> Assurance - 1 (Completely absent)
c> Tangibles - 4 (The get-up of the showroom is not much different from those in the metros, with LCD panels lining the walls et al, all of the exteriors turned out to be a mirage at the end though)
d> Empathy - 1 (If there was a '0' on this scale, this encounter would have attained it)
e> Responsiveness - 1 (No response from the showroom regarding the order till date)
[ 1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent ]
My room mate from last year had during his internship managed to finally exterminate his computer beyond repair. While borrowing from friends (including me) and the occasional visit to the Computer Centre had sufficed till now, with the workload barometer rising, the need for a new system has become palpable.
However, my roomie's a stickler for details when it comes to the purchase of electronic goods (shares an inverse relationship with his care for them), and after a decent amount of information search (which I was not privy to), he decided to buy the Sony Vaio CS27 - in white. (Great Expectations?? We were soon to find out)
There is to our knowledge a single showroom of Sony in the city, housed in Barucha Mansion, adjacent to Novelty restaurant in our dear old Bistupur - and we headed for the same.
While asking for a specific model in a particular colour may be asking for a bit too much in even some of the showrooms in the metros, it was surprising to find that this shop had only two models in the CS-series, CS27 of course not being one of them.
What was even more irritating was that when we inquired about the model of our choice, the agent blatantly lied saying that production for the CS27 model had been stopped by the company. It was only when we affirmed that we had come to the showroom after considerable search on the internet did he accept the fact that the model was out of stock and would need to be sourced from Ranchi.
When asked about the time that such a transaction would take, his reply was: "Minimum ten days". As for the maximum, he said that it was impossible to give any assurance, as that was dependent on the company production. Further, he added, it would not be possible to order any specific colour for the model, and we would have to remain content with whatever was available. For a moment, I was perplexed as to whether we were the customers, or whether we were being obliged by being granted a computer for charity.
We tried to explain the gravity of our need saying that we are students of XLRI, as it generally does the trick, especially in Jamshedpur - but this man was unmoved. Finally, since my friend was persistent about getting a Sony CS27 and nothing else, we asked the person to kindly take down the specifications, so that the order could be placed.
The sheer lacklustre way in which the specs were taken down speaks volumes (with a negative connotation) about the services offered by the shop. A crumpled piece of paper is what came out from the dealer's pocket, on which he grudgingly took down the details. Since by now we had got a hang of the absolute unprofessionalism in their dealings, we asked him for the contact number of the shop - which he scribbled on the catalog itself and handed over to us.
Also, we asked him whether there was a chance of the model being sourced from Kolkata - to which the reply was that the jhanjhat (trouble) can be undertaken only for bulk orders, not for a one-off case.
We were told that they would contact us before nightfall with the status of our order, but not contrary to our expectations, a full day has passed without any such occurence. My friend is also finally convinced that it would probably be better to go for an e-order for a Dell laptop.
However, the entire episode just makes me wonder, if such is the sorry state of an authorized showroom of one of the world leaders in this sphere in a developed city, how much are the corporates losing out every day this way? Not only did Sony lose a prospective customer to a competitor, but also losses in terms of intangibles in every such service encounter need to be factored in. Maybe, its time for Sony to change its tagline for Tier-II cities from "Like. No Other." to " Like no other than what is available"!!!
SERVICE RATINGS
a> Reliability - 1
b> Assurance - 1 (Completely absent)
c> Tangibles - 4 (The get-up of the showroom is not much different from those in the metros, with LCD panels lining the walls et al, all of the exteriors turned out to be a mirage at the end though)
d> Empathy - 1 (If there was a '0' on this scale, this encounter would have attained it)
e> Responsiveness - 1 (No response from the showroom regarding the order till date)
[ 1 = Poor, 2 = Fair, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent ]
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