Discussion on brick and mortar stores

[avi]

Customer service as I said earlier is provided by OEM's and not B&M shops. You can go shit on OEM's for the support.

Situation 1. You buy a phone in Chroma. Right after you walk out, the phone goes dead. Now you travel 10 kms somewhere in the city, bear traffic and finally reach OEM support. You give your phone and get a replacement after 7 days. You are not even sure whether its refurb or new replacement.

Situation 2. You order from Flipkart. Phone is DOA. You place a call and guy comes with new replacement. And best part, you don't even have to go outside of your home.

Which is better?

 

[Sobirvs]

Are you implying that customer service solely limited to after sales support/warranty claims? In that case why drag your ass to the local shop and spend more money on something you can buy online and get it delivered at your house the same day?

As far as I'm concerned the b&m chains are places where you can try out the display pieces and then buy the same thing online.

haha atleast you are honest here. As far as I'm concerned , if you step your foot on B&M shops and then buy online, just shows your cheapness. Sure buy it from different store locally if the dealer isn't being helpful but you are using B&M services and not paying anything to them sure sounds cheapness in you(no pun intended).

 

[avi]

As far as I'm concerned , if you step your foot on B&M shops and then buy online, just shows your cheapness

How? If I can't afford the price B&Ms are selling, that would make me cheap?

 

[Sobirvs]

Situation 1. You buy a phone in Chroma. Right after you walk out, the phone goes dead. Now you travel 10 kms somewhere in the city, bear traffic and finally reach OEM support. You give your phone and get a replacement after 7 days.
Situation 2. You order from Flipkart. Phone is DOA. You place a call and guy comes with replacement. And best part, you don't even have to go outside of your home.

Which is better?

Haven't heard of pick-up support yet from local OEM's yet? As for the time taken from the replacement , well that happens to e-stores aswell, but atleast OEM's centers gives you the replacement 99% of the time, instead of flipkart of other sites where 30% of the time they just give you the refund. That's commitment.

 

[Onemufc]

A

Also, there was a rumor about flipkart's getting funded by that black money and the money coming from corrupt ministers and their money which is in swiss banks no? Now, people have got problem with black money and everytime they say that , that money should be brought back in India, but when the same money is served to flipkart, people are okay with it? I'd say hypocrisy is here at it's finest. Sure, that was just a rumor, but anyways, I'm just saying.

Yea yea rumor. Arent you the world's sherlock. Most shops are dirty anyways, They dont pay taxes and all so I dont care about that.

I can clearly see who is butthurt. Yes I deserve importance as a customer because I am paying.

Cant match what online retailers are doing and calling the customer butthurt. Hypocrites.

 

[Sobirvs]

How? If I can't afford the price B&Ms are selling, that would make me cheap?

I'm not talking about people coming to just once time to B&M shops. If they come once and then from then onwards buy from online shows they love the site and are honest to them, I actually respect that.

But there are cheap people out there who comes regularly and never buys and are there to make the retailer's life miserable but taking his valuable time , services and money he invested in his business.

 

[Sobirvs]

Yea yea rumor. Arent you the world's sherlock. Most shops are dirty anyways, They dont pay taxes and all so I dont care about that.

I can clearly see who is butthurt. Yes I deserve importance as a customer because I am paying.

Cant match what online retailers are doing and calling the customer butthurt. Hypocrites.

LOL. Actually mate I'm from Jammu and deal in big consumer goods(not phones or other small items) and most of the products flipkart was selling didn't have the eligibility of shipping to Jammu's pincode. So, we didn't go affected at all. Also, was just talking to distributor that day and he said, we(north distributors) specifically blocked the shipments here from flipkart because they are committed to B&M shops.

About being butthurt, read your earlier post again and again and I hope you know who is butthurt. I'm just enjoying the civil conversation we are having here, sure I'm in minority here who has an opinion not shared by most people but atleast I'm not going all mad saying F%#@U! to everyone. Keep calm

 

[chiron]

If caught, other retailers don't have to do anything, sales manager will not give authorization for the products to that B&M specifically and not goods aswell.

Isn't that the way a cartel operates?

 

[asingh]

That's the thing, you cannot make everyone happy. But max you can do is be fair to everyone.

Being fair to everyone translates to: everything sold by anyone has to be at a fixed price. "X" sold by "A:, "B", and "C" and to be at price INR XXX.xx. Nothing more and nothing less.

 

[Onemufc]

LOL. Actually mate I'm from Jammu and deal in big consumer goods(not phones or other small items) and most of the products flipkart was selling didn't have the eligibility of shipping to Jammu's pincode. So, we didn't go affected at all. Also, was just talking to distributor that day and he said, we(north distributors) specifically blocked the shipments here from flipkart because they are committed to B&M shops.

About being butthurt, read your earlier post again and again and I hope you know who is butthurt. I'm just enjoying the civil conversation we are having here, sure I'm in minority here who has an opinion not shared by most people but atleast I'm not going all mad saying F%#@U! to everyone. Keep calm

For me as a pure consumer, I dont care who gets the profit as long as I get the price I want.

I purchased a phone last weekend and I got it from a BM shop because he offered me a great deal. He was able to match the price I wanted and on top of that gave me things that I want. I dont have problems with BM but some of them are outright rude and they have no right to complain about people selling stuff online.

The kirana shop would charge cooling fee, I tell them give me the hot bottle and I will cool myself. The look on those faces is amazing.

Anyways, If you blocked shipments from flipkart and you think you are right then keep living in this shell.

 

[AMG]

This attitude....

Though rip-me-off is something I completely disagree off, as retailers hardly get 2-5% margins on every product a OEM makes, unknowledgeable conditions is something to agree about. But see, OEM's are helping retailers here aswell. Most people who start B&M shops are people who either had much money but were not literate enough. So, they start those shops and makes a living. Now, sure they don't know much about products but what OEM's do is, assign a sales person to them every month. This is happening to every B&M shop, and depends on OEM to provide the sales rep. For me - Sony, Kent, IFB, and Samsung has started the initiative. This will only improve in future.

Sir buy this laptop. It has 2 GB graphics card.(610M). The one you have bought has only 1 GB graphics card(630M). This laptop is a better deal because at the same price you are getting double graphics card.

And you expect me to go these shops.
No thanks.

 

[chiron]

talking about common scams in india... the cooling charge

 

[Sobirvs]

Isn't that the way a cartel operates?

Well I don't know how cartel operates, but atleast this is how OEM's operate retail market. The word authorization doesn't mean handling out a certification and few signatures and done, no. You have to agree with terms and conditions of OEM's aswell.

 

[Sobirvs]

Being fair to everyone translates to: everything sold by anyone has to be at a fixed price. "X" sold by "A:, "B", and "C" and to be at price INR XXX.xx. Nothing more and nothing less.

Exactly, but lemme repharase that to you, it is not fixed price, sure sometimes but when seasons comes like Diwali's and stuff, there comes discounts (actual discounts and not like flipkart where they hike the price yesterday and sell at the same price today saying discounts!).

 

[Sobirvs]

For me as a pure consumer, I dont care who gets the profit as long as I get the price I want.

I purchased a phone last weekend and I got it from a BM shop because he offered me a great deal. He was able to match the price I wanted and on top of that gave me things that I want. I dont have problems with BM but some of them are outright rude and they have no right to complain about people selling stuff online.

The kirana shop would charge cooling fee, I tell them give me the hot bottle and I will cool myself. The look on those faces is amazing.

Anyways, If you blocked shipments from flipkart and you think you are right then keep living in this shell.

Exactly where I wanted your attitude to go, thanks! we can have a good conversation now(not kidding).

Yes, many are rude but if you research a bit, those mostly are exclusives stores lol, by OEM's themselves or in partnerships with people. Those people really give give a fcuk if you buy it from them or not. The store manager won't take the pain to have you as a customer and the people who are showing you the products are paid fixed monthly by the store manager, hence they really don't care.

Shops which are multibrand are not rude, atleast not all to my knowledge.

That cooling thing is still going on? lol, I really don't get that aswell. Mostly this is done by people who have shops at bus stands or railway stations, as they know they will get customers no matter what. But I haven't seen this kind of stuff in major cities, or even villages.

We didn't block the shipments, nor did distributors. The managers just didn't comply with flipkart messing up the J&K retail business. Though you must have heard about if you buy from flipkart you won't get warranties and stuff, yes you are correct , those sales persons say that just to get their sales up but actually managers are starting to make a list of all the dealers/distributors/retailers selling online and It probably will come soon (may be couple of months) and will actually stop giving warranties of those specific products bought from those black listed sellers. I'm sure this won't affect the stuff which has warranty of 6 months but atleast people will think twice by buying phones, LED's and other major stuff. No matter if you have got VAT bill or not, if a seller is blacklisted, your product is doomed. Trust me I'm not kidding and this is inside information.

 

[Darth Vader]

Exactly, but lemme repharase that to you, it is not fixed price, sure sometimes but when seasons comes like Diwali's and stuff, there comes discounts (actual discounts and not like flipkart where they hike the price yesterday and sell at the same price today saying discounts!).

Like it or not,despite all that Big Billion crap, people always feel comfortable with flipkart/snapdeal/amazon anyday than B&M shops for obvious reasons.

 

[avi]

^Cooling thing still going on. I have paid 5-6rs extra.

 

[Sobirvs]

Sir buy this laptop. It has 2 GB graphics card.(610M). The one you have bought has only 1 GB graphics card(630M). This laptop is a better deal because at the same price you are getting double graphics card.

And you expect me to go these shops.
No thanks.

No I don't expect you to go on these shops, but what about those shops who know everything? As I said earlier OEM's are giving experts and trained people to retailers/dealers now these days, selected few has already started doing this.

And in my shop(my dad's actually, and I just go there everyday to give him a hand, I'm not interested in business) if a customer asks for LED and it's technology , I give them every detail possible. Everytime! Even make them understand how the resolution works and how a pixel is made and advantages or disadvantages that not even flipkart provides but I guess that bores them a little lol.... Hopefully not.[DOUBLEPOST=1412839864][/DOUBLEPOST]

Like it or not,despite all that Big Billion crap, people always feel comfortable with flipkart/snapdeal/amazon anyday than B&M shops for obvious reasons.

Because they expect to have service on the same shop and not centers. They have to understand sales department and support department is different. And after a month even flipkart will tell you to go to service center for support, but I get your point.

 

[blkrb0t]

Yeah, doomed. We'll see what the brands will do when 1/3rd of sales move online. This is just scaremongering. Right now despite the cries of being affected, offline retailers still account for over 90% of the sales. Once the momentum starts shifting, the brands will know better.

This same shit is being pulled by auto dealers in the USA against Tesla, since Tesla sells the cars directly through their own channels (which also includes online).

The society we live in is built on values that everyone can offer. Retailers had a value in the sense that they acted as middlemen between the manufacturers and the customers; they still do. They are just being replaced slowly by a more efficient system. But not everything is lost for even them. They can still add value in other areas apart from just pushing goods.

The end goal will still be the same. Manufacturers produce goods. Customers will buy those goods. Middlemen can be anyone.

 

[Onemufc]

Exactly where I wanted your attitude to go, thanks! we can have a good conversation now(not kidding).

Yes, many are rude but if you research a bit, those mostly are exclusives stores lol, by OEM's themselves or in partnerships with people. Those people really give give a fcuk if you buy it from them or not. The store manager won't take the pain to have you as a customer and the people who are showing you the products are paid fixed monthly by the store manager, hence they really don't care.

Shops which are multibrand are not rude, atleast not all to my knowledge.

That cooling thing is still going on? lol, I really don't get that aswell. Mostly this is done by people who have shops at bus stands or railway stations, as they know they will get customers no matter what. But I haven't seen this kind of stuff in major cities, or even villages.

We didn't block the shipments, nor did distributors. The managers just didn't comply with flipkart messing up the J&K retail business. Though you must have heard about if you buy from flipkart you won't get warranties and stuff, yes you are correct , those sales persons say that just to get their sales up but actually managers are starting to make a list of all the dealers/distributors/retailers selling online and It probably will come soon (may be couple of months) and will actually stop giving warranties of those specific products bought from those black listed sellers. I'm sure this won't affect the stuff which has warranty of 6 months but atleast people will think twice by buying phones, LED's and other major stuff. No matter if you have got VAT bill or not, if a seller is blacklisted, your product is doomed. Trust me I'm not kidding and this is inside information.

I am going to be completely honest here, I dont know about the J&K situation so I wont comment.

The guy has stopped charging me the cooling charge because he knows I wont pay. The shop is in Bangalore and its the bakery shop outside our apartment and he gets a lot of business.

Let me summarize the attitude of shops when I was purchasing the phone:-

Sangeetha 1 = Good. tried there best to sell me the phone with a decent deal. It was my fall back option.
Sangeetha 2 = Fair. Not very flexible but they were polite.
Chroma 1 = Horrible. Left inside a minute.
Chroma 2 = Okish. Tried to sell me a display piece.
The phone store = Amazing. He actually knew his stuff. I got the phone from here.
Sangeetha 3 = I would have blasted him if i stayed for another minute. Told me no sangeetha can sell the phone below that price. S1 and S2 were selling for a lesser price. Told me that the bill at phone store is fake. WTF.
Reliance store : Quoted MRP and we left