Future group launches ‘Home Town’ with a punch line “Ab Ghar banana Kitna Asan” but I had a different experience!
I got a chance of being amongst the first few customers of ‘Home Town’. Our story starts from the day we went to ‘The Great Indian Place’, on 7th of April (Saturday), the day when ‘Home Town’ was inaugurated.
7th April: The first impression was really good. It is a huge show room that caters every possible requirement for making/dressing-up a house. It has Furniture, Electronics, Kitchen appliances, Bedrooms, Dining rooms, Bath rooms, Sanitary Fittings, Wooden Boards, Curtains, Curtain Rods and everything one can imagine!. One of the best features was a good number of items at display. We went there to select a bed for our guest room, and there were lot of choices. We did not finalize on any thing that day, but overall were impressed by the showroom and gave it 9 on 10 for the size, display, so many options for customers. The only point that pinched us a little was the unavailability of staff and lack of awareness amongst them e.g. instead of someone from the staff coming to us, we literally had to catch hold of people to get the specifications and most of the staff didn’t have proper information about the products and gave wrong or no specifications. We felt that it was probably due to the first day.
After 2 days i.e. 9th April 2007, we went to Home Town again to finalize on the Bed and here’s the story:
9th April: We finalized 1 Bed and 2 Shoe Racks. The reason for buying shoe racks was mainly the convenience of getting them along with the bed “without any extra effort”. The attendant took more than 30 minutes to check the availability of goods. After a long wait, we finally booked the order and made payment. The Proposed Delivery date of items was 19th April 2007. At the time of booking we were explicitly told that the items would be delivered at our doorstep (from the warehouse) and an assembler would come along with the final receipt for products. Also, before coming, they’d give a confirmation call so that we can plan accordingly.
18th April: A day before the shipment was to arrive, I called up the attendant (Pawan) who had given me his phone number for any enquiries and was told that our order was ready and would be delivered tomorrow i.e. 19th April, 2007.
19th April”: Order did not arrive the next day and Pawan’s phone was switched off. I searched for HomeTown’s number and called on the helpline and was informed that due to some problems, delivery would be done the next day after 2 pm in the afternoon. Every thing seemed planned and perfect except some delay in booking. We were happy.
20th April: Again no information about delivery, I called twice at their customer care and was told by 2 different executives that they will call me back with the status, but there were no calls! By this time I’d started loosing my patience and after some shouting, was given contact number of Deepak at the warehouse from where the goods were to be delivered. Deepak confirmed that my booked items are loaded in a truck and will be at my home by evening. He also gave me the driver’s contact number which “did not” work. When I asked about the assembler, I was told point blank that he would come “after” the goods have been delivered. In the evening at 5 pm, 2 boxes were delivered without any intimation about the assembler. I was also not sure whether every thing that I’d ordered was inside these two boxes or not.
I called customer care to call the assembler. They said that it is already evening and all the assemblers have gone for assignments and would be there at my place tomorrow morning at 10:30.
21st April: Next morning, when no body arrived, I called at 11:00am and was told that since it’s Saturday (weekend), a busy day, everyone would be busy in the showroom so someone would visit me on Monday. When I explained the story from day before, the executive said that he’ll look into it and call me back. There was no call till afternoon. Every time I called up, some body said - ‘I will call you back, Sir’. I called them atleast 4-5 times, nothing happened and I was given the same answer. By evening, I knew almost all the customer care executives by their name - Nitesh, Deepak, Varun, Vinay! Finally, when I’d had enough, I talked to their Head. He asked me to calm down and assured me that the assembler will reach by 8:00pm.
The Assembler reached home at around 8:30pm. He opened the boxes and there was only bed inside, NO shoe racks!!! It was the limit and I’d blown my fuse! I immediately called and asked to talk to their Manager and explained the situation to him, He said ‘Sir, let me check at warehouse’, It was already enough for me , I just asked for my money back as I did not want the shoe racks anymore!!!
After a long conversation, he finally agreed to return the money. The next day, I went there early morning, collected the money and took a deep breath!
After meeting their management I found that the staff at HomeTown is really not experienced in handling such situations. They are young, less experienced and to top it all, after their training, all the processes were changed. All in all, the customer service at HomeTown is a Total Failure!!!
