BRAToSPHERE

Category: ARTICLE

  • Why i am never ever going to buy from snapdeal.com?

    Those who know me would know that I am a Sucker for anything online, and can proudly claim to be one of the early adopters of e-commerce. US trade data says e-commerce continues to trounce physical retail stores. I still very strongly believe in it, and prefer buying things online, if a decent option is available, be it books, electronics, and of late apparel too! ( travel tickets of course)

    About three weeks back, in the last week of June, I was looking to buy a sports shoe for myself, and had checked them out extensively over the Internet and in retail stores too. I did not want something expensive. And then, I see this mail from snapdeal.com, saying HUGE DISCOUNTS ON SHOES. I am interested, and check out the collection. After spending a good one hour searching for the right looking shoe, and also exchanging links of the same, to get it ratified, i place the order. A shoe, worth 2k, for 1.6k – cool! Snapdeal is cool! Or so I thought.

    This I order on thursday, June 28th. When i check the status on July 1st, it shows the shipping date as thursday, July 5th. One whole week to ship the product? Not so great by ecommerce standards, but am cool. It is worth the deal provided. Or so I thought.

    Friday, July 6th, I check the status online, expecting that it has been shipped and i would receive it today. Well, the status still shows “to be shipped on july 5th”. I am surprised. Can they not even update their system, and this particular bit can be automated. I tweet snapdeal.com about the case, and get a quick response that they would check and get back within 24 hours. I am impressed by their customer care, and responsiveness. Or so I thought.

    Saturday, sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – no response! I kept tweeting them each day, but no response there either. I am surprised. The website status still shows the same ” to be shipped on July 5th” now this gets worrying, and I decide that I would call their customer care the next day. Expecting that they would call before that, or the status would change. Or so I thought.

    Thursday, I again tweet my agony to snapdeal.com, and this time they respond – “our customer representative tried calling you yesterday but no response. Will arrange for a call again today” I have now totally lost it. Are you doing a favor to me by calling me about my order? If I was not available on the phone, mail me the issue! I have ordered it online, and would appreciate digital communication. And instead of “arranging” for a call, you should have just called.

    The “arrangement” clearly did not work, as I never got that coveted call from snapdeal.com. Finally, giving up, and realizing that it is my money at stake there, I had to call them (I was so wishing that I had opted for COD. Now i know why the return rate is so high on COD orders)

    By now I am totally miffed, and furious at snapdeal.com. My money was stuck with them, and I had to call them for that. I call up the customer care, and after a wait, a customer representative responds. After another long arduous wait, and being on hold after mentioning my order details, the representative there, in a very non-chalant manner, in a matter of fact way, tells me that the vendor does not have this particular piece, and they would be refunding my money.

    Yes, I want my money back, and my mental peace. After keeping me waiting for two weeks now, this is the least you would do. But the important question, it would have been appreciated if you had shown some remorse or some guilt on this whole fiasco.

    I would never ever buy again from snapdeal.com!

  • Insomnia? Restlesness? Anxiety?

    Insomniac? Or skeptical? or Anxious?

    Its been like that every time I have an early morning flight to catch. Right from 9pm, I keep telling myself that I should sleep, but to no avail. I should pack, I say to myself. The body just does not listen to me. Procrastination!!

    So, yesterday night was no different in any respect. I had returned from office at 6:30 itself( quite early by my standards), and freshened up. I even had my dinner early (10 pm)’ and thought yes, today would be different. I have a 6:20 am flight to Delhi tomorrow morning, and I can comfortably sleep for a good 6 hours, without spoiling my normal biological clock.

    Just that there was a little problem. I need to shave. I have a meeting with a very senior person tomorrow, and would be meeting many other people too, and I cannot be looking shabby! Chuck it! Shall do it tomorrow morning!I This sleep, which remains elusive on such nights, is tough to get back. So I slept. Slept at 10:30 pm itself. Great!

    I got a call at 11pm, and I tried hard not to allow it to disturb my slumber. I just answered back that I am sleeping, and would talk later, and the person understood. I was back to sleeping at 11:05 pm.

    11:30 pm in the clock on the blackberry. I am sleeping. Good I think within. But wait, if I am sleeping, why am I looking at the time? That is okay. It is within sleep that I am looking at the clock. Happens. I have finally overcome the anxiety and sleeplessness!

    12:09 am, and I am awake looking at the clock, and my fingers tempting to check the mail. No, I am not sleeping, and no matter how hard i try anymore, I just cannot keep lying. It is futile!

    12:26 am. I finally give up, and getup from the bed back to my arm chair in the hall. This is just not working, and he I am, in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Knowing very well that I have to wake up at 4 am, and should catch up some sleep. Elusive dream. Alas!

    Here I am, typing this piece on my return flight from Delhi, on my iPad. Yes, it is fun to be typing on this. Steve jobs. Hail! This is a real masterpiece. The more I use it, the more I like it. I have become an Apple fan boy, and am eagerly looking forward to buy an iPod, iPhone( I don’t know why?) and the jesus book – yes, the retina display Mac book! Here I come, to give away my technical self to Apple.

    And yeah, by the way, I did not sleep at all last night. Just could not, I’m seriously thinking of giving the best cbd oil a try, I read at Dmagazine.com it has helped a lot of people treat the causes of sleeplessness. I know that research on CBD products is still in its infancy but some research suggests that CBD can also treat anxiety.

  • SRK, You make me fair?

    How influenced do we get with advertising? Let’s say, you go to a bakery, to buy a pack of Wafers. Which one would you buy?

    • The one that you buy everytime?
    • A brand whose ad you recently saw on TV?
    • A brand, whose celebrity endorser, attracts you?
    • One with the most value for money?
    • Whatever is available and catches your eye?
    • Or, Coz you like Kareena, and she is dating Saif, and Saif endorses a particular brand, you pick that one?

    Well, the answer is all the above. All the above factors (barring the last one!) influence you( the Shopper’s decision) in picking up that Rs.5/- pack of Wafers!

    So, getting an SRK to tell you that a particular fairness cream makes you fair is effective? Well, am sure it is, for all the crores that they are paid for a chitku appearance!

    Came across a funny article, on the influence of celebrity brand endorsers, in our daily purchase decisions. Here you go:

    It’s 7.30 in the evening and I am standing here at an overcrowded aisle of a well-lit supermarket. In my hands, I have two bottles of shampoo. Both well-known brands. I can’t make up my mind. All I can remember is that Aishwarya and Shilpa come on television toendorse these. I think both are hot. And the prospect of buying them together excites me deeply. Do they really use these shampoos? I doubt it. Any idiot knows that.

    I think hard. My thinning hair doesn’t really warrant a shampoo. But we need it all the same. In my bathroom there are at least ten different bottles in various stages of use. But there is space for more. Besides, these are new variants. We need this. I have seen how people are more confident when their hair and teeth are shiny. I have a need to be liked.

    I am not gullible though. You can’t fool me. I might not know what ‘dirt busters’ mean, but I always buy detergent with ‘dirt busters’. I bought a front loading washing machine last month. And the front-loading detergent, with the above mentioned ‘dirt busters’ are four times the price of my last detergent. But I buy it all the same. Why should I buy the pigeon droppings that I used to buy earlier? Am I mad? My clothes come out cleaner. They really do. Much, much cleaner than my neighbours when I last compared them in the lift.

    I move to the next aisle. I see my wife peering and reading the labels on breakfast cereal boxes. She picks up the one that Lara Dutta likes. I break in to a smile. I love the ad where she has breakfast in an awesome red sari. Yes, I like Lara Dutta. It’s a solid, smart decision. I ask her for her opinion on the shampoo. She sides with Aishwarya almost instantly.

    My phone rings. I take the call. The call drops after five seconds. It is a mystery. My phone is a smart.  It can make video calls, play television, surf the internet and also make calls. So it must be good. My 3G network provider too is something of a champion. It is characterized by a strange but cuddly creature who is a superhero.  I love those ads.  But I do wish I could make calls more often. I call their customer service everyday. They have become my friends. Though they don’t know why this is happening as well. They are kids, you can’t really blame them. Maybe the superhero gentleman is a little busy. I am sure they will fix these problems. Before people get upset, I mean.

    My wife in the meanwhile has loaded up the cart with essentials that are so very important for our daily existence. Yoghurt, barbeque sauces, expensive cheese and imported coffee for our imported coffee machine. I shrug. These days like most Indians, my disposable income is very high. And I spend all my free time in malls and supermarkets like these. Buying stuff.

    My son walks up to me with a bag of munchies. He wants to buy it because it has got a cartoon animal on it. It is a very cute packet. I buy him two. It gets rid of hunger pangs very efficiently. While I am at it I also buy some biscuits. Do you know that the same company who manufacture my cigarettes also makes my biscuits? They also make shirts, soap, shampoos and snacks! Unbelievable, isn’t it? What people I tell you! They must be super clever to do so many things at once. Really there is so much to learn.

    My wife is done. She hands me a men’s fairness cream that Shahrukh uses. I want the one that John uses. She points out that he really has never had a hit film and it’s incomprehensible why people still use him in ads. She is smart, my wife! I comply.

    We go and stand at the checkout counter. In a matter of seconds the delightful stuff we purchased is billed for and loaded in the boot of our car by a helpful store employee.

    I just bought my car. It’s an international brand. I was told that the engineers cry when they sell it and have to see it go. It must be too good. I am very happy. It doesn’t feel to different from my last car though. But I must be mistaken. What do I know?

    Like any normal person, I took a loan to buy my car. The bank that gave me the loan is very nice. They took great care of me when I was taking the loan. They apparently remember people’s birthdays and give them laddoos. I love laddoos. Now they have become busy. They don’t take my calls that often. They must be really stressed because sometimes they talk a little rudely as well. But I understand. What do I know of how banks work?

    We sit in the car. We have just bought a lot of things that we will now go and stock up the fridge with. My fridge is the same one that Katrina Kaif uses. Katrina must be eating well na? She says this one keeps food fresh for longer. But by next weekend we will throw out most of what we bought and come back to the supermarket again for another great time.

    I would have lost more hair.

    But if my wife starts looking like Aishwarya or Lara, it will be so worth it.

    Trilokjit Sengupta is the CD and one of the founder members of METAL Communications. He has spent almost ten years in advertising and thinks it is enough.

    The link to the article is: http://blog.campaignasia.com/trilokjit-sengupta/trilokjit-sengupta%e2%80%99s-blog-from-the-diary-of-a-complying-consumer/

    Thanks Arun, for Sharing the Article with me.

  • The complete test match.. not a One day event!

    On this blog, i keep writing about various things, and most of the time ( not always, do not hold me to this), it reflects my state of mind, and the thoughts that get translated into words.

    This is one article, i so think i should have written. About Marriage and its importance. now i am no sage on marriage, but this article so well connected. Aamir khan, Kudos!

    Let’s give marriage the importance it deserves — in every sense, financial, emotional, mental.

    Marriage is a terribly important part of life. It’s a partnership you form, a companion you choose, hopefully for the rest of your life. Someone who helps you, who supports you and vice versa. The way we view marriage and the way we approach it determines how our life could end up being.

    Today, I want to largely address youngsters, because most of you who are older are already married and for better or worse have already made your choices.

    In India we spend so much of our emotions, thoughts, time and money (that which we have, and that which we borrow), towards marriage. But do we actually spend all this time, effort, money and emotion towards marriage? I think not. In fact we concentrate all of these resources not on our marriage, but on our wedding day.

    “Bade dhoom dhaam se shaadi,” is probably one of the most common phrases in India. There’s so much of emotion, thought, focus, all concentrated on the ‘event’: “How will I look on that one day?” “How will society perceive me and my chosen partner?” “What will they say about the wedding arrangements?” “What will they say about the invitation card?” “What will they say about the food?” “What will they say about the clothes?”

    Now, this ‘they’ we refer to are our friends, our relatives and other people in society whom we are acquainted with, and whom we hope to invite. And most of our energy goes towards making this one day a success. Often, even our choice of spouse is in some way linked with the driving need to make the day perfect. Haven’t all of us heard these statements: “Meri beti engineer se shaadi karegi.” “Meri beti IAS se shaadi kar rahi hai.” “My daughter is marrying an NRI.” We imagine that people admire such choices, and their admiration makes us happy. We allow our choice of spouse to very often be dictated by how people will perceive us. But the hard truth is that ‘they’ are not going to spend the rest of their life with the groom or the bride.

    Sometimes we simply choose the ‘khandaan,’ the family or the aura surrounding the family, and not the individual himself or herself. “My son is marrying so and so’s daughter.” “My daughter is marrying such and such’s son.” We tend to focus, not on the groom or bride but on the label attached to him or her.

    Now let’s examine a few other important aspects of marriage.

    Time

    After we’ve spent the bulk of our time worrying about others’ perceptions, we spend tons of time deciding what to wear. We do intense R&D on honeymoon destinations. We spend time discussing arrangements, menus, guest lists. All of these are great cause for arguments. All this time is being spent in preparation for ‘the day.’ But how much time do we spend on the most critical decision — selecting the correct life partner? Who is the girl I’m marrying? Who is the boy I’m planning to spend the rest of my life with? Don’t we want to know them as human beings? Understand his or her nature, value system? Are we on the same wavelength? Is there compatibility? Does he or she have a sense of humour? Is this the person with whom I want to spend the rest of my life? Instead of taking ample time to make this very crucial decision, very often, marriages are fixed after just one meeting. “Chalo baat pakki hogayi. Muh meetha karo.”

    In India, most marriages are arranged. We check on the prospective groom’s/bride’s family, caste, home, education, income, bank balance, appearance and complexion. But all of these things are purely superficial. Why don’t we utilise the same time and effort in understanding the human being we are about to (hopefully) spend the rest of our life with?

    Should you agree to spend the rest of your life with someone just because he/she carries an attractive label such as IIT or MBBS? Is one marrying the person or the label? Shared interests, like-mindedness, companionship, shared sensibility, sense of humour — shouldn’t all this matter?

    Money

    We spend a lot of money on the wedding day. The rich spend beyond measure — each competing with the other in extravagance. The middle class or working class pours all its earnings and savings into the wedding. If you have the money, by all means decide how you want to spend it. But for those who are not wealthy, for whom every rupee earned is precious, for whom a daughter’s wedding means pouring everything you have earned, or saved, it means breaking fixed deposits, selling assets and taking loans. Instead of spending all that money on the wedding day, why not decide to take the amount set aside for the girl’s wedding and give it to her to use to kick-start her new life with her spouse? Instead of that lavish function, why not just have a simple, sharbat wedding and give the girl the money instead? It will be so useful for her life? I believe sharbat weddings are a great idea. Call as many people as you desire, serve them a soft drink and say thank you for coming and for blessing the newlyweds.

    Have fun. Enjoy the day. Make merry. But with simplicity.

    Youngsters, tell your parents, “We don’t want a big function. Let me use the money for something important that helps my life. Let me use the money to invest in building the foundation for a happy married life.”

    Emotions

    All our emotions are trained on ‘that day.’ What will happen on that day? What will people think and say? How happy will I be that day? Will the day be memorable? But instead, should we not be thinking of how we will feel for the next 40 years of married life? Let’s not barter one day of happiness for a lifetime of unhappiness. Our emotions need to be invested not in that one day, but in a lifetime.

    Think about life ahead, not just that one day. Let’s give marriage the importance it deserves — in every sense, financial, emotional, mental. Let’s give it our time, emotions and energies to plan those years that lie ahead. Therefore, the key is the person you have chosen as your life partner. That is the only element you should be thinking of and no other. And please take your time over that decision. Understand, probe, check, go deep. The better you do this, the happier life is likely to be. Take the step of marrying only when you are fully satisfied about the character and temperament of the person you are marrying.

    Dowry I am totally opposed to. This is a retrograde practice, and also illegal. Think about it — can a relationship, built on the foundation of money and greed, ever be meaningful or beautiful? Should we not invest in our daughter’s education instead of saving up for her dowry? Make her so accomplished and independent that she is capable of crafting her own future, and becomes the master of her own happiness. Then she won’t need a greedy, useless groom to complete her life. Let her marry a person who respects her. Let her marry a man who she believes is worthy of her. Whom she is happy to spend the rest of her life with.

    Satyamev Jayate!

    Knowing well, that most of my friends do not read The Hindu ( where the article is published), i deemed it necessary to republish the entire content.

  • Fail the Lock

    An article in the Times of India today got me thinking –

    Pooja, an attractive Marwari girl, lives life on her terms

    … she settled for an engineer plus MBA type with a good Singapore job, a prospect meticulously arranged by a network of relatives. And that is how she ended up with a banking career and a failed marriage. (He snored, followed his mother’s dictum, lost heavily in the stock market and came home to slumberland). Pretty soon, she was out of there, with a lot of family support and very little alimony…

    (Source : TOI )

    Today’s woman. Who lives life on her own terms! She has put in no less effort than a man, in building her world, and wants to live it in her own way!

    It is the Indian Man who still needs to come to terms with this fact. For long, for us Indians, women are supposed to be married off maximum by the age of 25, and working or not, are supposed to be taking care of all the household chores. That is how it has been, and it works perfectly in the favour of men.

    What really tickled me, and interested me, were the reasons mentioned in the bracket for the failed marriage – He snored, followed his mother’s dictum, lost heavily in the stock market and came home to slumberland.

    1. He Snored – Now is that such a serious offence that it leads to a failed marriage? You can just go to the next room to sleep, or maybe just get used to the snore sounds. Big Deal. What if you stay in a house close to the railway track, or the sea? You do get used to the Sounds of the train and the sounds of the Waves all night right?
    1. Followed his mother’s dictum – it is called respect, and speaks volumes of his upbringing. The first lady in his life is his mother, and she has taken care of him since ever. She is now old, and deserves every bit of attention from him. So what if he listens to her? Should he not? If he does not, then that could be a very valid reason for the so called “failed marriage” not if he does!
    1. Lost heavily in the stock market – The very foundation of a marriage is that the partner would be the support during both happy times and sad times. Now if he has lost heavily in the stock market, he is going through a bad time. If that makes it a reason for you to dump him, and make it more worse for him, God save him. The guy should actually feel lucky that it resulted into a failed marriage, rather than waiting for an even worse time. Now at least it is clear!

     

    1. Came home to slumberland – Why is that a reason at all? Not coming home to sleep can be a reason! After a hard day at office, all that one wants is to retire to the bed. You, a working woman, of all people should understand this completely. And you term this as a reason for a failed marriage? What do you expect?

    These are the reasons that the present day modern couples need to end their marriage! What a sham!!