Surprisingly I had a pleasant experience at Big Bazaar, Vasant Square Mall, New Delhi during the recent Exchange Offer period. I had gone there for the first time in March, had a look around and discussed their’badal dalo offer’ to fully understand their ifs and buts and other conditions, including the condition to spend Rs.800 in Groceries to avail the benefit of a coupon of Rs.100 or to spend Rs. 400 in other sections.
Next time I went with my old clothes, newspapers etc. I even took my 10 year old printer which was not functioning and I was repeatedly being told to throw it away instead of getting it repaired. Again no one was willing to take it but BB took it, giving me coupons worth Rs.300 after weighing it @Rs. 75 per kg. They told me that they re-sell old clothes and re-cycle other stuff. So I felt getting rid of the waste for re-cycling was for a good cause(environmentally).
I got coupons for Rs.1200 in all and was told I could buy in any section. I had read unnerving reviews about poor customer service or late deliveries of electronic items. So that was completely off my shopping list. So, I decided to keep coupons of Rs.200 for groceries and the balance for other sections. Thus I spent Rs.1600 in groceries and Rs.4000 in elsewhere, buying a suitcase, a Diplomat dinner set of 31 pieces(its MRP was Rs.1750 and after other discounts and using my coupons, I got it for Rs. 750 only! I don’t know how it worked out but I am delighted with a whopping Rs.1000 discount on the dinner set).
I went to BB 2-3 times more during the period of Exchange Offer. Once I even returned with a few jars which I had bought at BB but felt later that they were too big for my kitchen. They took the jars back, asked just once what was the problem, I straightaway told I wanted smaller ones and they gave the credit note for the exact amount that I had paid earlier for those jars. Again I was free to buy anything I wanted with that Credit Note. Hence, this was another good experience, I could exchange things bought from BB, provided this exchange is within 15 days, product is intact and I have the cash memo.
So during these few visits, I did most of my shopping where I had to spend 4 times of coupons. Here, apart from the suitcase & dinner set, I bought a few clothes, decorative pieces, bed sheets(for gifting) etc. At the time of choosing things, whenever I was in some doubt, I caught hold of the BB guys standing nearby and mostly they were able to clear my doubts. They were polite and helpful!
Only problem I faced was at billing counters where out of 5 computers, 2 were mostly down. So one had to really hurry up when getting billed as there were long queues of impatient people behind. Also, as plastic bags are banned, BB was providing cloth bags but at a charge. Sometimes I took it and sometimes I simply took the trolley, loaded with my shopping, to the parking. BB should give cloth bags free of charge, bringing in more cloth bags in circulation and thus helping, to some extent, in phasing out plastic bags from the society.
Thus, overall my experience at BB during badal dalo period was good and with a little bit of planning, I managed a satisfactory shopping(getting rid of age old stuff and bringing in new things home!). I was willing to dump the coupons if at any point I had felt that I am shopping unnecessarily.But the need to do so never arose.