I bought a digital camera from Fotofast outlet at Aundh on the 20th
July 2007. At that time they had a scheme of providing 25 free prints
per month for 12 months. For this they gave me 12 coupons, each valid
for 25 free prints. Each coupon had the month and year printed on it. I
found that each coupon was valid only for the month and year printed on
it. To my surprise, they gave me coupons from May 2007 to April 2008. I
pointed this out to the counter personnel. It would not be possible for
me to have 25 snaps available for printing in the remaining 10 days of
the month, as a result of which I would not be able to use the coupon
for July 2007. Moreover, coupons for May and June 2007 were already
useless. Hence I requested them to give me coupons from August 2007 to
July 2008. In response to this, they confirmed that each coupon could be
used in the same month printed OR ANY TIME LATER. In response to another
query, they confirmed that the coupons can be redeemed at ANY OUTLET of
Fotofast.
Some time in September 2007, when I had 125 snaps ready for printing, I
went to the outlet with five coupons(April to August). The counter
personnel immediately pointed out that the coupons had expired. I told
them that when I bought the camera, I was given coupons of previous
months and it was confirmed to me that I could use each coupon n the
same month printed OR ANY TIME LATER. After consultations among
themselves and with some unknown persons on the phone, they stated that
as a special case they will accept the’expired’ coupons, but they
cannot accept FIVE coupons at a time! On objections from my side, they
relented, but said that they can accept up to two coupons at a time. To
this I told them, "Okay, take two coupons now, print 50 snaps or me. I
shall come back after half an hour with two more coupons and then half
an hour again after that with one more coupon." After one more round of
serious consultations among themselves and with some unknown persons on
the phone, they finally agreed to accept all the five coupons at one go!
Having learned from this experience, I used the next four coupons one at
a time, during the same month as printed on the coupon. But for the last
three coupons, due to some or the other reason, including being out of
Pune for long durations, not having sufficient snaps to get printed, I
could not use the coupons for February to April 2008 till now. A few
days ago, I wanted to get 25 snaps printed. So off I went to the same
outlet armed with February 2008 coupon and 25 digital images stored on
my pen drive. Imagine my shock when the salesgirl flatly refused to
accept the coupon. The reasons given were: 1) The coupon has expired. 2)
It does not bear the outlet’s rubber stamp on the reverse. To the first
objection I repeated the story and the fact that each coupon could be
used in the same month printed OR ANY TIME LATER. With regard to the
second issue, I told her that it was not my fault that the coupon was
not stamped. It was their fault, for which they are now not allowing use
of the coupon. She insisted that the coupon is not valid without the
stamp. Ultimately, after almost half an hour of heated arguments, she
consulted some one on phone and gave me the concession that the coupon
will be accepted provided I showed her the original cash memo of the
camera bought by me to verify that I had bought it from the same outlet.
Now she gave one more rule: "The coupon can be used only at the SAME
OUTLET from which the camera had been bought".
So I had to go home, search my papers of the last one year. Luckily I
could locate the original cash memo. So I went back to the outlet with
the proof and the other remaining coupons to get them stamped. Now the
decision they gave was that I could redeem ONLY ONE COUPON, NOT ALL
THREE, because all are expired and all do not have the outlet stamp. No
amount of reasoning helped. Ultimately they started stating that they
will not accept EVEN ONE COUPON. I had to insist that they cannot back
out from their own commitments. Since I was not prepared to leave the
outlet till they met my demand, they accepted only one coupon, that too,
after almost one hour of consultations with some unknown lady on the
phone, asking me to leave my phone number, giving me some phone number
for lodging my complaint, asking me to come back the next day etc. So,
the moral of the story for all of you out there:
Do not believe on verbal assurances by sales personnel. They will commit
anything verbally just for you part with your money and close the sale.
Get all conditions in writing, signed, dated, rubber stamped with name
and title of the signatory. Those of you having such coupons rush and
use them before they get expired or are rejected for not being
stamped! Do not leave such swindlers easily.