If you are looking to get your computer repaired, ‘Just’ don’t ‘Dial’. At least four techies in the city have lost their money and computers after calling up a service provider through the ‘paid vendor scheme’ of the search engine Just Dial.
Surprisingly, this conman, who allegedly owns Venus(R) Systems in Ramamurthy Nagar, is also the service provider of the Ramamurthy Nagar Police Station.
Vinod Nanaiah contacted Rajan, a Sri Lankan national, after finding his name on the directory provided by Just Dial two months back. Rajan came home, took an advance of Rs 10, 000 and the hardware, and has not been seen since despite several attempts by Vinod to contact him.
When Bangalore Mirror enquired about the swindle, it was found that at least three others, who availed of the same service, have been similarly conned by the Sri Lankan national. Vinod said, “I stay in HSR Layout and when I enquired about a computer service provider on Just Dial, they gave me his contact number. Later, Rajan came, inspected my system and took an advance, saying it would take about four days to repair it. Though I tried calling him from different numbers, he has not responded till now.”
The other three victims of Rajan are Kiran from Marathahalli, Shiv Prakash from Bannerghatta Road, and Indumati from Banashankari.
The victims blame the ‘paid vendor scheme’ of the search engine - which allows anyone to become a vendor by paying an annual fee and is referred to for all enquiries made by the public - for their travails.
“We were cheated because Rajan is a paid vendor and received references from the search engine, ” said Vinod.
Kiran, another victim of Rajan, was in for a surprise when he went to file a complaint at the Ramamurthy Nagar Police Station. “I was shocked to find that Rajan repairs the computers at the station regularly. The police knew him and asked him to return my computer. But he returned my desktop after removing all the original parts from it!” he said.
When the victims lodged a complaint with Just Dial, a company executive assured them they would delist Rajan’s Venus(R) Systems from the website. But they were shocked to find the vendor registered under a new name, R R Systems, at the same address.
“When my wife called Just Dial and asked for the number of Venus(R) Systems, an executive told her that Venus(R) Systems has been renamed as R R Systems and asked us to contact them on the same number!, ” Vinod said.
Just Dial responded to a Bangalore Mirror query thus: “Our CSE(customer service executive) speaks with the affected caller and arranges for a conference call with the concerned client to resolve the issue. In case the client is found to be a cheat/phony or is involved in any illegal activity, then we immediately freeze the contract and blacklist the same. Thereafter, the listing will not appear on our records. We also have a Report Abuse tab.”
Meanwhile, though no formal complaint has been lodged, Ramamurthy Nagar police are also on the lookout for the conman.
“We hope he will come to our station this month to get his visa extension approved, ” a police official said.