Dear All,
This Diwali I thought of experimenting with the much sought after tea candles and whole lot of candle stands available in the market. I have always picked up a lot of struff from home store, as I found their things very economical and trendy. However, I think the retail in this country is a mafia and I am realizing that a harrassed consumer has no place to go.
The shop owners and keepers think that they can take innocent consumers for a ride and are not responsible for any harm that their product may cause to the consumer. They lure you only till you foot the bill and thereafter you are truly on your own!
I had picked up a candle stand and fragarant lavender cancles from the home store. The candle stand was in teh shape of a bird’s cage. Inside the cage a depression was provided to place the candle. Pleased with my shopping, I kept lit the candle in the candle stand to experience the soothing effect of burning lavender. After about 1 hr . The candle stand decided to burn like the candle itself. by the time I could realize this and take corrective, it had charred my beautiful burmese teak cupboard.
Incidently the cage in candle stand had beads, painted in golden colour and they were not fire resistant / or tested properly. The tea candle caused the beads to catch fire. Though the rest of the body of the candle stand did not burn/ only the paint was removed and charred, the beads vanished as they had never existed. SO I was left with the charred: candle stand and the cupboard, both eye sores for me now. Thankfully a disastor was averted and nobody was hurt.
I did what any educated consumer would do. I took the candle stand to the store, which I so admired and frequented, and described the entire sequence of events to them. One would expect that the shop manager would appologize for damage, replace the product, take it off the shelf and compensate suitably for the damages. But OH this is Delhi. the shop is the most sought after in South Extension.
So I am first attended by the shop manager(Mr. Raghunath), who advises me that he will check with the manufacturer and revert. Then their ops manager(Mr Ajay Prasad) calls me to inform, that I was probably a dumb fool. I must have thrown the candle stand into burning fire, or caused a fire myself, charred by cupbord and put the candle stand in it to burn. whatever and now I am trying to pass on the blame to THE HOME STORE. He told me that he has sold about 10, 000 such pieces and has probable 20, 000 more to sell.
He has never received the complaint and has checked the candlestand. Has found it in order. In any case he felt that all their products are tested and he cannot imagine what I DID TO CAUSE THE CANDLE-STAND TO BURN. Since the fire and the burning of the candle stand is my fault, and I was stupid to burn a candle in a candle stand, THE HOME STORE is not responsible. Basically I can go take a hike.
Needless to say I will never buy anything from that store and this is an effort to warn all innocent consumers to BEWARE when using such products. Thankfully nobody was hurt in my house. but you never know.
It is surprising how less even known brand/ shops care for their consumers and how easy it is for them to shake off responsibility.