Recently I went to Kalaniketan, Jayanagar, Bangalore for my wedding shopping. I chose a sherwani, which was grossly overpriced, but I chose to go ahead and buy it as I wanted to finish my shopping quickly. Sherwani was not very clean and had some finishing issues. The salesman told me that they will set it right if I gave them a couple of days.
The salesmen were polite(which was a sham as I discovered later) and convinced me to buy a cloth for a formal suit as well. I was not very sure as stitching is always an issue but one of them told me that they have best professional tailors at their disposal, which I naively believed.
I requested that if I could pay when I collect the clothes next week but I was told that as per policy I am required to pay upfront. I thought it was genuine and I paid the whole amount for sherwani and cloth suit, keeping the suit stitching charges for payment on collection.
Hence the ordeal began. The cloths were not ready on promised date and I had to make several calls before I finally went for collection. To my horror the suit was completely spoilt. I mean it was not a case of minor issues. We discussed the issues with salesman. He tried to convince us otherwise but could not as it was very clear that it was way off. He said he will get it corrected. I had my doubts that a suit in that condition could be corrected but the salesman said that atleast I should give them one chance and I agreed. Sherwani was in the same state as I had boght it, unclean from shoulders and un-finished. I felt very bad but had no choice to give them another chance and return next week. So I went back empty handed.
After several days of follow-up, I was called to the shop again for delivery of the goods. As expected, suit was still the same. They tried to re-stitch the trouser, which obviously was still way off. After haggling with salespeople for a long time they agreed to make the trouser again from fresh cloth. Sherwani work was also not done and I was completely frustrated. Salesman all the while were very stubborn and it felt as if we have committed a mistake by buying from this shop and paying upfront. They plainly refused for a refund.
I reluctantly agreed to take the suit jacket with me as I did not want to spend anymore time on this and my wedding was fast approaching. This was the third trip to this shop, 15 kms from my house and I did want to make anymore trips.
As we were about to leave with the suit jacket, I thought of checking it thoroughly for any discrepancy. It was a standard 2-button business style jacket. To my horror I discovered that the suit collar was re-stiched back with the jacket, as a separate piece of cloth. This was ot visible as it was hidden under the collar flap. I showed it to the salesman and he told that this was the case with all suits. This was not my first suit and I know it’s always a single piece. He reluctantly agreed after I showed him the readymade suit jackets in his shop. This was a deal breaker. I could not take this anymore and insisted for a full refund. Had to haggle with he salespeople for long time but it was un-defendable for them as well. They agreed for a refund but asked to come another day as they cannot refund without approval from their bosses.
It was feeling as if I have committed a crime by coming to this shop. Even after giving several chances to deliver goods as promised nothing has happened. My marriage shopping was completely spoilt and I had to travel 3 times to this place in bangalore traffic. They were still not done with me and I had to run around for refund.
After this I had to make several rounds of the shop in the coming weeks, talk to there bosses repeatedly, convince, coerce and what not. After several rounds of assurances from the so called bosses of this shop, my refund did not come even after 1month. I got married in the intervening period. Finally they relented after almost 2 months, after deducting credit card transaction charges. I think they relented because I had made the purchase on a credit card and I could create problems for them later.
You decide whether you want to go to this shop or any other Kalaniketan store? The goods were bad, the service was extremely shoddy and I did not deserve the ordeal that I was subjected to. Even after demanding a huge premium for a product available at 50% price at commercial street(which I discovered later) the shop owner’s and salespeople behavior is unexplainable.