When we were going to shift to our new house, we wanted a nice Ganapati idol. I had gone to the Government-owned Cauvery Emporium in Bengaluru and was put off by the prices. We heard that the best place to get some good deals would be Mysore. Hence in our next trip to Mysore, we made it to the Cauvery Emporium there and then to the private shops. The place we liked was the N I Kauvery Arts & Crafts in 3033/2, Lashkar Mohalla, Convent Road. We were shown some good pieces and we selected one that was slightly higher than our budget - a beautiful 16 inch Ganapati idol made of "second sandlewood’ at around 28k. We were not sure about the second sandlewood claim but checked around and found that the price was about right. We got friendly with the salesperson and worked out what we thought was a good deal. He packed the idol and we paid for it.
Since our house warming was after a month, we did not open the package till then. When we finally opened the package, we found that we had been cheated - the idol we had selected had been switched with another one with cracks and the material was not the "second sandlewood" as promised. We confirmed this with our relative who has some estates in Kerala and had come to the house warming.
Repeated complaints with this "emporium" went unheeded. All my calls are now unanswered.
Stay away from this store!