This incident happened in Unilet’s Banashankari showroom. We just walked into Unilet’s Banashankari showroom on 21 Mar 10 to purchase the air cooler. Before this, I visited the Big Bazaar which is just opposite to Unilet showroom and found that they have only Usha Martin brand and that too only one model of air cooler. It made me to check somewhere else for the air cooler where I have more choice. I thought of visiting the Unilet first before going to Aadishwar’s showroom which is next to Unilet showroom as I had purchased an IFB washing machine sometime in Sep 09 from this Unilet showroom.
They had several models of Kenstar and Symphony brand on display in the showroom. The sales guy looking after the air cooler section, Mr. Reddy, shown us different models and we finally decided to go for Kenstar DX CP-0118H as it seemed to be sufficient for us. The MRP of the model, displayed on the demo unit was Rs 4690. As we are going to purchase 2 air coolers he offered to give each for Rs 4100, which by all means a good discount on MRP. As we did not had the full money, we made a payment of Rs 2000 to book 2 air coolers and told him that we will be coming back on 22 or 23 Mar to make the remaining payment of Rs 6200 and take the air coolers.
On Monday, 22 Mar 2010, I accidentally came across a user review on Unilet Showroom in Mouthshut. One big blunder which we made before booking by giving Rs 2000 is, we have not did much research on the model and the price. After seeing the review in Mouthshut, I decided to just call the different showrooms and enquire about the actual price of the air cooler. I thought of just dialing the different Unilet showrooms itself before going for any other showroom like Adishwar, VGP or Girias. Unilet showroom in Hanumanth Nagar offered me the same air cooler for Rs 3800, Unilet- Koramangala -Rs 3750, Unilet (Indiranagar) Rs 4000 and Unilet (Sanjaynagar) - Rs 4200. Just to check over the phone, I called the Banashankari showroom too and stunned to hear from Mr Umesh (another sales person) he can give the air cooler for Rs 3900. All of them told me to just come over to showroom and have a discussion so that we can come for a final price. It means we were in a way cheated and will be loosing at least 200 (maximum around 700).
I got a call on Monday evening (22 Mar 10) from Unilet (Banashankari) and Reddy talked to me about paying the remaining amount and taking the delivery of air coolers. I told him, we wont be able to make it till 24 Mar 10, and also about the price difference. Reddy told me, air cooler model was only 118H till January this year and Kenstar changed it to "DX - CP 0118H" 2 months back. Reddy told me that, we can look into price once we come for remaining payment and taking the delivery on 24 Mar 10.
I thought of checking the Reddy’s claim of model name change couple of months back. This turned out to be a lie as there is a product review in Mouthshut for "DX CP 0118H" way back in 2007 itself. Even a simple search in Google will show that, there was nothing called "118H" model from Kenstar & it is indeed "DX CP 0118H" from beginning. To confirm this, I even called the Kenstar office in Jayanager & talked to them. However, guy on the phone did not had information on the price and asked me to call Mr. Fernandez who looks after air cooler business. I was not able to make contact with him even after repeated tries as he was busy.
When we went to showroom again on 24 Mar, we took up the matter with Reddy and accounts person, Kiran. We shown them different prices in different Unilet showrooms and the price told by their own sales person, Umesh couple of days back. Reddy kept on insisting us to pay the remaining Rs 6200 as they have already billed it and can not change the bill now. They were not even ready to compensate for Rs 600 which we will loose. (If I purchase from Hanumanth Nagar showroom which is hardly 2 KMs from this showroom) Kiran even called the Hanumanth Nagar showroom to confirm the price and he was convinced that they were giving the same model for Rs 3800. Later Kiran agreed to give the air cooler for Rs 3900 on next purchase. Next purchase means, I need to pay the remaining amount of Rs 6200 of the previous bill as they can’t change that. Above that if I purchase another air cooler they will give it for Rs 3900.
What the hell we will do with 3 air coolers as we were looking for 2? Reddy kept on saying that, Hanumanth Nagar showroom is selling the air cooler for old MRP which was Rs 4440 and Kenstar made it to Rs 4690 this month. When we asked for a company’s new price chart, he showed us the price chart which they received on 15 Jan 2010 and it showed the MRP 4440. They were not able to convince us that MRP is indeed 4690 and not 4440. We tried to convince Reddy and Kiran for changing the present bill itself and give each unit for Rs 3900.However, Reddy was very adamant and hell bent on selling the unit for Rs 4100. After nearly 20-25 minutes (after giving all the proofs for price difference and not able to come to a conclusion on the making the changes to present bill) we decided to drop the plan of purchasing the air cooler from Unilet and told them we will go for some item for Rs 2000. We purchased a Philips Mixer (HL-1606) for the same amount and able to even get a new bill (I really do not know, how the hell they can change the present bill if we purchase a Mixer and can’t give for Air cooler). At that point only we decided that, we will never make any purchase from Unilet now onwards.
So, be very careful with the MRP what they display in Unilet showrooms. At one point when we were talking Reddy even agreed that they can change the MRP displayed and write new price for old unit. So, even though the unit seems to be new in terms of ’price’, it may be an old unit. As they were not able to even show the company price chart which shows MRP Rs 4690 and not Rs 4440, I doubt whether it is really changed whithin last 2 months. Another thing which we noticed when we went on 24/03/10 is they do not have the display unit for ’DX-CP 0118H’. Even this made me to doubt on the genuineness of the MRP which Reddy was quoting.
So, my suggestion is, be very careful while purchasing from Unilet, especially from Banashankari showroom.