This my friends is a quick reminder to all of you out there who are gonna be doing loads of Shopping this Festive season!! I did intend to make this post solely about Gold and how to avoid a particular type of billing scam, but, I suppose this could easily be applied to any kind of purchase, but would bite you more if it happened while buying a high value item. And what can get more high value then gold, given the fact that it is a significant investment that will only appreciate in value over a longer period of time.
So, here’s the deal, when you decide to make a purchase, please please please ensure, you completely understand the scheme that is being offered by the store and check your bill twice to ensure the final price is calculated to reflect the right per unit rate and not something you did not agree on previously!
My very recent experience in this matter has been a rather nasty one. One mistake made here was, the final bill prepared, had not been scrutinized well enough to realize that, what was being projected as a “this plus this” sort of discount offer, was in fact only a “this or this” discount offer. And this meant that I was really not getting any discount at all!!
It was ridiculously funny when we realized how we had been billed, but we just couldn’t laugh it off for the simple fact that we had already paid for the jewelry!
So here’s the sales pitch they give you right….
We sell you the gold at London Gold rate, and not Mumbai gold rate. And we sell you the jewelry at ‘C’ making charge. The London gold rate is lower than the Mumbai gold rate so you save there and the making charge is quiet low as well so you get twice the advantage.
This is the sole reason for you to shop from them despite the limited variety of designs available and the shop being located in a mall in far out Vashi ( I live in south Mumbai)!
But, when they bill you, they switch the “AND” in their sales pitch to an “OR”!!!
You get either the London gold rate and a bomb of a making charge cooked up god knows how, OR, you get the Mumbai gold rate and the promised making charge. Meaning you eventually end up paying more then you expected.
Now here’s the funny part.
The Mumbai gold rate they offer is not a 22 carat gold rate, but a 24 carat rate. But the jewelry you are buying is 22 carat, which means you are again paying more for less gold!
So to say the least it was an absolutely terrible experience at this particular jewelers but the good part was we were able to get them to give us a full refund for the items we had purchased, but only after several threats to go to the press with the low down on this scheme/scam ( a press photographer from HT had been in the store earlier that day and had clicked several pics of gold being bought in the store and I was in at that time!), and also a threat to inform all customers present about the incorrect gold rate being offered there.
if you feel you have been duped like this ever, make sure to go back and demand rectification of the problem. Be firm on your stand, do not let them demean you or insult you in any way by laughing off your complaint. This is the easiest way to demoralize a customer looking for a problem rectification after making a purchase. Be very stern, look ‘em in the eye and tell ‘em to shut the hell up and fix this problem ASAP! I know this worked for me yesterday. Every time I caught one of their employees standing around us smiling about our problem and talking in his mother tongue, I made it a point to remind him nothing funny was going on here so he could stop smiling now! All in all, the entire drama cost us a good 2 hrs to sort the matter out, but we finally got them to implicitly admit their fault because they cancelled the purchase and returned our entire amount.
After this entire drama, I can make a few suggestions on how you could avoid falling into this kind of a situation.
One easy way to avoid this is to shop from reputed brands/stores who are very clear and upfront about all the charges and take the time to explain to you everything no matter how many questions you may have.
Hope this piece of information is helpful to you all out there planning to shop tomorrow, gold or otherwise and I wish a Happy Shopping spree to all!
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