Month: October 2021

Customer Service – 4.

I wanted to buy a book from an online seller Flipkart just a while ago.

I found the book and tried to place an order and the screen simply froze after I entered my email address as required. I tried this a number of times and finally in exasperation went seeking help.

That was another nightmare as this particular problem is not listed in their alternatives of problems listed and there is no way to talk to them to explain. The only way I could contact them is what they call ‘the old fashioned way’ by mail.

I simply gave up in disgust and found another online seller.

Customer Service – 3.

In the process of trying to get my Health Card, I discovered that my Aadhar Card was not linked to my telephone number.

My son decided to get it linked and went to two places to find that I personally had to go so that my biometric details can also be updated. One of the places was The Kotak Mahindra Bank within our neighbourhood to which I could go as I did not have to climb many staircases to reach the counter.

I duly went there escorted by my son and was promptly attended to by a very friendly person in charge of the operations. Despite considerable problems with the software used to register all my details, he persisted, and got the process completed within a few minutes.

He was polite, considerate for my physical limitations and very efficient. To say the least, I was very impressed having had bad experiences with some other banks in the past.

I hope that someone from the Kotak Mahindra Bank reads this and passes my appreciation and gratitude to the person concerned and their own excellent ambience and organisation.

Broccoli.

The image above could well be that of me and my younger brother when we were teenagers going to school in Chennai. We did not have a dining table at home those days and sat on the floor  to eat like most Indians even now do.

Just above our heads would have been a window facing our garden below. We were on the first floor as tenants and the ground floor was occupied by another family.

When anything that we did not like was served to us, both of us would simply chuck it over our shoulders through the window when our mother was not watching.

That is, till one day, the ground floor neighbour found the time to catch hold of my father to complain about food being thrown in his garden.

You can imagine the rest.

This memory came rushing back to me when I read this cartoon yesterday.

Customer Service 2.

In my blog post yesterday on Topli Na Paneer, I had said that I will be reviewing the product and the customer service today. Here I go with both.

CUSTOMER SERVICE.
I was promised that the paneer will be delivered to me by around 8 AM this morning. Just before 8, I received a phone call from the vendor advising me that there will be a slight delay but, the delivery will take place soon. Since it was no big deal, I agreed to wait and the delivery was made by 9.15. The young lad in fact rang me up to seek directions to my place and was prompt thereafter in delivering the parcels.

PRODUCT.
Ranjan and I had these for lunch and enjoyed every bite of it. We intend ordering for it regularly henceforth.

Topli Na Paneer.

My son Ranjan is a foodie and when he goes shopping for one item he will end up buying half a dozen or more items on display in the shop. Last week he had done exactly that again and,  brought something that was in the fridge intriguing me as I normally would not try anything until I make sure that it is vegetarian. This is what he had brought.
I discovered later that it is Burrata Cheese and I quite enjoyed some.

This cheese however, reminded me of a Parsi speciality over here called Topli Na Paneer.

The last time that I had had this was some years ago when a young friend’s mother in law used to make them on order for collection from her home. I had to drive some twenty kilometres to and fro and that eventually killed my appetite for it.

Since I remembered those times when I had relished them, I tried to locate the lady again only to find that she had in the meanwhile gone off to meet her maker. I therefore contacted two Parsi friends in Pune to seek their advice on how to go about procuring it and was sent this flier by one of them.
I called the number and was treated to a highly satisfying response from the responder and I have placed an order for delivery tomorrow morning.

I shall post again after I receive the paneer with my experience of the customer service as well as a review of the product itself.

Customer Service.

I intend writing regularly about good or bad customer service as experienced by me and this will be the first one in that series.

This is to place on record my appreciation for a online merchant who rectified a mistake at their end with a prompt replacement.

I had ordered for a book to be delivered to a friend in Chennai with Hindu e Shop. Instead of sending the book to my friend in Chennai, since I am a frequent buyer, the book was sent to me and I received it yesterday.

I rang them up immediately on receipt and they apologised and promptly arranged for a replacement to be despatched to Chennai yesterday itself and requested me to keep the book received by me as a gift from them to me.

I am impressed.