Wicked wicked ways

“Customer is the King” is the most repeated favourite proverb of marketing Gurus and companies, but the reality is that the norm is more often flouted than observed. Recently some one wrote in a news-paper article about his shocking experience when he received a reply to a letter he sent to the manufacturer of a reputed brand of shaving blades, regarding the poor quality of the product. In reply the CEO of the company thanked him profusely for registering the complaint so that he could take necessary actions to prevent such things happening in future and safeguarding the reputation of the company. However, there was a small slip of paper in the envelope on which was scribbled, “ Send our standard reply to this guy.” Obviously the CEO’s secretary has inadvertently left the piece of paper with the scribbling of the CEO in the envelope!
Such incidences are not uncommon. Our expectations from companies which have high reputations, built up over a long period of time through advertisements and caring service is often shattered when such things happen. One loses faith in the advertised marketing philosophy of companies and one is forced to think that the Manufacturing companies have a very poor opinion about customers’ intelligence in general.

Four years ago I bought a water purifier, which is well known in the market. The representatives are aggressive in selling. I only asked for the representative to just visit me for some information on the product. The same evening he came, bringing with him a water purifier, which I ended up buying after paying cash. Cash, because he said cheque is not acceptable and if I do not buy the purifier immediately, I may not be able to get another piece for ten or fifteen days till fresh stocks arrive.

The invoice for the purchase came by post after three months. It showed a discount of Rs.1000, and also payment terms as “Credit card”. Then I called up the Sales Manager to report the mistake, but he refused to speak with me and one of the assistants told me that it must be some minor error and that the price I paid was correct. Several times I tried to speak with the senior manager because there was clear proof of cheating, but he would not come on the phone saying he was busy! This behaviour infuriated me and when I threatened to report the matter to the police for cheating, one of the senior officers came running to my house and he tried to pacify me still sticking to the theory that there was some genuine mistake and there is no possibility of cheating and he promised to send the correct invoice. I received another invoice in which the price was corrected, but the terms remained “Credit card”, though I had paid cash. On contacting the company they again promised to correct the same but did nothing for over two weeks. By now I knew that there is no point in talking to these chaps and I contacted their Bombay office and reported the matter to the Managing director of the company. After that the local officers admitted that the representative was cheating me and that their MD has asked to sack the chap and do anything to assuage my feelings. The piece delivered to me had a cracked body, which the sales man sold to me at normal price and took the Rs.1000 discount for himself, or shared with others too. He sold it on some credit card and kept the cash I paid to him. Will anyone ever expect that an employee, with the support of others in his office would cheat a customer in this fashion?

My daughter bought a refrigerator of a reputed brand from an agent. When it was delivered there were chocolate wrappers and food stains inside the fridge and some scratch marks on the body. It was very obvious that the piece was not brand new but used one probably returned by some one because of defects. The agent tried his best to convince my daughter that it was a new piece and that one of his technicians must have left the chocolate wrapper inside the frig while testing the piece!! Anyway she insisted that the piece be taken back and money returned! You go for the best known product in the market and get cheated by the agents and franchisees of reputed manufacturers. This is happening all around us all the time but people are so busy they do not have the time and energy to go after these matters and pray to God for better luck next time.

Electronic products such as music systems, DVDs, Computers and such are the items on which there is lot of scope for cheating by unscrupulous agents. The service people (usually franchisees) may cheat you by charging exorbitantly for parts replaced (or not replaced). Recently the service agent for a well-known Japanese manufacturer of music systems demanded Rs.2000 from me for replacement of parts. The normal servicing charge is only Rs.300. In the last four years I have been spending on an average Rs.1500 per year on this music system, for replacement of parts and therefore I told them that I do not want to get it repaired any more and that I would report about this unsatisfactory service to their Japanese principals. Immediately the agent changed his colour and agreed to accept Rs.300 for the servicing. You can never say when you are being taken for a ride!

In one of the blogs, I was reading about this remarkable American gentleman, who at the age of eighty-three is so energetic and leading a very active life. He says he is engaged in some kind of net marketing business with a partner who lives hundreds of miles away. The two partners had not met before and the younger partner who is only twenty seven or so never even imagined that he was having a business partner so old until the older person told his age for some reason. The old man Harry was carrying on with his duties efficiently that the young partner had no reason to suspect that his partner is an old man. Sorry I should never call him an old man. It is one’s outlook and lifestyle that differentiates the old from the young. It is the mental attitude that matters.
It is indeed nice if one can earn even at an advanced age. It is very common for writers or painters to go on achieving more and more with advancing age. But in most other professions after one reaches 60 or 65 one has to slow down or stop working altogether. For many office workers 60 is the limit unless one is a top notch Director or a highly skilled professional. Very few though learn new skills at an advanced age and start new ventures. Mr. Harry seems to be one of the few exceptions.
There is another angle to this. Many people start to feel bored with routine work, which they are good at but want to call it a day. They are happy to retire from work even at 50 and take to a leisurely life but one has to stick it out as long as one can due to financial compulsions. It may not be very easy to get used to idling at home when all your faculties are still in good condition. Some get bored and take up new assignments, some others cultivate new hobbies and some others become club bores, talking always of their exploits during working years, not caring to bother if others are really interested to hear their stories!!
In the olden days very few people reached the ripe old age of 60. It was a landmark in one’s life and used to be celebrated traditionally. People of 60 used to be considered as old and treated with some respect. When I was a young boy I thought that my maternal grand father who was just over 60 years was very old. This is in the early forties. He was retired at 55. He was a man of ample substance and lived a lavish life as I remember. He had a Ford V8 car and a chauffeur and stopped driving at the age of 60 due to old age! He was westernised in many ways. He used fork and knife, had oatmeal porridge for breakfast with eggs, bacon & ham. Lunch used to be traditional South Indian fare with rice and a number of vegetable curries, mutton and fish. Teatime with English biscuits, in those days. Dinner was again a mixed fare, English and Indian. He used to drink Whisky in moderate quantities and used to take a laxative called Kruschen Salt (Spelling?). Generally he wore ordinary cotton shirts buttoned up to the neck and a clean white Kerala type dhoti called “mundu”, all starched and ironed. On his outings he would wear a double-breasted cotton coat and a belt over the Mundu. An “Angavastram” starched and properly folded would be worn on the shoulder. Footwear he had several pairs in different colours and designs, which he would wear with woollen or cotton stockings. He would also carry an ornamented walking stick when walking to the club, which was about a hundred and fifty yards from home. There he would play Bridge with similarly retired friends and return home before seven to have his whisky before dinner. There were several servants, cooks and maids and gardeners and a lot of people hanging around. One of his close valets, who was his confidant and managed his estates, was a muscular seedy type, a known rowdy in his hay days. My uncles and later my father disliked him and when my mother inherited the house and a handsome share of his properties (being a matriarchal society), my father dismissed him. One evening while he was playing cards in the club, with friends, my grandfather suddenly died. A very sudden painless (!) death, which his friends noticed only when he was not responding to the bids. He was a prominent figure in Trivandrum and hordes of friends and relatives visited the house to pay their last respects. Everyone thought that he has had a full life (63 years) and that he was lucky to have gone before being bedridden for years.
Those were times when life expectancy was 30 years?! Now, thanks to the progress in medical sciences, life expectancy in India has almost doubled after about 60 years. I do not think that anyone thinks seriously about death before the age of 70. We have a lot of people living after 80 or eighty-five years. This has also brought about a lot of changes in the society and relationships. People of 60 and 70 years think of themselves as young. Many look forward to many more years of happy and healthy life. The needs of old men and women have increased, with the changes of their life style. They are game for all the pleasures of the young people. They feel neglected and lonely if they are not in the company of the young, not even bothering to find out if the youngsters want their company. The present day youngsters earn a lot of money compared to the meagre incomes of the past. When the older people see that their children make so much more money they also want to partake in all the enjoyments. This attitude is basically different from the traditions.
By the Hindu culture, as one grows older he/she should shed desires. When desires are reduced, wants are also reduced. Happiness, which comes from the pursuit of desires, is momentary and there is no satisfying it. True happiness comes only from a state of life without desires. It is possible only if a person learns to view life without attachment to worldly material objects. This detachment has to be cultivated, as one grows older. For example it is very cute to watch a child playing with toys but as the child grows up he should discard the toys to which he is so much attached. Then he would get attached to other forms of enjoyments like games, reading etc. When he is a young man he would get attached to girls and so on. At each stage one has to detach oneself from something, which was till then closer to his heart, to evolve and get attached to something higher in life. When one grows old he has to detach himself from most of the material enjoyments. Happiness is a state of contentment, which comes only from shedding attachments and desires. Is it not better not to have desires for worldly pleasures than in actually enjoying these pleasures? May be it is debatable, but considering the momentary nature of the enjoyments, the Hindus (also Sikhs, Buddhists etc.) believe that the path to happiness is through detachment from material pleasures.