This is to bring to the notice/attention of whomever it may concern (i.e unsuspecting customers about to fall into the Croma trap) that I am disgusted with the service of Croma and its staff, which are part of the Tata group, a group which has a good reputation.
However, I would like to mention that you can't get customer satisfaction on the strength of reputation alone. This is brought out clearly by my case, where I'd like to place on record that the staff of Croma have been rude, unhelpful, and downright deceitful.
I bought a Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic phone from the Croma store in Ansal Plaza, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, and paid Rs. 2000 extra for the extended warranty of two years.
After I had been using the phone for about a year, it developed a minor problem, which was that the Applications or menu button was not working. It appeared to have got stuck, and I thought that all that it needed was a thorough cleaning, which I was reluctant to do myself, not wanting to unknowingly damage the phone. When I took it to the Croma store, a staff member informed me that I would have to call the Nokia Service Centre's phone number and go to the nearest Nokia Service Centre, which they claimed was in Faridabad (I know for a fact that there is another Nokia Sevice Centre in Gurgaon). When I tried to explain to him that I did not pay so much for the extended warranty just to make all the effort myself, he very rudely said that nothing could be done about it. I decided to go to the manager, and told the staff member to direct me to him. The staff member took me to the wrong person, saying he was the Customer Care Manager. I requested the Customer Care Manager to take me to the Store Manager, and when he did, I complained to him about the unhelpfulness and rudeness of the staff member. I then brought my problem to the notice of the Manager, who assured me they would get it fixed, 'as a favour' because, as he informed me, mine was a Carry-in warranty, which apparently meant that I had paid Rs 2000 for the privilege of carrying my phone to the service centre myself. Needless to say, they had omitted to give me this important piece of info when I took the warranty.
A few days later, I received a phone call from Nokia, saying that my phone had sustained 'liquid damage', and that it couldn't be fixed. This was subsequently confirmed by Croma. I felt that this diagnosis was absolutely incorrect and they just said this to cause me the maximum inconvenience possible. Obviously, if the phone had sustained liquid damage, it couldn't be possible that only one of the circuits/components was damaged, causing the menu button to malfunction, and the rest was untouched. I could still receive calls on the phone, so this selective problem of liquid damage (when in fact, none such had been sustained by the phone) had me quite skeptical.
I kept my old phone, but bought a new one too as I couldn't make any calls, being unable to access my contacts due to the faulty Menu button. After a few weeks, I happened to have a look at my old phone, and found that the button was working properly again. Liquid damage, my left foot! I then knew for sure that Croma and Nokia seemed to be in cahoots to cause me the most trouble or inconvenience that they possibly could. It seems that Croma's policy is that once you have bought the product, and paid them the money, your satisfaction is no longer their concern. Also that shoddy or non-existent after sales service is what the customer will get even after he/she pays for an extended warranty. It seems to me that their motto needs to be changed to “We help you cry.”
Luckily, my story had a happy ending (no thanks to Croma), though others may not be so fortunate. Are you listening, Mr Ratan Tata&or whoever your successor is going to be?
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