I would like to inform every person who intends to visit Hometown for purchases to please read this before doing so. This is the worst form of cheating that a company can engage in.
My wife and I were looking for a Kitchen solution for our flat at Hometown Pune. We took a visit to the Hometown facility at Ishanya Mall, Pune. While there we were approached by this lady (apparently she was a manager at the Kitchen solutions section) who told us about this current offer going on for Kitchen solutions. The offer was a 40% discount on the total value. However, she told us that we had to book on that day itself (it happened to be 25th July) as it was the last day of the offer. We asked her what we could expect for a kitchen of our specifications and she told us somewhere around 1.5 - 2 L (90 K - 1.2 L after discount). This was in line with our budget of 1L.
Accordingly, we paid the 10k upfront payment (booking amount) that needed to be made and also the additional Rs.1000 as site visit charges. We were quite happy and relieved that day, as we were searching for quality, reliable and value for money solution for our kitchen. Little did we know right then that Hometown was the wolf in sheep's clothing.
From then on, it was absolute horror and pain for us. After the measurements, we sat down with one of the designers at the kitchen department. We were horrified to see that she said the kitchen total would come up to 3.5 L. We cut down the accessories to such an extent that there was literally nothing of any significance in the kitchen - a sink unit, bottle pull out, 1 carousel corner solution, 1 drawer and 2-3 shelves below. Above the platform there was a 2 pull up shelves, 2 open shelves, one microwave unit, and a tall unit. We already had the granite slab for the kitchen and so this was not needed. This entire thing came up to approx 2.5lakhs!! And all this with MDF as material. If you don't know, MDF is not really a desired material for constructing kitchens. I could not believe what they provided as a quote.
I realized that I was royally cheated by Hometown. They suck unsuspecting customers into this scheme and then inflate the costs to such an extent that you end up paying at almost twice more than what you
We had taken a quote from another local person. He gave us a quote of 90 k (as opposed to 2.5 L from Homwtown) and also refused to use MDF as material. He said his kitchen would come in a combination of Marine Ply and teak, which is the highest quality one could expect. And all this for a quote of 90l.
So we went back to Hometown with this quote and asked them to cancel our order. This was the start of our next horror of horrors. They said they could not cancel since we had given the order. I told them we had not given them the order and had just received a quote for the same. They refused to listen.
I was asked to speak to this guy who was the head of kitchen section. He basically told me at my face that there was no question of cancellation and that we should accept the 40% offer. I told him that he was basically inflating the price to give a 40% discount, and he had the audacity to tell, me that if I get a 10k Nokia phone for 8k, would I be sad if some of the features were missing? I was talking to him about 1.5 L rupees, and this was the way he was talking.
After a lot of visits, they finally said that we should buy something else from the same department. This did not include any ready made furniture or electronic equipments or kitchen accessories. We were forced to go for a wardrobe, finally we decided to go for a one door wardrobe (MDF), which we thought that would come upto 10K, as there is a 40% discount. But the next shock was received the next day, they quoted 23K for a one door wardrobe (while we were getting a 4 Door wardrobe of teakwood, plywood and laminate for 38K), and they said that we could not get the 40% discount as it is a cancellation. They were ready to give a 20% discount, the tactic changed again!
This is where we are at right now. Someone please advice where we can justice!!
The irony is that we booked the kitchen on 25th July as we were told that that was the last day of the offer, and the offer was there yesterday (29th August) also... when we visited hometown..
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