On behlaf of my company, Aeroflex Industries Limited, on the unfateful day, 07-03, I visited Home Bazar, Orchid Centre, Mumbai Central, Mumbai and ordered 2 bedroom sets, 1 sofa, 1 dining table set, 1 centre table, 2 mattresses and 4 pillows, total bill amount Rs.95, 000-00 for our company flat situated at Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. Since it was a company purchase, my company wanted to pay by cheque however, I was told by Home Bazar that in case of a cheque payment the delivery would be only after realisation of the cheque. Since the goods were required urgently and with the weekend and thereafter 2 bank holidays back to back, the cheque payment would have delayed the delivery a lot. So in order to expediate the delivery, the amount was paid immediatley in cash/creditcard on 07-03 and the delivery was confirmed for the coming tuesday, 10-03 by the Sales Executive - Preetam who was more then excited to get this sale to his credit. To make sure that I would be getting the delivery of the goods on Tuesday as scheduled, I visited Home Bazar on Monday evening and was assured by Preetam that I would positively get the delivery on the 10th. Come Tuesday 10th March, I waited and waited and waited all day till 9.00 pm but no trace of any delivery from Home Bazar nor any followup call. Unfortunately, the only document available with me was the Customer Data Form which did not have any contact number. On 11th which was a Holiday due to Holi, I managed to get the tel number for Home Bazar and with much difficulty, when I get through them, I am told that due to some technical problems at the warehouse in Bhiwandi, they could not deliver and are not sure when it would be delivered. Since Preetam who attended me was on leave, I took his mobile number and contacted him, to get a surprised answer from him saying thet the delivery should have been done. He offered to check the details and get back to me, which remains a DREAM for me till date coz all my calls n sms messages to Preetam have gone unanswered and he has not had the courtesy to even follow up on the delivery of the goods. And Mr. Asif, the store manager seemed to be totally unaware as to why the delivery was not scheduled and he advised me to check with Preetam. Since there is no trace of Preetam for the next few days, the case moves over to Santosh who was present at the time of booking but was not directly involved with the sales. Later I get to know that Preetam has had some death in the family and is too disturbed to come to work, so it was not the right thing to blame him in this time of distress. Unfortunately, Santosh has had to take all the brunt for the total inefficiency of HOME BAZAR for the delivery of my order. After several calls, to my delight, I get a delivery on Thursday evening which includes only the Sofa and the Dinig Table set which were the display pieces and had to be delivered from the Store. I am surprised that if these products were to be delivered from the Store, then why the delay of 4-5 days? They should have been delivered on Monday itself as the mode of payment was cash. After another huge number of calls, I get a delivery of 1 bedroom set which is picked up from some other store and this is also a display piece with some damages, nevertheless accepted in good faith. I get this delivery late evening and get told by Santosh that the balance goods would also reach the same evening as they are coming from Bhiwandi. Once again, late evening, as expected, I get a call informing me that the balance goods cannot be delivered on that day due to some octroi porblem at checkpost. How can a big company like HOME BAZAR which is a part of the Future Group and does regular deliveries all across India have octroi problems? Dont the delivery people know the procedures? I am promised by Santosh that I would definately get the delivery of the balance goods on Saturday morning by 11.30 am. Once again after some more calls and great difficulty when I get through Santosh, he tells me that the goods have left Bhiwandi warehouse at 5.30pm and would be reaching soon. Finally the goods reach at 7.15pm and the delivery person has no intructions and he delivers 2 bedroom sets when already 1 set has been recd by me on Friday. After few more calls it is confirmed that the 2nd bedroom set has to be delivered to the store from where the bedroom set was lifted on friday. The assembly of the bedroom set ends at 10.30pm on a Saturday which was my weekly off which was royally screwed up by some inefficeint people. And now the big blunder. Of all the itmes ordered, there is no trace of the Centre Table. Santosh is not aware whether the warehouse has delivered or not. When asked why was the piece from the store not delivered he said that piece was sold out and they were not aware that the warehouse did not have any in stock. Where is the stock inventory? Finally, I get another lame promise that the centre table would be delivered on monday as they have managed to get it from another store. Since it was not possible for me to be at Kharghar on monday, I advise Santosh to deliver the same to flat no 903 where our Director stays. The delivery time was given between 7pm and 8 pm. Yesterday at 7 pm I get a call that the delivery tempo is stalled at Dadar and is unable to go any further due to a technical fault and now the delivery is sheduled for Wednesday 18th March, thats tomorrow. If all goes well, hopefully the final delivery would be made tommorrow to end my 10 days of nightmare. Until then, I keep my fingers crossed. I do not have a persoanl grudge with any of the Home Bazar staff in person and I dont blame them for what ever has happened. It is Home Bazar as a company which has failed because of its lethargic setup.
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