BEWARE OF NIKE FACTORY STORE IN BANGALORE
I purchased a pair of NIKE shoes for Rs. 2950/- on 28th March ‘10 from their so called “Factory Outlet”(which is actually owned by a company called SSIPL Retail Ltd.) in ‘Sigma Arcade’, Marathahalli main Road, Bangalore. The shop assistant recommended a pair called ‘Air loom’ saying it was possibly the best shoes in this brand. Within seven days the sole of the shoe peeled off and when I approached the shop for replacement, they offered to paste the sole for which I refused.
After making me go back and forth a few times and they said that if I want replacement, I cannot get the same model which was out of stock. They were not willing to give refund as well. They did not have similar shoes in that range and insisted that I should buy a different pair called ‘Air Alaris’ which was priced at Rs 4995/- ..
As I had no other choice, I had to pay the difference amount of Rs. 2045/- for the new paid and just as I came out of the shop, I saw a better store selling exclusively NIKE shoes just a few yards away in the same building. I was shocked to see them selling the same NIKE ‘Air Alaris’ shoes for Rs. 3497/- . Besides they had much better choice than the first shop.
When I confronted the first store asking them how could they fleece & short change trusting customers by calling themselves as ‘FACTORY STORE’ and sell shoes for 30% higher price than their neighborhood shops. The store assistant or his Area Sales Manager Kanish Gautam could not offer any convincing reasons and it was obvious that they were out to cheat gullible customers by misrepresenting and mis-selling under the reputation of NIKE brand. Nor did they show any care for any customer satisfaction.
Generally people are misled by the term 'Factory Store' trusting it to be directly owned by the company and would offer best price. I realized that this was only a franchisee outlet owned by a company called SSIPL Retail P Ltd. and hence I felt cheated.
I hope my experience serves as a warning to customers who buy such expensive shoes or similar items blindly trusting the misleading words like ‘Factory Store’. There are many such stores in the Marathahalli signal area and people should be vigilant before spending their hard earned money at such outlets. I wonder why consumer laws are not strong enough in this country to take care of such fraudulent misrepresentation of global brands.
Raghavan Krishnan
Bangalore
22 April
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