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In the recent past, you had several incidents of cancellation of flights, which were not based on weather. In today’s cold weather, with fog, for safety reasons, flights are cancelled. For these cancellations, there does seem to be a valid reason. However, what do you do when the cancellation seems to be for some reason that is convenient for the airline or caused by some action of the airline, and which causes huge discomfort to the traveler. When a flight is cancelled, it puts the affected passengers a huge inconvenience, since the travel may be for urgent family reasons, or for business persons, or for some other such reason.
And in many cases, the cancellation is caused due to crew problems, such as pilots not turning up because they have a pay dispute, or the mechanical staff laying down tools because of some problems they have regarding compensation, or because the airline has not paid its staff for some period of time; or you have cancellations because the airline has made a policy change such as when Kingfisher decided to recently shut down its low cost service and started cancelling all the flights on its low cost services. This was something that impacted passengers tremendously, and when you see the associated article, you can see how the travel plans of people are affected badly by these cancellations, and the costs and hardship that they have to undergo to try and get their journey back on track (link to article):
The Mumbai Suburban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum recently ordered Kingfisher Airlines to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to a chartered accountant whose family had to go through a trying time after their Mumbai-bound flight from Kolkata was cancelled a night before departure.
During the pendency of the case, Kingfisher took over Air Deccan, and Mehta amended his complaint to that effect. The airline told the forum that the flight was cancelled due to some unavoidable circumstances and added that Mehta had been refunded. Denying any deficiency in service, the airline refused to pay damages, saying it was according to the terms and conditions applicable to the airline and passengers.
But the forum held the airline guilty of deficiency in service and said the onus was on it to mention the reason for cancelling a flight. “There is no material on record regarding the reason for the airline to cancel the flight,” the forum stated.
In many cases, the airlines claim that they provided a refund, and as per their policies, this was their overall liability. However, the consumer forum has not taken that line, and charged a penalty from the airline for this cancellation.
India is always claimed to a place where consumer protection is not so high. Companies can make any sort of claims and it is hard to get them to account for their claims. Even recent steps in consumer forum and through regulatory bodies do not really take India to the same level as consumer protection as the Western countries or in the United States. Consider the case where Reebok, an internationally well known company places an advertising campaign that promotes its shoes as one that provide an enhanced tone to the wearer of the shoes. These are a line of premium shoes, with advertising using hot models (who are shown wearing just enough that you can see all their legs and even the firmness of the muscles of their buttocks (another aspect that appeals to a number of people)) to show that if you wear these shoes, then this will actually end up toning the leg muscles of the body and be very helpful. Consumers are liable to accept such an advertising pitch, especially when it is framed as being backed by science, where the shoes act on the muscles of the leg and cause a tightening of the muscle tone.
However, the US Federal Trade Commission did not buy this advertising pitch, and investigated this claim by the company. Now, if the company was able to present evidence, then it would have been able to avoid paying a fine, but it was not able to do so and was charged a hefty fine of $25 million for this claim. The company was also forbidden from making this claim in any future advertising pitch. Reebok settled with the FTC, but in the end, also issued a face saving statement claiming that they stood by their advertising, although it is quite apparent that they do not any evidence to substantiate their case (link to article):
But the bad news is that a shoe may not be the solution to all your backside woes. The good news is that the USA’s Federal Trade Commission finally called out the farcical advertising and imposed a payout of USD 25 million on the global sporting goods giant.
The ads had spouted science, claiming that the shoes could strengthen the muscles of the thighs, legs and buttocks – but the FTC gave the company a swift rap on the knuckles and barred it from making any scientific claims in the future without evidence. Apart from Reebok, companies such as New Balance and Skechers have also faced lawsuits over their advertising claims in the past.
Unfortunately, there is no such easy challenge to their claims in India. One would think that the company would keep on making their claims in the Indian market, and keep on selling their high priced shoes with a false claim, and people would continue to buy these shoes, backed by top Indian models making these advertising pitches.
Sometimes one feels that insurance companies can do anything to ensure that they get their policies, even unwilling to be concerned about their customers needs and requirements. From time to time, you hear that insurance companies are supposed to provide details of the details of the policy to consumers who have a right to ask for these details before they make up their mind. However, there are often enough many complaints that companies promise some details on the phone or through the insurance agent, but these are not backed up when the policy is actually delivered.
Let me outline my current case. Some years back I had taken an accident insurance policy from ICICI Lombard, the payment of which was to be made through EMI’s on my ICICI credit card. I made the payments, however, when the policy expired and the company should have contacted me for a renewal, nothing happened. So, the policy expired (general laziness from my side ensured that the policy finally expired). Today, a DSA called me about the policy, apologized for the fact that some server problems on their side ensured that they did not get a notice that policies were up for renewal, and am I interested in getting the policy renewed.
A personal accident insurance policy does seem like something that one can always topup, so I continued talking. The terms of the policy were slightly changed, in terms of the total amount insured, and the premium desired for the same. The agent also outlined the terms of the policy, what all were covered and what were not, and then asked me to confirm some personal details (which always seems a bit odd to me about having to confirm such details over the phone).
Next, he also told me that payment will happen only after I receive the policy documents, but I do need to provide credit card details over the phone (in terms of expiry date and the card number, he did not yet start asking about the 3 digit CVV code). This was a bit strange to me, since whenever I have done credit card transactions over the phone, they typically use a separate process for credit card transactions (an IVR process) where I speak to a machine and provide my details. Further, the charges put on my credit card would have happened automatically once I provided the details, without my authorizing such a charge.
Now, I have also wanted to get details of the written terms of a policy without agreeing to it, but he refused; stating that I could see it when policy was in force and I could always call up to refuse the policy after I have read it and am not satisfied. I was by now getting irritated at this policy, and also getting irritating at ICICI Lombard about such a policy where I would not be able to see the offering before I signed in. He explained that this was done by the company since otherwise people will ask for the policy and in most cases, will not sign on, and I asked him about what was wrong with this request. Next, he assured me that he was on the level and 100% accurate, and when I told him that he was just a voice on the phone, with 0 authority or reliability in my eyes, he did not have an answer.
This interaction has actually lowered the opinion of ICICI Lombard in my eyes, and I will be much more careful the next time that they come to me for a policy. Already, some of my pension plans with ICICI have assets in a mutual fund run by ICICI which has probably one of the worst performances in the industry.
You can get some excellent devices nowadays for mobile coverage – they work for days altogether without the need to recharge, are not very expensive, and so all. Many of these devices are very amazing, and their cost has been going down over a period of time. Further, these devices work very well, and most of them work without any problems. However, one persistent problem that has been ongoing for a long period of time is the amount of service that these consumer device providers extend to their customers. With the level of sophistication present in these devices, repairing these devices can get difficult if something wrong. And with the number of devices that are present in the market, simple maths shows that there will be a large number of devices that can have problems. However, there are persistent complaints that many of these companies do not have the amount of attention to their customers in terms of service as they are in trying to sell these devices to these same consumers. If you ever go to any of these customer service centers, you will see long queues where people may have to wait for many hours before their complaint is attended; further, getting their device back after repair can take many days or even weeks (with no option given to them for how to get a device to use).
This happens even when the device is under guarantee, and the company is required to make the necessary repairs and get the device back in proper working condition. So, it does not take long before aggrieved customers complain to customer forums about this lack of service (link to article):
MUZAFFARNAGAR: The District Consumer Redressal Forum (DCRF) here has imposed a fine of Rs 4,000 on a cellphone company for providing poor customer services after sales.
Passing the order on a complaint of Mohammad Ali, the Forum yesterday found cellphone company Nokia guilty of not providing the customer with an effective after sales service at its service centre.
The Forum also instructed the company to give either a new handset to the customer or pay him its equivalent price after Ali had complained malfunctioning in his newly-bought handset.
The concept of radio taxis in India started a few years back, and they have become somewhat successful. You can see a number of different brands of radio taxis on the road, out of which the market leader seems to be Meru. The concept of these radio taxis is simple – they are much safer with much greater tracking of them during movement, they are much more comfortable with A/C taxis, more modern vehicles (especially when you compare them with the other option, old vehicles that are more than a decade old, no A/C, o proper seat belts, etc). And in many cases, if you take a single trip to a destination such as the airport, you will find that these radio taxis cost the same as the the normal taxi. For a radio taxi, you call them up beforehand or book it via the internet, and they will be at your place at the appointed time. Further, the payment is made at the end of the journey and you get a bill for the cost (very useful to those who have to take journeys for official purposes and need to show receipts of their expenses).
However, it looks like the taxi companies are starting to either make losses, or extract as much money as they can from their customers. So, recently, the radio taxi companies increased their rates (which tended to make them slightly uncompetitive as compared to the normal black-top taxi), they introduced stringent waiting charges (which should be fine), they introduced a charge that comes into play if you book via the phone vs. booking the taxi via the internet (which was strange to me – seems like they want to pay their call support staff by charging their customers a special charge).
The biggest shock to me was when I came out of the New Delhi railway station and wanted to go to my regular destination. I normally pay an auto-rickshaw around Rs. 150 and a normal run-down taxi Rs. 200-250. Then I saw a Meru line at the railway station, and thought that this would be comfortable and even a premium of Rs. 50 would be fine. However, there were some additional charges. First, they charge an additional Rs. 50 for all taxis from the station due to a convenience charge (meant to cover their expenses for this booth), and then they charge in advance. So, they asked me for my destination which is located at 13 kilometers from the railway station. I told them the destination, and as per their records, they said 17 km. I was shocked, since the additional 4 km could take me to a much further destination, and I tried discussing about it being 13 km, not 17km. Apparently, since their computer says 17km, it was 17 km, and I had to pay an additional Rs. 80 (Rs. 20 per km) for this service. I was pretty disgusted, since this means that they made an easy Rs. 80 off me, and for a total trip cost of Rs. 390 (the additional Rs. 80 from a base price of Rs. 310 meant that they over-charged me by almost 27%). I wonder how many of you have had the same experience ?
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