I am seething mad right now. I just got told a few moments ago, “Don’t think that just because I am lady I can not say something. Your God will punish you. You are thinking ‘I am very smart because I saved 200 rupees.’ But God will very much punish you…..–click– (phone dies)”
Let me back up a bit.
I made this video tape that I wanted to convert to a digital format. Basically, I just wanted it to get on my hard drive so I could send it to a director as an audition, and it was just 10 minutes of footage. Unfortunately, the cable that came with the camera was really old and wouldn’t fit on my computer. So last Thursday, I went to a local photography store and asked if they do video conversion. She replied, “Yes I can do that.” Okay then. That was that. I gave her the video and asked how long it would take. “Two days.” I could live with that (even though I knew that it’d just take 10 minutes to actually do it). “I’ll call you,” she said. Sure, I can live with that too.
Well two days came and went. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt and thought, maybe she doesn’t do weekends. So I waited for a phone call. No phone call. By Thursday it was already a week and I decided it’s time to drop by.
“Where’s my tape,” I asked. She smiled, looked at me a bit confused and said, “Is there rush?” I politely smiled and said, “Yes. There’s a rush.” “Okay… they gave me camayra for it. Now you just call me tomaawrow and remind me. Then I vill not forget; you vant by ewening?” “Yes, that’ll be fine. I’ll call you tomorrow at 5.” I thought to myself later, if I had said that there’s no rush, then would it mean that the tape would be there indefinitely? When is it exactly that a customer doesn’t need something back EVER and just drops it off for the photo shop to keep?
So Friday evening (yesterday) I call her to remind her. She says it’ll be ready by 7, and that she’ll call me. (Once again with the calling me.) At 8ish I call her, and she says, “Okay today it vill not be ready, but tomorrow 8 am sharp I will bring it your house myself.” I sigh, and say, “Fine,” my anger simmering under my breath.
This morning, 8 am comes. No call. I call at 9ish, and she doesn’t pick up the call even after 10 rings. I wait until 9:40ish, and head to the store. Some guy’s there and has no clue. I am *clearly* pissed by now and tell him to talk to ‘madam’. So he calls from my phone and she wants to talk to me. She says, “Yes you called earlier but hung up before I could pick up.” (Notice how she shifts the blame.) “Well,” I start, “I rang 10 times and you didn’t pick up. You could’ve easily called me back because you had my number then, didn’t you?” “What,” she questioned, and acted confused. “You had my number,” I stated louder, “and you didn’t call me this morning either.” “Oh that I am yeah sorry yeah, I did not get it done in the morning some confusion waz there.” So I persist: “In that case shouldn’t you call me and notify me??” She’s stuck and she knows it. “No I did not do it.” “Alright, so how long until I get this?” “He vill be there in 1 hour only. In one hour he will be at the studio.” (Alright, so finally at 10:40 I’ll have my video.) “Fine.”
I called her at 11 to make sure it was there. “He has left now only, vill be there in 20 minutes.” Heavy sigh. At 11:20 I show up. And of course, there’s no CD/tape. I wait around until 11:46 and call her. “He did not come ‘et? Then I vill call him and call you back.” “No he has not come yet, and it’s been almost an hour now since he left.” “Okay okay, I will call him and call you.” She calls back to tell me that he’ll be there in 10 minutes.
Now just a side note, I want you to know that it is BLAZING hot in Bangalore right now. And I mean BLAZING. I’m standing there at this little shop on the side, outdoors, and I’m sweating my ass off for some guy who may have decided to have an early lunch for all I know.
I wait until 12:01, then turn to the guy at the counter and give him my address. I tell him that the delivery guy can come to my apartment; I’m not waiting any longer.
FINALLY AT 12:15, the doorbell rings. The guy gives me the tape and cd, and I ask how much. “300 Rupees.” Did I hear that right?? 300 RUPEES?? For 10 minutes of footage that takes less than 10 minutes to copy to a CD that costs 40 rupees, and that’s more than a week late with all this mess??
“I’ll pay 100. That’s it. No more.” I hold firm in my ground.
The delivery guy goes on about how it’s not possible, I have to pay 300 rupees, and so forth. I say that it’s not, and you can call ‘madam’ for all I care, and I’ll talk to her. He starts off, but his English is clearly not strong, and he says stuff about how he had to drive 30 km and the camera was this and that and the other thing. I tell him I don’t care because that’s not my problem. That’s something that could’ve been told me earlier and I would’ve gone elsewhere. He continues, and then calls the lady. She tells me that please I have to pay the amount, I can’t do this to her, etc. I tell her, “You did this to yourself. You could have told me last week about this and you didn’t. This happened because of your own unprofessionalism.” We go on for a bit more, and then I tell her I’m holding my ground. I open the door and go to the guy (I had closed the door on him), tell him I’m giving him 100 and nothing more. If he wants more, I’m closing the door
and giving him nothing. He starts up again and I go, “Fine. I’m calling security.” “Okay, okay,” he says and takes the hundred.
He leaves.
And then I get a phone call from the lady with the quote from the beginning of this post.
See what peeves me off the most about this is that she feels that I did this to her to save 200 rupees but I did nothing of the sort. I sent her a text message afterwards telling her that if she noted, I didn’t curse her and say that her God will punish her or anything, and it’s not about the 200 rupees. I told her it’s about respect, keeping your word, and professionalism.. I told her “God bless you, and take care, but please learn a lesson about this kind of behavior in your business.” She hasn’t replied back, and I doubt she will.
Who knows, I may have to pay the 200 rupees. I don’t care really, because I made my point. It’s not a matter of the money, it’s that a lot of people think they can take you for a ride and still have everything work right for them. If you make a mistake in your business with your customer, you immediately confess, offer an apology, and a reimbursement for their troubles. All I can hope is that maybe, just maybe she’ll think twice about making this mistake again with another poor sap.
I’m out.