Cheating at Big Bazaar

It was 26^th January 2013 the “Republic Day” in India and a bank holiday too. As it is a government holiday and people start their day with flag hosting and spend rest of the day with family, friends, go out for shopping as many retail outlets have offers on this day, or do some social work by visiting and donating money or useful things to Orphanage.

Just like others I also had planned to go for the flag hosting ceremony which was in our residential compound and spend the rest of the day with my family. But as had seen an offer at the Big Bazaar(BB) – Sabse Saste 5 Din hence we went over there at around 1 pm and did the shopping till 3:30pm.

We had bought a lot of things as lot of the items were at very cheaper rates. Finally after waiting at the counter for approx 20 minutes due to long queue in making bill payment comes my turn to make the payment. The bill payment went up to rs.4924/-. Me and my wife were happy with the offers we got from Big Bazaar. As a normal routine, to check the bill before leaving the place, we found that there were some items which were charged at the normal rate rather then discounted price.

I went to the counter once again and wanted to confirm about the price of Parachute Hair Oil product code: 00000000030057568501 which was displayed as rs.114/- however was charged at the rate of rs.180/-, then Yardley Legend 150ml product code:00000000030087688401 was having an MRP of rs170/- and had a discount of rs.25/- however was charged full amount, JO Almond & cream8*100g product code:00000000030069035801 was having an MRP of rs.99/- displayed as rs.80/- but was charged as rs.99/-, then some ladies hanky were at rs. 65/- MRP with a discount of rs. 26/- but was charged at rs.65/- only.

So this how we were billed some rs.230/- extra which was returned by the Customer Service desk only after we found the glitch in the bill or else would have gone home by paying those 230/- to the BB. It was not only with me there were 2 more customers along with who had came for the bill dispute. I clearly remember one guy had bought 2 shirts which was having an offer,“get 2 @ rs.499/-” but when he checked his bill, he too was charged rs.499/- for another shirt which was on the discount.

Being an alert customer, we always check the bill and then leave the outlet because of wrong transactions. There are almost more than 1 million customers who would have visited the Big Bazaar outlets across the city to avail such offers and even if I assume 50,000 customers with wrong bill or getting cheated and charged approx. rs.200/- extra then such outlets are making approx 1 crore extra profit from the loyal customers.

No doubt Big Bazaar has a good reputation around the country. Also they have good and branded products. But once a wrong impression stays a wrong impression throughout your life. I have got a bad impression of the BB outlet now, so next time “IF” I visit not only Big Bazaar but any other outlets will always make sure to recheck the bill before leaving so that I am not cheated again. I have already submitted the feedback to them on future bazaar website about the cheat so now lets see where does it leads too.