Hanging up my shoes

Taking in a pair of broken Reeboks turns out to be less than pleasant.

What do you do when a pair of shoes that cost Rs 3,990 malfunction? What does the company, in this case Reebok, do when you present that broken shoe to them? The pain of shopping in India is only clear when you are confronted with a problem. I had bought a pair of cross trainers from the Khan Market outlet in Delhi some time ago (the exact time period escapes me). After some time, I noticed that the sole of one shoe was coming off.

At this point, I decided to take the pair back to the Khan Market outlet to find out what could be the remedial action that Reebok would take. On reaching the store, the sales staff told me that it could take more than 15 days for the shoes to be repaired. Why would it take so long? “The factory is in Gurgaon and we can send it there only by a specific courier, and therefore it takes that long,” said the store manager who was now dealing with my queries.

“But that’s too long. I need my shoes,” I shot back. “I can’t help it, that is the minimum time that this will take,” was the unhelpful response. “Can I speak to someone senior?”

I tried to escalate the matter. The store manager got me a number, by now nervous about dealing with an agitated customer. I asked for the designation of the person whose number I had been handed. The store manager, chewing either a paan or paan masala or gutka, continued to be fidgety about having to hand out these phone numbers but I insisted. Finally, after leaving my shoes for repairs, I left.

I called the number and the person at the other end told me, “the factory is in Sonepat and that’s why it takes 15 days or more.” Gurgaon or Sonepat, can someone clarify this for me?

My next salvo at the voice on the telephone was why should a pair of shoes as expensive as the ones I had bought and ones that are meant for sporty activity fall apart? “Maybe you used it for things other than what it was designed for,” was the wise man’s answer. And this is what got my goat. This is typical of even the big multinationals in India. Blame the customer and never ever take responsibility for what is the company’s mistake. It’s hardly likely that a company like Reebok would dare to speak this way to a customer in New York or London, but here everything goes. I hung up, upset with my experience , wondering why I ever bothered to buy a pair of Reeboks.

Score: 3/10. The service isn’t world class

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