Godrej Interio. Review on Godrej Industries Limited

Prologue:

One day Sridhar anna and self were having a small party at my residence. We were happily discussing various topics under the moon, obviously during night time. Suddenly Sridhar anna collapsed along with the Lavina chair giving way. Luckily destiny had better things in store for him, otherwise I would have to take him to a hospital for a broken hip joint or ribs.

Now coming back to the brass tacks, we visited Godrej Lifespace in August 2006 and inspected various products on the offering. Our main concern was durablility of the product rather than looks of the product, that is what Godrej meant to us as a consumer. We selected Lavina dining table with 6 chairs, Steel double cot with 6x5 feet, Slimline 3 door cupboard with mirror and a dressing table. An estimate of all the ordered goods was furnished by the Godrej salesperson. We enquired regarding the delivery of the products, their standard reply was ASAP. We drew a DD or pay order towards full payment of the material which was approximately 42 K in favour of Godrej and remitted the same with 3 days.

Our travails with the Godrej way of servicing the customer started. After 3 days I rang up to the concerned salesperson with whom I struck the deal, to my surprise he uttered that in due course the delivery will be effected. Again after two days when I checked up the billing sales person ( executive ) revealed that the concerned salesman has taken off on leave for his marriage. Ok I wanted to know if he is on his honeymoon I do not want to disturb him. She confirmed with next two days our materials will be delivered. Of course after two days the dented slimline cupboard and our double cot was delivered. Again after two days an outsourced mechanics arrived to fix up the slimline and cot. After fixing we noticed the dent of the cupboard, we asked him and he said it is a defective piece. The locking mechanism of the cupboard too was defective. Than an inspector was deputed to certify replacement. The replacement took 3 months to arrive from Mumbai. We understand the delay since it has to be indented and than manufactured.

Our experience with the cot too is funny. Being in the mattresses business I understand that a RC coir mattress requires a firm support, but Godrej sales person advised me to use a mattress without a plywood. The cot was squeaking with a foam mattress of Sleepwell and it was a horror to sleep with nightmarish metallic music as one rolls over. If one has a sexual encounter on such a rattling cot you can imagine the symphony it generated. Lol. I ordered for a classical heavy rubberised mattress from Sunidra, where my friend was working. I thought my problem of sleeping with metallic harmony would be over but alas it persisted with lesser degree. Than I had to order a plywood support for the cot. This helped me solve the noise problem to 90% satisfaction.

But the horror of dining table chairs is still haunting me. One by one chairs collapsed despite rare usage during parties. We have long given up the luxury of having dinner on the dining table, I now have it on my computer table and my wife on the sofa. The dining table and chairs were delivered after a month and half. Now my friends are shocked what type of Godrej chairs are manufactured, the entire design is faulty otherwise how will a steel chair collapse, if it cannot bear 90 kg weight what is the use of going for Godrej. I am only hoping against hope for solutions .

Otherwise one day while the shareholders are meeting in their AGM I plan to donate the chairs to the chairman of the company with best compliments.With regard to the dressing table the product was never delivered. We had to collect our refund. Overall if you want to experience how marketing should not be undertaken than go for Godrej, on the hindsight you may have many more capricious stories to tell to the world. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience of buying Godrej and living with them. I would like to thank my stars, since the price of Slimline has shot up from Rs 12000 to 18500, at least I ended up saving 33% for an early decision. Slimline was worth our investment.

Disclaimer : All the above experiences have been sent to the company in writing, I got a loyalty card from the company in response but resolution to the collapsed chairs 4 in nos and rest 2 is also on the verge of collapse is overdue. The salesmen who sold me the products is still on honeymoon I suppose.

Update : One Ms Shilpa has written to me after Shalu has forwarded the complaint to them, she asked me for my address and contact no, I have forwarded the same. Waiting for resolution

Currently I am a shareholder of the company, still I have to undergo this horror of an experience without resolution, I shudder to think of ordinary customers