Nov
27
Airline charges extra for child, told to compensate
November 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Quite a few times, consumers get stuck in the dispute around being promised something when they are placing the order; and when they go for delivery, at that time, they do not get what was promised. This can cause them great inconvenience, and also expense; and it is at such times that consumer forums help [...]
Oct
12
Banks setting limit on withdrawal from other bank ATM’s
October 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment
On April 1, 2009, the RBI brought in a move that was supposed to remove the restrictions on using the ATM’s of other banks. Before this move, if you wanted to use the ATM of some other bank, then it would cost. These would include a direct to the customer for checking account balance, or [...]
Oct
9
Indian telecom tariffs operate on what is called as the pulse plan, which is typically pegged to minutes, and call rates are based on these pulses. So, for example, if the pulse rate is pegged to 1 minute, then whether you speak for 5 seconds, or whether you speak for 55 seconds, you will get [...]
May
16
HDFC Bank fined for ‘extra charges’
May 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Normally, dealing with banks is a hot and cold affair. When you have dealings with ATM’s and with over the counter in branches, things are fine normally fine. But when there is something that is out of the ordinary, that is when people have more complaints. This could be when there are some delays in [...]
Apr
6
Branded fuels – do they really provide any benefits
April 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
You must have seen this all the time. You go to a fuel pump, and they ask you whether you want the premium fuel (whether it is petrol or diesel); in some cases, they will tell you that the premium fuel is better for your engine, as well as for the mileage of your vehicle. [...]
Feb
8
The case of huge discounts on clothes
February 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Nowadays, there are a number of shops (primarily in the area of apparel and clothing) that seek to attract customers through offering huge discounts. So you have brands such as Priknit offering 80% sale on their jackets, Cantabil offering 80% discount on all clothes, Pepe Jeans branding a sale logo of Buy 2, get 2 [...]
Nov
5
Airlines charge extra to keep up with agents
November 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
For some time now, the airline ticket booking business in India has going through turmoil. As airlines are facing a tough time financially, they have told agents that tickets booked by agents will no longer get commission to the agents. The way that the business used to go was, when a ticket was booked by [...]
Sep
23
Another case, person gets bill for ‘ghost’ credit card
September 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It happens again and again. A person either has not accepted the credit card that was provided to him even when he had not requested the credit card, or he was charged for some amount where he did not make the transactions. Mistakes can happen, even though in cases of a financial nature, one would [...]
Sep
19
ICICI ‘payable-at-par’ checks
September 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This is about a seemingly big fraud that India’s largest private sector bank is playing on its customers, giving a designation for something, and then doing something that is directly opposite, just so that they can squeeze their customers even more.
I used to work in Chennai, and had an ICICI account over there (that was [...]
Jul
29
India’s pharma giants are famous for producing many low cost drugs for the developing world (an example is the provision of the life-saving anti-HIV cocktail of drugs that can increase the life expectancy of AIDS afflicted patients; the cocktail was pretty expensive, but when manufactured by Cipla, the cost had been drastically reduced making it [...]