Till this time “mishandling” and “yours truly” never
featured in the same sentence. Last week an attempt has been made to tarnish the
reputation built over years by representatives of Madura Fashion &
Lifestyle, the company that owns the brand Allen Solly. I have been accused of mishandling a jacket,
for Christ’s sake! By this post I shall make others aware and caution others to
be careful as this could happen to anyone. I could approach them as I purchased
from a physical store in a high end mall, I shudder to imagine how desperate who
purchases online would be.
We used to buy Allen Solly products as it is an Indian brand
and in the same time lending support to the Make in India initiative in our own
way. A premium brand is distinguishable by its willingness to accept its deficiencies
and addressing those to ensure total value to their customer. Little did we
know that Allen Solly in its dealing with us will demonstrate none of these
characteristics while pretended to be one.
The shocker came in the form of my Allen Solly Jacket which
I had worn sparingly for 3 odd months. A
casual jacket is seldom worn and more so when one resides in the Middle east where
the opportunity to use worm clothes comes once in a blue moon. After using it on a few occasions, I noticed
the collar of the jacket having a defect of peeling. Following winter, I took it back to the store
in Kolkata. The staffs were visibly embarrassed and decided to send it to
Bangalore for replacement, verbally assuring us that it was a manufacturing
defect and the company would compensate.
A month later the store informed that the quality team has
sent the jacket back and I received a letter stating that it was neither a
defect of the fabric nor that of manufacturing. On a follow-up email they
informed that based on comprehensive analysis by “Quality Care Cell” they
concluded that the damage is noticed due to mishandling of the product.
How does one mishandle the collar of a jacket that it starts
peeling off? Obviously, they did not
accept the product is of substandard material and shied off from their responsibility
of replacing the faulty product. At the very least they could have rendered an
apology for selling substandard material to a customer in the garb of premier
product.
I have made my decision not to purchase their products again
and would caution people to learn from my experience and be prudent while
making the next purchase decision. It’s another reminder for, “all that
glitters are most certainly not gold”.
I am reproducing the mail that they had sent
