Consumers

In the wake of the Indian government’s decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from the market, and ensuing restrictions on withdrawing money from banks, the common man has had to grapple with considerable liquidity challenges. More than three weeks since the announcement, those primarily using cash as trading currency are still facing a crunch. ATM queues, paucity of lower denomination notes, confusion over exchange and withdrawal policies linger. For a citizenry used to working with cash, this appears as an insurmountable hurdle. They are just at their wits’ end. The government, however, has been pitching…

My father once told me, “Son, once you find a good barber and an accountant, you should never change them”. Well, that has become quite difficult this last week – my trusted neighbourhood barber doesn’t accept cards and I don’t have cash to pay him! The recent announcement of the government to demonetize 500 and 1000 rupee notes has indeed caused a major upheaval in my life! Our family also knows that we might be unintentionally exacerbating the “Digital Divide” in recent days. We used to spend quite a bit of our household budget on the local grocer, but have…

The process of Aadhaar authentication. Pic: UIDAI website The Unique Identification numbers of Aadhaar card holders are being extensively used by government and private agencies for authentication purposes, as we have already seen in an earlier article. READ: Part 1 of the Aadhaar story for an idea about how private agencies are using Aadhaar authentication system to provide service to the customers. There are 246 registered Authentication User Agencies in India, both government and private, which are helping organisations and individuals in executing the authentication process. In simple terms, they help the organisation that has placed the authentication request, to confirm…

How much are you paying for your LPG cylinder? Pic: Meera K Akankshit Kanungo, a resident of BTM Layout in Bengaluru, is a customer of Indane gas agency. He has a private LPG provider, Jyothi Gas, as a back up. The reason: Indane is not providing good service. Bills were not provided, refills were not delivered. There were mysterious bookings in his account, that never delivered any gas to his address. Unable to get refills when he wanted, he went for Jyothi Gas. He pays around Rs 850-950 including delivery charges, which varies every time. He is not connected to…

The price charged by the retailers in KSRTC bus stations are different from what is printed as MRP. Pic: Shree D N The retailers in almost all the bus stops operated by Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) charge upto 25% more than the Maximum Retail Price for the consumers. The shop keepers demand the excess charges and deny the customers goods on MRP, quoting additional charges for cooling, electricity and bribes.  Even a Rs 10 chocolate or a biscuit packet is charged above MRP. Most customers have resigned to the fact that the cooling charges on soft drinks are…

Nandini curd and milk packets bought on the same day. Both show different dates, with no clarity on whether it is use-by date or date of manufacture. Pic: Shree DN Milk has benign associations – of innocence, goodness and wholesomeness, unlike other (invigorating) drinks. But Nandini milk, marketed by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF which boasts of being one of the largest in south India) is calling those images of wholesomeness into question with tactics that flout statutory guidelines. KMF issues clarification, agrees to put 'Use By' on stamping Additional Director, Quality Control Division, KMF, has issued the following clarification…

Pic: Roopa Kulkarni After eating at a restaurant in Gandhi Bazar with his friends, Raghavendra (name changed), a resident of Basavanagudi, kept two currencies of Rs 500 denomination with the bill. The waiter who collected it returned red-faced and blamed Raghavendra as the notes were fake. “I somehow managed to use my debit card, pay the bill and sneak out of the restaurant,” says an embarrassed Raghavendra. Later Raghavendra dropped into Vijaya Bank ATM in Gandhi Bazar with his ATM slip, where he had withdrawn money the previous night. He was sure the forged notes came from this ATM. Without…

Revathi Anne Jagan buys only organic—from pulses, rice, oils to fruits, vegetables, dry fruits and nuts to snacks and fruit juice for her children. She used to go to 12 Degrees Organic in Banaswadi, but now she has switched to Organicz4u on Assaye Road that opened just a few months ago. The new store is more conveniently located, and what's more, on the route to her children's school. Not that the Banaswadi store lacks patrons. Revathi's neighbour Smitha K goes there still. Smitha too buys everything organic, including organic milk. Because just like Revathi, she too believes that the additional…

Clad in yellow-and-red, a vegetable seller sits nonchalantly on a chair in the middle of the road. Pic: Deepa Mohan Valli is a 45-year-old woman who sells vegetables on her cart in Ulsoor. Two to three times a week, she takes a bus from Cox Town where she lives, and makes her way to City Market at about 1.30 pm. With a budget of Rs 4,000 on each visit, she buys vegetables based on the prices. If the prices are up, she buys about two kilos each of assorted vegetables; if they are down, she picks up about five kilos…

  Nowadays, festival shopping in Bengaluru is no longer about rushing to crowded malls and grabbing that last piece of discounted product off the counter. One cannot think of a single product that cannot be bought over the internet. Sitting at the comfort of your home, you can order just about anything, ranging from electronics, clothes, cosmetics, jewellery, medicines, home needs, toys, books to even pets and plants. The online shopping fever hasn’t spared anyone. As payment and replacement guarantee are in place for most products, even kids buy what they like with the ‘Cash on Delivery’ mode. Sudha, a…