Caricature

There was an event @ my office yesterday. There was also a caricature artist and here is the result.



So does it resemble me ? What do you feel ?

a providential escape

For the past few months I had been busily looking out to buy a land in Coimbatore for my NRI brother ;-).

I had decided on particular site and was in talks with the broker, George Aldrien of Quality Houses(aka www.kovairealestate.com). Let me warn you that, although this guy behaves like real gentleman, do not ever go by his words. He almost managed to dupe us in a big way.

Even the lawyer I consulted, advocate Mr.Venkatesan(office at Arogyaswamy road, Coimbatore) had given a clean chit to the site. Just 2 days before the sale, we had a misunderstanding with the broker about the amount to be declared in the sale deed (which should be based on the government guideline value).

So my dad had gone to the sub-registrar office to ascertain the guideline value. Luckily for us, that proved to be our savior. We found out from the sub-registrar office that the land is under litigation and has in-fact been attached by the court. I called off the deal immediately.

If I had bought the land, I would be in a major soup now.
Phew, that was a real close shave and we were saved by God's grace.

Probably one good thing that I can take from this incident is that now I know what are the things to be verified when buying a land and also where I can get proper information.
So be careful when you buy a land. There are one too many people eager to dupe you. ;-)

Particularly, if you are buying from George Aldrien of Quality Houses(aka www.kovailrealestate.com) be really careful. If you are consulting advocate Mr.Venkatesan(office at Arogyaswamy road, Coimbatore) for legal verification, let me tell you that you would be better off looking out for a better lawyer.

Happy Vishu

After a long time I was at home for Vishu. Vishu is the celebration ushering in the start of a new year ( based on the lunar year) for the malayalees. So here is wishing you all a very happy vishu.

KPN dupes again

This has almost become a daily happening to passengers on KPN Travels. Although KPN's motto says Keep People's Needs, that is probably which they would never do even in their dreams.

I had booked tickets for yesterday's travel on an A/c volvo bus from Bangalore to Coimbatore ( 11:30 pm ). The troubles started off from Bommanahalli, Bangalore itself. The bus which was scheduled to leave at 11:30 pm, started off sedately at 12:10 am.

At around 2:00 am the driver and the cleaner jolted the passengers off their deep slumber announcing that the vehicle has broken down. As a result everybody was asked to get onto another bus which was a Non-A/c semi-sleeper bus. The Volvo A/c bus is a 34 seater and the semi-sleeper is a 30 seater. Now that left 4 people in the lurch of which I was a victim. On being questioned, the driver gave me the cleaner's seat with a nonchalance. With no other option at 2:00 am in the night, I had to bear the pain. But the driver said that we would be reimbursed for the inconvenience once we reach coimbatore.

Throughout the travel I was juggling between the seat and the bus floor unable to sleep. And by the time the bus slowly reached Coimbatore at 9:00 am in the morning, I was bleary eyed, totally tired and frustrated.

All the passengers got down at the KPN office in coimbatore and demanded a compensation. The staff displayed a callous attitude. And finally after 20 minutes of haggling and fight, the staff promised areimbursement of Rs.100/- which was the difference between the cost of Volvo A/c bus and Non-A/c semi sleeper.

But the staff as well as the GM failed to understand the point of contention. We were not fighting the excess money. Rather our point was the inconvenience and pain caused by the indifferent attitude. Hence we demanded a full refund as a penalty and compensation for the grievance.

Even though we took up the matter with the B3 police station, we failed to reach any conclusion. The KPN manager was adamant that only Rs.100/- (the difference in the ticket amount) can be reimbursed.

So finally we decided not to accept the refund and promised the KPN manager that we will approach the consumer court. Now I am looking into ways of approaching the consumer court regarding this issue. Will keep this post updated about the proceedings in this matter.

It is high time that we consumers woke up and teach these guys a few things about consumer oriented services. The consumer experience will improve only if service providers understand that consumers will no longer suffer silently. This begs the consumer to stand up united against such perpetrators of atrocity.

Based on my experiences with consumer court, I will also post about how to get your problems redressed from this forum.

Arise, Awake and Stop not till the goal is reached !

Map of my home using wikimapia

I just marked my home @ coimbatore using wikimapia. Just scroll down and checkout my location on google maps.

WOW ! I love Web 2.0 !

If you wanna try out some similar mashup just visit how to add google map to any web page.

Initially I tried using Google Maps API. But somehow it didn't work for me. Yet to figure it out. But hey wikimapia is so much more simple for this purpose.

buggy ticket kiosk @ PVR

Last week I had booked tickets for a show in PVR(Forum Mall) using the kiosk available near the ticket counters. I generally prefer to use the kiosks since it is less crowded and easy to use.

But I was in for a shock when the machine churned out only 1 ticket even though I had chosen and paid for 5 tickets. For a second I was even confused whether I had entered the right numbers. Luckily I didn't book 4 more tickets.

But then I should say that the support staff were helpful. They were quick enough to identify the issue and made amends for the machine's mistake. However, if I had booked those extra 4 tickets I doubt that I would have got any money back from PVR.

So the next time you book tickets through the kiosk you better be careful !