Congrats! You have won a cheap teacup

Consumers are furious with marketers who fool them into buying holidays

Consumers are furious with marketers who fool them into buying holidays

Bangalore's marketers have thought up wickedly clever ways to sell holiday packages, but customers are far from amused.

In fact, they are hopping mad.

Call 1
Caller: Hello, is this Mr Ramesh?
Ramesh: Yes, speaking...
Caller: Congratulations! You are the lucky winner of a prize. Please collect your gift before 5 pm today. You should come with your wife, and if you are unmarried, send your brother and his wife. Thank you.

Call 2
Caller: Sir, I am calling from Birla Sun Life Insurance Corporation, BTM Layout (Santosh 96113 24346). Your cell number has won a Rs 1 lakh insurance bond. We would prefer if you came with your wife and collected it or the bond will be negated.

Call 3
Caller: Good afternoon, sir. This is Naveen (080 42822180) from Country Vacations. You had dropped your card at Big Bazaar at Mysore Road, and you have won a holiday gift voucher. Please come with your wife and collect your gifts today or you will be disqualified.

What next?
Once the receiver of such a call goes to where he is called, the agency herds him into a hall and sales execs talk non-stop about a product or a holiday package for at least an hour. Basavaraj Harti, who lives in Yelburaga (443 km away and an overnight drive from Bangalore), got a call saying he had won insurance worth Rs 1 lakh.

He was ready to spend Rs 600 on his bus fare to come to Bangalore,u00a0 and spend a similar amount on his travel expenditure. He would also have paid towards the rent of a room. He gave up the plan when a friend told him he was being conned. Santosh, the caller, told MiD DAY he only calls people from Bangalore, and not from far-off places. "We give a 45-minute presentationu2026 All they have to do is listen to it," he said. Country Vacation, a holiday club, promised this reporter a holiday stay voucher for Rs 25,000, and a kitchen crockery set. Santosh refused to tell this reporter what he had to do to get the bond. "Come here, sir, and we will give you all details," he said. Harti, on the other hand, said many in Yelburga had received such calls.

Bitter taste

Many who were lured into making that trip are bitter.

N Pradeep (name changed), who lives in Jayanagar, took his girlfriend along when he got such a marketing call.

"We were irritated, of course, and I saw one man fighting with them saying they had wasted his time," he told MiD DAY.

Saibanna Javalagi (32), who lives in Byatarayanapura, was similarly upset. "These companies call up gullible people and lure them to some place. Then they try to sell their products and packages."

Many visitors are impressed by the huge gift-wrapped boxes they receive at the end of a marketing session, but are shocked to see some cheap cups once they open it at home. Chandru (23), who lives in Yelahanka, just doesn't respond to such calls. "My some of my friends went with their wives and came back angry about time wasted in traffic. The police should take action about companies misguiding people by offering silly gifts."

Jagadeesh, manager of Country Vacation (Shankar Math Branch), defended the marketing strategy. Country Vacation salespeople talk about a Rs 1.2 lakh holiday package. The persuasion is attempted at three levels, first by an executive, then by a more senior-looking manager, and finally by a woman who tries to leverage the wives' pester power.

He said, "We call people who are really interested and they go home happily with their gifts. Some may not be interested, but we can't be responsible for their time."

Protect yourself
The police aren't aware of the problem. "If customers complain against a company or individual, we can take action. We can't do anything otherwise. I would advise people to be careful about such calls," said M R Poojar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order).
u00a0
Police say
Don't go near people sitting with boxes at the doors of shopping centres, malls, food centres, exhibitions... And if you do, don't give them your phone number.

Mid day experience
Yesterday, reporter Manju Shettar went to a place near Shankara Matt, Basaveshwaranagar, with a married couple. In his words: "They kept us waiting us half an hour and then spoke for about two hours about their holiday stay packages.

"When we said we were not interested, they gave us some tea cups (worth about Rs 60), and a gift voucher to use which we had to pay between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000. We had lost four hours, and wasted Rs 190 on auto fare."