Con at the Great Pyramids of Giza.

After our return from our recent Egypt trip, as we unpacked and things came out one by one we realised that we were coned at  

Mumbai Durty free , and 

By an authorised curio, memento peddler at Great Pyramids of Giza.

At Mumbai Duty Free we had purchased scotch & chocolates. 

As that deal involved more money I followed it up first. To our gratification it turned out that we had made mountain out of a molehill. Made much a do about nothing etc etc. In short every thing was above board. We were not conned.

At  Great Pyramids of Giza. An authorised curio seller approached us. He was selling nice  looking statues of Sphinx, Nefratari and a Cat, Alabaster set of three pyramids. A bag thrown in. He tapped the statues which seemed to make a sound of solid 'thunk" He claimed that they were made of solid wood. 

After lot of haggling and bargaining , during which he even agreed to sell them for Indian Rupee. I said INR 600/-. He refused. I walked off. We got in to the coach. As coach was about to start he came and sold them for INR 600.

I was proud of my haggling skills. But he had the last laugh 

WE had fallen prey to an old vice 'greed'. We were CONNED.

And in this case no matter Alan or any one can talk to me till cows come home but they will not be able to convince me otherwise. 

HERE IS THE PROOF.

Those were not solid wood. It was my upper story made of solid wood to fall far such an age old trick.                          

They were made of paper mache

TRAVELLERS TO EGYPT AND GREAT PYRAMIDS OF GIZA BEWARE. 

Autumn woes? Any solution?

Harsh winter poses survival challenges for all species. All have evolved their own ways of survival. Some hibernate. Trees shed their leaves.

Though the new Avatar of trees with shining bright leaves is pleasure to behold, the process leaves problems for some.​ Corporation​

Safaiwalas every morning collect huge heaps of fallen ​tr​e leaves.

What to do with them?

In Nagpur they just burn them. During my morning walk I see small and big heaps burning all over. In my locality I told them not to burn them as it increases pollution. 

The heap was burned few days back. 

He posted me a simple question.​साहेब मग मी याच काय करू ?​ (Sir, what do I do with it?). I suggested a compost pit. Any one with little imagination can visualise the practical problems. 

How this problem is being tackled in other places?

Solutions may please be put up on social media​ and sent to Municipal Corporation of Nagpur.

NO Con at Mumbai Duty Free​.

This afternno, ​I had a call from Mr. Alan of​ ​customer Service​ of Mumbai Duty Free​.

It was a very long call. We put our points across. On his part he explained both invoices, step by step and line by line. His explanations were lucid. In the end I was convinced that, ​Mumbai Duty Free​'s ​​contention​ ​of ​being charge​d ​ ​extra ​for only one cotton bag was correct.

Explanations of how  Mumbai Duty Free​  was correct and I was wrong would not only be too involved but long as well.

To put it in a nutshell, in ​your invoice just check the number of "items" given below the "net total". If number of items given there and items you are carrying tally​, every thing is in order.​.

In my invoice it is 6. I carried 6. So there was no CON.

I had put my story on two forums.​ To be fair, this also must be put​ on the same forums.

 I would like to say sorry to  Mumbai Duty Free and staff.​of Mumbai Duty Free​.​

T​hanks Mr Alanfor clearing our doubts.​

Con at Duty Free Mumbai.

This has reference to my blog dated 01 Mar19.
I had also taken up the matter with concerned authorities at Mumbai Duty Free and Airport.
It is to their credit that all of them replied promptly.
On 05 Mar19 CS India, mail id - india.customerservice@mumbaidutyfree.net
Also as expected their investigation revealed that all the items charged in one bill were delivered and nothing irregular was noticed. What was not expected that they did concede that I was wrongly charged ₹ 20/-  for one one cotton bag. They offered to revert the payment.
How generous and thoughtful of them.
I know what I got and what I DID NOT GET. I maintain that I did not get HR Nuget( bye 2 get1free)
Copy paste of their mail to me & my reply is given below.

CS India	5 Mar 2019, 15:54 (17 hours ago)
to me, feedback@csia.gvk.com

Dear Mr. Velankar,

Good day.

Regards to your email, we conducted investigation with the concerned department and referred to the CCTV footage, where we noticed your claim of excess charged is partially correct.

You shared one transaction receipt # MDFS016100068089, wherein no error found. All products purchased including the cloth bag is charged correctly and delivered.

  

Further, for transaction # MDFS016100068088 (attach system copy), please see our clarification below.

In this transaction – all products liquor and chocolate packets, same as billed are correctly scanned and delivered. The promotional offer for purchased Hershey’s chocolates “ Buy 2, get 1” is correctly given.  

In the attach transaction receipt, we have highlighted the chocolate discount amounts (same as received) which sums / total to third chocolate pack (INR 816.67 +INR 1633.33) INR 2450.

However, one cloth bag INR 20 is incorrectly / excess charged.      

We regret the inconvenience caused and thank you for highlighting the point. Your email is also shared with our Training Managers for necessary action.

Having said that, please let us know if we could process the incorrect charged amount INR 20 against the cloth bag to same card account.  

  

Many thanks for your valuable time and we look forward hearing you.

2 Attachments

 

 

My reply,

PM Velankar <pmvelankar@gmail.com>	5 Mar 2019, 16:58 (16 hours ago)
to CS, feedback@csia.gvk.com

Dear Sir ,

 Thanks for your reply.

Chivas bottles do not enter the picture as they were in its own bag. 

In our cotton bag we had two JB bottles, three Kisses ( buy 2 get 1 free), one glxy jewels. Total six items. Those are all the Items we were delivered. HR Nuget (Buy 2 get 1 free) were not delivered. 

We had got above mentioned six items. No problem, But as claimed by investigating team with Hr Nuger (buy 2 get 1 free) it would add three more items. making total of nine items which were put in the bag carried by us.

I do not know how the cc footage was checked.   

Did the investigating team carefully check actually how many items were PUT in the bag by the staff ?. 

Did check they whether 6 items were put in bag  OR 9 items were put.

Proper check would have revealed only 6 items being put in the bag.

I am not satisfied with your investigation. Nor the findings that there was no mistake.

 There is no need to refund ₹20/ for incorrectly charged bag. Duty Free can keep the amount. 

 We have learned our lesson check every thing and not trust the duty free staff.

Yours PM Velankar 

CON at Duty Free Mumbai.

We had just returned from Cairo. Delays at emigration and Security had made us anxious about connecting flight to Nagpur. So we were a bit rushed when we went to the duty free at Mumbai Air Port.
On Passport : XXXXXXXXXXX,
Transaction No MDFS 01600068088  Date 28/02/19, 2:03:50 AM
We purchased,
1. Chivas Reg SW TWI CAB BAG  2X1L ,
2. GLXY 400g Jewels Mix
3. ADF Std Cloth bag
4.HR Kisses 400 Oz
Billed for fifth item as well which was
5. HR NUGET AST 33/38.5Z

ON Passport : YYYYYYYYY.
Transaction No MDFS 01600068088  Date 28/02/19, 2:07:22 AM
We purchased,
1. J&B RARE 1.0L, qty 2.
We were also billed for
2. MDF Std Cloth Bag.

How we got conned  
1. In the first case we were charged ₹ 2540 (-816.67) for HR NUGET, An item NEITHER ordered NOR delivered. We did not get this item dut paid for it.
2. Charged for TWO cloth bags, one in each bill but given only one bag.
I know we should have thoroughly checked the bill. We ourselves are to be blamed for being so dumb.
I am sharing this experience so that others do not get deterred by a foot and half plus strip of the bill or by pressure to catch the next flight and DO cross check the items delivered and charged before leaving the counter.
Transaction Nos of the bill included here.
I have no proof to support my case. It would be my word against theirs. However if the area is really covered by CC TV, play back of footage may tell what happened.