Sunday, August 26, 2012

Utterly unacceptable and rude service at Odyssey outlet on ECR Road, Chennai

Caveat: This is a RANT, but published so that my friends save some valuable time shopping books and gifts.

Yours sincerely was at the receiving end of utterly unacceptable and rude service at the Odyssey outlet on ECR Road in Thiruvanmiyur.

I have been shopping at Odyssey right from the days it started as a small outlet in Gandhi Nagar many, many years ago -- 17 years to be accurate when they opened in Adyar, Chennai.

Ashwin was one of the partners then, and packaged great customer service with an excellent range of quality products. This unbeatable combination resulted in great growth, a swankier outlet, and ultimately the retail chain being purchased by Deccan Chronicle holdings.

I must have provided Odyssey well beyond a two lakhs in business over the years -- in music, cards, gifts, gift certificates for my Quiz programs, gift certificates for birthdays, and most importantly books that I love to read. Being a regular customer, I was accorded a small but regular discount -- something extended to loyal customers. This continued up to my last visit on 26th August.

First off, it was shocking to see that the range of products had shrunk a lot. Books had yellowing pages and frayed covers, but were all being sold at full price. Service was skeletal, with very few of the old staff in place.


I still picked up books, gifts and cards worth Rs. 3,000+ and went over to check out. 

When I requested the usual discount at the time of billing, the cashier (who knew me as a regular shopper) called for the Manager.

I wonder how they ever recruited this man Saravanan for a Retail Manager role. First, off, he was officious, and totally unfriendly. When the cashier conveyed my request, he turned it down outright. I explained that I had been a customer since the Ashwin ownership days, and that I had provided very substantial business.

I later came to understand Deccan Chronicle has been financial trouble, and that they have recently shuttered their Express Avenue store. This might be a reason for stopping the discount program.

Instead of patiently explaining this patiently, Saravanan was in no mood to listen and became quite aggressive in language.

When I calmly said I could put this kind of service on Twitter, Facebook and my blog, he was very blase about this. He then retorted, 'You are welcome to do anything you want."

I went ahead and tweeted then and there, showing him how this message would have reached 125+ Twitter followers, 425 more through the automatic post on Facebook.


No reaction.

Worse, of the two gifts I had given for gift-wrapping, only one was given to me. I had to demand to get the other one that I had already paid for.

Quite an advertisement for customer service isn't it?

Marketing research suggests that the cost of acquiring a new customer is 6x the cost of retaining a loyal shopper.

Odyssey and its owner Deccan Chronicle obviously does not understand this.

If this trend continues, the future will continue to be very bleak for them.

The bottomline? Shop at this Odyssey store at your own risk!