P.ORR.& Sons

Annamalai & I went on a shopping spree last afternoon. We had a list of things to buy and were stealing one hour of office time during lunch to get over with this. Since we had definite things in mind and all the shops were on the same street, blocks away, we shouldn't have any problems or delay. Or so we thought.

Having summarized that, now, I should say, shopping for a digital alarm clock at P.ORR & Sons was a tiresome experience! They had a good collection of alarm clocks and we chose the one we wanted in about 7 mins and were happy to have accomplished the task so quickly. Little did we realize then, that getting out of the store was a 45 min ordeal.

The sales boy (yeah, young fellow about 18 yrs) showed our choice to the old security and said 'Idhoda box venum anna' (Need the box for this!).
The security carelessly said 'Ange dhaan irundhadhu - Ulle room le paaru'.
The sales boy handed over the time piece to a sales woman and went in search of the box. After about 15 minutes he came back saying, 'Akka, box enge irukku nu theriuma?'
The saleswoman now carelessly said, 'Ange dhaan irundhadhu - Ulle room le paaru!' and she told the security 'Neenga poi paarunga'.
The security replied 'Paathaachu DQ/5000-34 model dhaane? paathaachu. illai.'

Malai feebly muttered 'Vera box le pottu koduthudunga, appadiye gift wrap pannidunga'
Saleswoman was walking out saying 'Oru 5 mins wait pannunga sir. kedaichidum'
Another 10 mins went by and now Malai asked 'Bill pottudareengala? box kedaikaradhukule?'

Now, if you, thought billing would have been done in a couple of minutes, you are wrong! Yes, it was computerized billing. The computer dated back to PC invention days and the billing system, running on old blue-green FoxPro, dated back to early days of computerization. That is not it. The person in the counter dated back to pen & paper days! Since the installation of the computer, he seems to have used only his right hand for keying in.

Malai put his credit card out as the person started typing with his right hand the clock model number. Now, it is not an automated process and once the model number is entered, the brand details do not appear. He had to type out the manufacturer (Q&Q). Q was fine, but for typing out Shift+7 to get the '&', he did some finger floor-gymnastics and finally got it. After finishing, he looked up, with a blank face and asked 'Credit Card a?'

He had created a cash bill! It has to be re-done for credit card, after some more finger-gymnastics, the bill was done.

Just then, the box also was finally found. The saleswoman, the boy and the security now accused each other for misplacing, not searching and carelessness. The saleswoman put the clock inside the box, stapled it up and then realized she hadn't put the guarantee card inside!. She tried shoving it inside thru stapled gaps! Malai said 'parava illai, thaniya koduthudunga' and we ran out! After all this, we didn’t have the nerve to get it gift wrapped!

To add to all this, it was a very hot day to be in a non-A/c store which had just 2 pedestal fans blowing out hot humid air.

There were 2 other shoppers on that hot afternoon, and they made a sales of close to Rs.3000 at that time!

Will I ever visit the shop again? Naaah...

Not sure if it was a bad day just for us, nor, do I know if all P.ORR & Sons outlets are like this. But, the store and the experience reflected the totally unmotivated, out-dated staff oblivious of customer service.