Golden Stones

Have you ever heard of stones made with gold ? This is the story...

This Akshaya tritiya day we purchased a gold necklace from a famous jewelery in T Nagar, Chennai weighing around 18.2 grams. They charged us a flat rate of Rs 873/gram (that day's gold rate) for entire ornament including the stones !!! Totally Rs 18,613/- including VAT and Rs 2,540 wastage. ie around Rs 1,022 per gram. That necklace was full of stones. I think at lest 8 gram was stones. For those cheap stones also they charged us in gold rates !! That too they had a offer like "No stone charges".

So no stone charges means stones will be charged at gold rates !!!

Unfortunately we didnt notice this at the time of purchase.. After reached home when checking bills I found out this. Then immediately i called up the shop. They told us they cannot reduce the stone weight. I told them we have bills from famous jewelleries in Kerala which clearly mentioned stone weight and finally reduced stone weight from overall weight. Then they were telling in kerala you will not get 916 ornaments. This same shop we exchanged a kerala made ornament on same day and they paid it in 916 rates !!

Next day we went there and told them to either reduce the stone weight or give us a replacement. Finally they agreed to give a replacement and we exchanged it with another necklace without stones.

Jewelleries are coming up with different tricks to attract customers for golden days like Akshaya Tritiya. This shop also was having offers like No Making Charges, No Stone Charges, Discount on Diamond Jewelleries etc.

We checked with our old jewellery bills from kerala and there is no wastage for new jeweleries. So I think here with No Making Charge offer they are collecting the making charge as "Wastage".

Indian Railways

See how Indian railways is treating its customers. This photo was taken when we visited Kerala last month in Chennai-Trivandum Express. Four nails were fixed like this just above our berth (side berth). We were traveling with our 3 year old daughter. If she stands up then it will hit her head. We complained it to the Ticket Examiner but he said it will not create any harm.

While our return trip also we had a bad experience at Mavelikara Railway station. It was raining and some how we reached railway station around 6pm for 7:10 train. We were waiting near the new LCD display screen to find out our coach's position. It was still showing Trivandrum mail's details which left the station around 4:30pm. After some time that also switched off. Nothing was on the board also. We waited till seven and then enquired with station master. He was so arrogant and was telling "Railway spent lakhs of rupees for the LCD display.. then why you people are asking me". Then we said the display is not working.. He was not ready to believe our words. After some time other passengers also said that it is not working.. Then he changed his stand. He told us "I am not an astrologer to find out it is working or not, anyway that display is not made from your money so why you are complaining".

In this kind of situation what we can do... LCD display is not working, nothing on the blackboard, no enquiry counter, no announcement and station master is shouting on us... what a poor service.. From other passengers we found out that train is coming in the second platform. The entire railway station was running with 3 tube lights (2 platforms). it was so difficult to move from one platform to other with luggage and a kid in little light..

We were waiting in the second platform and finally we heard an announcement at 7:30pm ( for 7:10pm train !!!) telling that train is one hour late... Finally train reached station around 8:30pm.