“The Loot” Marthahally, Bangalore

"The LOOT loots you!!!"

This is about the apparel store “The Loot” at Marthahally, Bangalore. I must say they have chosen an apt name for their store, as they intent to do just that, ie, loot you. Here is my account of a not so pleasant shopping experience there.

03/FEB/2008
I bought two pairs of Lee Jeans from this shop on Feb 3rd. Both had their waist size printed as 34, but one of them was a defective piece. Its actual waist size was 32. I realized this only after reaching home.

05/FEB/2008
I went back to the store and reported the issue. They said I could pick another jeans in exchange. I checked out their collection but couldn’t find any other pair of size 34. They only had blue jeans in size 34. I had already purchased one pair in blue. So the sales supervisor (Sadakat) told me he would get fresh stocks in a week and I could select after a week. He took down the jeans size, cut, color etc for tracking and assured me he would call me within a week. He also gave me a letter authorizing me to perform an exchange any time I wanted.

A week passed by...I didn’t get any call from Sadakat. I called him up. He said the stocks hadn’t come and asked me to wait for another 10 days. He promised he would inform me when the stocks reached. I waited for 2 more weeks. Same story again. He didn’t even bother to call me. I had to call him up once again. He said he hadn’t got the stock for size 34. I told him I wanted my money back. He said he could not refund the money and could only replace the merchandise. I told him I had been waiting for almost a month to get a replacement and that’s why I asked for reimbursement. I said I would have to look for other options like moving to consumer court or something like that. At that point he asked me to visit the store and settle the matter.

01/MARCH/2008
I went to the store to get my money back after almost a month. Sadakat started repeating the same story, ie, I can pick any stuff in exchange and he cannot return the money. I asked him to hand me a pair of 34 size LEE jeans which is not blue. He couldn’t do that and kept on repeating the same statement over and over again that I need to adjust and accept a replacement. I said I have waited for a month to get a replacement and since they were not able to get me the stuff I needed, I wanted my money back. After some more pointless argument, this guy went inside and sent another person who was introduced as the store manager Rafeeq. Rafeeq had the same set of stupid arguments “you have to adjust… pick up a blue jeans… our policy is that we don’t refund money” and some such crap.

Come on. How many pairs of blue jeans will I pick from the same store? How can a store have a policy of their own, violating the law of the land? How much more arrogant can a store manager get when he says “You do whatever you want, I will not refund your money”. That too when I have already waited for a month to get a replacement for a defective piece he sold me.

The Loot is one of those shops which is least bothered about customer satisfaction. They don’t mind being arrogant to you even when they very well know that they are on the wrong side of the law. I tried looking on the net for an email id or a phone number of Loot where I can raise a complaint. But none is available. I know one Mr. Jay Gupta is the owner of this firm but no contact details are available on net.

My request to you all, please stay away from this place and don’t get looted.