I want to highlight a transaction with OSM Handicraft which started off and proceeded very well until I paid money for their products, including shipping charges (2 saris for a cost of Rs. 12, 375). Since then the interaction of OSM staff with me has gone downhill after my order was delivered to me on Saturday, June 18, 2011 and I wrote an email to their Marketing Manager, Ms Shaileena Anand, informing her that one of the saris delivered to me was not what I had ordered and requesting refund of my payment for it. The sari design was the same as what I had ordered; however I received a yellow sari with green border, while I had ordered a mehndi green sari with brown border. OSM’s post-order-delivery customer service is atrocious, if non-existent. I am perplexed by their behaviour since then and consequently am suspicious of their intent in this matter of the wrong sari being delivered. The attitude of the Marketing Manager was to maintain that they sent the saris which I ordered, even as I insisted that one of them was not what I ordered. Since my word was being doubted I took pictures of the wrong sari (yellow colour) and emailed them to the Marketing Manager. She then said that I needed to contact the Stock Manager, Mr. Anurag Choubey, on Monday about the refund as she was not authorized to process the refund. I sent an email to the Stock Manager on Sunday, copying the Marketing Manager. On Monday I called the Stock Manager in the afternoon, as I had a relative’s shraarth to attend in the morning. He answered and said that he was on the way to Bhopal and would call me after he had checked in to the hotel there. Since I had not heard from him even after 3 hours, I sent a text message to the Marketing Manager and she said that she would contact the Stock Manager. I also tried calling him myself. After 6 phone calls to him which were not returned I sent him a text message asking him to call me. Yet there was no response. I finally wrote to the Stock Manager, copying the Marketing Manager, saying that I would return the sari to the Marketing Manager, since she was the only one with whom I had dealings so far at OSM, if I did not hear from them by the following morning, Tuesday since I was going to be out of town for a while. On Tuesday, June 21st., I called the Stock Manager but there was no response. I checked email till about 11 am. I had not received any emails or phone calls from both the Stock Manager and the Marketing Manager. So I went to the DTDC courier’s office and mailed the sari, addressing it to the Marketing Manager. When I returned home and checked email, I noticed that the Marketing Manager had sent an email telling me not to send the sari to her as she was not authorized to deal with it and threatening that she would not accept the sari and would return it to me. I wrote to her and said that I would like an amicable resolution to this, as otherwise I would have to address this matter in consumer courts. Hence I requested her to accept the sari and forward to the Stock Manager, as she was the only person with whom I had dealings so far at OSM. The Marketing Manager replied that she would surely forward the sari. I traveled to Hyderabad that day. On Friday, June 24th., I got a call from my father saying that he had got a call from the watchman at OSM in Jabalpur informing him that the Marketing Manager had instructed him to not receive the sari from the courier. She further instructed him to take the sari back to the DTDC office in Jabalpur and return it there. I called the watchman and confirmed this. He said that he was threatened with cut in pay if he accepted the sari which was worth about Rs. 5000. He asked me to talk to the DTDC manager at Jablapur who confirmed the return of the package. He also said that he had tried to contact the Marketing Manager by phone but was told that she was out of town, but heard otherwise from others that she was in Jabalpur in her house where the courier had delivered the package. I also tried to call her to ask why she had gone back on her word to forward the sari but I kept getting a busy signal or no answer or no response to any of my calls. Since I was able to make no headway in connecting with the Marketing Manager, I decided to ask DTDC to return my package to me, as I did not want an expensive sari to languish there. Since then I repeatedly tried to contact the Marketing Manager but the line is always busy or not reachable or there is no response. I finally wrote an email to her, copying the Stock Manager, on June 25th. asking for the contact information of the owners of OSM, since neither manager was responding to my phone calls or emails and I wanted to direct my request for a resolution of the problem to the owners of OSM. I have not heard back from either of the managers and I did not receive the contact information for the owners of OSM from either of them. I am still the reluctant owner of a wrongly delivered sari and have incurred additional shipping charges of Rs. 475 while sending the sari to the Marketing Manager at Jabalpur and then requesting its return to me.

I feel that I have been treated with disrespect by OSM staff as my word was doubted initially when I said that I had received the wrong sari. After being confronted with my pictures confirming that they delivered the wrong sari neither manager has had the courtesy to acknowledge and apologise for their mistake. It is now 28 days since I received the wrong sari and no one from OSM has informed me of what the process is to rectify the mistake. It appears as if they are happy to take my money (Rs. 5, 075) and get away with their mistake of sending me the wrong sari. No one at OSM seems accountable to the customer for providing them the best of service and courtesy. They also do not seem to have the staff to deal promptly with customers who want immediate attention after spending a lot of money on a sari and receiving the wrong one. The fact that neither manager has been responsive to my calls leaves me wondering if anyone from OSM is going to help me out of this limbo.

When I first saw the extensive website of OSM, with Shirdi Sai Baba’s face looking on, I thought that this would be a professional, businesslike and straightforward agency with whom I could have dealings. This experience has instead left me suspicious and distrustful of them regarding their motives in keeping silent so far about how to redress my grievance about receiving the wrong sari.

I surely will not deal with OSM Handicrafts again, as I DO NOT TRUST THEM ANY MORE AND WILL NEVER TRUST THEM WITH MY MONEY AGAIN.