Fotofast pulls fast ones. Review on Fotofast, Pune

I bought a digital camera from Fotofast outlet at Aundh on the 20th

July 2007. At that time they had a scheme of providing 25 free prints

per month for 12 months. For this they gave me 12 coupons, each valid

for 25 free prints. Each coupon had the month and year printed on it. I

found that each coupon was valid only for the month and year printed on

it. To my surprise, they gave me coupons from May 2007 to April 2008. I

pointed this out to the counter personnel. It would not be possible for

me to have 25 snaps available for printing in the remaining 10 days of

the month, as a result of which I would not be able to use the coupon

for July 2007. Moreover, coupons for May and June 2007 were already

useless. Hence I requested them to give me coupons from August 2007 to

July 2008. In response to this, they confirmed that each coupon could be

used in the same month printed OR ANY TIME LATER. In response to another

query, they confirmed that the coupons can be redeemed at ANY OUTLET of

Fotofast.

Some time in September 2007, when I had 125 snaps ready for printing, I

went to the outlet with five coupons(April to August). The counter

personnel immediately pointed out that the coupons had expired. I told

them that when I bought the camera, I was given coupons of previous

months and it was confirmed to me that I could use each coupon n the

same month printed OR ANY TIME LATER. After consultations among

themselves and with some unknown persons on the phone, they stated that

as a special case they will accept the'expired' coupons, but they

cannot accept FIVE coupons at a time! On objections from my side, they

relented, but said that they can accept up to two coupons at a time. To

this I told them, "Okay, take two coupons now, print 50 snaps or me. I

shall come back after half an hour with two more coupons and then half

an hour again after that with one more coupon." After one more round of

serious consultations among themselves and with some unknown persons on

the phone, they finally agreed to accept all the five coupons at one go!

Having learned from this experience, I used the next four coupons one at

a time, during the same month as printed on the coupon. But for the last

three coupons, due to some or the other reason, including being out of

Pune for long durations, not having sufficient snaps to get printed, I

could not use the coupons for February to April 2008 till now. A few

days ago, I wanted to get 25 snaps printed. So off I went to the same

outlet armed with February 2008 coupon and 25 digital images stored on

my pen drive. Imagine my shock when the salesgirl flatly refused to

accept the coupon. The reasons given were: 1) The coupon has expired. 2)

It does not bear the outlet's rubber stamp on the reverse. To the first

objection I repeated the story and the fact that each coupon could be

used in the same month printed OR ANY TIME LATER. With regard to the

second issue, I told her that it was not my fault that the coupon was

not stamped. It was their fault, for which they are now not allowing use

of the coupon. She insisted that the coupon is not valid without the

stamp. Ultimately, after almost half an hour of heated arguments, she

consulted some one on phone and gave me the concession that the coupon

will be accepted provided I showed her the original cash memo of the

camera bought by me to verify that I had bought it from the same outlet.

Now she gave one more rule: "The coupon can be used only at the SAME

OUTLET from which the camera had been bought".

So I had to go home, search my papers of the last one year. Luckily I

could locate the original cash memo. So I went back to the outlet with

the proof and the other remaining coupons to get them stamped. Now the

decision they gave was that I could redeem ONLY ONE COUPON, NOT ALL

THREE, because all are expired and all do not have the outlet stamp. No

amount of reasoning helped. Ultimately they started stating that they

will not accept EVEN ONE COUPON. I had to insist that they cannot back

out from their own commitments. Since I was not prepared to leave the

outlet till they met my demand, they accepted only one coupon, that too,

after almost one hour of consultations with some unknown lady on the

phone, asking me to leave my phone number, giving me some phone number

for lodging my complaint, asking me to come back the next day etc. So,

the moral of the story for all of you out there:

Do not believe on verbal assurances by sales personnel. They will commit

anything verbally just for you part with your money and close the sale.

Get all conditions in writing, signed, dated, rubber stamped with name

and title of the signatory. Those of you having such coupons rush and

use them before they get expired or are rejected for not being

stamped! Do not leave such swindlers easily.