India Today / BIG CIty Promotions Movie Voucher. Review on Indiatodaybookclub

I had recieved a Movie Gift Voucher from BigCity Promotions/India Today by paying 588.00 INR.

1) In booklet it is mentioned to send SMS of the booklet number to activiate the offer but where it is mentioned can I know .Finally when I called the customer care number 080-40554850( phone will be received atleast after 10 min only after keeping on Hold just to increase the phone bill) .

Customer care person itself not clear which booklet number has to sent and she says send SMS to 097430 55945 with message "INDIATODAY Booklet number" I asked her first let me know where is the booklet number and she is not sure about that and said will be calling after some time but I never recived an call from your side.(Confusion is booklet number of the invoice or they are voucher number).

Finally just to check my luck I had sent SMS to 097430 55945 with Book ID M1988( which was very diffiult to read taht it was "I" or "1" in M1988 with such very low quality of Invoice printing) finally it was correct.

I had called customer care(which will be picked only after 5-10 min kept on hold to increase the phone bill again) again to check that did they receive the message and activated my booklet.Finally they confirm activated on 27-05-09.Means only three more days left to use first voucher as per terms and conditions

2)I had called customer care next day to book the ticket for saturday 30-05-09, movie which I want to see is not located in there selected theaters, so finally I couldnt book the ticket through movie voucher.

3)Again in june when I had called up to book a movie ticket this time again new intresting point they said, everytime you book a movie you need to send an SMS of Voucher ID.Where the hell all these details are provided that you had to send everytime whenever you have to book a ticket.Any way I had sent SMS and called nextday, trouble starts again here they cant book a movie ticket for new releases because of high rush.There excuse here is ony 2-5% of movie tickets are alloted to this movie voucher so it will be booked very quickly so it is not possible if you call very lately on thursday for new relase of friday.

4)In June ending keeping in mind that I had to call early to book a movie ticket for new release I had called up on wednesday itself this time there excuse is new movie list is stil not updated in our database so we cant book a movie for new release.

5)Everytim you call they say two things in same a)sir it is not possible on weekends can you go on weekdays please b)everytime when you request to connect the call to manager same responce "Manager went for Lunch" any time you call morning, afternoon, evening same reply "Manger went for Lunch".

6) On JULY 16 Thursday I had called again to book movie tickets for movie "The Proposal" for 4.45 Pm Sunday show.They took all the details including the credit card number by saying that this is new system sir now we need credit card detals also to book the ticket, then they said ok sir we will call you saturday regarding booking confirmation because only one day before we will book the tickets.I said ok and called immediately to their head office number 08040554800, receptionist said manager is not available as usual, and I said to call back but the manager had never called back.

So I had waited till saturday evening but no one had called regarding booking details, I had called the help line number and head office number no one will picks the phone because " Office will be closed on Saturday and sunday".If office will be closed on saturday how do they call back the customers on booking details if the show is on sunday and as per their rules they will call one day before .

"God Knows"

I had called on 20 July Monday to inquire about why they had not called on Saturday regarding booking confirmation, they says "sorry mistake was done sir can I book a ticket for you now sir" that also on weekdays not on weekend so I can apply for a leave in office and go for movie on this idiots movie voucher , .I had said need to talk to manager they said ok and kept call on hold, after 5 min they had disconnected the call.After some time again I had called head office to talk to manger directly after keeping call on hold for 5 min they had finally connected to manager.This manager says why you had not called on Saturday regarding this our lines will be opened on Saturday from 10 AM to 1 AM.Now what to say to this idiots.

7)Point 6 had repeated again on immediate next weekend 24th july, this time was the highest point of frustration compare to all my previous experience, they had passed on my call to different people and I had explained all the above story for nearly 7 times and they had finally disconnected.No one had called back regarding ticekts booking next day.Now I had stopped calling.

Why all these conditions are not clearly mentioned in the movie vocuher, did I call to buy movie vocuher, you india today idiots/big city promotions had called several times a day that sir please take pease take it it will be very useful.

One more point bigcity promotion uses https://bookmyshow.com website only to book the ticket.If movie/theatre is not shown in this website then tehy wil not book the movie ticket.But one one more thing here there was a situation movie to be releases on friday may showup in bookmyshow by tuesday it doesn't mean indiatoday/bigcity will book the ticket because there database will not be updated till thursday but by thursaday all the tickets will be soldout .

In booklet it is mentioned that customer care lines will be open on Saturday, but when I had enquired regarding this they said lines will be closed on Saturday.

If the movie tickets available also they cant book it immediately they need 2-3 hours time for all the things to check and book a ticket by manager (generally who will be in lunch every time).so never expect to book a ticket after going to theater through movie voucher .

You pay 588.00 INR for movie vocuher and pay 1000 INR for Phone Bill.

When you ask why you keep a call on hold for long time they say we get lot of calls from all over India so it will take time, if they don't have enough infrastructure to handle the calls then why do you sell offers.

Below is the address and contact for bigcity

Big City Promotions

No : 10

C Wing

Mital Towers

MG Road

Bangalore : 560001

Email : feedback@bigcity.in

Telephone : 080 4055 4800

Fax : 080 4055 4801

Regards,

Rajendra