Change? Even rupee notes not available!!!

I went to my office by bus yesterday.

On the way to my office, I had coins to the tune of about Rs.15. When the bus was nearing my office there was not much crowd in the bus. I gave Rs.10 worth of coins to the conductor and asked him to give me two five rupee coins. I got a 1992 Cu-NI and a 2013 Ni-Br coin.

I thought I will first go to Landmark first thing in the morning. I reached Spencer Plaza by 9.35 am only to find that the shop opens at 10 am.

I was not prepared to waste 25 mins. (almost all the shops were yet to open). Rang up my office for someone to come in a two-wheeler and pick me up.

I was waiting in the kerb when an auto stopped near me. Two girls in blue T-Shirt with the words LANDMARK written on their shirts got down. One girl gave a hundred rupee note. The driver said: No change.They tried frantically. The driver said: Is this the place for you to change your hundred rupee note? By then another auto pulled up. Do you have two 50 rupee notes asked the driver to his counterpart. No. I took out a 50 rupee note and gave it to the auto-driver and took back Rs.20 from him. I asked the girl her name and told her that later in the day I would be coming to Landmark when she can return the Rs.30. She was all smiles and thanking me disappeared informing me that I can find her in the books section.

While coming back in the evening, the bus conductor was in utmost difficulty not having enough change. He said: If the ticket value is Rs.7 or Rs.8, I can give change. But for a Rs.11 or Rs.12 how can I give back the balance? I gave him coins worth Rs.10 and took a ten-rupee note from him!

Coin collector? No, not at all. I am a Coin-giver !!!!

Air-conditioner freebie

A lady rang up and seemed to be in a great hurry to buy an air-conditioner.

I asked here whether it is for her house. No, for my office she said.
What's the price of a 1.5 ton 3 star split?

I said around 35K for the air-conditioner, stabilizer, installation and delivery.

What about the free water dispenser?

I said: Offers are on MRP. The MRP for the unit is Rs.39,990. Give that and we will give you a dispenser too.

Oh!  She immediately hung up.

I was staring at my ceiling fan!!!

Chennai market for air-conditioners

The annual (12 month) sale of air-conditioners (all brands put-together) is around 300K units.

Around 85 to 90% of these 3 lakh units of air-conditioners (splits and windows) are being sold by retailers and the remaining by Sales and Service Dealers (the people who have taken up air-conditioning as their business and have toiled over long years in brand building ).

So the over-all outgo of machines from Sales and Service dealers has
gone down and with more retailers coming in (two days back I went to Mylapore and saw Reliance Digital near the Mylapore railway station)
there is hardly scope for improvement.

Sales and Service dealers would do well and hope to survive only if
they strengthen their man-management skills and administrative skills,
develop a good service team, monitor them and improve service oriented business for which there will be not dearth nor competition.

Stop sitting and start scouting should be the mantra.

Arrogance?

Some persons are arrogant, some have arrogance thrust upon them and some are arrogance personified.
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A government department wanted to buy a few water dispensers for their office.

I explained them about the features in detail and sent them the quote by post. Then they said: You should have addressed it to the Project Director but have addressed it to the Project Manager. Also you have written my name and phone number on the quote. Please send another quote. (Is not the Director a manager??). I patiently sent another quote.

Then they rang up and said that they are eligible for concessional tax.
I reduced the quote further to show the adjustment and sent a fresh quote.

They said they would place the order but reduce 2% TDS. (To the best of my knowledge there is no TDS for supply items (products alone).

We said it is okay as long as they gave the TDS certificate.

After two days they said their Director wanted to see the products (with fridge and without fridge) to decide which one they wanted!

I said they are welcome to come to our showroom to view the products kept in display.

Our Director will not come there and all that, bring them over here for demo.

I asked them to go to hell in a couched language: "We do not have such facility".

All through my business live, I have never dealt with government departments and you may have guessed the reason by now.

Have a great day!!