In the early days, I kept fending off these calls saying that if I wanted something I would go online and order it, I didn’t want to be disturbed by their calls. Finally, I stopped shopping at Sangam, but despite my repeated emails to them to stop calling, I continue to get sales calls at all hours.”

When we forwarded the story to Sangam, the Unilever executive explained their systems, thanked us for the feedback, said there was a Do Not Disturb facility available (which obviously did not work for Gupta) and said it had got in touch with the customer.

But then Gupta’s is not an isolated case. My own experience with Orange, the mobile service provider, which had offered a similar service a few years ago, was similar. It was discontinued within months after it started.

In fact, companies have a lot of learning to do with regard to their in-store shopping and telephone shopping as well. For instance, Subhiksha, a south-based chain is currently making waves in Mumbai with its price challenge to existing retailers, but apparently finding it tough to deliver on quality. Prabha, a customer from Andheri has reported a horror story about delays, bad quality and no availability on a yahoo consumer group.

Reacting to this, R Balakrishnan, a regular user of the store at Chennai says, Subhiksha has “always been like this on delivery. The only thing they are good for are the branded products, which you usually buy for your monthly requirements and give you good discounts on MRP for soaps, generic medicines. But Subhiksha is not for those who value shopping as an experience.

... contd.