Sample this, One of the largest logistics player in the Indian Market is DTDC and their punchline is "Delivering Value". Customers in India consider it the leader, even though DHL-Blue Dart a tad expensive is generally a better option and if one considers, value for money, then EMS of Government of India is a better bet, especially after the first hand experience encountered by yours truly while dealing with the top management of DTDC! To become a household name on the basis of sheer determination, especially when the Indian market was shifting from the postal services to courier companies, one has to acknowledge the grit and courage of the DTDC's founders, Chakraborty's (I actually feel proud to share the same surname till this point of discussion, but curse self, subsequently, the reasons you get to know after reading the complete blog) deserves a pat on the back for the same!
However, the feel good factor as an important stakeholder for DTDC, i.e. the customer is limited to that point in time. Subsequently, whatever is being experienced from the 18th of August 2016 to
till date and hopefully in the future (after looking into the nasty approach of the company and never say die approach of a humiliated customer and Indian citizen), one can safely predict that the company's services needs to be boycotted, in light of the unethical business approaches, falsifying and twisting facts, arrogance of the top management, trying to malign Indians, Indian ministers, Indian customers, Indian judiciary, just because they feel being a behemoth in the industry, they can do away with everything. The company is an example of chalta hain attitude is commonly referred in Hindi.
The starting of the episode can be read from this link below-
The communication between the top management of DTDC and the customer can be read from the link below-
If you analyze the communications the customer had with the top management of DTDC and relate with the happenings that had been experienced by the customer, one can conclude the culture of the so called behemoth, is full of "I CARE A DAMN FOR ANYONE" and this reflects the fact that the company has forgot its humble beginning, just because they presume they cannot be dethroned from numero-uno status, as there is no other competitors in India! Well wishful thinking has no ends though!
The CMD tendered an unconditional apology, with an assurance to get into the root cause, never to surface again till date. He handed over the mantle to his daughter, who is supposed to be the director of customer complaint and from her approach, her language, way of communication, it is apparent she has an approach of "my way or high way", "care a damn for Indian citizen, for Indian Ministers, for Indian laws"! The company thinks they are good in communicating with a customer via phone or through emails, but as the evidence assimilated by the customer of all the communications that have taken place, so far, DTDC in fact looks silly, as they have a myopic approach into everything. For DTDC it is buying time to cover up mistakes, completely deny blunders saying they are mistakes till the time they are produced evidence showing their stories are good for comics and does not fit into corporate practices and dealings. No wonder so many customers have placed their poor experiences in the web, however, the company knows it very well, people do not have time to follow-up on those complaints to take them to the logical end and therefore, the show of arrogance is evident from the top management. But, they might ignore the fact that exceptions are always there, in the world around them!
The daughter of CMD, Arpita Chakraborty Mittra, director of customer complaint is perhaps the best case of a misfit in corporate India, but thankfully her parents being the promoter, nobody can dare to raise their voice against her, at least within the company. However, her sense of immaturity is evident in all her communications, as you can see from
http://manishankarthetrainer.blogspot.ae/2016/08/the-dtdc-saga-of-unethical-business.html . I wonder why the researchers and research bodies/companies/media houses do not conduct a study on customer satisfaction for DTDC vis-a-vis their competitors and why no studies are done to decipher the organizational culture prevailing within the business entity. Yours truly would definitely join hands with Indian media houses for such an exercise in the welfare of all Indian Customers, Indian Government and the State of West Bengal.
The director wants to hide her employees wrong-doing by terming it as a mistake as was done by her father, she wants to play around her father's unconditional apology, by metamorphosing it into an conditional way of negotiating with the customer, just because she does not want to compensate the customer for the loss and refund the money paid towards the service. She does not want to answer queries a customer has the right to ask, she does not want a customer to approach a consumer court
and she makes that a condition to pay back the refund after her company made a mess and a blunder of the business transaction. She throws tantrums and is arrogant, she is never humble and submissive, commensurate with her post, she never verifies with facts, figures and records before communicating with the customer, who has lost thousands of rupees just because of the unethical business practice of DTDC. She is an ideal package of a wrong person, in a wrong job, at the wrong time, only because everything is right about the promoters and she happens to share their genes!
Her style of management portrays novel management styles, hitherto unavailable in professional publications and also absent with practitioners of leading companies. Her way shows management by confusion, where she tries to impose her intended confused state of mind into the customer. This
is pretty evident from the fact that she does not like to acknowledge her paternal surname, Chakraborty in one instance, and yours truly being the customer on another! I wonder in a professionally managed enterprise, where there is no one from her family as part of the promoting member, she would not even get a job of an executive, leave aside being a part of the top management!
She does not want a customer to raise his voice against the unethical practices, she terms them as personal attack, whereas, the sequence of events clearly depicts, how it has only professional significance. She does not want customer to approach the consumer court for claiming
the damages done by her company. She is trying to bargain for a refund of the basic amount devoid of taxes (even when all these are not mentioned as part of the billing receipt of the customer), she is trying to remind her father apologized, but is not willing to accept the fact that he disappeared subsequently, showcasing poor leadership skill by the company masthead. If a father being the CMD runs away by giving the baton to his daughter, the so called director of the company, who is incapable personality-wise to fit into that role, one can safely predict the mindset of the organizational leadership and the culture prevailing within their fiefdom.
If one reads and hears the communication of DTDC top brass, their channel partners and their employees and compare with the behavior of the front-line employees, while the latter carries out their day to day task, one can observe the void existing between theory and practice for DTDC. Her (Director of Customer Complaint) conditional based ways of dealing with customers, especially when her company has been caught red handed in every step, while practicing unethical business practices, speaks volumes about the hidden objective of the company promoters.
She pretends to be completely ignorant when customer asks pointed questions, after a blunder is committed, where they were not mistakes, but unethical business agenda, otherwise, how can one explain her silence on issues related to mandatory information that needs to be a part of customer invoice, how can one deny explaining the rationale of two consignments sent from same place to the same receiver, reach in six days and another in two days flat! How can one see the standard operating procedure followed in one and completely absent in other? How can they cook up stories which are unbelievable to even an infant in one and does not do it in another? How can the CMD say he is offering unconditional apology when her daughter has put conditions even to return back the minuscule amount taken as delivery charge (devoid of taxes)? How can the CMD categorize fictitious information put in the tracking website as mistakes, when they are blatant lies?
The director has finally sent a request to the customer for providing his bank account so that the refund is done on the charges devoid of taxes. One wonders, why should the customer be asked to pay the taxes, when the services provided by the company was of no use to the customer? It clearly shows the moral standing of a company, which is only there to mint money from the Indian market, by hook or crook. The director did not respond to the customers query whether this payment of refund stops him from approaching the consumer court or not, however, the customer made it clear, that since the loss made by the company is huge and DTDC has clearly mentioned they are not liable to compensate the customer, the only way out left is consumer court. Being a customer who is always upright to the rights of the fellow customer base in India, it is imperative for him to spread the message of DTDC experience to everybody through social media, print and electronic media. Let a company like DTDC realize the impact of unethical approaches vis-a-vis their brand image and profitability. It is indeed surprising that DTDC has finally refunded the full money, i.e. 110 INR without deducting the taxes as well, as was being said by director-customer complaints. Probably, the top management has realized the impact the situation might have if at all after being caught on the wrong foot, every time, they decide to deduct the taxes from the customer, for whom, the services was just useless!
On one hand, leaders like the PM of India and the CM of West Bengal is trying their level best to make the country and the state as the best place to do business and rope in investments, and on the other such so called behemoths in an important industry like that of logistics are indulging in such unethical practices, where they malign Indians, care a damn for Indian ministers/leaders and does not even bother to consider Indian law with a mark of respect, which are to be followed in to-to. In such a scenario, do you think, India as a country and West Bengal as a state prosper? NO! But, we need to stop blaming the leadership of the country and the states, as it's basically these so called industrialists who are involved in decimating the Indian image, only for their ulterior motives. Their ulterior motive is not to encourage competitors as they know very well, once customers get hold of viable alternatives, they would never look back to such illicit business houses.
The punchline of DTDC says, "Delivering Value", but in reality, it is "Delivering Lies, Delivering Arrogance, Delivering Damage, Delivering Care a Damn Approach" to the customers, countrymen, ministers and other stakeholders of business!
Read more in news papers, social media and will keep updated once the consumer
court proceedings starts, meanwhile stay connected and think A BILLION TIMES BEFORE YOU AVAIL DTDC SERVICES!
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