Hi All
I want to bring one fact into your notice that might look to be very small. However, when seen from the broader perspective, the figures are too big.
I have seen & several others might have also noticed that whenever a customer purchases item(s) from the Reliance Fresh store/outlet. If the total amount has some non-zero paise / fractional rupee figures between 51 & 99 (like Rs 213.67), the system rounds off to lower 50 paise (in this example Rs 213.50). That is, the customer gets the discount of 1 to 49 paise (in this case 17 paise). This is done because it is difficult/not possible to pay cash in the denominations between 51 to 99 paise. I appreciate that the company is not rounding to the upper one rupee. This case is only applicable when customer wishes to pay by cash. In case of credit/debit card, the exact amount is debited because that is possible electronically which is also correct.
However, in most of the centers like in Reliance Fresh outlet at E-18, Gautam Marg, Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur, the staff never gives back the 50 paise in spite of the fact that they have the coins in their cashbox that I personally have seen several times. Most of the people don’t care for 50 paise & the staff also remains not in a mood to pay this 50 paise. They try to keep 50 paise coins hidden in the cashbox. On asking, they reply we don’t have change. One might think that why I’m crazy in illustrating on such small amount as 50 paise. The point here is that the amount taken up by the staff is unethical that they flinch from the customer’s pocket.
Let’s check the figures:
No. of Cash Transactions
Cheating Amount
Per Instance
1
Rs. 0.50
Per Day Per Store (Typical Figure on Lower Side)
200
Rs. 100
Per Day in 453 Reliance Fresh Stores
90600
Rs. 45,300
Per Month in 453 Reliance Fresh Stores
2718000
Rs. 13,59,000
Per Year in 453 Reliance Fresh Stores
32616000
Rs. 1,63,08,000
Average Employee Per Reliance Fresh Store
6
Total Employees in 453 Reliance Fresh Stores
2718
Cheating Amount Per Reliance Fresh Store Per Month
Rs. 3,000
Cheating Amount Per Reliance Fresh Store Per Year
Rs. 36,000
Share Per Employee Per Month
Rs. 500
Share Per Employee Per Year
Rs. 6,000
This also clarifies, if the rounding to the next rupee is done by the company, then how much additional revenue it gets from the customers. Now, if you all check your last telephone bills, cell-phone bills, etc., you will realize how much revenue the companies are getting from your pocket out of this rounding off!!
I therefore, believe that Reliance Fresh & other similar companies should give the discount to a lower one rupee or carry forward the fractional amount to the next bill (cycle) (if possible). E.g. this can be easily done in cases like post-paid telecom bills. This will increase customer satisfaction & company can also illustrate this as an example of being an ethical company in the competitive market.
The author is a consumer protection activist who speaks both in the mutual favour of the customer as well as the company in question.
Tanmay Agarwal
(Author of this Article)
http://www.dentistswati.com/tanmay-agarwal.php / tanmay@dentistswati.com
