'Beauty free' shopping fiasco

Salon fails to honour Gift vouchers for beauty treatment handed to shoppers by a store it tied-up with, says staff members are on holiday and no time slots are available

Patricia, an avid shopper, paid Rs 6,000 to buy a hard disk drive from Croma a few days ago. She was thrilled when in return she received a gift voucher promising a 20 per cent discount on various services at a Lakme Salon, redeemable before December 31. She called Lakme for an appointment, but was told that there were no time slots available to accommodate her.



Patricia is not alone. Croma, in association with Lakme, had distributed 40,000 gift vouchers redeemable for various services at Lakme Salons till December 31.

Several customers found out that they would not be able to take advantage of this offer as all the slots are filled till the end of the year, when the offer also comes an end.
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Gautami, who had a similar experience, said, "I received a 20 per cent discount voucher from Croma. When I called up Lakme Salon, they told me they were booked. They said I would be accommodated if some other clients missed their appointments."

Staff on vacation

A staff member of Croma on condition of anonymity said, "We had a tie-up with Lakme Salon, but now they are not able to keep their commitment."

But Lakme Salon, while accepting a temporary staff shortage, went on the counter-offensive. It laid the blame squarely on the Croma staff, saying too many vouchers had been given away and that the conditions agreed upon for gifting these vouchers had been flouted.

But the Croma staff member denied the charge.

"We are not taking advantage here by trying to attract more customers with these vouchers but the problem occurred due to their lack of staff," said the Croma employee.