protest

Consumers of Kolkata beware of Hindustan Lever’s claims about PURE IT water purifier


Consumers beware! You may be taken for a ride.

The MNC promises that its PURE IT water purifier will deliver you germ free water, which is as good as boiled water.

It may not be drinkable though. At least not in the city of Kolkata.

The water filtered by PURE IT can at most be used for washing vegetables in 90% of Kolkata homes that receive hard and salty water for their daily use. PURE IT does not solve this problem. The MNC’s call centre customer service executives admit it.

All communications of HLL about this product, including press releases, advertisements, manuals, and promotional handouts, are silent about this issue. It amounts to the suppression of vital facts.

We need to verify the ‘Germ Free’ claim as well. Which Indian agency or lab has certified that the water treated by PURE IT is germ free? Ask for the documentary evidence (verifiable) before buying this product. The claim that PURE IT water is as good as boiled water is a subterfuge to fool the consumers. How do you define boiled water? Is it always germ free? How will a consumer know that her PURE IT water is germ free? And why should she trust a certificate issued by an American agency? We cannot trust Bush and his administration and we are being asked to trust the claims of HLL's American certification.

Also ask about how quickly a servicing guy will be available in case the product is not found to be satisfactory and what is its life in terms of years of use. 

It is surprising that the marketing geniuses of HLL are so blasé about making tall claims and suppressing hard facts. It is representative of how the minds at these MNCs work. They are so confident about their power to manipulate the media and the government policy that they tell lies and suppress important facts to make money. They are hardly bothered about the consumer. That is why after having sold a Rs.1600/- machine, they leave the consumer at the mercy of call centre customer service executives, who simply register the complaint, and promise to get back within 48 hours. More often than not, none calls back even after that. A hapless consumer gives up after pursuing the matter for a while. Everyone does not have the time and patience to go to a consumer court for grievance redressal.

What do you do in these circumstances? You can do the following: -

  1. You must black list the company by not buying its products or services that carry the name of that company.
  2. Express yourself vociferously in public about the bad business practices of the company.
  3. Try to convince your friends and relatives about how untruthful and unethical that company is and ask them to spread the word around. The purpose is to make the company lose at least ten thousand rupees for a bad product that cost you ten bucks.
  4. In case you come across the CEO of the company, tell on his face that he is a ‘chor’.  You should try spitting on his face or taking your chappals out and showing them to him. These are non-cognizable offences. None can actually arrest you for this. Why should you do it to the CEO? Because that is how you may succeed in drilling some sense into the corporate entity. The CEO is its head after all. Lower rung employees cannot be blamed. They work for their pay. The corporate entity is greedy. Remember Enron? It even cheated its employees. This also generates bad publicity for the corporation. The Board of Directors may sack the CEO who is tainted by your spit.
  5. If you are holding the shares of these companies, sell them off. Advise others to do that as well. How can the fundamentals of a company be strong if it resorts to suppress facts, tell lies, and cheat its customers to sell a sixteen hundred-rupee water purifier? Never get intimidated by the size and the power of behemoths like HLL and Reliance. Since they have greater propensity to cheat and manipulate, they also have as great a possibility of biting the dust. Remember, it is always the Davids who win. The Goliaths are born losers.
  6. You are an idiot if you really are taken in by the bullshit claims of the companies like HLL about how responsible they are as corporate citizens. They are actually your enemies. They are out to fleece you. They form cartels, fix prices, and kill competition to have you at their mercy. That gives you the right to work towards their destruction. You should do that with your entire might and hit them hard in your own small ways. Do it bit by bit. They can buy advertising and media space worth millions to propagate their lies and false promises, you have your mouth. Use it as much as you can and see the result.
  7. What you can do immediately is to forward this page to as many people as you can. Inform your Kolkata friends and relatives about this. In case you have bought the product and it does not give you DRINKABLE germ free water, bombard the customer service call centres of HLL with ‘Product Recall’ demands. Here is the number : 9230500500

Since you are reading all this on khullamkhulla site, you can be assured that it is not a trick played by the competitors of HLL. So, if any HLL guy tries to sell this line to you, ask him to shut the f*** up.