This is the first post I am writing after the arrival of my new HP laptop. The events and hardships leading to its delivery at my doorstep inspired me to share this post with you!
Shopping was never difficult in India. When I needed something, the way to procure it was pretty straight forward. Just walk or drive up to the friendly neighbourhood store and buy it off the shelf. I do not mean to say that one cannot order stuff over the internet in India. But I still prefer the old fashioned way of shopping - taking a walk through the store, choosing a product that fit my needs, changing my needs to fit the price ("cheap and best" I mean! ;-D) and then probably trying to get all I can for the money I am paying! Jokes apart, I always walked out of the store with the satisfaction of having seen and liked the product and taking it home with me.
This trivial routine became very complex and tedious in 'pursuit' of a laptop here in Germany! You rarely find showrooms of branded goods in Germany. Companies prefer to sell their products either over the internet or through dealers. In case of laptops and other electronic goods, the popular names are - Saturn, Media Markt and the like. My search began with innumerable futile visits to these dealership outlets! When the product was agreeable, the price was beyond budget. And when the price was right, the product was not pleasing. I finally gave up and decided to delegate the job of choosing a suitable model over the internet to a trusted friend!
Having decided on the model with the right configuration, features and look, I embarked upon the all important step of making the purchase! Since my bank account was not set up yet, payment over the internet was a bit of a problem. After two wild-goose chases on foot to the HP centers in remote industrial areas of Böblingen and Nüfringen, several failed attempts to make the payment with a friends credit card and innumerable calls to the expensive HP Customer Care line (I dont think they really 'care'! At 42 cents a minute, I feared that I would end up spending close to the price of the laptop on these calls, trying to find out the status of my purchase in my non-native german!), I finally managed to do an account transfer to HP.
In this modern technological age and being an engineer, I feel ashamed to admit that I blamed fate for the turn of events!!! ;0D But now that the money had been deducted from my account, I started believing that getting the laptop of my choice could become reality one day!!! This was followed by some more Euros spent on german language trials talking with the 'friendly' customer care personnel and using reverso and leo in making sense of the information of the HP website, trying to track the shipment.
Just before all hope was lost, I walk up to my room at the Student Dorm one fine evening and there lies a little black box waiting for me at the door! Now when I work with this laptop, I often amuse myself thinking of those frustrating chases and smile foolishly! ;o)
Shopping was never difficult in India. When I needed something, the way to procure it was pretty straight forward. Just walk or drive up to the friendly neighbourhood store and buy it off the shelf. I do not mean to say that one cannot order stuff over the internet in India. But I still prefer the old fashioned way of shopping - taking a walk through the store, choosing a product that fit my needs, changing my needs to fit the price ("cheap and best" I mean! ;-D) and then probably trying to get all I can for the money I am paying! Jokes apart, I always walked out of the store with the satisfaction of having seen and liked the product and taking it home with me.
This trivial routine became very complex and tedious in 'pursuit' of a laptop here in Germany! You rarely find showrooms of branded goods in Germany. Companies prefer to sell their products either over the internet or through dealers. In case of laptops and other electronic goods, the popular names are - Saturn, Media Markt and the like. My search began with innumerable futile visits to these dealership outlets! When the product was agreeable, the price was beyond budget. And when the price was right, the product was not pleasing. I finally gave up and decided to delegate the job of choosing a suitable model over the internet to a trusted friend!
Having decided on the model with the right configuration, features and look, I embarked upon the all important step of making the purchase! Since my bank account was not set up yet, payment over the internet was a bit of a problem. After two wild-goose chases on foot to the HP centers in remote industrial areas of Böblingen and Nüfringen, several failed attempts to make the payment with a friends credit card and innumerable calls to the expensive HP Customer Care line (I dont think they really 'care'! At 42 cents a minute, I feared that I would end up spending close to the price of the laptop on these calls, trying to find out the status of my purchase in my non-native german!), I finally managed to do an account transfer to HP.
In this modern technological age and being an engineer, I feel ashamed to admit that I blamed fate for the turn of events!!! ;0D But now that the money had been deducted from my account, I started believing that getting the laptop of my choice could become reality one day!!! This was followed by some more Euros spent on german language trials talking with the 'friendly' customer care personnel and using reverso and leo in making sense of the information of the HP website, trying to track the shipment.
Just before all hope was lost, I walk up to my room at the Student Dorm one fine evening and there lies a little black box waiting for me at the door! Now when I work with this laptop, I often amuse myself thinking of those frustrating chases and smile foolishly! ;o)
