Helpline no help for fleeced tipplers

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Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsFor tipplers, who sought to register grievances against counter staff at liquor outlets who have been fleecing them, the new help line numbers introduced by the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation seemed to offer no respite.The TASMAC recently added three landline numbers for this purpose to the revised price charts displayed in all its outlets. Another toll free number has also been set up for the customers. However, those who tried the Chennai-based landline numbers to register a complaint, claimed that they found the line perpetually busy. Same was the case with the toll free number (18004252015).“Either the helpline is always busy attending complaints or this is being done deliberately,” quipped P Ashok from Sowripalayam.The new initiative was aimed at addressing numerous complaints from customers that they were being fleeced by those manning the counters . A couple of months back, around 130 TASMAC staff were suspended for fleecing customers. However, the menace, the customers claimed, continued even after that. Now, the customers were apparently being fleeced in the name of the revised liquor prices. TASMAC increased the prices of alcoholic beverages with effect from September 10.“They charge us extra on the pretext that the prices have been revised. I had to pay `75 for a 180 ml brandy bottle, although the price is only `65,” said a customer from Puliakulam.According to another harried customer, “The price charts displayed at the shops are for namesake, as we cannot read it from a distance.” While some outlets displayed the prices in front of the counter itself, at several others, it has been placed inside without proper lighting.first published:September 20, 2012, 10:48 ISTlast updated:September 20, 2012, 10:48 IST
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For tipplers, who sought to register grievances against counter staff at liquor outlets who have been fleecing them, the new help line numbers introduced by the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation seemed to offer no respite.

The TASMAC recently added three landline numbers for this purpose to the revised price charts displayed in all its outlets. Another toll free number has also been set up for the customers. However, those who tried the Chennai-based landline numbers to register a complaint, claimed that they found the line perpetually busy. Same was the case with the toll free number (18004252015).

“Either the helpline is always busy attending complaints or this is being done deliberately,” quipped P Ashok from Sowripalayam.

The new initiative was aimed at addressing numerous complaints from customers that they were being fleeced by those manning the counters . A couple of months back, around 130 TASMAC staff were suspended for fleecing customers. However, the menace, the customers claimed, continued even after that. Now, the customers were apparently being fleeced in the name of the revised liquor prices. TASMAC increased the prices of alcoholic beverages with effect from September 10.

“They charge us extra on the pretext that the prices have been revised. I had to pay `75 for a 180 ml brandy bottle, although the price is only `65,” said a customer from Puliakulam.

According to another harried customer, “The price charts displayed at the shops are for namesake, as we cannot read it from a distance.” While some outlets displayed the prices in front of the counter itself, at several others, it has been placed inside without proper lighting.