Showing posts with label Koramangala. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Koramangala. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My Maruti Swift Breaks down

The old logo of Maruti Suzuki India Limited. L...Image via WikipediaThis happened a couple of weeks back. I was planning to drive down to the Kamat's Restaurant on mysore road (About 65KM from Bangalore on the Mysore Highway). Diya had lost her shoes and we decided that we better get a new one before we started on the drive. So we drove up to the IBP petrol pump in Koramangala, filled up the tank and then bought her a pair of shoes from the Kids n Gifts Shop. As we were returning home to pick up my parents, my car (Maruti Suzuki Swift VXi) suddenly stopped...i mean it just lost acceleration and power and the engine just switched off. I luckily managed to park the car on the roadside. I just dint understand. I tried switching on the engine but it dint budge. I was bewildered. I just couldnt grasp what happened. The car was having power, i could use the power windows, the viper but the engine just wouldnt start. I'd filled the tank up so there wasnt any question of low fuel. For a second i thought, maybe i filled diesel by mistake. But then i had paid the price of petrol, so there wasnt a question of filling the wrong fuel. I asked Megz to go back home as there was no point spending time in the car and not knowing what to do. I then walked to the petrol pump near Raheja Arcade and asked if anyone could help. It was a sunday and of course there wasnt anyone to help. As i walked back, i called Kunaal. He asked me to try calling Just Dial. I called Just Dial and they were of immense help. They provided me numbers of 24 hour breakdown services in koramangala. In the next couple of minutes i got a call from one of them and they offered to send one of their mechanics to check the car. I immediately told OK and got the mechanics mobile number. He was on Airport road and told it would take about 45m to reach my car. I decided to wait. As i rummaged through my documents, i realised i had all the phone numbers of Mandovi Motors from where i bought the car. They also had a 24 hour breakdown service number. I called the guy and he said it would take him quite a while to come to Koramangala and that it would be better if i called the call centre and informed them. They would send the nearest mechanic. I was anyways waiting for the first person and thought i'd try this option later or if things dint work out too well. As promised , the mechanic and his partner turned up in a van about 40m later and then started checking the car. After about 10m, they told that something was probably wrong with the Fuel Pump of the car and that petrol wasn't being pumped to the engine. I was completely shocked. They said they would have to tow the vehicle to their service centre. i wasn't too happy to hear that and thought i'd use the second option of getting mandovi motors to check the car. I asked these guys if they could tow the car back to my home but they weren't very willing and ultimately said no because i wasn't sending the car to their workshop. i then called the mandovi emergency number and he again asked me to call the call centre. Finally i called the call centre and they registered the complaint and told a mechanic would reach withing half an hour. Half an hour passed and apparently i gave them my phone number while i was using Megz's phone. So calls to my phone went unanswered. Meanwhile Megz got the managers number at Mandovi whom we had met during our decision making on which car to buy. I called him and Mr Samrat was very helpful. He advised me to give the car only to Mandovi (Also because its registered in my company's name) and told he would talk to the Mandovi emergency guy (by the name John) . I called John again and asked him for a rough time when he could attend to my car. He said it would take about 1.5 hours, so i went back home, had lunch. Called John again and he said he would reach in 15m. I took an auto to get to my car and J arrived as expected. John and his partners rechecked the car and confirmed the suspicion . T fuel pump did seem to be the problem and they had to tow the car. They said they would tow it to Wilson Garden where Mandovi Motors has a workshop. They provided me the service document and then i came back home heavy hearted not knowing what had gone wrong. It less then 2 years since i bought this car and it never had given me any problem whatsoever. I just couldnt belive for the fact that something had gone so wrong.
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Thursday, June 19, 2008

HP Cartridge cost , Pricing and ink levels

I have an HP All-in-one C3188. Its proved to be a worthy buy and i have used it quite a bit. My cartridge's ink seems to be very low now. First thing, i wasn't able to make out the current ink level on the cartridge. On right clicking the HP Printer icon, on the "Printing Preferences" menu, on the features tab, i can see a "Printer Services" button. This button doesn't work when i click on it. Well anyways, i decided to buy a new cartridge. There were 2 options, buy a new one or refill the older oner. I guess the latter is the unofficial way of doing it. I enquired at the BDA complex in Koramangala. There are 4-5 stationary shops there and one of them refilled Black cartridges at Rs125/- and coloured ones at Rs 300/-. As i walked way after the enquiry, he called out for me and said, he would refill both at Rs 350/-. The enquiry for a new cartridge numbers 851 (Apparently i was enquiring for the wrong number, i should have been asking for the number 850 which is compatible with the C3188) was surprising. I got 5 different prices from 5 different shops within the same BDA complex building. Prices varied from Rs 740 to Rs 825. I of course ended up buying the Rs 740 one and then later realized that it was not the correct cartridge. I ended up buying the correct one for 675/- only to later realize that the HP website was offering one for about 8-10 rupees lesser. I'm sure if i'd gone through the entire procedure of finding prices again, i would have got a better deal. This reminded me of the lecture by Dr Preston of Yahoo which i attended at the Leela Palace, Bangalore some months back. A very insightful talk about pricing.
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