It
was a rainy Sunday afternoon and since I had nothing better to do,my consistently hyperactive mind advised me
to do a bit of blogwalking.Thanks to my ten years of life as a blogger , I had
grown wise enough to figure out that
virgin blogs were the best places to do
blogwalking.So,I started off by checking
out some notable newbie bloggers listed at blogadda (If you haven't chanced
upon this section yet,please do it at the earliest.You may get acquainted with
some really talented newbies here).I was all set to click on one new 'promising
blog’ when I saw that banner- blogadda-quikr.com Free Shopping Fiesta. It
basically meant blogadda would pay for the purchase the bloggers(participants)
were making through quikr.com.(It’s amazing how these wonderful guys at
blogadda come up with innovative programs for bloggers in such frequent
intervals.Whetever said and done, their bookreview program for bloggers is the
best one IMHO).C’mmon which sane mind would miss an awesome opportunity like
this? I definitely didn’t want to miss it and registered myself for the program
within no time.
Though
I had seen dozens of their (quikr.com) multi-coloured hoardings stretching
across the length and breadth of the city of Bangalore with the catchy tag line
(buyer aur seller ka perfect matchmaker),had never felt motivated enough to buy
any product from their website .Actually more than anything,it was my aversion
to buying any 'used' or 'second-hand' stuff in general which had prevented me from
trying out their site.Moreover,at a time when the likes of amazon and snapdeal were
making me more and more lazy by home delivering whatever product I wanted (read books)
at quite attractive prices,why buy used
stuff,I always used to wonder. As it is often said,all good things happen
rather unexpectedly and my decision to register for the Diwali shopping fiesta
and try out quikr.com was definitely one such .
Days and nights passed by with no news from the
blogaddaguys.My dreams of 'free diwali shopping' were slowly
but surely biting the dust. It was again a hospital holiday and I was on the
verge of a nap when my chechi ventured to stretch her vocal cords.
“Nikhilesh,your gmail account is logged in.Shall I log out?I wanna
check something urgently.You have a new mail from blogadda,btw.."
“Blog….??”- the name was enough to wake me up from my deep
slumber.I found myself in front of the desktop within a nanosecond.There was a
new mail indeed. It read-
Congratulations!!
You
are shortlisted to be a part of the 'Quikr Free Shopping Fiesta' activity.
Opportunities like this come only because you are a part of the most happening adda for
bloggers :) Time now to shop and have fun. Here are a few things to remember to
make this experience a one to remember.
No prizes for guessing that I was jumping with joy after reading that mail.More than the joy of shopping something
for free,it was the recognition and accolades which my
blog had managed to win that made me ecstatic.I wanted to share this with someone and
couldn’t help dialling my friend and soulmate Arun.
Me: (trying my best not to sound hyperecstatic): “ Hi,Arun”
Arun:(Making zilch effort to hide his irritation;having known him
for the last ten years or so,I could easily sense that he was in the midst of a
post-coital nap when my call had graced his brand new I phone 6) "Yeah,tell"
Me:“I have been shortlisted for the blogadda-quikr shopping
fiesta.You have to do me one favour”
A:“What? So?” (fearing I were going to ask for his
personal porn dvd collection)
Me:“I want you to accompany me in checking out a few stuff” (My
linguistic skill as far as Kannada was considered being non-existent,I really
wanted his company while going to buy the stuff)
A:“Ok,will come”-he briskly hung up and got back to sleep. Little
did we know that it was only the beginning of an adventurous journey!
Once the initial phase of euphoria and enthusiasm was
over,the realisation hit me hard.What will I buy from quikr?
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| The various categories in quikr/item listing |
It was again my chechi who came to my rescue."Why can’t you
buy a couple of cots from your website?We want two – three of them for the
newly built room anyways"-she asked me one fine morning.We had just made an extension on our flat recently.I found it to be an interesting suggestion.Logged in to quikr,searched for cots in Bangalore and ended up in the following page.
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| The Ad listed in quikr |
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| The 'Cots' |
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| Pic-iii |
So,finally I decided to buy the three cots which was listed
in quikr.com, for the sake of my chechi.Logged in to quikr and figured out that
the product of my choice might be available in BTM lay out.Though my knowledge
about the geography and topography of the city of Bengaluru was still in the
rudimentary stage,I knew that BTM layout
couldn't be that far off from where I was staying.My hunch was right and the
place was quite near indeed
(infact,walkable distance from my flat).I called up the seller.A young lady answered my call, told me her
address and requested me to reach there and see the cots as early as possible(she
was getting a lot of enquiries for it,she said).Without much difficulty,we (Arun
and myself)could find the place.
"Madam,We had called
you a couple of minutes back,the ad in quikr…..”
“Yeah,come in”-
“See,I have got three cots to sell.”
“Can we see them,Madam?”
“Ofcourse,come inside”-she took us to the inner hall and
started showing the three cots which were up for sale.
My friend Arun is always pessimistic.I could hear him
whisper in my ear -
“Nikhilesh,the cots look new but I bet there is some problem
with them,otherwise why should she sell them?”
Perhaps sensing the constipated look on my face to be of bad
prognostic significance,the Lady told-
“I myself bought
these only a couple of months back.Unfortunately I won’t be able to use it much
as I have got a job opportunity abroad and am shifting to the U.S. by the 30 th
of this month”
"Yeah,these cots look brand new"-making frantic efforts to hide the embarassement.
"But 1200 is too much for each piece,I'll buy all the
three but you should bring down the prices a bit",I said thinking about
the prospects of buying something else also with the remaining 1500 INR if she was willing to sell the cots for 3500 INR(remember,the program was for 5000 INR)
"Ok,done"- (I was surprised that she didn't make much of an
effort to bargain with me,may be she was in a hurry to get rid off that stuff and fly to the U.S.)
We hired a career rickshaw,brought the three cots to my house and took the following snaps-
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| The 3 cots lying quietly in my flat |
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| Pic ii |
After having fulfilled my chechi’s ‘needs’,I thought I would
spend some money on my first love-i.e. books.Wasting no time,the bibliophile in
me started searching for ‘books in Bangalore’ in quikr.The search was fruitful
and yielded more than two dozen results.Shortlisted three ads from them(I was
in no mood to go to really far off places).Actually,the funny thing was that the
books listed in these three ads had nothing in common(neither their genre nor
their ‘condition’ were comparable).While the first ad was for books(on
spirituality) in somewhat good condition,the second one was for
crime-thrillers(which looked some 3-4 years old)and the third one was offering
an old,battered copy of an 18 th Century classic(infact what made me shortlist
the title nevertheless was it’s ‘rarity’,I had been searching for this book in
the local Library and online bookstores for the last couple of years and the
reply which I always used to get was a meek “Sorry sir,the book is currently Out-of-Print”).
I called the first two numbers.The first
guy didn’t pick up the call while the second guy(who had listed the rare classic)told
me in a sympathetic tone-“Beta,You are a couple of hours late”. I could clearly
make out that he was a wise,learned man in his 70 s and was genuinely sad that I
had missed out the chance to buy the book which I badly wanted.
Feeling slightly dejected,dialled the third number(the ad
was for a couple of internationally best selling crime thrillers at ‘attractive
prices’)-
“Sir,I saw your ad on quikr…….”
“……………………well,I’ll SMS my address,you can get down at XXXXXX
and take an auto to XXXXXXXX”
A few hours and a bumpy autorickshaw ride later,I was at his
home running my fingers through his rather impressive collection of
best-sellers.Though the books weren’t exactly in the ‘excellent’ condition as
claimed in the quikr ad,they were definitely in a readable state.There were
many well known titles and ‘you should by books by the same author as a set’,he
had reminded me.I was perfectly okay with that and X rupees per copy for the
set of books by XXXXXXX, made my mental
calculation.Had picked up one bundle and was all set to make it mine when that
realisation dawned me-I hadn’t asked him to quote his price.
“I will take this set,how much do you expect for this?”.He didn’t reply for sometime and before I could add anything further,he swiftly went inside and returned with a calculator after a few minutes.The
next couple of minutes passed by with neither of us saying anything.I was
almost falling into asleep when the guy slowly began to speak up in a
calm,serene voice-
“The printed price for each of these books is INR XXX,I’m
giving it to you at a 45% discount i.e you have to give me 55% of it’s MRP for
each of these books”. He looked at me as if he had just said that he was giving
me his 100 crore worth ancestral property for 100
rupees!
“What……???”For how much? (the bewildered look on my face was
unmissable,I persume)”
“xxxx.com are
selling brand new books of the same title at a discount of 50% in their Diwali sale.The price you quoted is way too much,that too for 3-4 year old copies “ -I continued,trying my
best to sound decent.
The seller was furious,his angry look reminding me of Amrish Puri in Indiana Jones.
“Sir,I’ll buy them at 40 % of M.R.P”-I tried to pacify him by making a generous offer.
“No,I won’t.You may leave”.
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| The product listed in quikr.com |
It was the piece of paper in which i had written the contact number of a seller who had listed his HCLmp3 music player in quikr.He was from J.P Nagar,quite near to where I was standing
then.I called him and the response was pretty quick.
“Boss,unakku Garuda Mall theriyuma?”
“Yes”-I replied
“I will come there with the product within ten minutes”
True to his word,he met me after ten minutes.Fresh from the ‘crime-thriller’
debacle,I was in no mood to prolong the deal too much.He handed over the
product.I switched it on,played a couple of songs and asked him bluntly (the
player though a couple of years old,looked quite new btw)-
“Can you quote your final price?”
“Okay,I’ll give it to you for 1500 INR/- and no more
bargaining please”-he responded matter-of-factly
“Fine,I’ll take it”
The deal took exactly twenty two minutes (thanks to date
with the aborted book deal, I was too quick this time),I reached home in
another half an hour and started using it while clicking snaps of it
simultaneously.
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| Me with my new MP3 player-the Hcl neopad |
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| Pic-ii |
My experience of buying from quikr was inshort,a memorable and pleasant one.The site was easy to navigate,the items neatly categorised, allowing the user to search for the product availability in the nearest locality of his/her choice.I should also say that after this shopping adventure, a couple of my misconceptions about quikr.com were also cleared for good.Quikr is not just about used stuff alone,there are brand new items also listed in this website (by dealers).It's just that you have to look carefully in the ad whether it's a used item or a brand new one and whether it is posted by an individual or a dealer.(if by a dealer,there are high chances of the product being delivered to your home,free of cost)
Thank you blogadda for shortlisting my blog for this program,thank you for the
wonderful experience and thanks a lot for making me an active buyer,once again.
-nikhimenon
