Unpleasant experience at Shrimati's music store in Berkeley
megh
I am asking because I had quite the unpleasant experience at Shrimati's
today. The owner was very rude and behaved totally unprofessionally. I
am not going to spend my hard earned money at this store anymore. I will
definitely not recommend this store to anyone either!
I understand that one experience should not be used to judge someone,
but something tells me that my experience with Shrimati's may not be
unique. Considering that there are only a handful of good stores in the
US that stock a decent collection of ICM, is there a sense of monopoly
amongst the store owners?
It might be useful to have some sort of consumer feedback on the various
stores and mail-order businesses that deal with Indian classical music.
Abhay Phadnis
news:3FE508C7...@yummy.net...
> Has anyone had a bad experience at Shrimati's in Berkeley?
>
> I am asking because I had quite the unpleasant experience at Shrimati's
> today. The owner was very rude and behaved totally unprofessionally. I
> am not going to spend my hard earned money at this store anymore. I will
> definitely not recommend this store to anyone either!
It is four years since I visited Shrimati's, but I must say that my
experience with them - both remote (ordering stuff over the phone) and
directly at their store - was a very pleasant one. They were professional,
helpful, and informative. I was looking for Pakistani music that is
difficult to find in India, and they took a lot of time and trouble to help
me find what I wanted.
Warm regards,
Abhay
Kaaigar
experienced.
I have been there twice and both the time found the owner (or his relative,
who is also the guy who sits at the cash register) unprofessional and
unhelpful. Afte having wasted money buying DVDs that would just give up
playing half way through, I asked if it was possible for him to take it back
if I have any problems playing it. The response was quite rude, as if to
make me realize that I was a fool to have asked that question.
It was quite amusing to see him catering to typical "Berkeley's enlightened
crowd" (not that I have anything against them) the second time I went there.
Almost licking their feet and simultaneously giving discourse on music of
Sutan Khan and HPC.
I am used to such jerks, though.
It seems that this shop has turned into some kind of a warehouse and deals
in wholesale to other shops. Even its working hours are not typical of a
regular shop. There's nothing in that shop that one can't find online.
Kaarigar
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"megh" <spam...@yummy.net> wrote in message
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megh
> It would help if you mention some details of his unprefessionalism that you
> experienced.
Briefly, when I asked the owner if he had any more classical albums
other than the one on display, he retorted that he indeed had many more
in his stock room but would not bother bringing them out! It was quite
puzzling why the owner refused to help, despite the fact that there were
no other customers in the store clamouring for his attention. Now, it
would not have been hurtful or plain shocking if the manner in which he
spoke had been reasonable. Instead, his demeanor was one of contempt
that I had even asked him for more.
The conversation with the owner quickly deteriorated when he claimed
that he did not care about how long it had taken me to get to Berkeley
and that he simply was not in a mood to check his store room stock. It
was as if he was the sole distributor of all of ICM and that I needed to
respect his authority and come another day because he was not in the
frame of mind to be disturbed from his perch!!
I left the store in disgust.
>
> I am used to such jerks, though.
>
We have all had to put up with the patented unfriendly attitude
of most Indian store owners, particularly to Indian clientele...but
this was worse than all previous experiences of mine.
Nayakan
Shrimati's.
It has been about a couple of years since I did business with
Shrimatis. I have dealt with them (Hitesh and Anil Dhupelia)
both on the phone and in person. (I haven't tried dealing with
them on the internet, but this is not because of rude behavior
on their part, but rather because whoever designed their website
is 20 years behind...it is rather crummy and you can't get any
useful information from it ... contrast this with something
like Khazana's site!) My experiences with Shrimatis have always
been very good. One of them is (or are both? I can't remember
now) very knowledgeable about music. (They have their own,
well-informed, I might add, opinions about Hindustani music ...
they are entitled to those, but hey, they don't force them on
you ... they only offer them when asked.) Every time I
talked to them, whether it was getting that obscure tape of
Abdul Waheed Khan or some other HMV release which had a
limited circulation, or getting the 20-tape (wonderful, BTW)
collection of various musicians from different gharanas in
Pakistan, or getting the latest releases from AMMP or Music
Today, their service and manners were the same...even for a
lowly $2.50 sale they would show you the same courtesy as they
would if you made a $100 purchase. One thing that I really
liked was that you could specify some of the selections that
you wanted and, if you needed to think of some more, they would
keep the recordings you already specified for you, and then,
when you wanted more, you could always call and they would
continue the order with you. I got the feeling that they
treated every customer with a rather personal touch. And for
the most part, they knew almost every recording they had in
stock without having to go back and check on them, which impressed
me quite a bit. All this, mind you, from a store whose
main business is not (at least was not) selling music, but
selling sarees!!
Of course, they ARE a monopoly in the business of selling cassette
tapes ... who else sells tapes these days? You find CD stores
a dime a dozen, but try finding a cassette store with this kind of
selection (good luck). AFAIK, they specialize in Hindustani music,
although when I visited them a few years ago, they did have a copy
of TK Govinda Rao's book on Tyagaraja's compositions. Other than
that, they mostly had some top 10 collections of Carnatic music.
If they are rude and condescending these days, something must have
changed quite a lot in the last couple of years. IF TRUE (in a
general sense, and not because they had a particularly bad day
or some such thing like that ... not that I'm saying it is okay
then), then it is sad and comes as a surprise to me. I have a
hard time relating to this. My experience
might differ from yours in that I always had specific requests
rather than a general "what else do you have in the store that
is not on display?" ... my modus operandi was to get their latest
printed catalog, mark all the ones that I was interested in, and
then call and ask them specifically for those recordings...maybe
they are more at ease with that kind of interaction.
Kumar
megh <spam...@yummy.net> wrote in message news:<3FE5D16E...@yummy.net>...