We have a online General Discussion Forum in our company and it is used for giving / receiving information like houses available for rent etc. One particular discussion which attracted me was the one started by a guy who wanted to buy a mattress to get a good night's sleep. Immediately he was asked whether he wanted a mattress for two single cots or one double cot ;-). The guy replied rather embarrassingly that everything is fine between him and his wife and he wanted a mattress for a double cot. Then followed a discussion about the material of the mattress, the height, the weight, the width, the brand, the good-for-back factor, the price, the shops etc. As I read these, two things came to my mind. One, calculating the speed of light must have been much simpler than finding the right mattress. Second, the way I bought my mattress. I will try to throw more light on my second thought.
I had to buy a mattress when I shifted to Bangalore more than a year back. The first job was to choose a shop. I followed the policy of "nearest is best". I took a walk along the road on which my house was situated and got into the nearest shop which sold mattresses. Choosing a mattress was even simpler. I just had to find one into which I can fit. And I found this out quite easily, because the mattresses were "standing" vertically. If they are taller than me vertically, then they will be longer than me horizontally. I didn't give much attention to the brand. "SleepWell" or "SleepWel" doesn't make difference as long as I slept well.
And then, I had to choose the colour. I didn't like the colour of the mattress which was standing outside the shop. I wanted a "skyblue colour" one. But the shopkeeper started explaining the advantages of a mattress with dark red flowers. Knowing my consumer rights fully well, I insisted on having a skyblue design mattress. The fact that there will be atleast two layers of bedsheet on top of the mattress when I use it was irrelevant now. The shopkeeper protested that he had the blue mattress only in his godown. I was surprised to know that such a small shop had a "godown". But I still insisted on the skyblue colour, even though the sky was more black than blue by this time. Finally, he agreed and asked me to come inside the shop. Inside the shop, he showed me a huge pile of mattresses one of top of another and somewhere near the bottom was the sky blue mattress. Now I knew what the shopkeeper meant. The mattress was not in the godown, but he had to "go-down" to get the mattress.
Then came the important part - fixing the price. He quoted a "special" price with lots of "discount" just "for you, saar". It looked as if he had known me for ages and he gave special discounts only for special people like me. But I knew fully well that the guy had added a bargaining factor into the price he was quoting. I assumed the bargaining factor to be around Rs. 100 and asked for a price Rs. 100 less. He protested a little but soon agreed. I had a feeling that his bargaining factor was much more than the Rs. 100 I had assumed. Anyway, I paid an advance, gave my address, got his phone number and went back home. After two hours and two phone calls, the mattress was in my house.
So far, I am pretty comfortable with the mattress and the only back pain I have is not because of the mattress, but because of sitting in front of the computer and writing articles like this one. As for the guy who wanted to buy a mattress for his double cot, I am not sure whether he bought one or atleast decided which one to buy. My only advise to him is - "Life is indeed complex. But some things in life are pretty simple - as simple as finding who is taller".
No comments:
Post a Comment