Are shruthi boxes use and throw stuffs?

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 11 Mar 2009, 22:57

I bought a radel shruti box for my nephew a year and half back. And he appearing for public exam hardly ever used it. Off late when I try to play i, t gives an awkward noise with high intensity however low I turn the volume knob. I took it to the shop where I bought it and the shopman said that It looked like the volume control is not in order and it has to be sent to bangalore. After 10 days It was promptly returned from bangalore for the reason that there are no spare parts. the shop man told me that this is a common practice with them . this is so bizzarre to me. The manufacturers returned it as though it is a 30 year old out dated technology product that I have brought from them.
I am still confused why should they return the junk and what do they expect me to do with it. A similar problem had arisen with a shruthi box bought by my friend. So nowadays I ask my nephew to use cd recorded with the desired pitch. What are the other companies available? Are they any good at all? or are they disposable type too?

sramaswamy · Post by **sramaswamy** » 11 Mar 2009, 23:40

Radel sruthi boxes are the most widely used. And I have not heard of complaints like this. I have been using this for the last three years without any problem.

The other widely used sruthi box I have come across is Raagini as shown in the url below

http://www.mastermusiconline.com/musica ... pura.shtml

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 12 Mar 2009, 07:34

widely used I know. But a don't care reply and return policy was so shocking. In any case what do they expect to do with a junk piece I dont know which they themselves cannot repair. And the problem seemed to a be a simple volume control for a recently bought item. Yeah ragini I have heard of . Let me give a shot.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 12 Mar 2009, 15:04

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 12 Mar 2009, 16:14

Ok srinivasrgvn. unfortunately I did not buy it from sapthaswarams. sure, some may be working good. But there are always chances for electonic things to go out of order. If it is working fine it is cool. but if something goes wrong should it be rendered useless? My friend had had a similar reply from them too. In fact I had to pay the up and down courier charges to and from bangalore for the parcel. Only on receiving I cam to know that it was returned dysfuntional . Or I would have left partly content not paying the courier charges at least. It is still strange for me. The shruti box is a very basic electronic device unlike any other complex gadget like multifunctional mobile.
i know that you cannot expect anything praiseworthy as it is some indian based unit in bangalore doing it.
but i am upset with their irresponisible dismissal of taking any care or service.

For time being I shall stick to the cd type or mp3 type pitch sounds before venturing on to any other things.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 25 Mar 2009, 06:59

No.

They are don't use and throw away immediately upon purchase stuff.

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 25 Mar 2009, 18:35

how is that mridhanga sound and shruthi petti. does it change pitch of tampura sound with mridhanga sounds?

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 31 May 2009, 03:42

Whenever Radel sells their product they type clearly in their invoice "goods once sold can"t be taken back or exchanged" and I do not think Radel believes in after sales service, basically cash and wash kind of business. I once wrote to Radel and they never replied. "Caveat emptor"

garavasimhala · Post by **garavasimhala** » 01 Jun 2009, 15:55

My radel shruti box is fine. I bought it in 2003, if I remember properly. But, I never use it!! That's why it is still fresh!

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 01 Jun 2009, 19:44

Aircraft flying in the heavens is more valuable than one that is in hangar. One of these days your sruthi box may be sold in ebay as collectible.

Radhika-Rajnarayan · Post by **Radhika-Rajnarayan** » 03 Jul 2009, 14:58

This is Radhika Raj Narayan from Radel. I am truly surprised to learn about your sruti box being refused service by our staff. This never happens unless the reasons are beyond our control. We try our very best to locate even obsolete parts and repair the product, as can be vouched for by many of our customers.
I would request ganesh_mourthy and VK Raman to please write to [email protected] with your specific complaint - it would help if you could provide the serial and batch number of the product seen on the rear of the cabinet. We assure you that we will do our utmost to solve your problem.
V K Raman - as I mentioned in my earlier post on another thread, we always reply to every message received. If a mail has not received us or the feedback form did not have a return email ID provided, then it is possible that we may not have replied. In any case, please do write in with your specific complaint. We will reply within a day.
Sometimes dealers mislead the customers regarding our service facilities. We have our own branch in Chennai. Please contact Radel on 24337485 between 10 am and 6 pm, Monday through Saturday for quick service of your products.

mkc · Post by **mkc** » 17 Dec 2009, 15:03

This is MKC a new entrant into this Music connoisseur forum.Why should a sruthi box be a use & throw?. Yes i do agree to achieve a Sigma 6 in such category is a nightmare despite the best efforts made in QC ,as there is a huge amount of external governance.

I represent the new brand eswar which has been released in the market ( Vijayadasami day ).The same is launched post extensive research for over the last 4 years. Team eswar has been blessed with phenominal guidance by the top musicians & musicologists.This is the first version and more is in store in a phased manner.

We have developed a unique upgrade facility wherein if a customer has bought a particular model he could return back the same after use of a year or so at a prescribed price and take a new unit at a discounted price.

A few months back a rasika was seeking advise for a sruthi box choice.

Please visit eswaronline.com for a demo.A feedback on eswar from rasikas would be very useful.

If you are looking for a live demo and if you are in Chennai we are available in all major sabhas during the music festival

Sorry if this note sounds like a sales pitch.We do not intend to get into a guerilla warfare.Why a sruti war - Why not MISSION SRUTHI

MKC

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 17 Dec 2009, 23:34

Thank you for introducing your products to rasikas. goodluck.

laks1972 · Post by **laks1972** » 18 Dec 2009, 09:34

Those who can't afford a few thousand rupees for an electronic thambura can download free tambura software (called "Your Tampura")developed by G.Balasubramanian.

He has changed his website a few times, so dont know where his current website is, but the installation files for versions 1, 3 and 4 are available at:

http://www.sangeethamshare.org/sridharan/999-MISC/

Your_Tanpura_v1_setup.exe
Your_Tanpura_v3-With_Soundpack.exe
Your-Tanpura-v4---Setup.zip

Very good option for students.

And the major plus is that it always works, no scope for disappointments due to poor customer servce

ShrutiLaya · Post by **ShrutiLaya** » 18 Dec 2009, 18:58

It'd be good to know how the story turned out .. did ganesh_mourthy and VK Raman write to Radel customer service and get satisfactory service, or not? If things worked out, it'd be only fair to note that here, after all the unpleasant things said about Radel .. (note that I don't have any connection to Radel)

- Sreenadh

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 18 Dec 2009, 23:36

that was not any defacement statement again the radel. but it does happen with the retailers who escape responsibilities.
In the meantime radhika raj narayanan came in and gave a convincing answer. that was a litle late for me unfortunately. the music shop owner told that the volume controller had gone berserk and collected 600 rs for fixing it. he said, he had sent it to radel to get it done. but no bill... no vouchers.. no credentials.

Radhika-Rajnarayan · Post by **Radhika-Rajnarayan** » 19 Dec 2009, 11:15

Ganesh_mourthy,

As I have requested earlier. please let us know the contact details of this shop which mislead you. See, THEY supposedly send it to Radel. THEY say that it came back without repair - THEY say that the volume controller went berserk, THEY collect Rs600/-.
I would like to know whether any of this was really done at all. Whether it was sent to us at all.If the shop is to blame we will take it up seriously with them. If the product DID at all come to us, I can tell you what the matter was.
I do not know whether either you or VKRaman have mailed us yet on [email protected] with details of the product serial and batch numbers. If you have not, I would appreciate your doing so. We can follow up the matter. Do you know that we have repaired products several years old and ALWAYS do our best to rectify the problem stated by the customer AS WELL AS look for incipient problems that may crop up later and do preventive maintenance.

Please also look at the 'Contact Us' page of our website www.radel.in for our authorised sub-service centres across India, and the main branches and service centres.

Thank you for your time and co-operation.

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 19 Dec 2009, 20:58

Radhikanarayanan - I have closed this matter and I do not like to pursue. I am happy with my manual sruti potti, harmonium and the latest version of Radel IV Druva. Thanks.

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 20 Dec 2009, 12:22

Dear Radhika,

The best point of contact for me at that time was to contact the store since I bought it from them. I cannot go through the hassle of calling up and following up with radel just for a shruthi box. It is indeed affordable and you can always buy another. the store person could have got it done through radel or otherwise. but a credential would have been convincing. a few other shops does not commit accountable but I am not blaming radel for that. but being a big company you could monitor the transactions and the feed backs as well. this repair matter happened 8 months ago and I am not even in that place now. but you could have a word with the shop and that could preclude any such sales and it's misgivings. Please insist on dispensing documents for every work carried out and that would be appreciated. when you get a bill, it is convincing that it was done by an authorized person. i am sending a mail to your email address through this forum to disclose where i bought it from .

Ganesh mourthy

Radhika-Rajnarayan · Post by **Radhika-Rajnarayan** » 20 Dec 2009, 17:02

Ganesh_mourthy-Thank you for the information that you sent me thru forum email.

It would help if we can also have the serial and batch number found on the rear of the product.

We would be then able to take this up very seriously indeed, with the dealer. The issue of harming our reputation aside, we view any such disservice to the customer extremely seriously. As mentioned earlier it is our policy to replyto all queries immediately and address all customer issues on priority. We have been maintaining this for the past 3 decades. This is the reason that the post and the comments on rasikas surprised, pained and hurt me so much.

This industry as such is extremely disorganised, and many dealers do not even provide the customer with bills.
They are supposed to send us the warranty counterfoil - they do not even do this!
This being the pathetic situation, if we insist on documents to be provided to the customer from their end, when they sell our products, do you think it will have any effect?
This is the reason we are unable to monitor them effectively. All we can do is to publicise the fact that we have service centres in many places, so that the customer may get any repairs done without hassles. We monitor the sub-service centres.

Once again, I would request you to contact us directly through our website, or contact our chennai branch, in case of any service issues with any of our products. We can redirect you to a sub service centre near you or attend to the job ourselves, as is convenient to you.

Best regards

Radhika Raj Narayan

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 20 Dec 2009, 19:03

batch no: 1106
D 7013 V1.

Please do let me know if this had come to your service centre for repair. could be a year. I dont remember exactly.

Radhika-Rajnarayan · Post by **Radhika-Rajnarayan** » 22 Dec 2009, 12:15

Ganesh_mourthy,
This is the record of the repair details of the product received from our branch at T Nagar Chennai:
Instrument Sl.No.7013 Batch No.11 06 - DHRUVA XL IV
Instrument was received from Murali Musicals on 28/2/09
Instrument got ready after service on 2/3/09 and informed Murali Musicals.
They collected the instrument from us on 10/3/09
The problem was - High volume at minimum positioning of the volume potentiometer.
Rectification - Changed the volume potentiometer and tested.
Charges - Rs.15/- for the replaced part and Rs.125/- service charges.
Total charges - Rs.140/-

Here I would like to mention the following points:
1. Product was received from Murali Music Musicals, T Nagar, Chennai.
2. Product was received at our T Nagar branch. Thus no question of 'courier charges'
3. Product was rectified within 2 days and thoroughly tested as per our ISO 9001:2000 certification norms ( We HAVE to rectify almost all defects within 2 days. Only very major repairs can take longer)
4. Dealer was informed to collect the repaired product.
5. Dealer collected after 10 days.
6. Charges were not anywhere near Rs.600/- as you can see. Charges are billed and we have the record.

If this product is still not working or still has the same problem recurring, please let our Chennai branch know: tel:044-24337485

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 22 Dec 2009, 15:07

Dear Ms.Radhika-Rajnarayan,

Thanks for all the details. I usually keep a record of all miscellaneous expenditures above 500. I did search into my excel book and I have paid Rs.585 for it.

I feel guilty too, for not going into details of it and insisting for a bill. Paucity of time and a small amount and that is what these shopkeepers take advantage of .

Well, now that I have been apparently cheated, I have no problem revealing the shop. I bought it from Musee Musicals from Pondicherry. Since a great deal of time has lapsed you could rather call up the shop asking them to provide with a proof for all their transactions hereafter.

I shall let you know if the radel is working as I have not used it for months after that.

I could ask my nephew to upgrade to a digital music training of your radel.. besides, I know the point of contact for any future communications now.

Ganesh_mourthy