Nithin Kamath’s Weblog

Recently I read about a case that was filed by a consumer against Microsoft over computer manufacturers being allowed to label the computers as ‘Vista Ready’ even though they would be able to run only the very basic features of Vista and nothing more. The claim of the consumer was that how would a normal buyer be able to know the requirements of the various versions of Vista (I believe that the computer was bought before Vista was released).

Though the consumer is right in his/her point the fact remains that the computer when installed with Vista can run it, as they were marketed to be, but not how the buyer thought it would. This type of marketing is very deceptive.

Forget Microsoft, let me take the real life example which I faced. I wanted a printout a few days back, while searching for a place, I came across a cyber center which had a poster on its wall which stated ‘Laser printout Re.1 only’. Happy to read this, I walked in and took the printout. I paid one rupee; the owner told it is Rs.2 and not Re.1. Confused I went out and took a look at the poster again, and protested saying that it is written Re.1 outside.

The shop owner smiled and said that is for 5 printouts and above. I mentioned to him that there is no indication anywhere to state that on the poster which he had put outside, something like a star which most of the people put to indicate that conditions apply was clearly missing. He said you should have asked before taking the prinout. My question is that since it was clearly written how much a prinout would cost, was it necessary to ask him the cost again before printout? Is it worth the effort to argue over that Re.1? What options did I have considering that the shop owner was right since he would have given it for Re.1 if I had taken more than 5 pages.

Not wanting to waste time arguing, I just gave him the other rupee and came out, he may have had the upper hand this time around, but he has lost a customer in the long run. So did you all have any such experience, please share it along by commenting to this post.

Swaminathan A Aiyar in “The Times of India” article writes how doing business in India is very tough as well as a very tedious process, he makes some comparison with China and Hong Kong. Here are some of the interesting facts:

For enforcement of contract, which is fundamental to business, India ranks 173rd. Enforcement requires 56 procedures over 1,420 days in India, 31 procedures over 292 days in China, 16 procedures over 211 days in Hong Kong.

The above point is surprising, since for any kind of business enforcing the contract is important. Requiring almost 4 years for enforcement can be lethal for small businesses, and is suited only for large business which have that much money and time to play with.

Debtors recover just 13% of their claims in India, 31.5% in China and 78.9% in Hong Kong.

WoW! Hong Kong is just great, 79% recovery of debts is huge, I wonder how they accomplish it. Businesses in India struggle here too, with just 13% recovery of claims, its just very very tough to run businesses.

Winding up a business takes a phenomenal 10 years in India, 2.42 years in China and 1.08 years in Hong Kong.

Well if you thought you had enough and want to close down your business, it’s not that fast a process, it would take you 10 years!! to wind up a business. The above points clearly show that Hong Kong is very effective and conducive environment for doing business. I am sure that the situation in India will improve, but how long it will take is the million rupee question.

Many more facts and figures are available at The Times of India page.