FRAGILE: Handle with Care

Well I should have written down this incident after coming home, but that day it was a mixed feeling of shock, reprieve and what not that prevented me from indulging in any further exercises which could hurt by brain even remotely. But 12 days now into the incident, I think it would be pure injustice to Sony,blogger fraternity my two friends who pulled out a miracle, to not to write this blog.
Well the incident is of 1st Sept 2009, the day we got our bank accounts filled up thanks to the firm that I work for. Having seen so much amount in an account owned by us it was natural to want to go for some light shopping at least. We came out of office at 7:00 PM and were thinking what should be buy today, chair-table was something that others wanted, i who is already having hard time having been forced to sit on chair for close to 10 hrs, was totally against the suggestion. Speakers was something on which we all finally had a consensus as it has been high time that we listened to music at sound levels, which justifies the music. Moreover I had wanted to buy an ipod for a long time and so i thought maybe this is the time. So electronic store, the destination was decided, money was secured through our debit cards. We went to Ezone, the only hyper-electronic store that was available in the area. Our requirements were very clear, the speakers should produce loud sound should be 2.1 (as it gives a hint that we are listening to some quality speakers) and should be cheap. We also wanted a brand!!! Creative 2.1 speakers were the only thing made in this world that could fit in all these requirements but unfortunately Ezone didn't had that. I saw the Ipods, found the one that i wanted to buy, but still wanted to do a market research before spending even a single amount on it. So nothing was to be bought, so the best time pass was the super expensive electronic gadget segment, which would have entertained us and would have given some sense of satisfaction as we had put in some efforts to come there. I started looking at camera's as photography has always attracted me. I was looking at this camera, which had a price tag of 21000 INR and was a Sony, mounted on a tripod stand. I was looking at the price tag, and then trying to look through its eye piece, getting now view, i thought that its shutter was closed to i thought checking it out, but as soon as i touched it, it fell from the stand, took 2 bounces before becoming stationary. Immediately came one of the attendant from the store, picked up the camera and saw that its plastic casing is broken (that's external damage which was visible). He said that I have to pay for the damages. Suddenly I realized that if I had to pay for it, half of what i had earned for the whole month would be gone and that too for a broken camera, which might not even work!!! My mouth dried up and words were difficult to come out, thankfully I was not alone there and immediately Choubey and Labdhi came to rescue.
The moment he said that I have to pay for it, here came an argument from choubey that since it was loosely kept it fell down, had it been tightly kept it could have never fallen, so it was all store's fault. By the time store owner or manager whosoever he was, too joined the scene. He said that he won't let us leave without paying. And things need to be settled, once again came the explanation that how loosely it was kept and it was just about to fall, we had become the victim of circumstances. Two three rounds of similar arguments happened then the manager said that this would never end he is very generous thats why will be billing 50000rs to us as damages and we won't have to buy the whole camera and the reiteration that he won't let us leave without letting us pay. Then came from Labdhi, that we too want to settle things thats why we are standing else we could have said that we didn't touch. The manager said that there are video camera installed every where and our touching the camera could be proved so don't think of that. We looked at the camera angles and type became very sure that it won't be able to prove the extend to which I had touched the Camera (the one which was broken). Now from being defensive we became aggressive, bring on the camera footage and let it prove that it fell while manhandling the camera or it fell just by a touch. The manager went up, leaving us surrounded with all the attendants of store. Around 20 mins passed, and then it was the time to become super aggressive, so choubey asked the attendant, that call your manager immediately, if he wants to settle this thing settle it now, we are too busy to be kept waiting like this. Then we were called up and there a clip was being played on the cameras continuously, with me touching the camera at different angles. But since the quality was not very great, so whether i was touching the camera or grabbing it was not clear. The footage clearly disapproved many of our arguments that i just touched once the camera etc, thereby forcing us to become defensive again. So once again we said that it was your negligence and that's the reason it fell. Similar arguments continued for another 20 mins., but by this time we had realized that we will have to pay something and it can't be 5000 so now its the time to minimize the losses, but how to start the bargain when it would caught us on wrong footing as in that case in a way we would have accepted that it was our fault. Labdhi and Choubey were the aggressors and I was the poor guy and we had been playing our roles quite well for past 2 hours and it was the final hour which would decide how much the poor guy that is me will loose.
Then came the age old tactic which works on everyone from autorickshaw puller to garment vendor but might never have been tested in this scenario. We started pleading that we are students and living in hostels, and meeting our ends in great difficulty, paying 5000 was impossible for us if you could settle things in 1000 maybe we can think. The manager started calling people on phones i don't know for what, so we too started calling our co-workers at company so that he doesn't get the feeling that we are "not connected". After some time, he said that the repairs would take 3300 so pay that much and leave, again came the same sentences setting our limit of 1000 very clear. This time I even went on and said that for even 1000, i would need to borrow money and go to ATM for withdrawal as i don't have anything now. The manager said give your card, we would swipe for 2000 bucks, we can't go lesser than this. I took my SBI ATM card which I had cleaned only days earlier, and gave it to him and said that this is the card that I have and take whatever money you can swipe from it. He swiped for 2000, transaction was denied for the lack of funds, he than tried with 1000, still denied. Finally he swiped for 500, and now it finally accepted the transaction. Looking at us, he said pay another 500rs in cash. So finally deal was closed in Rs1000. But I must say it would have not happened had Labdhi and Choubey not been there and had I not had that SBI ATM card. I now feel that I should have asked for that video clip on his camera, after all you don't damage a 21000 worth Sony camera, everyday.