[Brix]

"A fool and his money are easily parted"

INTRODUCTION:

I had gone to put diesel in a bunk near my place(Kamadhenu IOC Petrol Bunk at the beginning of Eldams Road, Chennai). After the filling I proceeded to check my tire air pressure.

At this juncture a guy approached me with a yellow cloth and a bottle of polish. He said that he wanted to give a demo of his product and swiftly proceeded to dab some polish on the outer cover of my mirror which had some small scratches. The scratch vanished and he also said that this product kit contained a glass cleaner and a interior plastic shiner. He again proceeded to spray that polish on my dashboard and wipe it vigorously. Did the same to my windshield too.

"There's a sucker born every minute"

I patiently told him that I has branded versions of all these products and didnt need them. He said it was a very good deal for Rs.525 against the marked price of Rs.650. Despite me refusing he proceeded to spray more and more of his product and show the magic of it. Being a big sucker for car care products, I reckoned that it would atleast suffice for daily use and might be a good deal. He also said that cash/credit and debit card options were all available through the bunk. I paid cash and took a shrink wrapped version of the kit. He also mentioned that the products were all sold out and only 3 kits were remaining.

I put it in the rear seat and did not give it much attention.

However the next day I began to get some sort of chemical smell from the car. It was burning the insides of my throat too. I thought it might be the spray that the guy applied to the dashboard that was evaporating in the hot sun. I opened the windows to clear it, but the smell refused to go.

When I reached home, I decided to take a look at the kit.

HORROR OF HORRORS:

The aerosol can with the interior shiner had leaked all over my rear seat and was near empty.

I thought "Hell, atleast the windshield spray can is atleast full". Next horror, the windshield cleaner spray left a foamy oily mess on my windshield that refused to go unlike the Eagle 20/20 spray I generally use.

Next thought "Atleast the polish seemed to work in front of my eyes". Next horror, when I opened the polish bottle the product had fully caked solid inside and the water in it had separated and poured all over my T-Shirt.

I felt like an ***. It was a big loss of face to me in front of my wife who had predicted that I had been swindled.

DAMAGE CONTROL:

I wiped the windshield with the Turtle Glass polish and managed to remove the oily mess. I also wiped off the interior dashboard cleaner with a wet cloth. The polish, although dry, managed to remove a few scratches and discolorations. I have left my windows open to get the chemical smell out. My throat is still burning and my T-Shirt smells of that chemical too.

"A Wise Man Learns by the Mistakes of Others, a Fool by His Own"

LESSONS LEARNT:
-Dont buy anything from a bunk except fuel. If you intend to buy, get a proper bill.
-The guy told me it was a 1 day offer. I should have got alert on that. Of course, he would have skipped town the next day.
-The pump station attendants who usually ask my car to move ahead kept quiet while the guy talked to me. There was an unholy nexus among them.
-I didnt bargain because it was awfully hot and this guy was perspiring heavily too. I took pity on him and bought the product. NO ONE DESERVES MERCY THESE DAYS.
-I should have asked him to open the product and shown the demo with that instead of his own materials.
-Get proper branded of car cleaning materials, they will save you a lot of time and money and a great deal of stress later on.
-If you can, buy a gun to shoot fellows like these.

PHOTOS OF THE OFFENDING PRODUCT:
The guy was from the North(probably Delhi) and spoke Hindi. The company which manufactured this was Shine Star from Anjali Chemicals(Okhla, Delhi).

If you do happen to come upon this guy, I'd advice you to ensure that he does not come within 10 feet of you or your car.

[shatrughna]

Sorry to read your experience & thanks for sharing. These days many small companies are making such products which are of poor quality and as rightly advised by you, we should refrain from buying stuff from unknown / unreliable sources.

[download2live]

^^ These things happen.
Experience is a good teacher but extracts a heavy fees.
Thank god that for you the fees was Rs 525, not more.

[jealousdiamond]

SAD is the only word that strikes me right now . Well its the same story everywhere , A moment here and there either you would be cheated on the feul or by such tantrums with the accesories . Was just thinking if the Feul bunks are the new most cheating business industry . The news these days is full of fuel adulteration rackets being caught here and there .

To add to the agony stupids like these . Lesson learnt " NEVER indulge yourself in any thing that appears fishy "

[Abhi_Automobile]

The guy was from the North(probably Delhi) and spoke Hindi. The company which manufactured this was Shine Star from Anjali Chemicals(Okhla, Delhi).

Well, I have seen these type of things being sold at Bangalore petrol pumps as well. There was this salesman who showed me the prowess of the range of products. At first go, it all seemed to work.

But I was too skeptical of 'local-cheapo' stuff. Also, being from Delhi, I have seen such crap earlier. It all rubbish and is best avoided. Lesson: There is no substitute for quality.

PS: The scheme that I saw ran continuous 'one day offers' for one month straight.

[hellboy999]

I can understand the agony that you might have gone through..Its a good lesson learnt though and I think you and we all Team BHPians would refrain from buying such spurious products from petrol bunks.

Even I am a big car care geek and I rarely find the reputed brands for purchase.So the best method I follow is to order on ebay evne if its costly. Its better to purchase costly products rather than buy some fake ones often sold at a discount..

[dar3dev|l]

ouch that hurts. Am really sorry to hear about the incident. But thank god that your car interiors and the glass has not suffered much.

How badly have the seat covers been damaged ? I hope washing the seat covers help.

[Spitfire]

LOL!! There are these couple of guys opposite the Manipal Hospital Bunk in Bangalore.

They did the same trick. While I waited for my card to be swiped he applied some liquid to my bikes fuel tank. As soon as I saw that I caught hold of the fellow, snatched the product from his hand and threw it on him. Spilling it all over him.

Before he gathered his wits as to what had happened. I started the bike and rode off. I heard him shouting.

These days when I go there, he just stares at me when I go to fill up. The bunk guys don't mess anyways.

[SILVERWOOD]

Thanks for sharing this info with all of us.

These thugs roam around every where looking for unsuspecting customers.

Their products are of STANDERD quality.

http://www.anjalichemindustry.com/qu...0standerd.html

[rameshnanda]

I had similar experience at a BP bunk near the Chennai Airport. There was no damage happened as you, but I was not happy with the product. Its better to avoid these products at the bunks.

[laluks]

I had a similar incident at the BP petrol pump opposite Manipal Hsopital on the old airport road in Bangalore. While the tank was getting filled one guy approached with some can and said something about glass polishing, night vision will be better etc.

I said I'm not interested. He tried to convince me and I sternly backed off. What happened next was the unexpected. While I was signing of the credit card charge slip, he uses the can to make a line on the civvy as he walks off. I couldn't believe my eyes, what happened afterwards is immaterial...

Stay away from these fellows. Since this has been a recurring issue at this petrol pump, I chose another one. Atleast no one sells anything other than petrol there!!

[Brix]

Thanks guys. I felt even more ashamed because I follow T-BHP threads on car cleaning and despite this I have to learn my lesson first hand.

@Spitfire - I admire your guts. I'm too soft for my own good.
@dar3dev|l - I think the product seeped through the seats. No visible damage, but the chemical smell persists. Wiped it with a wet cloth, but I hope it evaporates.
@Abhi_Automobile - Yeah, that is true. I thought I'd go see if those rouges are still there at the bunk.
@laluks - I do hope you drew a line on him. That is really horrible.

[Mr. Nobody]

did the spray leak because you kept it in the hot car ?

my friend had also bought similar kit for 250 rs some time ago with 3 bottles. if its same kit then the medium size bottle with oily spray is good to shine tyres and dashboards . be careful next time and buy only branded car care stuff

[devil_klm]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

LOL!! There are these couple of guys opposite the Manipal Hospital Bunk in Bangalore.

They did the same trick. While I waited for my card to be swiped he applied some liquid to my bikes fuel tank. As soon as I saw that I caught hold of the fellow, snatched the product from his hand and threw it on him. Spilling it all over him.

Before he gathered his wits as to what had happened. I started the bike and rode off. I heard him shouting.

These days when I go there, he just stares at me when I go to fill up. The bunk guys don't mess anyways.

It happened to me also from same pump.
I went to that pump on last week sunday for filling petrol for my bike.
One guy came while i was waiting to fil petrol and told that there are lotz of scratch on my bike and he has a polish to remove that.
After fueling i went for the demo.
I was impressed with the product as it removed almost all scratches.
When i checked the brand it was an unknown product so i avoided that.
I was in search for a polish and was doing the research on TBHP and zeroed in to F1 or Waxpol.
Thanks to TBHP

[ghodlur]

The incident reminded me of the college days when there were couple of smart alecs who used to sell calculators outside the railway stations. They used the original ones for demo and once deal done used to hand over the packed piece which later used to turn out some fake ones without any buttons operating or display. These guys used to be professional and never sold at the same spot twice. Everytime they managed to dupe some gullible customers.