The ambiguity over free parking facility is not going down too well with the outlet’s customers. A senior sales attendant at the Vashi outlet said that only First Citizen Gold Card holders are eligible for free parking even without making any purchases.
When Vashi resident Hemant Shetty was offered the First Citizen card after a round of retail therapy at the Shoppers Stop outlet, one benefit that came with the card was a clincher — free parking. Since Shetty is a regular at Vashi’s Inorbit Mall, where the Shoppers Stop outlet is located, he calculated that the Rs200 fee for the loyalty card would pay for itself by the savings on parking charges alone.
However, when he flashed the card to the parking attendant during his next visit, he was told that the card cannot be directly redeemed and that he will have to produce a parking-fee token from the outlet for waiver of parking charges.
“That’s when my misery began,” says Shetty. He was told that he would have to generate a bill of any amount to qualify for the free parking facility. He said that if the salesperson had explained the fineprint to him at the outset, he would not have taken the membership at all.
The ambiguity over free parking facility is not going down too well with the outlet’s customers. A senior sales attendant at the Vashi outlet said that only First Citizen Gold Card holders are eligible for free parking even without making any purchases.
The store issued a statement saying that the First Citizen loyalty programme of Shoppers Stop is a three-tier programme. The statement added that every new First Citizen is given a Classic card on sign up, followed by a welcome kit that comprises a letter and explains the benefits of the programme for each tier.
A member is upgraded to Silver on purchases of Rs10,000 and to Golden Glow on purchases of Rs40,000 during the membership validity period of two years. Privileges offered to members vary at each tier, with Golden Glow members getting most benefits.
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