Part 3: Ownership experience of Royal Enfield Bullet classic chrome 500

Got a call from dealer telling that the bike is ready for delivery and that I have to reach before 5.30 PM for taking delivery. Rushed from work and by the time I reached the house wifey was ready and sonny super excited. Went to the showroom where I was led to the ground floor of the office which doubled up as a store room for spares. I though now, we would be discussing the spare required for the bike. I was taken to a lady crouched over a CRT monitor with its display so washed out, I was unable to see anything. Now the lady at the counter asked my previous bills. Without seeing them she asked my mobile number(which was already mentioned in the bill). It was told to her, but she was not hearing and started rummaging through a pile of papers. She then got agitated and told me that she would tell the phone number from the pile and I have to tell her if any of them belonged to me. So, now, the customer's name is not required. You are just a number. A coupon for fuel worth INR 200/- and some other documents were given and was asked to sign and the lady did not explain what they are but just indicated the place where I was supposed to sign. Then she told my vehicle still doesn't have a number. The insurance copy is in the "Head office". There I lost my cool. The first day I met the sales rep I had very clearly told that I would not take the delivery of my vehicle until all the formalities are completed. In this time of Information technology, I am being told that the insurance hard copy is in the "Head office", totally government office terminology. Thank god, RE is not a government operated unit, otherwise god save the customer. She got agitated with my argument and told that I am unable to understand the things going on. We both had an argument, in the mean time I realized I am arguing with a lady, which is wrong on my part.

Went to the first floor furious and asked the sales rep, what really is happening. My voice pitch is a little on the higher side and even little above normal talk would sound quite loud. The sales rep was silent to all the things I was asking. In the midst of it, there was a middle aged lady, who appears to run the place or is the wife of the man running the place. She wanted to show who is the boss. Customer is just a beggar standing at her door and asking for food in exchange for money, but still a beggar, This is exactly her attitude towards the customer. You open your mouth to talk, you will be shut down with a flurry of words related or un-related, the same with everybody in the showroom. I don't know how, but everybody is the same. All men and women are equal here. There is no disparity with respect to the mental thinking, a rare occurrence in this individualistic society. Now she started asking questions and I started to answer all the things mentioned in the previous posts were asked and replied for. Then, the most startling revelation. She told that it will take 4 days to get a registration number form RTO. I have purchased and have been a party to other purchases of vehicles, but never did I feel so puny as a customer. Your total helplessness is bought to the fore in a magnified manner. All this while you are worried about your bike. You are worried whether there would be any sabotage on your bike. You, Now I, should be very very worried................

Part 2: Ownership experience of Royal Enfield Bullet classic chrome 500

Please read the previouse post. This is a continutation of that one. A week passed without any information from the dealer. I then called the dealer regarding the status of my order. He told me that I have to come and pay the cash. The countdown to me getting my bike would start from the day I made the complete payment. The next sunday we went to the showroom for making payment. I also bought up the exchange of my old bike. Last week we had given the complete details of my old bike, but, the sales rep starts asking information from scratch. They dont remember anything. In the digital age all information is still on paper. You tell your order Number(Here there are two order numbers. One for internal usage with the dealer and one from Royal enfield. The dealer is not concerned with teh RE order number.). You want to know something, keep the dealer's order number ready and ofcourse, the date also. Otherwise they will make you wait on your phone for infinity. This applies for physical visits also. He asked when will be ready to exchange the bike. We told now. Then again a flurry of calls and couldnt tell the information about my old bike which he had noted down and handed over the phone to me. I asked the buyer when can he come? He told he will be at the showroom in 1/2 hour. I told I will be waiting for him here, at the showroom. Now the buyer changed his timing to two hours from now. The sale did take place on that very day. Please ask when will the actual transfer take place and take all the information regarding the buyer. He confirmed that the transfer of ownership will happen within 15 days. But, anyhow, you should be following him regarding the transfer of ownership.

As this was happening, I couldnt help myself but observe lot of comments on my order copy. I requested the sales person to let me have a look. He handed it over to me with a lot of regret. The previous week, i told the sales rep to take it cool and dont do it in a hurried manner. He didnt understand my intent and scribbled on the order "Customer wants to buy the vehicle slowly". That clears why I did not get any call in the previous week. Once the old bike was sold, I left the showroom and walked to my home. But, I left my helmet in the showroom. I found it out the next day and I was surprised that nobody from the showroom called to inform me regarding my helmet. Totally cheap. Wifey called the showroom the next day and luckily, they agreed that they indeed have a unclaimed helmet.

Another week, nothing happens. Then I start getting enormous number of calls while at work. The second day, the person calls me in the evening and I pickup the call. It is a verfication call from  a third party regarding the details provided for bike insurance. While he was explaining me the terms and conditions, I came to know that the insurance offered to me by the showroom chap is not the comprehensive one(Bumper to bumper). He told that he would call the dealer and the deaeler would in turn call me within 10 minutes. Nothing happened. The third party called me to ask whether I recieved any call from the dealer. That full day I did not recieve any call. Then, worried that I would be the owner of the bike, I went to the showroom for clarification. I did not see any repentance from any of the staff for not informing me regarding the type of insurance being given to me. Paid the little extra money to get comprehensive coverage and as instructed by wifey got my helmet. I saw my bike standing in the showroom being used as an exhibit and the sales person is not telling me that this is my bike. He told me that my bike would be of the same color and that it will take another 3 days for the delivery of my bike. Next day again a plethora of calls from the insurance third party during working hours.

Bring on the beta of AI

Majority of the mundane tasks done by consultants and tellers have been outsourced to the customers themselves. Let us take an example of replacing your washing machine. You have to start with the reviews of the various companies in the industry, their customer support, plethora of models, price, features and ...... Then you finalize by comparing various by discussing with friends and other customers. Then you decide where to buy by visiting various websites. By the time you make the decision you will not know how much time you have spent in buying the washing machine.

The above example is just a tip of the iceberg. The iceberg of activities outsourced to the customers themselves. Now, I believe we will have AI will debut in helping customers buy products and services. In fact it should not help, it should decide on the customers behalf. Not again curated links to various web pages. Why? Well that is as simple an AI can get and the amount of data available on buying habits and preferences are abundantly collected by search engines and social websites and blogs. Just imagine our preferences which are now embedded in search engines, apps, social networks, instagrams and the like..

The time we wake up, what time you leave your house, your vehicle, the breakfast we have, distance between your work spot and your home and everything in between up to the book we have been reading before we sleep, how many pages we average everyday and may be map our dreams based on the week day and the way our day was and also alter the dreams accordingly for a pleasant sleep.........

In the context of AI as the first step, the data sources of the following are crucial. In AI, the belief system is the most important link. The belief of the user who generates data in the mining company. The belief of the mining company in the user data generated regarding the authenticity of it. The belief is mutual and should not be compromised at any point by both the agencies. Coming back to the data sources
a. The personal data
b. Generic data available on the public web/sources(Like the mileage of a car)

The simplest AI would be to combine the personal data(to be mined from conversations, posts, comments, search history, buying pattern etc. This is to begin AI. Later as the user plugs in to the actual AI, data collection will be very specific and more to the point avoiding "assumptions" on the part of AI) and the generic data from public domain(information culled from official websites). Here again data integrity should be of the highest level.

The whole experience of buying should be hassle proof and painless. I start by telling the AI of my intent in buying a washing machine. Processing the personal and generic data majority of the decisions are be made and only when contradicting data is reached, user should be prompted. Here again, the prompts should not be beyond two, after which, the experience gets frustrating with the irritating prompts.

We definitely are now in position for the first step in AI. But, the innumerable protocols(open and sucking proprietary), the idiotic app ecosystem, wherein the data gets boxed, the plethora of operating systems and data integrity are the biggest issues combined with Internet connectivity across the world to the last mile. It is time all the data keepers start collaborating by providing API's to supply and share data among themselves for the purpose of AI. The race should be an open and fair one. The race should only benefit the customer. The race to be won by the best AI, not on the amount of data available with each other but by its capability to take decisions on behalf of the customer.

All this brings us to the biggest question regarding the biggest company  with the largest amount of data, Google/Alphabet. How will google/alphabet make money out of AI. Will it charge the customers like maintaining a personal assistant. Only few afford personal assistants. You have to push your personal assistant to the user and the way to do it is not charging the customer. How will google/alphabet make money here, when the user is not provided any web page to click? Will google/alphabet tweak the AI to take decisions based on the amount payed by the manufacturer, similar to improving page rankings. That is a failure when it comes to AI. It has to be fair. If it is not fair, people will ditch it for alternates. Now alternates would have learnt their lesson. How will google\alphabet make money? HOW?

Well, Google/Alphabet, I am looking at you. Bring the AI on. Bring it on. Bring on the beta. Let us start. From us being a product take us to what we are, Customers. We are the customers and we are not the product. This is the basic change you have got to do for succeeding in this AI endeavour. If you don't treat us as customers, your AI engine will be flawed. Keep us in the God's place and make AI our slave. Will you?