Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Fuel - Unleaded


It ain't a great feature. Buy a Rs. 300 fuel starter pack, and get a stored value of Rs. 250. And the cash doesn't carry over after a period of time. Is there a post-paid card ? I'd be interested on that.

For people who aren't aware about what's rocking the entertaining news in Chennai, Sathyam Cinemas have introduced a new Prepaid movie card - FUEL. We could buy this card and use it on Internet, telephonic and direct purchases of our tickets. We could even recharge these cards over the internet or the Sathyam counters.

Sathyam Cinemas have been adopting every possible way of innovation. As far as Chennai is concerned, Sathyam might get the best eCommerced site next only to IRCTC.com. However both of them seem to have trouble in Committing transactions. eCommerce and India are still distant relatives.

But this initiative of Sathyam would have been cool and super-cool, if they gave real value of money on the card, unlike the monstrous kabaleegaram in mobile pre-paid cards. Aircel Pre-paid card gives us Rs. 175 talktime for a recharge card worth Rs. 330. WTF ? These guys charge us on the calls. Why should there be a activation and other blah-blah-blah charges ? If the FUEL card is a similar pre-paid card, then I'd better stick to my credit-card booking.

It wouldn't make sense for us to buy some Rs. 400 recharge card and blow it up on one movie, and then recharge again for the next. Thats as good as buying tickets in the counters. It would only make sense if we recharge the card with a few thousands of rupees. And that, most of us wouldn't dare to do, when the Terms say that cash will not be carried over after a certain period of time.

On Similar lines, Mayajaal comes up with a plan. For Rs. 5000 a year, we get movies, stay and everything else possible within Mayajaal. But Mayajaal is damn expensive, dont you think ?

Wish the Burma Bazaar guys come up with such a card.. !!

2 comments:

Ravi said...

Keerthi, valid points esp on the pre-paid mobile card thing. I think it is atrocious to deduct such an amount everytime (well minimal clerical or stationery charges are fine).

Regarding the Sathyam fuel card, I do not see it being advantageous in any way because you infact pay up extra bucks just for the card. The extra bucks would make sense if there is some discount on tickets or there is a priority for such card holders (which is quite tricky because anytime the theatre guys could say the seats are full) or provide some extra perks like snacks. This card, is just as good as getting tickets off the counter. So no big deal.

Yes, Maayajaal rates are again atrocious. But now govt. has revised the theatre fares and has said that rising the fares for first 2 weeks would not be allowed.

KRTY said...

Ravi, yeah. I need to look into the Govt rule for any strings.