The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Most employees in vehicle showrooms have been in fear since the Rupee crunch that their jobs are treading the thin line.
With sales still stagnated due to the wait for a confirmed status on the revised vehicle taxes, and the customers put-on wait for banks to lift the suspension on vehicle loans, these worried bunch behind the counters have become all the more worried.
Tashi, an employee with Zimdra Motors for the past four years is worried he may have to leave his job if the company tells him to leave.
“I am worried and most of my colleagues are also worried. I have no other options if the company asks me to leave,” said Tashi.
Pelden, a salesgirl said she keeps her fingers crossed just to hear the good news that the ban has been lifted on imports and loans. “I hope the situation changes soon, otherwise I will lose my job,” said Pelden.
General Manager of the Hyundai motors Pema Lotey said “since it’s a government regulation, we can’t do anything. If this carries on for a longer time then I think it will definitely affect our company and we may have to lay-off employees”.
He said currently the company has restructured the employees and placed those who work in the showroom to other areas so as to meet demands in those places.
“It will be a big problem to lay-off employees because if they lift the import ban then we’ll have to look for employees, so it will be a difficult task for us to get them back,” said Pema Lotey.
General Manager of Dhejung showroom Pema Tenzin said, “It has not affected our business as we have other business as well like selling vehicle-parts and the service centre”. He said to re-opening imports of the vehicles is a government issue so it should be left to the government. “However, people call us up and it is sad that, we have to refuse them,” he said.
The STCBL, which deals with import of Toyota and Tata vehicles are also concerned about the situation. The management is under discussion with regard to the issue but they hope that the government reopens the imports soon.
Some of the car dealers said, prolonged scenario in this Rupee crunch-generated problem could also affect business relations with their partners abroad as they have to deviate every now and then from the terms and conditions.
The vehicle dealers said, since it is a national issue, their partners have compromised their grievances thus far.
The officials who deal with loan and imports at the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) said it is the liquidity problem with the loans, so once that sees an improvement, they will reopen the loans.
Those Zimdra employees should stop lying, they do not care about customers at all. Few weeks ago, I went there to inquire about cars and there were two girls, both were busy playing something on the computer, they won’t even acknowledge me. I went near the desk and asked them, excuse me, are you taking orders, their answers was in typical Bhutanese fashion, “gari ban in” I saw few cars in the showroom, so I just asked, aren’t these for sale, and they rudely told me, rok ke book chap dai, and again being a patient person myself, I asked are you taking orders, and they said mey mey…
They were annoyed that I interrupted their facebook session, not about losing jobs. Such is the customer service situation in Bhutan, where a potential customer is treated like a beggar.
Yes…. This is fucking right. They don’t care of their customers.