[shankar.balan]

http://qz.com/212775/the-amazon-of-i...rt-its-amazon/

A very interesting read. Its a rant by Mahesh Murthy, a well known VC/ Investor.

It helps in a way to illustrate the "castles in the air" concept, in these days of serial entrepreneurs and accelerated entrepreneurial journeys which in turn fuel the dreams of "from nothing to everything in no time at all".

While we all get swayed by these live examples of "wealth creation" and "wealth obsession", we, the consuming and investing public, do definitely tend to miss the wood for the trees.

Lets remember that almost all of the Great Indian E Commerce companies were built on a tottering edifice of "discount-led inducements to consumer adoption".

How long can that last?

And whose money actually pays for those discounts anyway?

I submit that is a vicious circle of sorts, where some regular bloke made money off the stock market, morphed into an HNI, formed a group of similar changelings and turned that group into a Venture Capitalist firm; all of which in turn were fuelled by standard humble retail investors; old ladies with their life's savings and insurance policies, young families putting together a nest egg and other similar.

Then the journey to investing in a Disruptive Internet Startup which breaks the mould and woos consumers and investors with many pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.

In order to fuel that dream, the disruptive discounting model works as a tool.

But the trouble is that discounting per se, is a one-way street so where will it all end?

Its certainly fun while it lasts, from a consumer point of view, but truth be told, most of these companies are quite literally, haemorrhaging cash in a seemingly uncontrollable manner, as if all the sluices on their ships are jammed open!

When will the internet companies feel confident enough to charge a fair price for their services?
When will the Indian consumer start paying a fair price for a desired service?

Questions galore, but not many answers...

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by r_devakumar

However, i can see the item is still listed in eBay as available and today i gave a negative feedback for the seller (with the reason as item is continue to show available, but my order is cancelled).
.

Originally Posted by DCEite

I guess you are being a little harsh on the seller on this issue
...
I guess benefit of doubt should be given to seller here.

Originally Posted by dass

Trust the seller as they have been proactive. Just my 2 cents.

I actually have another take on all of this. Sometimes the seller simply does not want to ship the item to a selected location, despite it being available. And they will come up with excuses like 'damaged product' or not available.

How do I know - I ordered the same car shampoo at 2 locations, I received it in one while the other one I got a message saying - refunded due to the stock received in damaged condition.

Does not do anything particularly harmful except give you headaches about finding another seller.

[Pferdestarke]

Guys, currently there are pretty good deals on Music (50%), Movies (40%) and Game titles (Up to 40%) on amazon.in. I've ordered a couple of blurays and saved about ₹900.

[sachinayak]

I regularly shop online and find it really convenient. Typically stick to FK or Snapdeal and have had few complaints.

When our existing washing machine conked off, decided to buy one online. Bought an LG front loading WM with direct drive off SD for 23K. Followed up with SD support and it was shipped with no delay.

Thats when the ordeal began. Gati, the courier company, quoted an "Assured delivery date" of 22 May. As per their website, the package arrived in BLR on 23rd May and the status was "Out for delivery". From this point onwards, I started calling them up 3-4 times daily, only to be informed of a complaint number and a standard response that someone from complaints team would call back, which never happened. Finally lost patience today and demanded to talk to an escalation manager. Was told that the package is untraceable Apparently they have too many orders to fulfill and they could not trace my package (cmon it is a 70kg washing machine not a toy car). Finally called SD and cancelled the order (thankfully, opted for the COD option which i typically never prefer since i almost never do cash transactions).

Went to a neighborhood store, showed the SD pricing, bargained and bought the same model for 1K more than SD price. Should be delivered tomorrow. Used the same approach when buying my LED TV from Philips. They cannot match online prices, but come close.

So much effort in the name of convenience !!

[r_devakumar]

Originally Posted by dass

+1 to this. Sellers normally would prefer to keep the item available and sell and that is how they make money. If it has been refunded, no need to penalize them.



Trust the seller as they have been proactive. Just my 2 cents.

It could be true, but still i am doubtful if eBay will take more than 10 days to remove the link when the seller knows the stock is not available.

[a4anurag]

Just bought myself a Power Bank to charge my Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Bought it from Flipkart for Rs 1300.

Link: http://www.flipkart.com/ambrane-p-88...acker=variants

After payment yesterday at 10am the expected delivery date displayed was 2nd June. I was OK with it but was thinking why does Flipkart need so many days to courier. Didn't bother much on the delivery date though.

Today morning at 10 am I get the call from the courier service (Dehlivery) that he outside my house. I was like

I am one happy person as such quick delivery wasn't expected even after seen the EDD mention 2nd June.





















---------------------------------------------------------

Funny thing that I noticed:

The cover in which the power bank is kept has two opening's. The bottom part has a sticker that reads "If seal tampered, verify before acceptance!"

BUT

The top end is open and free for everything. What is the point of that sticker on the base?!





Verdict:
Packaging: 10/10
Delivery Time: 10/10

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

When will the internet companies feel confident enough to charge a fair price for their services?
When will the Indian consumer start paying a fair price for a desired service?

Questions galore, but not many answers...

A vicious circle indeed! Every new player plays the discount card to get noticed. And by the time it establishes a name, there is a new player in the market!

It seems similar to what happened in the low cost carrier market - everybody was pumping in moolah into the latest and greatest budget carrier. Until some consolidation happened and a few simply bowed out.

[S_U_N]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

How long can that last?
....
When will the internet companies feel confident enough to charge a fair price for their services?
When will the Indian consumer start paying a fair price for a desired service?

Questions galore, but not many answers...

Well, only a handful of players will build a reputation for service - Flipkart is already there and Amazon India is in the right direction.

Others like Snapdeal will offer discounts and nothing more. Case in point quoted below.

Originally Posted by sachinayak

....
.....Bought an LG front loading WM with direct drive off SD for 23K. Followed up with SD support and it was shipped with no delay.
...
Finally called SD and cancelled the order (thankfully, opted for the COD option which i typically never prefer since i almost never do cash transactions).
....

[mithun]

Anyone used http://www.jazzmyride.com/

Any -ve experiences ?

[binand]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

http://qz.com/212775/the-amazon-of-i...rt-its-amazon/

A very interesting read. Its a rant by Mahesh Murthy, a well known VC/ Investor.

Here is one of several responses to Mahesh Murthy:

http://www.medianama.com/2014/05/223...thy-sumanth-r/

[RobC]

Amazon has temporarily stopped COD services to Kerala. Just checked with them today after noticing that I was unable to select COD option. Seems like the Sales Tax Offices in Kerala are hell bent on disrupting Online retail services.

[khoj]

Well, if the online retailers continue to hoodwink the tax authorities the hounding is inevitable. The day is not far when the ST authorities in other states take up the cudgels.

Originally Posted by RobC

Amazon has temporarily stopped COD services to Kerala. Just checked with them today after noticing that I was unable to select COD option. Seems like the Sales Tax Offices in Kerala are hell bent on disrupting Online retail services.

[RSR]

Has anyone bought stuff from cart2india.com? Any negative/positive/neutral experiences with them?

[avira_tk]

My recent experience with all major online portals over the last week given below

Flipkart: ordered on 21st May 14 and delivery was promised by 26th, even received an SMS saying it will be delivered before 7 pm. Nothing of the sort of happened and they sent a cooked up SMS saying that delivery attempt failed and as per my instructions, it would be attempted the next day. Seems FK is desperate to get people to pay extra for quicker delivery. External hard drive. 4000/-.

Amazon : Worst of the lot, ordered on 20th and order was shipped by 22/5/14, costliest shipping, charged twice for the same package. The delivery was by first flight who are the only guys who don't seem to know the address. It took a total of ten days, and the stuff was far from what was promised. Next time you hear stories about Amazon India's greatness in the media, just remember advertising gets you good press even if the product is sub par. 2 USB cables, 100/-for shipping, billed 50/- twice for same envelope.

EBay ordered a Coido pump and shipping was less than what Amazon charged, 49 to be exact, ordered on 24/5/14 and delivered by blue dart on 27/5/14. Quickest and totally worth it. It's a perfect case of no hype and total satisfaction.

Myntra : ordered on 27/5/14, reached the warehouse about 10km away 2 days ago, still out for delivery.

EBay gets a thumbs up.

[anilagdr]

Originally Posted by RobC

Amazon has temporarily stopped COD services to Kerala. Just checked with them today after noticing that I was unable to select COD option. Seems like the Sales Tax Offices in Kerala are hell bent on disrupting Online retail services.

I had prepaid and ordered an item from Amazon.in, but the shipment was returned back to the seller as the courier had regulatory problems in the state of Kerala. Amazon is now in the process of refunding my payment. Surprisingly, however, an ebay item was delevered promptly to me just 3 days ago.