[neil.jericho]

After having heard all round praise for the quality of Royal Enfield's apparel from several people over the last couple of years, I decided to place an order for a few t-shirts as gifts. I took advantage of the 40% discount that was available and placed the order directly from the Royal Enfield online store. This was done early on the 12th of February and I received a confirmation email from Royal Enfield stating that "Standard delivery lead time shall be between 7-10 days.Please note this is only an order confirmation and the order tracking details will be shared with you on a separate e-mail ."


Today being the 9th (or 10th day depending on if you count the 12th as well) day, I still havent received tracking details or any other updates from Royal Enfield. I was casually browsing through the Amazon website and was shocked to find that the same / similar t shirts are being sold by Royal Enfield with the same discounts and are available with next day delivery !


I called up the RE helpline soon after I saw this but was told that they have a technical issue and hence tracking details are still not going out to customers. As the same time, they cannot check and tell me anything either. To make matters worse, the company representative let it slip that the company policy on delivery time is actually 7 - 10 working days (and not 7 - 10 days that they write on their confirmation email!). I'll leave it to you to decide if skipping the crucial words of working days while sending official communication on delivery time is ethical on the part of RE or not.


The response time to emails is 24 working hours which is essentially 3 days so my emails to them today have been unanswered as of now. I hope this serves as a warning to other readers who were planning on buying from the RE online store. Please dont do that and instead order it through a third party as you get delivery in much shorter time. At least a trusted website like Amazon provides you constant delivery updates unlike Royal Enfield. If I do not receive the order tomorrow, I will request for an order cancellation as I dont want my money to lie with RE if they cant send a simple package in 10 days that regular courier companies can do in one.


With regard to the bike, Im travelling for a few days and so its quite likely that the battery will go down one last time during this time period. Once I go back, I'll have to get the battery changed as Ive got quite fed up with struggling with the kick starting and sliding center stand.

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

From what I've experienced, when visibility is the primary concern there aren't many that can compete with the Bajaj Pulsar mirrors, them being reasonably priced and light weight are just added advantages.

A most useful post indeed! Have you experimented with the Bajaj Avenger mirrors? They seem to be pretty big and I assume provide a good field of vision as well.

[sanjaykk]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

....but was told that they have a technical issue and hence tracking details are still not going out to customers. ......

Similar experience here. I ordered a belt from their online store on 25th Jan. The order confirmation page did say something like 'due to ongoing transport strike, there could be delays.'

There was no information about shipping details after many days. Followed up with customer care through email and the toll-free number; Their email response said 'Your order has been delayed due to an unexpected surge in orders during the sale period.'

Finally, the item was delivered on 19th Feb.

The belt is of good quality though.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

I dropped an email to Royal Enfield shortly after the call where I cancelled my order. Surprisingly they replied within an hour and confirmed that my order was cancelled and the amount would be credited to my account within 3 - 4 business days. It looks as though the team in charge of their cancellation process is a lot more efficient than the team in charge of their order delivery process!

I must state categorically and unequivocally that I was completely wrong about this assessment.

Ive already sent a mail to them saying I want to escalate this issue since there is no sign of my money. It looks as though Royal Enfield's ability to count days is at odds with the manner in which the rest of the world does the same.I hope this unsavoury experience with the Royal Enfield online store serves as a cautionary tale to other TBHPians and readers.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Ive already sent a mail to them saying I want to escalate this issue since there is no sign of my money. It looks as though Royal Enfield's ability to count days is at odds with the manner in which the rest of the world does the same.I hope this unsavoury experience with the Royal Enfield online store serves as a cautionary tale to other TBHPians and readers.

With no response to my email from last week, I had to call the contact number provided by Royal Enfield and the gentleman who answered informed me that there are some issues with the payment gateway processing and several transactions for refunds have failed. So it looks as though I am not the only potential customer who is suffering from Royal Enfield's inefficiencies. He has requested for time till mid to end of this week to ensure the payment to me in completed. That would make it a grand total of 2 full weeks to process a refund as compared to the commitment of 3 - 4 business days. I can sum up my entire Royal Enfield online store purchase experience in just one word - terrible !


Onto more positive things, I put together three videos of the TBHP group ride to Kotagiri. You can check out the videos here - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post4550599 (Team-BHPians ride to Kotagiri) . Its my first attempt at putting together such a video travelogue so it's not probably not as good as I hoped it to be. But I hope you enjoy a visual experience of such a ride as compared to my usual writing.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

With no response to my email from last week, I had to call the contact number provided by Royal Enfield and the gentleman who answered informed me that there are some issues with the payment gateway processing and several transactions for refunds have failed. So it looks as though I am not the only potential customer who is suffering from Royal Enfield's inefficiencies. He has requested for time till mid to end of this week to ensure the payment to me in completed. That would make it a grand total of 2 full weeks to process a refund as compared to the commitment of 3 - 4 business days. I can sum up my entire Royal Enfield online store purchase experience in just one word - terrible !

Today is the 15th day since I received the following email from Royal Enfield gear support.

Guess what, I still havent received my money back. What an amazing scam by Royal Enfield's gear team

Step 1 : Advertise a massive sale of your products from your online store.
Step 2 : Collect orders from customers and email them a confirmation stating 7 - 10 days for delivery.
Step 3 : Do nothing.
Step 4 : Tell annoyed customers who call asking about their delivery status that it is actually 7 - 10 working days and there is no way to check the status cause, hey its Royal Enfield and that's how we roll, yo!
Step 5 : Wait and see how many annoyed customers actually cancel their orders.
Step 6 : Call the refund team and tell them to follow Step 3.
Step 7 : Call the finance team and tell them to rake in interest from the amount the gear team is sitting on from Step 6.
Step 8 : Ask for a bigger bonus from Sid Lal since the gear team brought in thousands of rupees in earnings from interest off of the amounts not refunded in time.


Meanwhile as a Royal Enfield customer there is nothing I can do as the gear team doesnt reply to most of my emails. So I am helpless. If someone reading this can bring this to the attention of Sid Lal or anyone from the Royal Enfield leadership team, please do so. I am sure they dont want to lose the goodwill earned from their recent strides in the market place with the 650 twins to these multiple unethical practices being followed by their gear team.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Today is the 15th day since I received the following email from Royal Enfield gear support.


Guess what, I still havent received my money back. What an amazing scam by Royal Enfield's gear team

Its day 17 now and there is still no sign of my refund from Royal Enfield. I had sent them an email on Saturday and tried calling them today but nobody picked up the phone. I have sent another email today. Unfortunately the only email they responded to is the one confirming cancellation of my order. Just Royal Enfield things I guess.


Sid Lal, if you are reading this, please do something about the ineffectual gear team that you have at Royal Enfield. Oh yeah, and please return my money. With interest as well please since your wonderful team has chosen to sit on it for so long.

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

Just a FYI;



Info Courtesy: deville_56 @ xBhp

Thanks, I had seen that on the Xbhp thread but since I only take my bike to the SVC and they dont allow you to bring outside consumables, I am unable to exercise this option.

[ku69rd]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

With interest as well please since your wonderful team has chosen to sit on it for so long.

No point cribbing here, do tweet it to him and tag the account of Royal Enfield.
Things will be sorted out quickly.

[neil.jericho]

The battle with Royal Enfield continues.


Soon after my post in the morning, I managed to finally get the gentleman from the Gear Support team on the phone. He remembered my details and told me that the refund order had already been processed from their side and he needed 10 minutes to just get back to me on why it wasnt reflecting in my bank account. Needless to say, 10 minutes in Royal Enfield land equals several years on the Gregorian calendar and hence the call never came.


Finally about an hour later, I get this email.

So the good news is that after 17 days, Royal Enfield finally managed to start processing my payment as against the confirmation from the support team that it was already processed! The bad news is I need to wait for another 5 - 7 business days to get it. I tried reaching the same gentleman from the gear support team on the phone to find out more but couldnt get him as his number was either busy or he wasnt picking up. In the midst of this, I received the following generic email from him.

Last Monday, they gave me the exact same update! I finally managed to get the gentleman on the phone after repeatedly calling him. He has now told me to wait for a few more days and that I should be getting the money within 48 hours. However there is no explanation on how this week's "wait for a few days and see" is different from last week's "wait for a few days and see". I had asked for an escalation mechanism over email and that had been ignored. I finally got his manager's email ID and have looped him in. God knows when I will actually receive my money.

Originally Posted by ku69rd

No point cribbing here, do tweet it to him and tag the account of Royal Enfield.
Things will be sorted out quickly.

Im not on social media these days so I am limited to sharing my experiences with Royal Enfield (God knows they give me both good and bad in fair doses) through this forum. Anyways Im sure Im not the only person who is suffering from Royal Enfield's inefficiencies.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Last Monday, they gave me the exact same update! I finally managed to get the gentleman on the phone after repeatedly calling him. He has now told me to wait for a few more days and that I should be getting the money within 48 hours. However there is no explanation on how this week's "wait for a few days and see" is different from last week's "wait for a few days and see". I had asked for an escalation mechanism over email and that had been ignored. I finally got his manager's email ID and have looped him in. God knows when I will actually receive my money.

Finally escalating this issue via email elicited an email response from an assistant manager but unfortunately despite me requesting for a call, Royal Enfield's staff made no efforts to reach out to me.


The best part is now I have 3 different timelines provided to me to get my money back.
- 5-7 business days : PayU on behalf of Royal Enfield via email
- 48 hours from the afternoon of 11th March (i.e. today) : Help desk representative via telephone
- 4 -5 working days : as per the assistant manager's email.


I dropped an email to them once again requesting for an escalation mechanism from the assistant manager and surprise surprise, no response from him to my emails as well. I honestly havent seen any company ignore customer's emails so blatantly. I might as well be talking to a brick wall.


I finally called up the assistant manager today (does anyone see a pattern here, Im running after Royal Enfield to get my money back while they sit back and tell me each time to wait for some more time ) who at least admitted that there have been failures from their end in not responding to emails and ignoring my requests for escalation. He claimed that there are many customers who are facing the same issue as me and they are working with their payment gateway team to clear the payments in the coming days. Unfortunately these are the same lofty promises that were given to me 8 days ago over the phone and hence I have no trust in these promises.


The assistant manager has claimed that Royal Enfield will be sending out an email to all impacted customers today itself. I am not holding my breath on this one. What a complete process failure in Royal Enfield from top to bottom - orders cant be delivered and cancellations cant be refunded. Why even bother with an online store then?

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Finally escalating this issue via email

You should have this whole series of posts moved to a new thread - it will sound as a good warning to people who plan to buy from the RE site. I myself was looking hard at their site as part of the recent sale - luckily I didn't find any Ortlieb or Revit branded merchandise.

It's also cluttering your own ownership thread of the GT, and has nothing to do with the bike per se. Your new thread will get better visibility too and hopefully someone in the know fixes it for you.

Good luck.

[GTO]

Neil, moving your complaint into a new thread.

Sorry to hear about your experience. One of my favourite cargo pants was bought from their online shop. I had a pleasant experience & am very happy with the quality.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by GTO

Neil, moving your complaint into a new thread.

Sorry to hear about your experience. One of my favourite cargo pants was bought from their online shop. I had a pleasant experience & am very happy with the quality.

Thanks for moving the posts to a new thread GTO. I do like the quality of the products brought out by Royal Enfield. I use a touring jacket of theirs (even while riding my Triumph, much to the puzzlement of other riders) and have purchased 3 Royal Enfield t-shirts as gifts recently (one from a RE store & 2 from Amazon).


I did use LinkedIn to reach out to a couple of higher ups in Royal Enfield's apparel division and received a positive response from one of them later in the day. Shortly after my last post, there were some updates from Royal Enfield. I first received the following email from Royal Enfield's gear team.

I guess I will wait till Royal Enfield's next sale season and order a t shirt for myself and pray fervently that the product reaches me before I outgrow it. Shortly after the assistant manager also dropped me an email on the same.

I havent checked the value of the voucher but thumbs up to Royal Enfield for taking some late but nonetheless, welcome measures to try and pacify disgruntled customers. The only fly in the ointment is that I still havent received my money back .

[IshWish]

I also had a pleasant experience with RE Online store during my purchase last year. The product was delivered in stipulated time frame with decent packaging.
I would only say online purchase is still a "HIT or MISS" in India where we have the technology but not enough people to support (technology and logistics) the backend processes.

[isldhn]

Neil, I do not know if its Vivek who sent you the mail from their Gurgaon office but if it is, then I have his mobile number and he seems to be a good guy as I too had some issue with their online store and had a word with him recently. So I can share his number if that helps. He is in charge of the online stores and inventory.

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Thanks for moving the posts to a new thread GTO. I do like the quality of the products brought out by Royal Enfield. I use a touring jacket of theirs (even while riding my Triumph, much to the puzzlement of other riders) and have purchased 3 Royal Enfield t-shirts as gifts recently (one from a RE store & 2 from Amazon).


I did use LinkedIn to reach out to a couple of higher ups in Royal Enfield's apparel division and received a positive response from one of them later in the day. Shortly after my last post, there were some updates from Royal Enfield. I first received the following email from Royal Enfield's gear team.

Attachment 1858912

I guess I will wait till Royal Enfield's next sale season and order a t shirt for myself and pray fervently that the product reaches me before I outgrow it. Shortly after the assistant manager also dropped me an email on the same.

Attachment 1858911

I havent checked the value of the voucher but thumbs up to Royal Enfield for taking some late but nonetheless, welcome measures to try and pacify disgruntled customers. The only fly in the ointment is that I still havent received my money back .

[greenhorn]

I hope the irony of offering a voucher to a store where the order process does not work, as compensation for the order process not working is not lost on them !