[anky]

I always us flipkart and use cod as far as possible . On flipkart too I buy from ws retail only . They ship by their own ekart logistics always before time . 30 day refund no questions asked . Used that option recently too . Bought many high end phones shoes etc from them . No complaints till today . Used hs18 once they too delivered on time . No ebay or amazon for me as unlike flipkart (ws retail ) they do not sell their own stuff and we are at the mercy of thier resellers .

[castiel]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal,glad that it is resolved.I am really surprised to see this thread title

I've been using amazon.com (not amazon.in-I get items shipped my usa office) since 2008 and always found their customer service exceptional.
They always went above and beyond to help me . In fact i don't recall they ever saying no to me, it is hard to believe when one compare with what we have to endure with the companies in India.

Even refunded for out of warranty items couple of times.
Paid me the repair cost of some items since i cannot ship the faulty items back to usa from India. (fedex guys told me an individual cannot export electronic items from India i dont know if that is true).

Sad to hear that the indian unit is not upto their US standards. Their tagline says they are the worlds most customer centric company based on my experience so far i tend to agree

Government should simplify this and get rid of these forms and red tape. Let the online seller collect the whatever the taxes at the time of sale so that the buyer dont have to deal with this afterwards

[StarScream]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal and I'm glad its resolved. Such things cause needless stress in life.

A few things about this - Fedex is the problem and they are lousy. I bought a pair of high-end desktop speakers from a shop in Bombay about a year ago and Fedex behaved rather poorly. They picked up the package, knowing fully well it was to go to Noida, brought it to Delhi and then sat on it saying I need to produce a sales tax form. I know this is a UP issue and those who play by the book need the documentation. But what surprised me was why they picked it up in the first place without the form. Fedex asked me to pick it up from their depot in a part of Delhi I've never been to. I was quite disappointed by their attitude and service. Finally, the seller who was very helpful, convinced them to change the delivery address to my office in Delhi and I received the package a week late.

[Samurai]

Lot of these problems are caused by Sales Tax authorities who have not geared up to the online commerce phenomena. Therefore, they do the old school method of physically stopping the delivery of the items to collect the tax. If they have any sense, they have to insist that the online merchant collect the tax and submit it directly to the department. Amazon has all those features built-in. If you order any item in Amazon.com within USA, they do collect sales tax based on destination state. The Indian sales tax department refuses to enter 21st century, and still insist on forms.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by castiel

Sorry to hear about your ordeal,glad that it is resolved.I am really surprised to see this thread title

I've been using amazon.com (not amazon.in-I get items shipped my usa office) since 2008 and always found their customer service exceptional.
They always went above and beyond to help me . In fact i don't recall they ever saying no to me, it is hard to believe when one compare with what we have to endure with the companies in India.

Even refunded for out of warranty items couple of times.
Paid me the repair cost of some items since i cannot ship the faulty items back to usa from India. (fedex guys told me an individual cannot export electronic items from India i dont know if that is true).

Sad to hear that the indian unit is not upto their US standards. Their tagline says they are the worlds most customer centric company based on my experience so far i tend to agree

Government should simplify this and get rid of these forms and red tape. Let the online seller collect the whatever the taxes at the time of sale so that the buyer dont have to deal with this afterwards

I would still buy from Amazon.com. I have never faced any problem with any order that the CS was not able to rectify in one or two emails. Amazon.COM is supreme.

I expected the same level of std from Amazon India and therein lies the problem. Maybe for a person who was not used to Amazon.com levels of service wouldn't have got riled up much.

Amazon.com once charged me for expedited shipping and the package was sent through regular post. Since the item did not come even after a long wait past estimated delivery date i contacted their CS and they promptly refunded the order cost inclusive of shipping+duty.
Couple of days after they issued a refund our snail mail delivered the item. Because I wanted to be honest in the deal i informed CS that i have received the package intact. The CS asked for my permission to charge my credit card once again to pay for this order which i gladly gave. Surprisingly they charged me only for the product cost and didn't charge me for shipping and duty.

Originally Posted by StarScream

Sorry to hear about your ordeal and I'm glad its resolved. Such things cause needless stress in life.

A few things about this - Fedex is the problem and they are lousy. I bought a pair of high-end desktop speakers from a shop in Bombay about a year ago and Fedex behaved rather poorly. They picked up the package, knowing fully well it was to go to Noida, brought it to Delhi and then sat on it saying I need to produce a sales tax form. I know this is a UP issue and those who play by the book need the documentation. But what surprised me was why they picked it up in the first place without the form. Fedex asked me to pick it up from their depot in a part of Delhi I've never been to. I was quite disappointed by their attitude and service. Finally, the seller who was very helpful, convinced them to change the delivery address to my office in Delhi and I received the package a week late.

I'm glad that your issue was resolved as well. I never knew FedEx was this bad.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Lot of these problems are caused by Sales Tax authorities who have not geared up to the online commerce phenomena. Therefore, they do the old school method of physically stopping the delivery of the items to collect the tax. If they have any sense, they have to insist that the online merchant collect the tax and submit it directly to the department. Amazon has all those features built-in. If you order any item in Amazon.com within USA, they do collect sales tax based on destination state. The Indian sales tax department refuses to enter 21st century, and still insist on forms.

Thanks to our sales tax regulations i think i am going to abstain from any online purchases for some time. I'm going to take a break from online purchases till the mess clears up. No payment up front.

[mallumowgli]

Ironic - I am in the brick and mortar industry and for us all the sales tax forms in Kerala are processed on-line, and here we see in the e-commerce sector the reverse is happening!!

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Sankar

i think i am going to abstain from any online purchases for some time. I'm going to take a break from online purchases till the mess clears up

Well...my suggestion would be...Be Indian, buy Indian...order from .IN websites, even the prices are high for time being, you can be assured that either you get the funds or the products.

It's better to loose money than peace of mind

[PatienceWins]

Sad and surprised to know about your experience. My experience with Amazon India has been very good. They promptly collected and refunded the payment for a damaged kindle cover. Because of the brand name and personal experiences, the trust was high. Will be careful from now on. Keep us posted Shankar. All the best.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Ironic - I am in the brick and mortar industry and for us all the sales tax forms in Kerala are processed on-line, and here we see in the e-commerce sector the reverse is happening!!

We do the same thing when we send our finished products out of state. We do the same for hardware coming into our state.

Now i got to see if the new regulations and developments will make any difference to our hardware coming in.

Originally Posted by aargee

Well...my suggestion would be...Be Indian, buy Indian...order from .IN websites, even the prices are high for time being, you can be assured that either you get the funds or the products.

It's better to loose money than peace of mind

Some products just do not have an Indian alternative or that provides the same quality, same for e-commerce sites. So far my USD/Euro/GBP purchases never had me loose any money or peace of mind. I have had trouble with other Indian e-commerce sites in the past, but in this case the amount involved was higher and i was running out of patience.

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

Sad and surprised to know about your experience. My experience with Amazon India has been very good. They promptly collected and refunded the payment for a damaged kindle cover. Because of the brand name and personal experiences, the trust was high. Will be careful from now on. Keep us posted Shankar. All the best.

You're in a Metro and Amazon has a base there. So no surprises. If they can't do that atleast in their home territory they should just cease to exist. I don't think any Metro customer especially from Bangalore has to worry about faltering service from Amazon India or Flipkart, you will be safe.

[Dry Ice]

Sankar, I quoted this thread and sent a mail through my account on Amazon. I have expressed my displeasure in very clear words and have also warned all of my friends. The only way these big MNCs will stop treating us badly is if we don't let them.

I would urge all members to drop a note to these guys - saying how this is not the Amazon we thought it was! Hardly takes 20 seconds. But at least they will think twice before doing something similar with someone else. Tomorrow that someone can be me!

And finally, COD is the way to go.

[abirnale]

Sad to know your experience but definitely not surprised. In a similar incidence with AliExpress.com, I have been denied the refund/ action. Although they aren't known for good customer service anyway, their way of settling dispute surprises me. The DVR mirror I purchased online arrived with an empty box, neatly and perfectly packed - you can't even smell any foul when you receive the package! So I raised a dispute after a quick communication with seller and no luck! The price was very small and not worth of spending time so I had to let it go.

But learned few things here -

• When you receive the order, ensure that weight of the parcel is logically matching the ordered item and box - cross check this with invoice weight
• The price mentioned on the parcel MUST reflect the right price. Most of the time, international shippers undervalue it so that customs clear it. And thats actually not good for you or country.
• When it comes to dispute, they recommend us to capture unpacking videos, pictures of your unpacking experience and disclosure letters from the shipping agent as the parcel delivered to buyer was intact!

Now imagine as an innocent buyer, would you really have all these evidences always? So buyer's case is weak to begin with.

While your case, Sankar, was mostly made complicated in first place by lousy shipping agency, the end result is they have one unhappy customer which will in all probability stay away from them for some time at least.

Incidences like these have negative impact on our ecommerce/ mcommerce savvy shopping behavior. While flipkart, ebay and similar online retailers are gearing up, the edgy customers like me would turn back to tried and tested methods of physical shopping or stick to the means where your money isn't at risk.

On the other thought, I noticed that purchases made through amex card have worked in my favor. It seems to have better buyer protection to ensure that in case of conflict, buyer has first preference always. They ask us to not make the disputed payment to them unless the case is settled and onus of disproving buyer claim in on seller!

To make things better, it's clear that Amazon has prime responsibility to ensure item reaches buyer without any hassles. Taxes, customs and anything to do with shipping etc is their responsibility. Unless they work it right, future isn't bright for them!

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Some products just do not have an Indian alternative or that provides the same quality, same for e-commerce sites. So far my USD/Euro/GBP purchases never had me loose any money or peace of mind. I have had trouble with other Indian e-commerce sites in the past, but in this case the amount involved was higher and i was running out of patience.

Perfectly agreed on situation as I myself have been (and still being) in this type of situation. Unless the shipment is large (which I forgo my dream to own), I try & ask someone coming from US to carry it for me.

Your thread is a great eye opener for people like me to stick more with reliability than saving few money here & there.

[AWD]

All is not well with Amazon India, I had a really Bad experience. Had placed an order for a Food Processor, next day was waiting for shipping details but instead received this mail:

" In an effort to provide customers with great prices, sometimes the quantity is limited to ensure that all customers have an opportunity to order products that have low prices and high demand. Due to this, the following order has been cancelled."

Was I not a customer! Had placed only 1 order from 1 account only. Wrote a mail to Amazon regarding the same & the reply I got:

" We have determined that this order was cancelled in error".

Again replied to the mail asking them to fulfill the order since it was cancelled in error by them. Got a reply:

"You are free to place a new order"!

The prices now were revised & were higher than what I had ordered for in the first place. So asked them to offer me the same at the price at which I had purchased.

" I'm sure it's disappointing to see the higher price on the item. But we can't offer the same price now."

This was it, I knew they won't do anything about it. Left shopping from Amazon.in.
The order I placed was Amazon fulfilled.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by abirnale

In a similar incidence with AliExpress.com, I have been denied the refund/ action.... I raised a dispute after a quick communication with seller and no luck!

To provide an update on this - I received a resolution on this case by AliExpress in my favor. I had spent some time on following up with them online through the complaint center and chat options. And finally today I received the email stating that they have issues full refund!

So there is light at the end of tunnel. All it needs is painful followup and patience

[Divya Sharan]

I'd take this platform to share a small ordeal I faced with Amazon India's services. I ordered a Tamron 70-300 mm lens for my SLR. While placing the order, I could see a 1 day delivery option by paying an extra 99 INR if placed in the next 2 hours xy min.
I placed the order within 5 min and my order summary said 1 day delivery confirmed. 48 hours went past, with no signs of the package arriving.

The delivery date and time in the orders page kept getting revised. In the meanwhile I had contacted their CSR team for follow up and all they replied was a lame, "We're looking into it!".

Finally I thought enough was enough. Gave them a call again and said I'm going to raise a complaint against them in social media. They said they'd get back to me within half an hour with precise details.
They called me within 15 min and gave me a shocker.

CSR: Sir, we honor 1 day deliveries only if the orders are placed before 9 AM.
Me: Yes, and I placed my order at 7:08 AM.
CSR: Yes, but Amazon received the amount from your bank at 9:03 AM, by that time the 1 day offer had expired for the day.
Me: So, how's that my fault?
CSR: Sorry sir, this are the guidelines and we cannot do anything in this matter.
Me: Fine! Be prepared for a fraud complaint against Amazon India in that case. I don't care for 99 rupees I lost but your policies aren't transparent and you guys are fraudsters. (I know I went overboard here).
CSR: Sir, this is how eCommerce works.
Me: Please don't teach me how eCommerce works. Then I gave him a nice explanation about my IT job - 4 years in online retail business.

End result - Got my package the same night ~ 8 PM with a goodwill discount (cheque worth 99 INR).

Am I buying again from Amazon India? Yes, I love reading books and have bought scores of novels from them. Electronics are priced almost at par or cheaper than Flipkart. Services are good, with few off cases here and there. But worth giving another try.

Signing off!