Team-BHP - Malpractices in Flipkart's Big Billion sale

Apart from clothes (in the recent past even clothes are coming online for me though), I have always purchased things online from either of these two. To be frank I never had a problem with any of them but what made Amazon better was the below experience-

I purchased a YU phone for my spouse and within 8 months the display went dead one fine morning. There was no water damage or any fall/drop for this to happen. Since it was already past the replacement period of 6 months, I called up YU customer care. As almost expected, they were unresponsive through emails and phone even after multiple tries. Finally, i took a shot with the Amazon CC and told them the entire ordeal. I shared all my communication logs with them just to be on the safer side. To my complete surprise, Amazon asked me to send back the phone for a complete refund. Needless to say, I purchased the next phone from Amazon itself because of the trust they had built.

I highly doubt flipkart would have done this because in many cases they provide a replacement and not a refund. Unfortunately, many times these two come with exclusives or the configuration you want isn't there on one of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddy (Post 4478700)

I've had my fair share of bad experiences with Flopkart. I wanted to buy an Asus phone this sale season but did not do so primarily because it was a Flopkart exclusive. Bought an Mi A2 from Amazon instead.

I was in the same boat and I know which Asus phone you were looking to buy because after a lot of deliberation I went ahead and purchased it from Flipkart else it was the MI A2 for me as well. The delivery came on 14th instead of the 17th as promised earlier which is almost 3 days earlier. I am still wondering if I should keep it or return this Asus within the 10 day period. These exclusives are a big problem unfortunately.

I have resigned to the thought of making purchases in Flipkart after multiple bad experiences. They come across as a very unprofessional bunch. Amazon, in contrast, seems much mature organisation to deal with, even when they fail to meet my expectations and I complain. But I am very selective with sellers I buy from these platforms.

Whenever possible I buy directly from the manufacturer (Wildcraft, Arrow,GAP (NNNOW) who seem to care more than e-commerce companies. Also, newer platforms like flybhp seem to provide better cost, value advantage.

In my experience, Aliexpress provides much better customer support in comparison. Our Online Shopping thread has ample examples of experiences.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4479155)

IIRC, in the last 5 years, there is only one thing I've bought on Flipkart and that's the Google Chromecast (since Amazon doesn't sell it).

Ha ha, the famous feud between Amazon and Google - Google doesn't make an official YouTube app for the Fire TV Stick (so Amazon provide a wrapper for the website), and in turn Amazon don't sell Google's home-automation hardware. I don't know who started it, but I do wish they'd both stop it, because they're just hurting consumers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4479155)

Example, I buy my electronics from Vijay Sales for their excellent service, price matching (with online)

Very true. There are specific niches where specialty shops/online platforms can still beat Amazon. Similar to your example, I use The IT Depot for any computer hardware - their prices are better than Amazon, products are newer (e.g. UPS batteries), and they price match.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4479155)

My latest phone I bought on Samsung's website.

I've had experience of purchasing Samsung phones on both Amazon and the Samsung Shop site. Interestingly, on Amazon, the seller "STPL Exclusive Online" is the same entity as Samsung Shop - I realized this when their item came in the same packaging (Samsung branded cardboard box, branded sealing tape) as an item from Samsung Shop. So I've now settled on checking both sites to see the offers available (they often match, except for cashbacks which Samsung make available via Paytm and Amazon via Amazon Pay).

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsk1979 (Post 4479274)

Its actually bigger than. Its about an open platform which is not open. A future anti trust ruling against android may fix the app problem. Microsoft got nailed by Europe for far less

Quite true - I glossed over it from an end-user point of view, it's more around Google's strict rules about denying Google Play Services on custom forks of Android. They appear to be quite overdue for a clipping of their wings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arunphilip (Post 4479267)

Its actually bigger than. Its about an open platform which is not open. A future anti trust ruling against android may fix the app problem. Microsoft got nailed by Europe for far less

Quote:

Originally Posted by pramodkumar (Post 4478476)

what is sad now is I have to return all the accessories I bought from Amazon, which is happening due to no fault of theirs and I am sitting on top of 4k worth gift cards from Flipkart which is of no use to me now(i am not giving them away lol:).

Regards,
Pramod

If they are of no use to you, why keep them with yourself :D

Personally speaking I've had an overall good experience with both Flipkart & Amazon, most of the items arrived & worked as expected, those that didn't were replaced/refunded in which case patience was required, but it finally happened. In case of an impending sale, it is always better to scout beforehand the items you need & the payment mode which will be most beneficial to you, add items to your cart, & the moment the sale starts just proceed for payment. Some time & research is required in this case, but it is worth it. You do end up getting pretty good deals which you'll never find in the brick-&-mortar stores. Today both Amazon & Flipkart have made it pretty easy for refunds/returns/replacements.

I've had a few issues in the past with Flipkart too. Moreover, I totally dislike their user interface and experience. I tried posting an honest review on one of their products and they wouln't allow that for whatever reason. If I do have to buy from Flipkart, I only do a COD! Only thing I recall buying from the site in the last year or so is just a flip-flop.

My preference cetainly has been Amazon for most things. They are not without issues though - although they are lot more responsive than Flipkart about addressing any issues.

Ex 1: On a trip to Delhi from Bangalore, we ordered for diapers on Amazon so it would be there by the time we reached with kids. The local delivery guy refused to even make an attempt to deliver it. I put in a complaint, the customer care spoke to me and promised some help. The package got delivered at about 10pm in the night the very same day!

Ex 2: (A problem) - So we were to get some additional 5% or so cashback on some subscriptions running. It never came through. Sent Amazon CC a message. Received a call, they reviewed the case and agreed that I am entitled to those cashbacks. They promised to honor it shortly. But that never happened. And really, I didn't quite care for it.

Personally I have switched to Amazon as my go-to online shopping app. I do shop from Flipkart once in a while, primarily for things not available on Amazon or when there is a significant price difference. With all-in-one model of Amazon with additional services linked to Prime, it will be hard to move away from Amazon.

Reading some of the horror stories, I must say I have been fortunate with Flipkart so far. Interestingly, most of my big-ticket purchases have been from Flipkart (TV, printer, multiple phones over the years).

I haven't really had any bad experience on Flipkart, but what I do notice is that when it comes to deliveries, Flipkart over commits and under delivers, and later try to make-up for it somehow. Quite the opposite with Amazon.

Couple of personal experiences:
1. Few months back had bought a Google Pixel, and I was entitled to Rs 8000 cash back from HDFC bank. Flipkart on their own credited a gift card of Rs 400 for delay in processing it. Cash back did come a bit later.
2. Few years back when the delivery of a printer got delayed, Flipkart credited back some amount for the delay.

I don't do a lot of online shopping so pardon the ignorance in my query: If Flipkart (or any other vendor) does not deliver any product or service as per your expecations what is the need to use their services again? Eventually the market will send the errant merchant a message.

My experience
Some years ago I was looking for CDs on Flipkart. I ordered a total of 50 CDs (I had to make 2 orders as Flipkart restricted the number of CDs I can put in one order to 25). All of these were international pressings (which are usually better than Indian versions).

A couple of hours after I placed the orders I got an SMS that xxxx CD from yyyy artist was not available and I would be credited the amount back as well as an additional Rs. 150/- for my trouble. I thought nothing of it figuring that out of 50 CDs I would at least receive 49. I switched off my phone and went to sleep.

Next morning I was inundated with 49 more SMSs with the same message. I was incredulous. When I turned on my laptop and logged into my Flipkart account I noticed that they had indeed credited me all the money I had paid plus Rs. 7500/- (50 x 150) in Flipkart money (I could only buy a restricted list of Flipkart items with that money). There was nothing useful I could spend this money on. I eventually wasted it. I think I did buy some "digiflip" power bank for a few 100 Rs.. The power bank never worked. It is now a paper weight. :)

How was it that NOT 1 CD from 50 was in stock? I later checked the availability of some of the CDs on Flipkart and it showed they were available but the prices now were Rs. 200-250-300 higher than what I had initially paid. Flipkart obviously felt it was cheaper for them to pay me Rs. 150/- in monopoly money (sorry Flipkart money) than to comply with the requirements of my orders.

This is a terrible business model. I have never used Flipkart since except once to get a Aristo Mechanical Pencil that no one had. That product was delivered promptly. A grand sum of Rs. 426/-. That was the extent of business I had with Flipkart.

Now my credit card company throws another spanner, the remaining payment for my second order was converted to a no cost EMI.

Why did I do it? Well, why not?

Now I get a message from them saying my purchase has been converted to an EMI at 13% ROI, plus Flipkart is asking me time till 25th to resolve this. This is totally unacceptable. I now understand my ordeal is far from over.

I am hoping to resolve this without involving my bank.

Pramod

Quote:

Originally Posted by navin (Post 4479429)

If Flipkart (or any other vendor) does not deliver any product or service as per your expecations what is the need to use their services again? Eventually the market will send the errant merchant a message.

The lure of cheap prices, discounts and the hope that you don't fall in the % that has had a bad experience (again).

Especially during these sales, the price differential between online and brick and mortar stores is considerable; so that bait is enough. With all the discounts thrown in, people have picked up an iPhone X for as low as 60k, which is absolutely impossible from a physical store (grey market not considered). This despite there being well documented cases of people receiving bricks, soaps and those like a Samsung S7 being delivered when a S8 was ordered.

Customer service and accountability are a joke, and we love a free lunch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mohan Mathew A (Post 4478788)

It was a very small dent. If they expect phones on exchange to be even without that, then it clearly is not realistic. I suspect they are using it as an excuse to get people to pay the full price.

To be fair, the same happened to me when I ordered the Note 9 from Samsung Store a month ago. Thankfully, they exchange the old phone at the time of the delivery so I cancelled the order.

As far as I know, both use Cashify as their vendor for exchanging old phones.

I have a strong feeling that Flipkart is cancelling my orders because gift cards are involved, My latest order for a Kingston 128GB SD card stands cancelled after 2 days.
The other thing that I ordered was a 3D Mat for my car and its also not yet shipped, this was ordered on Saturday. The estimated delivery date is 1st of November :deadhorse
I have requested my CC company to see if the reward points can be credited back cancelling these Gift cards, I am yet to hear from them on this. I highly doubt if they would be helping me out.

Pramod

Having recently ordered an iPad for educational purposes during the Big Billion Day sale, news like these is really scaring me. I shop a lot online ( mostly on Amazon) and have not had a single bad experience. I love the concept of online shopping as for students like me who don't have time for anything, it's just more convenient to get it shipped home. Plus Amazon's 1 day delivery means no waiting too.
Unfortunately with flipkart, they take their own sweet time to deliver.

:OTOn a side note if flipkart cancels my order I can't imagine the look on my dad's face when he was the one who said to use our current iPad rather than buying a new one.stupid: