Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   Malpractices in Flipkart's Big Billion sale (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/202802-malpractices-flipkarts-big-billion-sale-4.html)

Can't believe Flipkart has become this bad. A couple of years I exchanged a Samsung Galaxy S 4 with touch issues. The person just checked if the screen was not cracked and the display turned on.

I don't remember the last item I ordered on Flipkart.

Wife and me generally order on Amazon but that is more to to with our Prime membership. Also mostly I see good deals for my credit cards (HDFC and Citi) on Amazon.

We generally buy small standard items like Phones, Headset (Audio Technica) this was not available on flipkart, car mobile charger etc.

All other items like washing machine, bluetooth speaker, Mixer etc were bought offline. It's way more hassle free to buy offline and reach out if there is an issue.

Wife buys clothes online, am yet to figure out or come to terms with this concept.

I am still old school and like to touch and feel before buying stuff unless its a regular item like phones or headset

I too had my share of bad experience in this BBD sale. I was always circumspect of ordering watches and perfume online. However, an 18k Tissot watch which I had wish-listed was available for 12k after all sort of discounts. Given the price point, I ordered the watch and it got delivered in 2 days. However, the brown box of flipkart was open as the tape had glued in itself rather than gluing on the box. This raised my suspicion. When I opened the Tissot box, the watch quality seemed to be just okay. Though I could never be sure, but it looked to me as a first copy.

Then started the long return process. I created the return request, the courier boy called me from downstairs and then vanished. I waited for 20 minutes and called him multiple times but to no avail. By evening, my return request got cancelled. I called call center to create another return request. This time I got a message that its out for pickup, but not one called and by evening again the return request got cancelled. Finally I got lucky the third time. This time as soon as I got 'out for pickup' message, I called the courier boy and reached his place to return the watch. I also made sure twice that he has entered 'pickup complete' in his app. Got my refund by evening.

Given the horrible experience with watch, I immediately cancelled my in-transit order of 2 perfumes which Flipkart was selling at 40% of MRP. By now I realized that at this low price I am likely to receive fake perfume even though the seller was Flipkart. All in all, I did not end up buying much in this BBD sale.

Issues are not isolated to a particular marketplace.
Be it Flipkart or Amazon or PaytmMall, I am sure there will be many of us have a fair share of pleasant experiences and also nightmares. Not all 'big offers' are always honoured by sellers / marketplaces.

In fact, we can say similar things about other retail experiences and since this is Team-BHP, motors that we own and their authorised service centres also.

We see many Indians providing the best of customer experiences to individuals located across the globe, however, when it comes to consumers within India, the 'chalta hai' attitude kicks in and fellow countrymen are left in the lurch.

Examples of unapologetic behaviour by the e-commerce companies / car and 2-wheeler manufacturers / authorised service centres.

To an extent, the fear of rule of law is not as strong as you would want it to be.
Lets be honest, not all of us spare the effort, resources and time and take these elements to the courts. The flip side is that our legal processes have enough red tape to dissuade the small bunch who would like to do so.
Now, to reign in rouge behaviour, there is a necessity for effective governance mechanisms to be put in place akin to the consumer courts in western countries.
This will happen as the industry matures.

Till such time that the sellers or service providers do not see themselves loosing out on business and also bearing fines / facing punitive action, there is little that consumers can do but to haggle / fight with customer care associates to get resolution for their issues.

Officially all my orders are cancelled, even the 3D mat.

I called flipkart to check if they can cancel these coupons which will help my CC company to credit those reward points back, Flipkart guys are just adamant and won't cancel the gift cards. I am now officially dead in the water. My plan is to buy some diapers for my daughter, hope they let that through :Frustrati

Pramod

And JABONG and Myntra et al. Trust them if you dare.

Suppliers are the same between all of them so expect the same lack of ethics, principles, customer care, faulty processes, mismanagement and more.

This is a rogue market, venture in at your peril.

There has to be a grievance redressal cell from the government's side something like the banking ombudsman etc.

I have had terrible experiences with FK and i generally don't like to go there. Amazon has been a breeze more often than not.

Very true. I think, more than the "chalta hai" attitude it is the "what can he do" mindset. Unless the the individual who is selling/providing the service to an end-user realizes that he/she is also a consumer and could be in the same situation at some point-of-time, the situation may continue to remain the same. At times, the individuals too may have their hands tied to abide by their employers' protocols.

I have had two bad experiences with flipkart related to mobile covers and a anti-virus software cd, since then I've bid good bye to them. They only sell mobile phones better.

I had ordered a Norton anti-virus on BBD (Big Billion day) sale few years ago, got a pretty good deal. That was until I received it and saw that the Antivirus cd was actually a BLANK dvd with Norton printed using dvd cover printer ! Then, the license key that they sent on the cover gave me a message that it was already in use ! I had to follow it up with Flipkart for 2 months to get a replacement. So my expensive new rig was vulnerable for two months because of them.

Second was when they sent a wrong mobile cover despite mentioning the correct details of the phone. The replacement and everything is a hassle for such small things because you have to make yourself or someone available for returning the item.

Also, My wife had ordered a jbl headphones on BBD sale, she got the headphones in tampered box and one part (a clip for clamping it garments while work out) was missing !

Amazon is much better, their listing is accurate and there are some items that are on listed which are not present on flipkart (e.g. Silicone grease, specific headlight bulbs etc). Plus, so far I've not received a defective/tampered product.

In my opinion, Flipkart has become more like an online flea market, Amazon is a proper store.

Indeed - the Flipkart website and Order Management Framework in back-end is mostly out of sync and that makes me wonder how it works at all as an e.g. a popular startup, doing fantastic right now did not even had a "Primary Key check" on the Order ID 4 years back lol:
You could use REST APIs to add your wallet and do whatever you want.

Sometime, such crappy framework helps. My friend ordered a Microwave from Flipkart and while it was in transit, they realise it was the wrong model. They promptly approach the customer care to revert the shipment and that they will order again while cancelling the current order.

Now comes the interesting part, the microwave was delivered and it kept lying with them for couple of weeks inspite of multiple calls to take it back as the money was also reversed. 2 weeks later they get to hear from Flipkart service desk that there is no order from them and hence they cannot return back anything. :uncontrol

They are enjoying their festive gift !

I have had very good experience with Paytm shopping. This month I purchased an MSI laptop which had Rs 18,000 cash back. The cashback was credited and the order shipped the next day. The laptop arrived in perfect condition in a sealed box within 2 days. Full warranty is available as confirmed by registration on the MSI website. I also bought a micro SD card a few weeks back and received the item and the cashback promptly. The SD card is genuine and works well. I booked my first air ticket on Paytm due to cashback this month as well and it was a good experience. By the way, Paytm does have a customer service number. They are prompt in answering and are quite professional. For purchases on Paytm Mall, one can call 011-3377-6677.

Coming to Amazon, I have used them for years in the US and here in India. Generally they are quite good but last week I had a terrible experience with them. I ordered a filter for my air purifier for Rs. 2400. I was cheaper than Rs. 3000 from the manufacturer and included a cashback of Rs 100. In addition they had a deal where you got Rs. 300 extra by loading Rs. 3000 on Amazon Pay. The product was shipped from Ghaziabad which is right next to Delhi. However, it took 3 days to move. Then it was sent 100 Kms away to Haryana and finally brought near me. It took 5 days to move a few kms. Nothing wrong as they indicated a delivery time of five days to a week but it shows a poor delivery system. Now, on the day of delivery, I got an SMS in the morning stating my product is out for delivery and would be delivered by XX. There was a phone number given. I called the person and he was very polite and stated that he would come around 3 pm. As no one showed up by 6pm, I called him back and he said he hadn't made it there yet. I waited. At 7pm, I got an SMS that my product had been "rejected by the customer" and I should contact Amazon if I had not rejected it. I immediately called Amazon and they were not able to do anything at all.They said well, it is too bad. We will see why this happened but this product now has to go back to the seller. Wait a while. Get your refund and reorder it. I urged them to contact their own delivery service (delivered by Amazon Transportation Services) and have the item delivered again the next day as it was obviously still in my local area. They claimed it had already been sent back. It had only been a few minutes and since it took 5 days to arrive, it obviously couldn't have been sent back that fast. However they were adamant that nothing could be done. They agreed that the courier has to make at least 3 attempts but couldn't explain why the item was returned. I asked to speak to a supervisor but the same story repeated itself. The supervisor apologised but was adamant that there was no way they could contact their own delivery service and request the item to be delivered. They also insisted that no one had the authority to override the system to request a re-delivery.

Later that evening I got a call from the "escalation department" and the person put me on hold and claimed to call the local delivery center. He then stated that it was too late as the item had left this center and that if they had been informed earlier, they could have asked for it to be resent! Finally he gave me a Rs 200 credit for an apology but I now have to wait more than a week to try to get my item. Meanwhile the price has increased to Rs 3000 from 2400. I was amazed that a large retailer like Amazon can't simply request re-delivery attempt for an item rather than sending it back to the seller. It is a waste of their time and money, the seller's time and of course the customer's time.

Big billion days or not Flipkart has always been conning customers from the very beginning. Back in 2012 ordered a HP laptop from them, market price for the same model was around 32k, Flipkart had it for 34.5k but they were offering a 'free' Point and shoot camera with HP laptops those days, thought even if I am paying 2.5k extra I would be getting a P&S camera which was worth more, so placed the order, but before doing so, went through all the fine details of terms and conditions and took few screenshots. But only the laptop was delivered and I was told to pay 2k more to get the camera and this was not mentioned in the terms and conditions page, made few calls, sent them numerous mails with all the screenshots just to be told the offer is no longer available and the promise will not be fulfilled.

From then onwards I visit Flipkart only when I have to order something that is exclusively available with them, in most cases mobile phones. For everything else Flipkart will be my last site to visit for online shopping.

On the other hand, after extensive search, I decided to exchange my Galaxy S6 for Mi A2, with exchange, SBI card discounts it was coming down to 9k, I thought it was really a good deal to miss and placed the order on Amazon, first delivery attempt was a failure due to some OTP issue and subsequently mobile was delivered yesterday, and my heart was in my mouth with the way the delivery guy handled my S6, he dropped it on ground face first resulting in few dents on the body and cracks in the tempered glass, the guy had the audacity to say it was the second device he had dropped that day, and I am still afraid that I might get a call from them stating the S6 isn't in working condition.

One needs to be careful while shopping online and I am sharing a few tips which have helped me till now and I hope are useful for other members and readers.

1. Never buy high value items from portals which you don't trust.
2. Whether Big Billion Sale or Great Indian Festival on Amazon, always buy from the seller which is managed / owned by them for all big ticket items.
Cloudtail from Amazon and Omni Tech Retail from Flipkart. One can buy from the direct company store as well however check the fine print whether online purchase will be honored for warranty or not. Don't buy from any other seller else you shall face problems like mentioned in the previous posts. I have followed this rule for all expensive items and I haven't faced any issue till date.
3. Don't be fooled by the sale, do a comparison check online and buy from where you are getting a better deal. Do an offline check as well on phone from a brick and mortar store.
4. If some item is priced at too good to be true, steer away!!
5. I used to prefer ebay for small ticket items (less than 1000 Rs) as they had a very good buyer protection. Paytm is a hit or miss.

That said I had issues with both Amazon and Flipkart, however they were resolved as I had chosen the company managed sellers - Omni Tech Retail and Cloudtail

Flipkart : Water Purifier had to be replaced as the tap was leaking. The replacement sent had an internal part broken. Second replacement not allowed only refund allowed. I got it sorted through Eureka Forbes customer care. Warranty was honored.

Amazon : Ordered Engine Oil for Wagon R. Very old stock given. Replacement also old stock. They had a offer of free Oil Change at home from Pitstop. Amazon was ready to refund, however the Pitstop guy told no issues to use the oil

Ordered a Laptop, which had a Citi Credit Card Cash back. Order placed on the last day of sale. Payment however was not approved. Got a mail next morning and did the payment again. Didn't get the cashback in stipulated time, contacted Amazon and after a bit of back and forth they credited the cashback from their end in my account.

Yep - I do not like buying stuff on Fakecart either. My feelings were reinforced when I bought a set of 4 Panasonic rechargeable AA batteries for my kid's toys. The moment I saw the batteries after opening the packet, I knew they were fake! Cheap shiny covering on the batteries and typos on the packaging: "Enelop Pro" instead of "Eneloop Pro". Did some research online and found a sure-shot way of identifying fake batteries and I was sure then that these were fake - so much so that they got super hot on charging them with the standard charger. Immediately requested a return and refund. Thankfully, all this happened well before the BBD sale and I was happy to get the refund processed quickly.

Flipkart? No thanks!
Amazon? Most probably, yes - if the price is good and/or seller is Appario/Cloudtail.

Otherwise, I find it easier to walk to or drive to nearby shops and get what I want. The end of ebay.in means that I have to resort to Amazon or Aliexpress for those uniquely weird and whacky requirements like connectors, couplers, adapters, etc., if I dont find them in the nearby shops.

I've almost stopped visiting places like SP Road (which was like my second home 10 years ago!) mainly due to the "effort" of going and coming - just for a tiny little adapter/converter/plug/socket/cable.

Had a good experience with Flipkart for many years till a few months back.
Found out that their Customer Service is a joke and there is no Escalation Matrix in place.
I had to email Walmart USA after a month of writing to get my refund.