[TorqueyTechie]

Amazon is ending the contract with cloudtail amid Anti-Trust Probe. Current contract ends at May 19, 2022 and both the companies have mentioned that they will not extend it.

Extract from the article in NDTV.

Amazon.com Inc and one of its biggest sellers in India, Cloudtail, have decided to end their relationship, they said on Monday, following years of allegations from brick-and-mortar retailers that the seller received preferential treatment.
A joint venture between Amazon and India's Catamaran that controlled Cloudtail was coming up for renewal on May 19, 2022, and the two sides said in a joint statement they had mutually decided not to extend it beyond that date.

The decision comes after a Reuters investigation in February based on Amazon documents showed the US company had given preferential treatment for years to a small group of sellers, including Cloudtail, and used them to bypass Indian laws.

I used to mostly buy cloudtail sold products due to (i) faster delivery (ii) good reviews and ratings. Would have to be careful buying things once the contract expires.

[Sebring]

Would I trust Amazon without its Cloudtail and Appario? Remains to be seen
https://www.ndtv.com/business/amazon...ndtv_topscroll

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

Amazon is ending the contract with cloudtail amid Anti-Trust Probe. Current contract ends at May 19, 2022 and both the companies have mentioned that they will not extend it

[IamNikhil]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

Amazon is ending the contract with cloudtail amid Anti-Trust Probe. Current contract ends at May 19, 2022 and both the companies have mentioned that they will not extend it.

I used to mostly buy cloudtail sold products due to (i) faster delivery (ii) good reviews and ratings. Would have to be careful buying things once the contract expires.

Originally Posted by Sebring

Would I trust Amazon without its Cloudtail and Appario? Remains to be seen.

Always made sure to shop from Cloudtail and have never had any untoward experience. There was a level of trust and peace while shopping from Cloudtail as a seller. In it's absence, will be difficult to trust the alternatives. Whether or not, Amazon played favourites with a group of sellers is a different matter though. At the end of the day, Cloudtail was definitely the biggest seller on the portal, surely giving Amazon hefty returns/commission.

[PaddleShifter]

Cloudtail will not disappear. It will just not have that partnership with amazon.

With the kind of big player that Cloudtail is, we may continue to have the option of buying genuine items from them, perhaps at a slightly higher prices than today (but still lower than others).

More than price, it is about quality. I have bought venus N95 masks from multiple sellers over the last 8 months but only Cloudtail sent the original masks. Rest all were fake.

[kavensri]

Having experienced trouble free service from Amazon since 2013, I had really very bad experience with my recent orders.
Issue#1) Even 8 days after raising request for return pickup, no one came for picking up the item. After multiple chat sessions with the customer service, finally I was able to get the amount refunded.
Issue#2) Even 21 days after the item was ordered, the item did not get delivered. Again, I had to have multiple chat sessions with the customer service to get the item cancelled and at the time of writing this email, I am still waiting for my amount to get refunded.

Even the conversations that we have with the customer service is not the same as it used to be earlier. Since so many years, I had stopped shopping from Flipkart as I was quite happy with the service provided by Amazon. I know, people are having with Flipkart as well. But I may have to rethink when I have to order my next item from Amazon if the price is more or less same in Flipkart.

[rrsteer]

Off topic to the thread, but in someways related, just noticed that Mr. Amitabh Bachchan is a brand ambassador for both Amazon (through Alexa) and Flipkart. Great going by him, as they say in Hindi ‘panchon ungliyan ghee main!’

[b_naresh]

I buy from both. More from Amazon than Flipkart. Most of my mobile phone purchases have been from Flipkart. I find buying clothes easier on Flipkart. I purchased a fridge from Flipkart recently because they had an offer for ICICI cards.

[dragonfire]

I bought a Logitech G512 (renewed) from Amazon and they sent me a old dusty Redgear Invader inside a Logitech G512 box. Immediately initiated a replacement. Wonder what I am going to get next.

I knew that it was always risky to buy renewed, but just last week I bought a renewed Logitech K380, and got a as-good-as-new piece. Both times seller was Appario. I suspect the previous buyer swapped the keyboards before returning.

[shancz]

Started with Flipkart, and initially only for books
Used Amazon extensively for 1-2 years then started comparing and off late primary is Flipkart and go to Amazon mainly for the stuff I can't find on Flipkart which is mainly hardware and some niche electronics.

Reasons :
- Flipkart has a better interface IMHO with much detailed filters and their behaviour.
- Flipkart mobile app is definitely superior in User Experience, Amazon seems like an adaptation of the web version and is limited in the user experience especially filters. Probably because Amazon is an older player.
- As pointed out in some other post/thread, Amazon's description lacks the info of original manufacturer, which Flipkart does have. IMHO Flipkart has way more fields in their details data also helping in better filters.
- Flipkart delivery depends on your location and proximity from the seller but in this Amazon has an edge overall but not everytime.
- Flipkart supercoins are useful. My OTT subscriptions are mainly bought from them except Amazon Prime of course
- The biggest bummer was getting banned from reviewing on Amazon with a alert saying suspicious behaviour and no recourse or further reasoning given. No place to challenge it and no response from their general customer care email.
Post this I shifted over to first Flipkart or Tata Cliq based on the item and if unavailable then Amazon approach.

[JJay]

* SCAM ALERT *

My sister had ordered 4 Table tennis rackets and running shoes from Amazon on 5th November. 3 of the rackets were delivered yesterday but to their shock, they are entirely different than the ordered ones. The common factor between them was that they both were inferior products with lower MRPs than the products originally ordered. Sellers are different for both the products.

1] Stag 4-star TT Racket - Amount paid - 595 rupees, got delivered stag 2-star racket which carries MRP of 290.

2] Synetica TT combo [2 rackets, 3 balls] - Amount paid - 259 rupees, got some other brand product with MRP of 180 rupees.

My sister had immediately made a return request which got accepted and now they are waiting for someone from Amazon to pick it up.

I will let the pictured do the talking,
















One more TT racket [GKI offensive XX] and running shoes are set to be delivered today, will update once they got them delivered.

P.S - I have voted for Amazon .

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by JJay

I have voted for Amazon

JJay, this is not what one might call a scam. This seems like a mixup or error on the part of the seller. As long as Amazon has accepted the return, you are good. These things happen with an operation as big as Amazon or anyone else. Main thing is the corrective action/s employed by the organisation, which in your case is perfect. Besides it being nuisance and delay with your items, you have lost nothing. This kind of thing has happened with me as well, one call to Amazon and it was sorted out.

I do not have any stake in Amazon, just calling it as I see it.

Cheers

[adisan]

Have purchased from both. What I usually do is to compare the available products, seller rating, and price, and decide which one to go with.

There was one instance where the Amazon delivery agent marked the item as delivered without delivering, and I had to chase the customer care several times to get a refund. Post that I have stopped placing pre-paid orders from any online channel, unless unavoidable. Also, so far I have not ordered high-priced items. With Flipkart I find the customer care easier to reach compared to Amazon.With both Amazon and Flipkart there were occasions when with the items delivered were not satisfactory but return and refund was easy.

[JJay]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

JJay, this is not what one might call a scam. This seems like a mixup or error on the part of the seller. As long as Amazon has accepted the return, you are good.

Agree here, calling it a scam is too much but sellers are different for both items. Maybe a coincidence that both the sellers made an almost similar mistake in the very same order.

You are right that as far as corrective measures are taken, nothing to complain about but it has ruined my sister's excitement of playing on our new TT Table before going back to the hostel.
And that is not good .

Anyways, other racket was delivered today and it is the same as what we have ordered.

Stag 2-star racket was returned to Amazon agent but are yet to hear for the 2nd item.

The latest update is that they have purchased another racket from the local market and started playing .

Originally Posted by adisan

Have purchased from both. What I usually do is to compare the available products, seller rating, and price, and decide which one to go with.

I have stopped placing pre-paid orders from any online channel, unless unavoidable.

We rarely order sports items online but pandemic and lock-downs have made us habitual and over-reliant on online shopping. Now we have developed a habit that even if we are buying from a local store, we check prices online. But in our recent purchases, we almost all the time got a better deal in local stores for mobiles, footwear and books. Now maybe is the time to go back to the older practice when online shopping was limited to just the items which are unavailable or hard to find in local markets.

We pre-order at brand stores only, never online.

[Electromotive]

I didn't vote because I use both.
Flipkart is now much better for high value or home appliance products and Amazon is good for everything else. I always buy from Amazon and Flipkart affiliated sellers (retailnet, appario etc.) and have never been defrauded by them and I buy almost 2-3 lakhs worth of products online each year.

Third party sellers are not reliable and will try to scam you. A lot of customers are also engaging in fraudulent behavior where they switch out items and falsely claim fraud. All this is resulting in stricter return and refund policies. I am sure soon there is going to be a customer worthiness score implemented by these platforms due to increasing levels of fraud.

The govt. is also trying to destroy the business model of these platforms by demanding that sellers should not be affiliated to the platform. That means third party sellers get free reign to scam and fleece. Back to cartels and price fixing. Thank you GoI. Good job.

[condor]

Question regarding returns on Amazon:

I had ordered a camera battery (non OE, since OE is not available). The battery is defective and I have placed a return/replace request. I didnt see a refund option. Did I miss the correct option, or is there a hybrid model of

1. replace first/only
2. they try to replace, and if that doesnt work, then give a refund ?