[montsa007]

Bumping up an old thread instead of starting a new one.

I prefer Amazon any given day over Flipkart, had multiple bad incidents with Flipkart.

1. Ordered 3 pair of shoes, 1 for self & 2 for spouse (She likes to check the fit & return the extra one), flipkart delivered my shoes, delivered 1 of the wife's shoes & upon contacting customer care they were cooking up lame stories like "There is a glitch with the logistics team", "The shoe was defective so we had to return it before even being delivered", when I asked "How can you guys ship it in the first place, if it was defective & how did you know without opening that it was defective?" Didn't get an answer. ended up cancelling the order & buying from Amazon instead.

2. Ordered a game disc (PS2 game), the seller gave a pirated disc, poorly printed artwork, poorly printed sticker for the disc. I raised a complaint but Flipkart was adamant that they do not allow any counterfeit goods to be sold on their portal, they asked "How do I know if its a counterfeit?", I asked them "How can you tell if a 500 rupee note is counterfeit or genuine?", they still kept insisting that its a no return product & there is nothing they can do & they do not allow any counterfeit goods to be sold on their platform. I was literally pissed off, it was not a question of 250 bucks which I paid, but they're adamant that they are not promoting piracy & the stuff shipped was genuine. Gave them left right & center, ended up with a refund and they assured they will take action against the seller. Months later I am seeing the seller selling happily on the portal, while Flipkart sleeps over the complaints. The seller sells under the brand name "Techglow" and is from Bhopal. The image below is taken today, proving that Flipkart doesn't care about the consumer or whether genuine stuff is being sold on their portal.

[Samfromindia]

Amazon for most day to day items, king of variety.

Flipkart for most high value items like electronics & furniture. Big Billion Day has the best offers, period !

[Oxy]

Yes Flipkart is extremely poor. Had ordered a tempered glass for a phone trusting some very positive reviews. On opening it, discovered that it doesn't have a cut out for camera.

Couldn't initiate a return because the item was non returnable. Called up the customer care, only to hear the guy telling me he cannot do anything because the item is not returnable. Demanded a refund which was declined.

I am thinking how to use up my supercoins (around 400 odd). Once that is out of the way, I will uninstall the app for good.

[airguitar]

I'm not a compulsive buyer, I'm not looking to buy things because they are offered on a discount and I'm not a lazy buyer - I would love to go to the actual shop, fiddle around with the demo piece of a product, see it physically and then buy. Back then, due to dwindling book shops, CD/DVD shopsin Bengaluru (I still don't know why the Landmark store in Forum Koramangala, which had swathes of books and CD collections toned down their CD collection overnight), I could only find some of the rare books and DVDs that I wanted to buy on the ecommerce portals only. Given their sourcing network, I could always find what I needed/wanted on these. That was my start to online purchasing.

In the first few years, I always supported Flipkart because they were Indian and then the delivery turnarounds in Bangalore were quick. I stuck to them for a few years, carefully avoiding buying anything on Amazon. But over time, I didn't get some of the books that I needed on Flipkart or Sapna Online. I found then that Amazon had it and the experience and the range of products available were much better. Once I started using Amazon, my usage of Flipkart reduced. The last straw was that once their website had weird javascript behaviour - whatever I typed in the search box would go missing the next second. This remained so for a good 3-4 days. Maybe they hadn't tested/certified the app for the particular browser/version I was using. But I never went back to Flipkart for anything. It's been 9-10 years and it's been Amazon all the way. And Amazon's customer support is fantastic! For books, I still lookup TotalKannada or SapnaOnline or their brick-and-mortar stores before I turn to Amazon. Occasionally, I still look up Flipkart to see if their inventory has become any better for the things I like buying - the answer is a 'no'.

Flipkart of course isn't really 'Indian' to me anymore, given the huge investments and backing pumped in from abroad. Of late, when I see the original product from which a particular desi offering was copied, the desi version turns me off and I prefer to go with the original product that inspired the desi version.

PS: If any Sapna employees reading this, why don't you have a store in Whitefield yet? Just see how much business Decathlon does in Whitefield ( it's full at 10PM too on weekends ). Purchasing power is extremely high in these parts.
PPS: If the poll results here are anything to go by, (94% to 6%), how is Flipkart surviving/viable ? Is it because that this sampleset here on TBHP is predominantly urban/metro folks where Amazon is known to dominate while the semi-urban/rural areas are dominated by Flipkart (supposedly)?

[Dr.Procastinate]

I prefer Amazon over Flipkart any day, the reasons being a cleaner and better looking interface, wider variety, better delivery and relatively hassle free returns. I had a couple of bad experiences with Flipkart in the past which kinda left an impression in my mind. Agreed, many items may command a premium, especially books and electronics but it gives a sense of safety ordering it from Amazon which I don't get when I order from Flipkart these days.

[DRIV3R]

Amazon has been the preference between the two, but lately Amazon CC has literally gone down the drain.

Had placed an order and recieved old stock, had proof of older brand packing and packing date label and tried to contact CC. They have a new tactic of hiding themselves behind multiple barriers.

Call Attempts 1,2,3 - Order selected, images uploaded, call connects but the other party mutes and doesn't utter a word for minutes together until customer gives up.

Call Attempts 4,5 - finally connected, do the same, mentioned order and quantity with issue, asks for images and sends a new link, uploads done, then says need to consult special team, puts a long hold, comes back and tells me that product is in sale since 2016, hence it is ok to get old stock, I question his logic, he says wants to hold again, and simply disconnects the call.

If this is what a prime customer gets, I think it's time to reduce dependencies on Amazon.

[Mystic]

Why compare Amazon vs Flipkart. We need to compare big ticket item prices in both and who ever is giving it for less depending on the discounts with bank cards etc need to be taken. I never had a bad experience with either of them so far. But if an item has the same price in both, then I would choose Amazon over Flipkart.

[Coyote]

I used to use Flipkart exclusively for about 2-3 years for many purchases.

Where they lost me was, way back in 2015, they went 'App' only. It meant I had to download their app to make purchases and could no longer buy on their website on the browser. I was annoyed then, and I am annoyed now, when companies try to force users on to their apps for no reason.

To make it exclusively app only was, imho, plain stupid. It's what drove me to Amazon even though I disliked their UI compared to Flipkart (back in 2015). I think Flipkart reverted their decision at some point, but I have never looked back.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by Oxy

I am thinking how to use up my supercoins (around 400 odd).

You can use them to purchase the OTT subscriptions. There are plenty of then viz. Zee5, Hotstar. I think this is the best use of the supercoins.

[sunbaj]

Earlier most of my shopping used to be from Amazon. Most of my office clothes, shoes whatever you can think of was via Amazon.

Even the weekly & monthly grocery shopping was via Amazon.

Since Cloudtail got closed off I have seldom used Amazon. Most of the weekly grocery for me right now is either Bigbasket, Jiomart or Blinkit.

Just last week had to purchase Anchor 39094 Surface DP with Neon WH, 32 Amp switch for the AC. Went to Amazon to purchase and I was forced to purchase 2 of these at ~360 Rs and the single switch was costing ~190 Rs. Went to the local market and got a single switch for 120 Rs.

Probably will not be renewing my annual subscription of Amazon.

[condor]

Had purchased a small item from Amazon and the package arrived without the item inside. Messaged seller twice, no response for 2 weeks. Reached out to customer care, and gave the details. I said ".. may be a honest mistake that the item fell out during packing". A second order which had a status "delayed", and this one also 2+ weeks since order placement. She checked the details from back-end, and issued me a refund for both.

While I continue to buy from Amazon, it's always stuff that I can avoid hunting for / prices are below MRP (usual discounts), etc. Some stuff are better bought in person (clothes etc), and for these I stick to local stores. @Sunbaj's point about DP switch - regular items can be got locally.

[Manoj2268]

My exp with Amazon prime.

Ordered 3 AC Stabilizers. 2 were very old stock(Jun and nov 2022) and one July 2023.

On cue, the old stock items were missing warranty cards, installation stickers and the Rawl plugs/screws needed for installation. Also both of these showed 'Hi' even without the stabilizer completing the 10sec delay countdown. App not allowing returns as the order was not marked delivered.

The Amazon agent who I spoke to was hilarious. She said she cannot raise return as she is about to end her shift and the next couple of days she was on weekly offs. Got her supervisor on line and got the job done.

Replacements were new stock and are working flawlessly - till now.

[deathwalkr]

Flipkart's weird conditions.

Wanted to buy a CMF Smartwatch by nothing. Saw that there was a price deal going on (Rs.500 off). Good time to buy it, but surprisingly flipkart wants me to add at least an extended warranty or a digital insurance!

If i unselect both, it does not let me add the product to cart and asks me to select at least one of the above!

Feels very strange. I don't usually buy much from FK so not sure if this is a common practice.

[antz.bin]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Flipkart's weird conditions.

Wanted to buy a CMF Smartwatch by nothing. Saw that there was a price deal going on (Rs.500 off). Good time to buy it, but surprisingly flipkart wants me to add at least an extended warranty or a digital insurance!

If i unselect both, it does not let me add the product to cart and asks me to select at least one of the above!

Feels very strange. I don't usually buy much from FK so not sure if this is a common practice.

Just click on the Orange Buy Now button. It should work.

It worked for me.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by antz.bin

Just click on the Orange Buy Now button. It should work.

It worked for me.

Thanks. That works. Should have tried that before coming in here and ranting