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

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

-   -   Amazon vs Flipkart - Which do you prefer & why? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/214298-amazon-vs-flipkart-do-you-prefer-why-15.html)

I have an Amazon Pay Credit Card, so I buy a lot of items on Amazon Fresh regularly. They deliver it the next day and I've generally had a good impression of it.

But I've bought my mobiles and laptops on Flipkart only. Amazon has too many poor quality sellers of electronics.

As a consumer one of the greatest advantages is the power of choice. This doesnt mean one should choose any one platform over another but rather best buy whichever product takes ones fancy from any platform while keeping in mind price, delivery time and overall comfort and convenience. We the Consumers, should always make the best use of the advantages offered to us.

If I have to buy a high-value product, I am going nowhere near Flipkart. Its a case of once bitten, twice shy. On the other hand, Amazon has always refunded or replaced items whenever I have had a problem and so even if I see the price is cheaper on Flipkart, I still opt for Amazon for my piece of mind.

I have had a very positive experience with buying high-ticket items from Flipkart. I have bought most of our phones, watches, TVs, washing machine, refrigerator, air conditioner and microwave from Flipkart with no issues so far. Only issue we have faced is with a delivery guy who do not know how to diagnose an exchange iPhone for which we ended up paying up the difference amount.

I have always found the deals for big ticket items better in Flipkart than Amazon especially during the sales events. Phone discounts during BBD are always unmatched.

But yes, I have found dealing with Amazon customer service much better than Flipkart. I have had most of the issues solved by chat itself. But contacting and inetracting with Flipkart customer service is a tad difficult. Luckily I only had to deal with them a couple of times.

Amazon India had already done away with refunds for high-value electronics, and now they are slowly backing away from customer-friendly replacements. What you get instead is a "7 days Replacement".

In theory, within 7 days from delivery, if you report a physical damage/wrong item/missing item, you get a replacement. On the other hand, if you report a defective item, you will have to work with the service center of the manufacturer to resolve your issue. Of course, Amazon India will verify remotely via call/image/video to determine you are not reporting a defective item as a damaged item or intentionally damaging a defective item to claim a direct replacement (your Prime Membership/purchase history/loyalty with Amazon India is of no use). :eek:

In practice, this has led to a proliferation of fraud sellers (including some Amazon Prime sellers), who intentionally deliver defective items or items with minor damages or outright used/refurbished items (that is not evident immediately but might hamper functionality). In such cases, both the seller and Amazon India leave it to you to deal with the service center.

In most cases, you will not only have to visit the nearest service center at your own cost, but also waste your time in getting them to understand the issue to be resolved. If you are lucky, your issue will be resolved with a refurbished part, albeit after a long waiting time. Only a miracle (or a consumer court order) can get you a brand-new replacement or refund.

Although the responsibility of your local electronics/appliances chain or mom-and-pop shops is restricted to sales, they often work with the service center to help you with a better resolution (aka new replacement parts) or a brand-new replacement through them.

Now why would you want to buy online and face such headaches? If Amazon India doesn't come up with a better policy or delist sellers who are scamsters/fraudsters, we will soon see the end of buying high-value electronics/appliances online. :Frustrati

A related headache is that most items that are non returnable aren't marked/highlighted prominently. I have therefore ended up keeping products that are a far cry from their description on site.

Anecdote to support your point.

Recently bought some home appliances in Bombay from Vijay Sales. Guaranteed next day delivery, and price as good or better than online-only sellers (I don't mind paying a wee bit extra for peace of mind). Their delivery staff unpack appliances on delivery, and let you inspect before accepting items. Fridge was fine, washing machine was a fresh piece (Nov 2023 stock), but damaged in transit (torn outer carton, dent on body). They themselves refused to deliver it, repacked and took it away.

A replacement piece was delivered the next day (Dec 2023 stock), alongwith a replacement challan noting the serial number change for warranty purposes. The same serial number was updated into records by the manufacturer's technician who visited same day for a demo.

Why would I bother with Amazon and their ilk when I get such customer service offline?

Just to add.
We remodeled our kitchen couple of years back and bought every electronics appliance from Vijay sales. Excellent experience overall and since then I try to buy all electronics from them. We even have Croma and couple of Reliance digital in the same vicinity but Vijay sales always beat them in price and service.

In November when my bedroom split was troubling we decided to replace it. The model we wanted wasn't available there and they said all summer appliances purchases have been stopped till Jan so we decided to wait. That's the kind of trust they have maintained with us.

I have almost stopped buying anything from Flipkart except for big billion sales when I buy few things. With Amazon I bought a geyser last week which was delivered in perfect shape. The brand and model wasn't available at Vijay sales and we needed it urgently.

Is there an equivalent outlet like Vijay sales in BLR with good pricing and customer service?

There's Girias and Pai Electronics. Had a decent experience with the former several years ago, never dealt with the latter for large goods.

We've had a good experience dealing with Samsung directly in Bangalore (via their Smart Plaza outlets). They'll usually match or better online offers. A washing machine delivered damaged (seems to be a pattern with us:)) was replaced without question, and service support was prompt the couple times we needed it.

Devi international near madhavan park/ South end circle is very popular multi brand electronics store in Bangalore. I haven't bought any personally, but I know many people who bought from here even if they stay quite far from this place since they got a good deal. I think they will match the online price if you negotiate.

I did buy TV from that store way back in 2009. TV is still going strong.

For large appliances, I always prefer LG Brand Store or Havells Dealers etc. LG brand stores have always latest model and give very good customer service.
Now I buy all expensive goods from authorized dealers irrespective of the price and offers.

When Amazon arrived into the scene Flipkart had already captured the market and was going great. I thought it will be very difficult for Amazon to compete with Flipkart. We all used to buy from Flipkart then.

Then Amazon started big, Jeff Bezos landed in Bangalore and drove a truck . Gave a big push of 1 billion dollar investment. That was in 2015 I reckon.

And now it's all Amazon. Great user experience, excellent customer service of returning things and with Prime benefits one don't have to look elsewhere.
Flipkart on the other hand has given up. The owners have sold their stake and their attempt to sale or promote seems half hearted.

So I ofcourse prefer Amazon. And I believe million others too

I bought an Aquaguard water purifier from a shop called QRS in Trivandrum. Was not keen on Aquaguard, but that was the only option for non-storage type water purifier. The night after the installation, the unit leaked flooding the kitchen. The Aquaguard engineer said the replacement would take a week :Frustrati Reached out to the salesman from the shop and he arranged a replacement within a day. I am glad I spent a few hundred more and bought from a physical store.

In my experience, the availability of items at the LG brand store has always been poor. The particular models I wanted were always not available or in backorder. Their prices were also higher compared to the LG India official website. Found Croma to be better both in terms of stock availability as well as offers.