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That is sobering indeed, even allowing for the fact that rants attract more rants, so one can expect the comments to be biased towards the negative.

I wonder why such a U-turn by Flipkart? Didn't they even institute their own delivery service because customer complaints showed 3rd party couriers to be the weakest link? Perhaps they hit a financial wall, with Customer Service ...or Survival written on it. Or perhaps they should have stuck with more of the stable, reliable service and less of the discounts?

I think I may have spent around Rs50,000 with them, and it has mostly been a good experience. I think that, from now on, i'm going to spend next to nothing there.

This marketplace model is fast turning out to be a huge pain point for flipkart. Why can't they have a very strict managed marketplace (if there is a compulsion to become a marketplace).
Browsed through their FB page and the amount of complaints piling up every hour is incredible. Quite a few shares of the thinkdigit article too. A big social media disaster in the making.

I have read that piece but I had a similar experience even before they became a "marketplace" so am not sure there is any correlation between the two. Had ordered a camera that was listed as In Stock and at a particular discounted price. They said they would ship it by a certain date but nothing happened. I panicked and dropped them emails and even called them but getting through was tough and they just continued parrotting what was on their site. Finally after more then a month they said it was out of stock and refunded my credit card payment. I was scared of using Flipkart for anything other than low value purchases after that.

My last two orders were fulfilled by Fedex, so I think they now have a mix (till about a month back delivery was handled always by their own logistic arm).

Few months back they celebrated achieving 1 lakh orders in a day. With that kind of volume, I wouldn't be surprised if a few frustrated the customers. On some days the frustrated customer is also a popular columnist who goes ballistic online. I have my problems with FK, but none that would make me stop going there.

Took your advice and placed my first order here. One out of the 6 items delivered was beyond the expiry date. (Date of manufacture: May 2011. Exp 2 yrs). Unfortunately I noticed this after making the payment or else I would have returned the product there itself.

I would suggest everyone to ensure that they check the expiry dates of the items before making the payment.

Only good thing I liked about this site so far is option for "Card on delivery" mode of payment.

Regards,

Thats bad :Shockked: sorry if my recommendation caused inconvenience


Call them and return ASAP they have been prompt and gracious in replacement / return.
Once I got walnut kernel which were little rancid they took the open packet back and replaced with a better quality ( more MRP ) at no extra charge.

I had a bad experience with Snapdeal, where i paid up upfront and they didn't ship for almost 4 weeks. I had to make god knows how many calls to get the refund and at one point almost thought of writing the 6K off. But they refunded almost after 8 weeks.

Unless you cannot avoid buying from them (they do give good discounts), order COD.

I also have a bad experience with Snapdeal.

Ordered 3 units of a product. 2 were delivered first, out of which one was damaged.

The third one was returned back for no bloody reason back to snapdeal by their own Delhivery service or whatever.

This was my first order with them and totally unhappy with it.

Not at all. Infact I liked the fact that they allow "Card on delivery". Ease of using credit card and safety of COD.

Anyway, I emailed there CC about the issue and within couple of hours they arranged reverted with an option of replacement with newer product or cancellation & refund. I opted for a replacement. It is expected to be delivered today.

I will certainly not write off zopnow, but will certainly be more careful when receiving the deliveries.

Regards,

This is a different kind of online shopping.

I received my monthly bill of tata power and in the process of paying it, I came across a coupon attached in it. It was about www.tastykhana.com
Casually logged on to see what that site is all about, was hearing it for the 1st time. Selected a restro near my place and ordered for some frankies. I had a coupon, got 100 off on purchase of 299 and above. Ordered at 08:30 PM and got an estimated delivery time of 09:28 PM.

I waited patiently, and at around 09:30, a person came and delivered the order. I had opted for online payment upfront by credit card, and hence did not have to pay him. Also, the food was fresh and hot. I have been to that place and I know the charges there. The charged that I was charged were the same and not a penny more.

Overall, I liked the service. Would recommend you guys to give it a try, if you know the quality of the restaurant near your place.

Providing the tata power coupon here as well. Valid only for online payments for an order of 299/- or more. Valid till 15th September.
TKTATA100

Somebody tried FabFurnish.com ? works in mysterious ways. ( Pleasantly)

It goes like this
Wife ordered two things
1) Clay Pot
2) A Frying pan

1) Clay pot : Found the packing in shambles , found a big crack on the pot .
Send some pics with Complaints . Money refunded .
The funny thing is they didn't collect back the old item. Its still with us.

2) Frying Pan : Got the Frying pan delivered in perfect condition.
Couple of Days later we get another Frying pan ( Exact same model), when checked they seem to have shipped only one :)

Why would they want to spend money on collecting the broken pot back? They obviously cannot sell it again - so they need to spend even more money to trash it. Better to leave that headache with you, right?

Yup Could be that.
But most of the online vendors I have dealt with had made a point to collect the stuff , recheck it and then only refund the money.
I was pleasantly surprised with FBF.com , the pot has a lid in perfect condition.
I should get some black or charcoal paint with M-seal to make it a showcase item.

It's math.

Let's say an item costs Rs. 100, and it takes Rs. 20 to check before refunding.

10 people ask for refund complaining it's broken. Let's say 1 out even 10 such people is a fraud.

Then even if the refund without checking, then
- Cost of 10 refunds = Rs. 1000.

Cost of refund after checking.
- Cost of checking 10 people before refunding - Rs. 200.
- Total refunds = 9 * 100 = Rs. 900 (one guy's fraud was caught)
- Total cost - Rs. 900 + 200 = Rs. 1100

So Fraud prevention has not saved them money but cost them money.

Obviously companies must making this decision based on cost of checking as a percentage of cost of india, probability of fraud etc.

:) Once I ordered couple of audio CDs from landmarkonthenet . com. They shipped the CDs twise. They never bothered to collect it even after reporting to their customer care:D