[binand]

Originally Posted by carboy

It's math.

I recall reading about one of the big-name (Starbucks or Tim Horton's, don't remember which one) coffee-on-the-go stores doing away with getting customers to sign the credit card charge slip. Their argument is that the loss of business and excess cost attributable to making each customer (most of them I guess are buying merchandise worth < $5) sign the charge slip compares very unfavourably with the gain by way of credit card fraud control. Not sure if this is a true story or an urban legend.

Edit: It is Starbucks - http://www.quora.com/Starbucks/Why-d...by-credit-card

[.sushilkumar]

Things are surely not in shape with flip kart. I am waiting for a simple copy of invoice from them for a purchase done on 12 Aug and After almost 10-12 calls , I am still waiting.

Now they want another 3 days More to send me the soft copy of invoice. Problem is that seller was some body else not WS retail .

Lesson Learn - Don't buy from them if seller is other than W S retail .

[sanjaykk]

Originally Posted by carboy

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.

Does it also have to do with the margins they have on such/specific items?

On a related note, though not related to 'online' shopping, I had bought a furniture item from Housefull (http://www.housefull.co.in/). They generally take order a ship the item (in my case it took 30days for the item to arrive). The product basically consists of wooden panels that can be assembled using an instruction manual provided in the package. One of the panels in the package was cracked. I sent them an email with the photos of the damaged item. In approx 10 days, they sent replacement panel, but the color was not matching. I sent another email about this issue. In another 10days, they delivered the correct panel. Now, I have the furniture item assembled + two extra panels. They never bothered the collect the panels.

[TheHkrish]

Originally Posted by carboy

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.

Thanks Carboy, Never thought it that way .

Originally Posted by Latheesh

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

I had another experience from Landmarkonthenet.com, I ordered Angels & Demons book 3 years back and went for a marathon reading ( while travelling in train) only to find the last 20 pages Missing... .

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

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

Another good experience with Landmarkonthenet, happened in 2010 or 11

Placed an online order for an item and promised delivery was few days. Next day happened to visit their forum mall store and saw the same item (at higher price than online). I Did not have patience to wait for online order to arrive. Spoke to their customer care to check the possibility of cancelling the order and buying it from store. instead CC executive suggested to convert the online order to store purchase after speaking to the store manager. I did not even have to pay the price difference.

It was like placing an order online by paying less and go and pick up from the nearest store

[pahwa]

I am addicted to online shopping. My 'Window Shopping' has also become 'MS Windows shopping'. It makes a lot of sense to me for the following reasons:

1. You can shop anytime - 24 x 7. No need to worry about mall timings, traffic hours, weather, parking, billing queues and fuel costs.
2. Year around discounts and deals on various credit cards.
3. No salesmen standing on your head and you can take your own time choosing stuff.
4. Relatively economical due to reduction in cost of real estate, sales staff and electricity etc

I mostly shop for gadgets, automotive accessories and apparels from snapdeal, flipkart, jabong, myntra, ebay, ZOVI and shopclues etc.

[dmplog]

A 10% cashback offer at amazon.in for HDFC Credit Cards. Limited to Rs 1500.
Offer expires tomorrow (29 Aug)!

Note to Mods: Not sure if this is the right thread for posting deals. I could not locate an appropriate thread.

[fine69]

I was just wondering how snapdeal can come up with a deal like this one

http://www.snapdeal.com/product/lg-l...493719?pos=0;6

The AC listed costs 32990/- on LGs website, 30-31k on other websites but a staggering 6k less at snapdeal where its listed for 26,990/-

I just read some reviews on mouthshut where people have had horrible experience with snapdeal so I don't plan on buying anything from here but how does a retailer/dotcom come up with such discounted selling prices?

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by fine69

I was just wondering how snapdeal can come up with a deal like this one

http://www.snapdeal.com/product/lg-l...493719?pos=0;6

The AC listed costs 32990/- on LGs website, 30-31k on other websites but a staggering 6k less at snapdeal where its listed for 26,990/-

I just read some reviews on mouthshut where people have had horrible experience with snapdeal so I don't plan on buying anything from here but how does a retailer/dotcom come up with such discounted selling prices?

I feel snapdeal may be using inventory waiting to be disposed by some retailer in some part of the country. There is always someone who wants to close his shop, or do something new ... those people would sell products far below the MRP - because their priority is time, not margin.

Isn't it possible?
I don't think snapdeal would be selling factory seconds/damaged units ...

[TheG2]

Originally Posted by fine69

I was just wondering how snapdeal can come up with a deal like this one

This could be old stock.
But huge discounts on MRP is not surprising anymore. Some of these products have huge profit margin and when they buy in bulk the margin is even higher. My colleagues dad is a well known electronic's distributor in Andheri. I managed to get a 2 door refrigerator and 2 LCD televisions at a whopping 11k discount compared to the sale price offered by Vijay Sales. Even after that he made profits, I am sure.

So many of the malls and .com companies are passing some of the profit margin to the end customer to capture market share due to hefty competition.

It's our responsibility as customers to verify things as much as possible from available sources before buying.

[babhishek]

Originally Posted by carboy

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.

Although not the perfect example, still gets the point across.
However, certain overhead ( includes shipping restocking checks etc) are calculated in margins. There can be an assumption that 10% refund requests for a product.

Hence if 10 refund requests are made, 100 are sold! hence the costs can be distributed across 100 products.

Ofcourse, a detailed discussion is on order, but my point is refund request rates can be be used to know more about the quality of a product, and an assumed refund percentage rates exist based on catalog, manufacturer, product etc..

[kiren]

Originally Posted by kiren

Finally the item was despatched on 17th night and received by me on 19th Morning. Atleast I am happy that there is no other quality issues in the product other than the delay.

Kiran

My happiness was shortlived. The Item a Nexus 4 phone had a white spot on the screen which was visible only when the screen was white or on any other light coloured background. This I realised only after a day use. Immediately I complained to Ebay and seller. The seller responded and asked me to send back the phone and agreed to send a replacement. Infact, He agreed to dispatch a fresh piece immediately on receiving the scanned copy of AWB.

On 24th Aug Finally The mobile was picked up by their courier. I scanned and sent them the AWB immediately around 5PM. The seller informed that as it was a Saturday the courier company had already come and gone and Hence cannot dispatch the fresh Piece on that day. Monday full day they were not ready to accept the problem saying that they are unable to see the spot. Finally on Tuesday, they accepted the complaint and agreed to send a fresh piece. But on that day as they did not have stocks the seller informed me that he can dispatch it only on Thursday. The fresh piece was dispatched on Thursday and received by me on Saturday 31st Aug .

During all this Ebay was involved and kept checking with me till 25th Aug, but after that they never spoke to me nor sent me any mail. Now, Due to some communication gap between the seller and EBAY, they have cancelled the order and reversed the payment on my card. I just got mail from Ebay saying that they are reversing the payment.

The seller called me informed me that as Ebay has already reversed the payment to me, so I should pay them directly. I have informed them that I can pay only after the amount actually gets reflected in my card statement for which they have agreed.

I fully agree online shopping is not for people with weak hearts .

Kiran

[pahwa]

Have had extremely poor experience with Tradus.com. Ordered a couple of electrostatic shades for car window on Aug 12 and still not delivered. The courier company tracking shows status as 'Delivered'. Tradus does not have a customer care departement and the seller says they have dispatched the product for Tradus and its Tradus' resposibility from there on.

Note to self: Never buy from Tradus.com

[StrangeWizard]

I have always had really good experiences with eBay always.
Sellers always reply to queries properly, products shipped and delivered on time and great packaging.
Have bought a laptop charger, mp3 player and couple of phone and iPod cases.
Today I was delivered a case for my iPod which was packed in the OE box, thermocol, transparent wrap and a really thick layer of newspapers with cello tape and finally the eBay wrapping. Felt it was an actual iPod and not just the case.
The MP3 player which I bought earlier was delivered in 2hrs from the time of order!! The seller's warehouse was in a 5km radius from my place I guess.

[Hells_Fury]

I am planning to buy a DSLR and Homeshop18 currently has a 10% offer on cameras. Has anyone bought stuff from them before? Are they reliable?