[dr.aviansh]

ONE GOLDEN RULE TO BE FOLLOWED WHEN BUYING ONLINE :
Always confirm the batch number / barcode on the product when you receive the product. There are customer care email ID’s or customer care numbers of every manufacturer. They’ll tally the details and confirm the authenticity of the product because no company would be happy seeing you unknowingly buy counterfeit products and then cursing the manufacturer.
I recently bought a Streax Hair Masque from Amazon and I got it confirmed from the customer care who took some details over phone and reverted over email.

Once I ordered a pair of Nike Shoes from Flipkart because a particular colour in my desired model wasn’t available in stock anywhere. When it came through Flipkart, I had a gut feeling about something being fishy about the product. I immediately took it to Nike Rajouri Garden, where the salesman found some minuscule differences between the genuine packing and mine. So I had to return them.
I ordered the next pair from a different seller and this time the guys at Nike approved after tallying.

Like everyone is saying, always read the seller reviews when you go through the product reviews. I NEVER order if I see more than 2 people saying that this product doesn’t work.

‘Flipkart Assured’ or ‘Prime’ are somewhat reliable but shouldn’t be taken as 100% guarantee.

To sum it up, try buying directly from the manufacturer’s website, if you end up finding it only on retailers websites, then be vigilant.

[Jaggu]

I have had good experiences with Amazon, felt it better than Flipkart most often. Checks I follow:

• check the exact model number and compare it with the manufacturer website.
• read reviews online.
• read reviews on Amazon, by default they are sorted by relevance, change that to the latest, and see how the feedbacks are. Check customer pics to see how the real product looks.
• check who the seller is, 95% of my purchases are and prefer amazon fulfilled like cloudtail.
• amazonbasics is another great brand to buy from.
• check if refund or return is available!
• do a final check of price across other platforms and hit the buy button.

[navin]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

In general you need to be smart when buying from online either Flipkart or Amazon.

Originally Posted by GTO

You are part of the 1-2% of customers who would check this, Viddy.

Originally Posted by Jaggu

I have had good experiences with Amazon, felt it better than Flipkart most often. [/list]

See GTO, that's why lazy, inept, senile old men need friends like Viddy, Jaggu and Khan.

In short if you do not have the "smarts" to shop online find some Gen Z or millennial nephew or niece or cousin who can assist. Companies like Flipkart, Myntra and Amazon are multi seller platforms and you may have no recourse unlike stores that have a brick and mortar presence like Apple, Croma or Vijay Sales.

[poloman]

How are returns handled by e commerce sites? Does any one know the internal process? There were reports saying that some people were misusing this by using the product like apparels for regular wear and returning just before the window closes. Is there a way to know whether items like apparels are used or not?

[nitishk]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

It depends not just on fulfilled by but the seller.

Also if you are buying from other sellers who are not cloudtail or appario but fulfilled by amazon, one should always check who they are. Either google the website and see if they are authorised.

I fully agree with you as a matter of fact if any product has been listen for sale by Cloudtail and Appario retail then it will be shown as the default seller.

If i am not mistaken, Amazon owns Appario and cloudtail, loophole being they are market place and Cloudtail is another entity itself.

As a matter of fact rarely do i buy anything on Amazon which is being sold my someone else.

The same goes for WS Retail, if you want genuine products on Flipkart.

For me , i have never received any fake products because of this "safety net" and have even bought iphones

[daredevil]

I have known this issue being faced with other E-comm companies since last 6-7 years as far as I recall. I was one of the buyers who encountered this first hand. It was Calvin Klein One EDT counterfeit that I had bought from Snapdeal. Then I ordered U.S. POLO ASSN Solid Polo Neck T-shirt which was amazingly priced for just 700 on Flipkart. Then there are all branded shoes which you can get cheap as well.

Amazon was better company among their competitors though and we always preferred it over others. However, for last few years, we stopped buying expensive items online.

As mentioned in one of the above posts, I do check for the seller name before buying it. You can vouch for the product if these are being sold directly by manufacturer.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by nitishk

I fully agree with you as a matter of fact if any product has been listen for sale by Cloudtail and Appros retail then it will be shown as the default seller.

If i am not mistaken, Amazon owns Appros and cloudtail, loophole being they are market place and Cloudtail is another entity itself.

As a matter of fact rarely do i buy anything on Amazon which is being sold my someone else.

The same goes for WS Retail, if you want genuine products on Flipkart.

For me , i have never received any fake products because of this "safety net" and have even bought iphones

Yup, Amazon owns cloudtail and Appario. Anything from these sellers is almost always reliable.

There are times when cloudtail price of the product is higher marginally and other sellers are cheaper. Amazon may list the lower priced seller as default in those cases. I always check the sellers if it is not cloudtail just to check if cloudtail is available. Even if its a few hundred bucks more I prefer cloudtail vs the lower cost seller.

In short always pick cloudtail or Appario when buying from Amazon even if the prices are higher.

For Flipkart they have 3 sellers under their own. SupercomNet, Retailnet, and Omnitechretail.

WS Retail is no longer listed on Flipkart after Flipkart was pulled up. The books for Flipkart showed that WS retail was almost sharing accounts or something.

Flipkart you have to check for Flipkart assured products as well as seller should be any of the 3 mentioned above.

[anoop.u]

A new kind of scam I experienced on amazon.in around a month back:

1. Ordered a Spigen phone case from amazon.in, seller was Spigen India, order fulfilled by Amazon India.
2. Upon receiving the package I found out that a cheap (< Rs. 100) case (not even a knock off) was shipped inside a somewhat tattered original product packaging.
3. Inside the product packaging was an invoice for the same product billed to someone in Pune for February, 2020.
4. Immediately cancelled the order, initiated refund and the item got picked up the next day.
5. I then placed a new order for the same item and this time around I got the correct item.

People seem to be ordering stuff, replacing the items with cheap fakes and then returning it back. So even if the seller is Amazon (Cloudtail India), there are chances that you may receive a fake item.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

Stopped purchasing online on Amazon, Flipkart and other aggregator sites, all together except for small items. What I learnt over the years of online shopping is, almost all the products that come with discounts on these aggregator sites are either - Refurbished, Showroom Demo pieces, defective but not easily identifiable, about to expire, low moving models, etc.

I have had good experiences most of the time. I have purchased several expensive items like a 75 inch TV from Amazon, an MSI laptop worth 95k from Paytm Mall in addition to a lot of other items. In fact I have even had no issues buying tablets and vacuums from Aliepress and Bangood. I have never received a fake or damaged product. Of course if an item is available in a store like Croma and I can take it home, I wouldn't mind paying an extra couple of grand to be able to take it home and have a little more peace of mind. Even physical stores can sell you returned items at times. If the difference is large and the store refuses to come close to the online price then I have no worries in ordering it online.

[Comrade]

This week I ordered Marshall Woburn II speaker costing Rs 40,000.00. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 situation, my wife gave away OTP on the phone without asking me or checking the delivery. After few hours, I went to check the package at front door, and found that the third party seller shipped me Rs 1,000.00 Chinese speakers in Marshall packaging. The packaging the very torn etc. Fortunately, the fulfillment was from amazon, and they readily agreed to take back the package without any questions. But, my wife has learnt a valuable lesson to not accept high-value deliveries without checking the package.

I have blind faith in Appario & Cloudtail but for third-party sellers, I only buy "fulfilled by Amazon".

[harry10]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

In short always pick cloudtail or Appario when buying from Amazon even if the prices are higher.

For Flipkart they have 3 sellers under their own. SupercomNet, Retailnet, and Omnitechretail.

This. I only buy from these sellers from Flipkart and amazon. If I need something urgently which isn't available with these sellers then I thoroughly check the recent review. For expensive electronics I prefer brick and mortar unless it isn't available offline.

If you buy a lot from Amazon then do get Prime membership. For 999 a year its completely worth it as shipping is always free and usually I get one day shipping. Plus Prime video has good content to watch.

[seedyk]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

It depends not just on fulfilled by but the seller.

If it is Amazon itself like cloudtail or appario chances of fake are lesser because this means the products are sold by amazon by buying from authorised channels. It's rare to get a fake product from cloudtail or Appario.

Also if you are buying from other sellers who are not cloudtail or appario but fulfilled by amazon, one should always check who they are. Either google the website and see if they are authorised.

For example detailing products from Carpro are sold directly by Carpro India on Amazon and are fulfilled by Amazon.

In general you need to be smart when buying from online either Flipkart or Amazon.

Right on point.

I do my research on the seller rather than Fulfilled by Amazon.

For most of the products, I trust Cloudtail or Appario Retail, which are entities belonging to Amazon itself.

For other products, I see to it that they are either the authorized distributor or the entity owned by the brand itself.

For example, I recently purchased Meguiars products (ultimate compound and ultimate polish) from a seller called HNR Retail, who is one the official distributors for Meguiars. The products were priced as much as they are in the US, one of it being cheaper here than in the US (may be due to mass purchase).

Same was the case with Scholl concept pads bought from a seller called Autofresh (again official distributor).

I'd rather say they you need to put in just a tad bit of work prior to the purchase. Otherwise, the deals offered by Amazon are unparalleled. To top it, I have the ICICI Amazon cash back card which gives a 5 percent cashback in the form of Amazon pay cash. Icing on the cake right.

[balenoed_]

I was told by a known shop guy who has a shop selling home appliances that, the manufacturers make some product models to be sold only through eCommerce portals. They will not be available to buy in shops. the moment I inquired the availability of a particular model of an appliance, he said - Sir, that is an online model - look it has a "v" in that model name. The shop model will not have that "v". Subtle differences. And the parts used to make those online models could also be different (read lower grades) it seems. And probably that explains the lower prices online.

And he is not talking about local/Chinese mfrs. Even reputed manufacturers have this business model.

[gupta_chd]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

And the parts used to make those online models could also be different (read lower grades) it seems. And probably that explains the lower prices online.

Trust me if you will, these are just the conspiracy theories floated by vendors who loathe online market places or by naive and ignorant people who blindly trust others.

I would not say theory is completely wrong but could be very rare instances. If you buy a reputed multinational or even Indian brand products E.g. Voltas AC, they will never do that. Brand reputation is much more valuable. For cheap brands, such tactics will not yield much as they won't have much presence. Secondly, it is very difficult to maintain supply chain for different models for online and offline. Some categories like Mobile phones may be doing this but that is different ball game of numbers.

I used to hear same stories some 10-15 years back (Ancient times before online era) from different shopkeepers about companies like Asian Paints having grade 1 and grade 2 products having similar packaging and some people (customers) would even vouch for that. They would obviously price those accordingly. It usually turned out to be the case that few people kept fake as well as genuine products which they would market as grade 1 and grade 2.

[DaptChatterjee]

I have found that large Electronic/Electrical appliances like TV, Fridge, AC, Washing Machine, RO, Laptop, Mobile Phone, etc. are safe to buy from E-commerce sites. As others have mentioned, Amazon and Flipkart's own co's are the safe bets. Counterfeit products are more common in the following categories-
1. Clothing- I would dare say that 80% are knock-offs
2. Perfume- almost all
3. Sports equipment like football, Badminton racket, TT bat
4. Charger and other Cheap electronic products
5. Shoes- again 80%

Don't assume offline physical stores are saint either. Croma, Vijay sales routinely store Jurassic age staff. Here in Delhi, we have those 'Factory Outlets'.