4 Reasons Why I would Avoid Flipkart.com for Online Shopping
Flipkart.com is one of the well-known brands on the web which offers easy shopping and quicker delivery. I have been suggesting the service by flipkart to literally thousands of web users. You may get confused on how could I mention that I have referred thousands of people to this service and the answer to that is mentioned below. Before I post my case here, I would also like to say that I have made numerous purchases at flipkart and they have infact offered the best services but recently this has worsened and I cannot stop myself from posting the same on this blog.
Reason # 1 : No Social Media Support Whenever someone tweets anything around #flipkart, you can expect an almost instant response from their team, thanking for choosing their services, but when the discussion is about a problem, they do not respond back. They should consider each of the customer tweets and create a ticket on the complained raised to ensure it is fixed as soon as possible.
It was clear that flipkart was no more interested in offering a service for the device they sold and I had kept the phone in the package and never used it. It is clearly a loss of Rs 28000 and am not more interested in getting it fixed. Just want to send back the product and need my money back. If they are serious about their business and customers they will have to do this or else expect this kind of negative comments.
Reason # 2: Higher Prices If you feel that flipkart is one of those services which offer you with the cheapest pricing and quickest delivery then, you are wrong. A quick search on different e-commerce sites would show you that the prices are actually quite higher than other service providers around. Example: Check out the price of the Samsung Galaxy S II phone is Rs 30,900 while the same product is available at Rs 28,990 on other stores like adexmart, sulekha, snapdeal etc. and still lover at offline stores, which clearly implies that flipkart over charges you around 10% as shown in this case. Would you still purchase this product only for a reason that it’s delivered quickly? I would suggest checking out the nearby Reliance Digital, or else other Mobile Chains to buy your products if you are in a hurry, atleast you are ensured that the price you are offered is the lowest possible.
Before they had issued me a refund, I had added a review on the Galaxy Tab’s sales page about the price difference and also a small review of the tablet. This was when they called me up and told that they would issue me a refund after 7 months and also told that they cannot approve my comment, which is wrong. It’s my comment; it was not harsh and up to the point that I had just mentioned about the price issue.
Reason # 3:Bad Support I have had purchased a Sony Mobile Phone at Rs 28,000 and once it was delivered, and I had opened the box, found that the device was sluggish and had some serious issue. I immediately called up the support team and asked them to check out the issue, and they said someone from their technical team would call me up. Waited for another 24 hours and there was no call back, again called up the support team and they said they would forward the query and I need to wait for 24 hours for a call back. I was also told that I can expect a response within 24 hours and if the phone as some issue they would replace the same or else refund the money and take the device back. Another 24 hours passed and I never received a call back.
Reason # 4:Deleting of Buyer Comments I had purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab a few months back at Rs 36200 and before the product was delivered the price was dropped to Rs 34900 which means clearly Rs 1201 was my loss and I raised a ticket for the price difference and they said they would refund the money. The order was placed on 25 August 2011, and finally after around 7 months the money was sent to my account, do you think this is OK?
There are many other reasons like their Affiliate system is not working well but again I do not have any tools to track the same. I have been sending them visitors every single day through our blogs and they rarely convert, but I do not have any complaints about this because probably our readers would be interested in buying the product later or may be some other reason. I have purchased many other products from this company as shown below, but the Rs 28,000 phone purchase is one which makes me feel sad and I criticize myself for not buying it from eBay and doing the mistake of buying it from Flipkart.
Now till flipkart would not comment below and refund me the money, considering the phone is not used I would never buy a product from their team and would never suggest their services to any of our readers. We will soon be removing all the links we have added on our different gadget blogs to flipkart. Hope this article will make them understand how a customer feels when they believe you and you try to loot on their confidence.
Update 18/03/2012 : Flipkart team contacted me on phone and told that i can immediately expect a call from the technical department but another 24 hours passed on.
Update 19/03/2012 : I finally received a call after 36 hours from the very same person who called me a day back initially claiming that he was the technical department and said he would like to resolve the issue by refunding the payment for the product. This was because of the Tweets by all of your readers which made them call me back. Following is a email from his end on the same.
Update 20/03/2012 : I received a call from their manager at 10 Am claiming that they would refund the payment and initiate the pickup as soon as possible which was already confirmed above on 19th itself. Nonetheless this update from their manager gave me more confidence on their support.
Update 21/03/2012 : I get a call from the pick up team asking about the pick up of my Samsung Galaxy Tab, while the whole issue was about a Sony Xperia Phone. I was quite shocked because the flipkart team did another blunder for this whole issue and requested for a pick up of a product which was bought 7 months back. Check out the copy of the email they had sent me on this issue.
Finally after discussing with the manager and pick up person we sent back the product. In the evening, customer support manager again called me up and i had updated him that the product is sent back and inquired with him about the refund. He had mentioned that if i opt for wallet option, the funds will be in my account in 30 minutes while if i opt for Credit Card it would take 4-6 business days. I opted for wallet option and almost another 24 hours have passed on and I am still waiting here for the refund.
Update 22/03/2012 : I got a call from the team that the payment would be credited to the bank / CC even though i had informed them about selecting the wallet option. Nonetheless the payment was credited and i have finally received the payment from them for the defected product.
Please note that i have had a issue with flipkart which does not mean that each of you can expect that. It happens once in a while and I am happy that flipkart team fixed everything.
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