4 Reasons Why I 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 : 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.
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: 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?
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: 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.
Reason # 4: 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.
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.
FINALLY I GOT THE REFUND
THANKYOU
