Beware of Flipkart

[Marakk]

My Iffalcon TV went dead on 4th May. I registered a complaint on 5th May with Jeeves because the TV was in extended warranty. After multiple visits, on 23rd May the technician declared the panel dead and said they will either replace the TV or refund (pro-rated amount) in a week or so. I started calling them from 28th May and got lies and excuses till 10th of June. I tried to escalate but got no where. Then on 11th the closed the complaints citing "Customer unreachable" which was another lie. I kept calling and mailing and reached TCL on FB and they asked me for the details. Then on 13th June, a new complaint was registered. Finally the dead TV was picked up today and I am supposed to receive the refund in a week's time.

Lets see how it goes.

Mine is out of warranty. It died from an OTA software update just a day after the warranty ended. I had extended warranty though. So I don't think I can try TCL for help. They did send a software to try via pen drive, but it didn't work. It's upto FK and Jeeves now. Don't have any faith left in either of them.

 

[harryneopotter]

Mine is out of warranty. It died from an OTA software update just a day after the warranty ended. I had extended warranty though. So I don't think I can try TCL for help. They did send a software to try via pen drive, but it didn't work. It's upto FK and Jeeves now. Don't have any faith left in either of them.

From my experience, there is no harm in giving it a shot. Even mine was out of warranty by 6 months. Posting on their FB page and pinging them on messenger did help, I think.

 

[Marakk]

From my experience, there is no harm in giving it a shot. Even mine was out of warranty by 6 months. Posting on their FB page and pinging them on messenger did help, I think.

Ah! Cool! I'll try that. Thanks!

 

[NadirT]

Adding my two cents regarding return policy of Amazon. I ordered Solimo tissue paper boxs. The boxes were all crumbled and crushed. Raised the complaint with Amazon. They asked for picture proof, refunded my money and didn’t even took the box back. The best part, tissue boxes fall under not returnable section.

 

[moktan]

In 2017once bought a pair of shoes (Dr
Martens) on Amazon. The shoe was shipped from the US by UPS-i package and was delivered at the final leg by DTDC. However Amazon tracking wasn’t updating the status of the shoe. Fearing the worst I raised a complaint ( this was before the item was delivered ). I was given a refund. And then the shoe was delivered the same day but the status on their tracking remained the same. I shot off another email saying I didn’t need the refund but that they should now show the shoe as having been delivered. They sent me an email ( I have it somewhere ) asking me to keep the money and the shoes.
A similar experience with Flipkart was not so pleasant. This shoe was for my son , a Florsheim leather. This was obviously a fake shoe and the sole developed holes the day he wore it. I raised a complaint and their local courier guy came to pickup the shoe but refused to take once he saw that the pacakage had been opened. I tried to convince him that the reason communicated for returning the shoe was that the item was flawed - which came to light only after it was used.
Anyway there was a lot of back and forths and they finally resolved the situation only after I wrote a scathing complaint on an online consumer site.
So yes I would avoid Flipkart.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

There’s a huge valley (not just a gap) between Amazon and the rest in terms of customer friendliness. I’ve not used Flipkart (was one of their earliest customers since they started selling books online in 2008) once I tasted Amazon’s customer orientation - that includes service levels and complaints and returns handling which is based on an intrinsic trust in the customer’s version unless proved otherwise (which is exactly the opposite with most Indian businesses). Earlier I wondered if they’d change this policy in India after experiencing the “Indian customer” (who is given as the reason by the non-trusting companies). But no! They have continued to stick to their policies and the ideology behind them. I won’t be surprised if they are actually creating a congruent new generation of Indian customers in the process.

 

[Marakk]

In 2017once bought a pair of shoes (Dr
Martens) on Amazon. The shoe was shipped from the US by UPS-i package and was delivered at the final leg by DTDC. However Amazon tracking wasn’t updating the status of the shoe. Fearing the worst I raised a complaint ( this was before the item was delivered ). I was given a refund. And then the shoe was delivered the same day but the status on their tracking remained the same. I shot off another email saying I didn’t need the refund but that they should now show the shoe as having been delivered. They sent me an email ( I have it somewhere ) asking me to keep the money and the shoes.
A similar experience with Flipkart was not so pleasant. This shoe was for my son , a Florsheim leather. This was obviously a fake shoe and the sole developed holes the day he wore it. I raised a complaint and their local courier guy came to pickup the shoe but refused to take once he saw that the pacakage had been opened. I tried to convince him that the reason communicated for returning the shoe was that the item was flawed - which came to light only after it was used.
Anyway there was a lot of back and forths and they finally resolved the situation only after I wrote a scathing complaint on an online consumer site.
So yes I would avoid Flipkart.

I have had the latter experience you had with Flipkart and Amazon.

For Amazon, I discovered after wearing the shoes for a day that there's a hole in the net mesh underneath the that flap that hides laces. Couldn't have spotted it earlier. Did so only because I was switching laces to a different tying style. Amazon said no worries. We'll take it back.

With Flipkart, the eyelets were broken, and it was an expensive shoe so it wasn't acceptable. Thankfully, I hadn't worn them out at all, so they took it back, but it took some convincing. Had I worn them out, would have been a hassle.

Sucks for Flipkart though. I have bought 5-6 expensive pairs from them in the past few years. No more.

 

[superczar]

I stick to Amazon for lower prices, more variety of products. Flipkart may have an edge over apparels though but I hardly buy such items online. Coming to return policy, it is combination of company policy towards customer service and also what kind of customers one is dealing with. There are rising cases of Return Fraud where a faulty item is getting returned to Ecom sites than the one actually purchased and refunds are getting claimed. See this link as one such example

Flipkart tightens returns policy on rising frauds - Times of India

India Business News: Consumers buying winter fashion and lifestyle products on Flipkart will get less time to return products as the Walmart-owned e-tailer is tightening i

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

I have previously known that in the US, several segment of buyers used to exploit return policy of Walmart by buying something and using it and returning it back within the stipulated time to claim full refund. People have done this for dresses, furniture, mattresses and what not. So retail chains introduced restocking fee which is still trivial amount being deducted from refund and that also did not put a check to it. Such things end up eventually in impacting return policies and responsible customers end up suffering.

With all the data on reurns readily available, It's fairly easy for Amazon and/or FK to apply segmentation logic to address this
My return rate on amazon is probably lower than 0.1%, and as luck would have it, the returns have been only for very low value items ...
which also probably explains why most of these returns (even for non returnable items) have been a refund and a request to throw the item or give it away.
At the same time, you could have someone whose return rate is 10% or even 25%.. My guess would be that the return policy and refund issuance would be tighter for such customers.

My guess would be that amazon actually does it while FK cannot be bothered to

 

[gowmara]

One more thing everyone should note. I am also fan of Amazon and against Flipkart only. If Amazon refunds for item not delivered or any issues, they are still going to collect the money from seller for not delivering it on time/for any issue.

 

[Marakk]

So Amazon.com will refund everything, including customs, if the product is defective, damaged or incorrect. Was thinking of ordering Samsung soundbar rear speakers from them.

 

[dillihifi]

I have used both platforms and both have their issues. Btw I started on my online shopping journey with books as I recall there was Fabmart ??? and Amazon.com in those times.

Now the companies have collecting data on each and every consumer and employing big data analytics to understand the behaviour pattern of each consumer so the return window and complaint redress-al mechanism are automatically getting changed based on the customer's past buying and return history. Whether you like it or not these are coming soon and are going to stay where the AI automatically flags suspicious and genuine issues. I have come across most issues highlighted how customers are taking the platforms for a ride including many customers ordering much more than required and returning the same just to avail the free delivery.

Lets see how this all turns out. But though I had shifted for a bulk of my purchasing to online platforms but the pandemic has also bought out issues in relying solely on the online platforms. Sometimes due to various factors which may not be under the control of the platforms the customer is short changed. Lets see what the future holds.

 

[skroderider]

I gave up on Flipkart long ago. I used to buy tons of books from them - they were just a bookstore, like Amazon was, when they started. They were pioneers IMO in terms of providing responsive customer service in India in their early days and then they became difficult to buy from. Their search function is terrible now - I wonder why, especially with the heavy weight engineering team they have.

Amazon has always used refunds as a way to pacify disgruntled customers (for whatever reason). However, I think they are not strict enough in dealing with fraud sellers, fake reviews, refusing to publish critical reviews and also subtly pushing their own (Amazon-branded) products above others. The customer suffers when this happens, and their response to that is to refund. Apart from all this, I think they are the best online marketplace in the country now in terms of product range and of responsiveness when something goes wrong.

 

[petes]

My shopping is almost 70% Amazon and 30% Flipkart. Whenever I ran into issues, both are helpful and so far did not face any problem on refunds/returns. However, Amazon service has edge over Flipakart. In many cases, I have received refund from Amazon even though the policy didn't had and some gesture amount for their fault.

 

[heart_hacker]

Best is Amazon

 

[gowmara]

Yes Amazon is going to invest more in india. They want to take over India, so they need more trust from common people. In future, we may see Amazon vs Jio, Flipkart will soon moved to some other's hand.