Beware of Flipkart

[Marakk]

Well said.

India's flawed legal system (slow, complex, and too expensive) immensely helps companies to treat customers badly.

And without the right to return, there's no incentive for the company to actually test products and ensure they work well. Bought a terrible and faulty product? You're stuck at manufacturer's mercy. Who knows when the product will work as intended? Want to hire a lawyer for a 5k product? Sure! Go ahead. The system is rigged against consumers.

It's the same for workers btw. Indian workers are the most overworked, yet they are underpaid and a majority now suffer from mental health and physical health problems too. Ask for rights, and people come in justifying companies saying workers are lazy.

 

[harryneopotter]

Flipkart has indeed gone down the drain. Last year, they blocked my 8 year account because apparently I was ordering too much and my account was flagged for reselling. In their own words "You bought 3 phones in the last one year, no one buys so many phones for personal use. Hence you are reselling". It is true that I buy stuff for my family and friends (who do not do online shopping or have credit cards etc) using my accounts on amazon and flipkart. But never have I bought anything for reselling or earned any profit. I called and emailed multiple times for any evidence and everytime I got the same reply, "Our system has flagged your account and it has been blocked for good. No matter what you do now, it wont help".

Useless and Pathetic.

 

[Marakk]

Flipkart has indeed gone down the drain. Last year, they blocked my 8 year account because apparently I was ordering too much and my account was flagged for reselling. In their own words "You bought 3 phones in the last one year, no one buys so many phones for personal use. Hence you are reselling". It is true that I buy stuff for my family and friends (who do not do online shopping or have credit cards etc) using my accounts on amazon and flipkart. But never have I bought anything for reselling or earned any profit. I called and emailed multiple times for any evidence and everytime I got the same reply, "Our system has flagged your account and it has been blocked for good. No matter what you do now, it wont help".

Useless and Pathetic.

I bought four phones last year from Flipkart. Lol

Screw, Flipkart. Hate them now.

 

[harryneopotter]

I bought four phones last year from Flipkart. Lol

Screw, Flipkart. Hate them now.

Exactly my point. As long as I am ordering products with real money and not returning them after using, how does it matter how much I am buying? Very stupid I would say. I bought 3 phones, 1 IPad, 2 TVs (one for me and one for my parents), two sets of speakers and many smaller items in that year. I would say I was a decent customer based on the total revenue generated per year. Now all that goes to Amazon

 

[haisaikat]

Why do we have the concept of laws? To protect people. If these companies are being unfair to millions because of a few people, they have go be checked, because that's not fair.

And their losses have nothing to do with returns. It's their business strategy itself that's flawed.

As a fellow HFVian my support will always be for you but if you seek true justice I must advice you to file complaint with relevant authorities for consumer protection.

However HFV being an open forum everyone gets to post their opinion and interpretation in a certain matter within the rules of the forum. Hence if your intention to post here about this problem is to educate and inform other members to be double sure about checking return policy of a product before ordering then it is definitely welcome.

But it should certainly not appear (and I am sure it is not like that) that in the fire of erupting your grievance you need more advocates beside you to BAN a particular site as a means to settle a score with them. We are not in EU or US and only because the facilities are not comparable to EU / US that will not stop average consumer to buy from these sites as these are the best we have. The convenience and heavy online discounts make us compel to buy again, and the unfortunate situation you were in, I want you to certainly pursue to the very end of it and get justice if you have the time to chase, but most buyer who order and 99% of the time land up being somewhat happy would still forego this risk considering that as the cost of doing business this way. Its a harsh reality I am sorry to say. I stopped ordering from Snapdeal for such a similar reason but at the same time I got loads of good service from Amazon on different other occasions making up for one another.

Screw, Flipkart. Hate them now.

 

[Marakk]

As a fellow HFVian my support will always be for you but if you seek true justice I must advice you to file complaint with relevant authorities for consumer protection.

However HFV being an open forum everyone gets to post their opinion and interpretation in a certain matter within the rules of the forum. Hence if your intention to post here about this problem is to educate and inform other members to be double sure about checking return policy of a product before ordering then it is definitely welcome.

But it should certainly not appear (and I am sure it is not like that) that in the fire of erupting your grievance you need more advocates beside you to BAN a particular site as a means to settle a score with them. We are not in EU or US and only because the facilities are not comparable to EU / US that will not stop average consumer to buy from these sites as these are the best we have. The convenience and heavy online discounts make us compel to buy again, and the unfortunate situation you were in, I want you to certainly pursue to the very end of it and get justice if you have the time to chase, but most buyer who order and 99% of the time land up being somewhat happy would still forego this risk considering that as the cost of doing business this way. Its a harsh reality I am sorry to say. I stopped ordering from Snapdeal for such a similar reason but at the same time I got loads of good service from Amazon on different other occasions making up for one another.

Bruh, being an open forum, I don't need your welcome or approval.

Us not being at the level of EU or US is a moot point. Indian consumers often pay more with less protections. I have also posted on their FB page, and it's rife with people with similar experiences.

We were supposed to have a consumer protection law that would protect the right to return, but it seems to have been diluted.

So my post is for creating awareness. We should lobby for more protection, instead of justifying unfair shit that happens to use.

Again this absolutely bonkers concept of blaming the ones being victimized comes into play. It's like we're ready to justify whatever shit is happening to us by saying we aren't like countries better than us.

If we keep this attitude, we'll never be better than them or even at the same level, because we never pushed for it.

 

[MaSh]

Stopped using Flipkart years ago. Amazon is fine, as long as you stick to Amazon Fulfilled items.

MaSh

 

[haisaikat]

Bruh, being an open forum, I don't need your welcome or approval.

You are welcome anyway

If we keep this attitude, we'll never be better than them or even at the same level, because we never pushed for it.

Curious what was the product and how much you paid for it, is the link available?

 

[VRavichandar]

I have had some great experiences with flipkart. I was able to return a product much after the return window, because the manufacturer warranty claimed by the seller was false. In another instance ordered "blue tooth mouse", return of which was accepted immediately when the item delivered was a wireless one that had wrong product specification.
It was the reverse with Amazon - the specification was not met and amazon refused the return. For many months the product continued with the wrong specification. In another case an exchange for a laptop was refused because they wanted Windows 7 (laptop had a w7 license on the bottom!) and mine had been upgraded to windows 10. Three different amazon customer support idiocutives insisted that the exchange will be accepted only if the OS was W7.

 

[Marakk]

I have had some great experiences with flipkart. I was able to return a product much after the return window, because the manufacturer warranty claimed by the seller was false. In another instance ordered "blue tooth mouse", return of which was accepted immediately when the item delivered was a wireless one that had wrong product specification.
It was the reverse with Amazon - the specification was not met and amazon refused the return. For many months the product continued with the wrong specification. In another case an exchange for a laptop was refused because they wanted Windows 7 (laptop had a w7 license on the bottom!) and mine had been upgraded to windows 10. Three different amazon customer support idiocutives insisted that the exchange will be accepted only if the OS was W7.

I have had positive and negative experiences with both too, but this is more about a change in policy itself.

 

[skroderider]

Flipkart has indeed gone down the drain. Last year, they blocked my 8 year account because apparently I was ordering too much and my account was flagged for reselling. In their own words "You bought 3 phones in the last one year, no one buys so many phones for personal use. Hence you are reselling". It is true that I buy stuff for my family and friends (who do not do online shopping or have credit cards etc) using my accounts on amazon and flipkart. But never have I bought anything for reselling or earned any profit. I called and emailed multiple times for any evidence and everytime I got the same reply, "Our system has flagged your account and it has been blocked for good. No matter what you do now, it wont help".

Useless and Pathetic.

Just wondering, why should FK or anybody else care even if somebody is reselling after buying from them?!

 

[harryneopotter]

Just wondering, why should FK or anybody else care even if somebody is reselling after buying from them?!

Exactly what I thought. I was not reselling, but even if someone is, why do they care?

 

[Deleted member 15865]

Exactly what I thought. I was not reselling, but even if someone is, why do they care?

I am guessing that’d make them a distributor/wholesaler which they may not be licensed for.

 

[arnprasad]

I had a similar issue with Jeeves warranty for mobiles. Lot of frustration dealing with them. Can blame part of it to the virus and limited staff, part of it to workers who dont want to invest time to really understand what the users want and small part to my restlessness. After two months of cursing, pleading, escalating...what not....Finally they took the mobile for repair and I hope I get it back in a good working condition.

All said and done Amazon is way ahead - as I have experienced many times in the past 20 years - their workers are given the freedom to waive off, flex the rules...etc to please the customers

 

[Marakk]

I had a similar issue with Jeeves warranty for mobiles. Lot of frustration dealing with them. Can blame part of it to the virus and limited staff, part of it to workers who dont want to invest time to really understand what the users want and small part to my restlessness. After two months of cursing, pleading, escalating...what not....Finally they took the mobile for repair and I hope I get it back in a good working condition.

All said and done Amazon is way ahead - as I have experienced many times in the past 20 years - their workers are given the freedom to waive off, flex the rules...etc to please the customers

I have not even been able to get in touch with Jeeves since three weeks for my parent's TV. It's been dead since three months now. It was sold as Flipkart Protect. Escalated to Flipkart. Waiting for their snail mail response.

Amazon took back my Metz OLED because of a panel issue instead of forcing me to deal with manufacturer. You don't really know what you're getting when you buy online exclusive products. Without knowing that you can return if the product is shit or doesn't work as it should, I'm going to be super wary of buying online.

 

[arnprasad]

I have not even been able to get in touch with Jeeves since three weeks for my parent's TV. It's been dead since three months now. It was sold as Flipkart Protect. Escalated to Flipkart. Waiting for their snail mail response.

Amazon took back my Metz OLED because of a panel issue instead of forcing me to deal with manufacturer. You don't really know what you're getting when you buy online exclusive products. Without knowing that you can return if the product is shit or doesn't work as it should, I'm going to be super wary of buying online.

Yeah - in my case another time - Dont remember if it was Amazon or flipkart - when my Iffalcon TV was giving problems within a month or two - the repair guy had a look and replaced the whole TV!!!

 

[alpha1]

So I got flipkarted today.
Had order for an item that was available at slightly lesser price compared to amazon. Greedily ordered, and regretted since the item was shipped immediately but I couldn't track its movement. Today after 10 days they suddenly cancelled it stating the delivery partner was not able to contact me!
Thankfully the item is available at Amazon with 2 day's delivery.

 

[Marakk]

So I got flipkarted today.
Had order for an item that was available at slightly lesser price compared to amazon. Greedily ordered, and regretted since the item was shipped immediately but I couldn't track its movement. Today after 10 days they suddenly cancelled it stating the delivery partner was not able to contact me!
Thankfully the item is available at Amazon with 2 day's delivery.

Ah! Their customer executives have also been apparently calling me according to their mail, but I haven't received any calls. Seems like a strategy to blame their shortcomings on customers not being able to pick calls.

 

[Hari Iyer]

Three months ago, I ordered audio output transformers twice and did not arrive even after two months. I asked for refund from PayPal and got back entire amount with minimal transaction fee of 150/- bucks for value of goods 9.5k

 

[harryneopotter]

I have not even been able to get in touch with Jeeves since three weeks for my parent's TV. It's been dead since three months now. It was sold as Flipkart Protect. Escalated to Flipkart. Waiting for their snail mail response.

Amazon took back my Metz OLED because of a panel issue instead of forcing me to deal with manufacturer. You don't really know what you're getting when you buy online exclusive products. Without knowing that you can return if the product is shit or doesn't work as it should, I'm going to be super wary of buying online.

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.