experience with flipkart and other online sellers

[cavallino]

So I finally decided to take the plunge and order a blu ray on flipkart. Chose "The Sound of Music 45 Anniversary Edition' It was listed for Rs. 779 - COD, no shipping charges. Great! The process was pretty smooth. Order was confirmed by sms, delivery in 3 days - so far so good. This was the first time I was using flipkart, and was happy with the experience. But I got a call in the evening (had booked the order in the morning), telling me that while the listed price was 779 but now it was only available for one thousand something, :sad:I asked them to cancel the order. End of story.

This got me thinking. Now, there is hardly any doubt that this is not the done thing and everyone understands its a fatal for customer relations but the companies still do it. Of course this is a 'minor' faux pas compared to the payment glitches. Neither is this a unique case. Most e-commerce websites seem to do similar things, e.g. few days back I had ordered a book on infibeam, website, for a friend who wanted to take it with him and was leaving town in 7 days. Order was confirmed but after 3 days they sent me a mail saying that the book was out of stock and that the order had been canceled - of course the mail did not say who canceled the order
Unfortunately that left me with little time to try an alternate channel (the offline one - my neighbouring book shop, who had promised to get it in a week but I had ditched him to go online. Point it that the online sellers are in thier nacent stages and yet not professional about customer relation/retention. Ideally speaking since they had confirmed my order on the flipkart they should have sent me a mail saying that while the prices have increased they would honour their commitment even if it was going to cost them, that might have won them a customer and it would have been beneficial for them in the long run. But in the Indian online world, I guess, the customer is seldom right and of course has no rights. :lol:

 

[moktan]

living in the boondocks...i have to buy many things through Flipkart (books, camera, coffee maker, cell phone etc)..so far i haven't had any such issues with their service..only once did they call to revise an order..a newer edition of the book was available and they sent me that at the old price after confirming with me (but guess that was a couple of years ago)..things may have changed now..

 

[hifiashok]

my experiences with flipkart have been pretty good. tho', cannot say, 'has ALWAYS been 100% satisfactory'.

i feel they are good till an issue, and then they are comparable to any.

however, IMHO their prices seem to make up for the occasional glitch.

YMMV

 

[ukjeyaraj]

I have used flipkart more than 5 times. All the time my experience was very good and completely satisfactory.

I recently used landmarkonthenet, it was also good.

I have also used homeshop18, though there was no bad experience with them, they are not as fast as flipkart in delivery.

My only experience with i2c (ebay GEB) was very bad. Item was delivered very late. Their communication is really bad. Everytime some new CC representative will talk to you and try to bluff something, totally contradicting what you heard from the earlier representative. Also getting their CC online will be tedious.

 

[alcy]

Point it that the online sellers are in thier nacent stages and yet not professional about customer relation/retention.

Flipkart is definitely _not_ in its nascent stages. And they are _very_ professional. Its probably one of the few websites whose growth has been actually tangible, with constant improvements. Been ordering from them for more than 5 years now, never had a problem. Customer support is awesome as well.

 

[roseboy24]

I have ordered Few CDs from Flipkart and my experience was really amazing and thoroughly satisfied with their services and timely delivery.

 

[cavallino]

Flipkart is definitely _not_ in its nascent stages. And they are _very_ professional. Its probably one of the few websites whose growth has been actually tangible, with constant improvements. Been ordering from them for more than 5 years now, never had a problem. Customer support is awesome as well.

I am sure they have given you good service, but confirming an order and then retracting on it - I wouldn't call that professional. When I say nascent, I mean the nacent stage of e-commerce in India i.e. ratio of online transactions to the offline ones in India is still quite low compared to the developed world.

I have no bones to pick with flipkart, but once they canceled the order the 'order' section of my account said - order canceled money refunded! - it was a cod transaction

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Hi,

Ordered a smartphone today at Flipkart for the first time. Keeping my fingers crossed

Typically, what is their shipping process? Do they share the shipping details and typically when the shipping happens, i.e., on the second business day?

I have had bought lot of things ranging from a banana plug to a projector, AVR, LCD TV, etc. through ebay, amazon, vpost, 20north, but have not had a bad deal so far!

Cheers!

 

[hellraiserpop]

Shipping is very fast. Should reach within 2 days if they have the item in stock. They'll send you a mail with tracking number when it ships. Most courier tracking services update very slowly. You'll probably get the item before the tracker shows "Out for delivery".

 

[EthenHunt]

done some 40k worth of purchases from flipkart and letsbuy...no issues till now..

 

[alcy]

I am sure they have given you good service, but confirming an order and then retracting on it - I wouldn't call that professional. When I say nascent, I mean the nacent stage of e-commerce in India i.e. ratio of online transactions to the offline ones in India is still quite low compared to the developed world.

I have no bones to pick with flipkart, but once they canceled the order the 'order' section of my account said - order canceled money refunded! - it was a cod transaction

Do you have a reference e-commerce website ( Indian/global ) with which you might want to relate this observation of yours ? If not, then this is just whining without reason. If yes, would be really happy to be more aware.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Bought quite a few books from Flipkart. In-stock ones arrive pretty much when they say they will, imported items can be longer than the estimate.

My last order was on behalf of someone else (in an other country) and had to be delivered to a volunteer at an out-of-the-way NGO near Pondicherry. For some reason, despite giving BlueDart full contact details, my wife spoke to them [wife=Tamil-speaking] several times, but they could not or would not deliver. It went back to FlipKart, who telephoned me to say that they were despatching by another courier. Yes, the order went wrong, but they put it right in the end, and it was delivered.

I'm happy with them. But I would not like to be informed of a price change after the order. We all know about typos on sites, and no, we don't seriously expect to get a laptop for $0.99! But a real price rise after the order is accepted? Only car dealers get away with that one!

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Hi,

my 2 cents: One may feel that e-commerce has still not gotten to its full shape, yes, indeed it is true. However, one must admit that it is evolving in a better way and pace it should be.

The glitches we face are often not from the e-commerce company per se, but its strategic partners and our banking policies. The reason for delayed shipment, delayed refund not only revolves around the e-commerce vendor, but also the logistics comp and internet banking/refund policies set by RBI, etc, sometimes even the buyer.

I still see a lot of my colleagues running between pillar and post to get back their money stuck due to faulty ATMs. It sometimes takes 30-45 days to get back the money, because a bank ATM does not function the way it should be. It happened to me once with IDBI ATM and the manager is personally known to me, but still I had to wait for 14 days! However, the policies have now been changed

To everyone's surprise, most of the courier would accept only a 100-rupee liability for any loss incurred during transit, unless you insure the shipment in your best interest by paying a fat sum.

For e.g., 20North had initial teething problems but now seems to be doing well.

 

[cavallino]

I'm happy with them. But I would not like to be informed of a price change after the order. We all know about typos on sites, and no, we don't seriously expect to get a laptop for $0.99! But a real price rise after the order is accepted? Only car dealers get away with that one!

That's exactly what I wanted to say.

this is just whining without reason.

Aren't you unnecessarily being rude? Why call a legit complaint - whining.
By what standards of business ethics - a complaint about price rise after the order confirmation is whining without reason.

As far as proof of Indian e-commerce still being at a nascent stage and being behind the developed world is concerned, there are hundreds of research papers on that. I just googled for it and got plenty of hits. You can too have a look. For sample, some links are given below. If you interested in the subject there are many more pages to read.

E-commerce - Electronic commerce

E-commerce in India is in its nascent stage. What are its future prospects? - Topix

ecommerce at a Nascent Stage - Page 1 of 5

 

[alcy]

Aren't you unnecessarily being rude? Why call a legit complaint - whining.
By what standards of business ethics - a complaint about price rise after the order confirmation is whining without reason.

Not by business ethics, but comparatively. Anyway, sorry that came across as rude. Just one of those moments :indifferent14:

 

[hydra]

...

The glitches we face are often not from the e-commerce company per se, but its strategic partners and our banking policies. The reason for delayed shipment, delayed refund not only revolves around the e-commerce vendor, but also the logistics comp and internet banking/refund policies set by RBI, etc, sometimes even the buyer.

...

You've hit the nail bang on the head here. This is the problem. However well the online sellers have their system setup, they have to deal with problems raised by the payment gateway before the sale is made, and the courier agency after the sale is made.

Though things have improved a LOT on this front, the payment processing system still has a lot of glitches to be ironed out. I'm an online seller myself, and you wouldn't believe the number of sales I lose every day because either the payment gateway "is experiencing technical issues", or because the payment gateway gets overly paranoid and blocks a genuine customer's payment as "possibly fraudulent". I won't begin to mention the number of times the customer manages to complete payment, but the transaction is "lost" between the payment gateway and the bank/credit card company. When this happens, the online seller and the buyer have to depend on the efficiency of the banking system and the efficiency of the refund mechanism of the payment gateway.

The next problem is the delivery end. Most of the courier agencies, even the front line ones like Blue Dart, screw up the customer's buying experience quite a bit by delaying the delivery (or sometimes not making the delivery at all). I've experienced this many times both as a seller and as a buyer. In fact, slow as they are, I've found the Government-run Speed Post to be far more dependable than most private couriers.

About Flipkart, I think they are the most professional online sellers in India now. They have a very efficient payment collection and pre-delivery mechanism, and in my experience they always send the product out of their warehouse on time. They also supposedly have a no questions asked 30-day replacement policy, but I haven't had occasion to test that out yet (and I hope I will not need to, ever). The prices they charge are also very competitive.

But I can't be as confident about the couriers that make the delivery. I've ordered stuff from Flipkart about 12-15 times this year and every time I've had to call Blue Dart to make sure the items get delivered on time.

 

[umeshdhingra]

I had placed a pre - order of a blu ray early this month at flipkart ,after few days both the price and release got shifted northwards,however after reading this issue over here,I contacted flipkart this morning,first thru email......to which I got a vague reply.
However when I called up the customer care,I was given a vague reply,stating that I would be contacted near the release date of the blu ray,to tell me if I have to pay the current price.

However on my objection and on my request to escalate the matter,within moments ,I was told categorically that ,my blu ray would've despatched at the pre order price and no escalated price to be paid.

I have been buying lots of diff items thru flipkart ,and would like to add that delivery is really very good,prices are competitive ,but ,flipkart need to mention clearly their policies on imp issues

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

hydra, that is a really interesting post. If, as the customer, I get one upset, I forget that, for upset I have, the supplier probably has one hundred to cope with.

Indian banks are part of the Visa, Mastercard, etc, international networks. I do not understand why online shopping and payment should not be as simple and easy here as it is elsewhere.

 

[hydra]

Issues of the kind described by the OP and umeshdhingra above have mostly to do with the online seller's policy and attitude. Marking out-of-stock items as ready for sale and collecting payment, or asking the customer to pay more for an item he's already bought (at the price that was listed on the website) is simply bad business policy. It's instances like these that ruin online shopping for buyers and other sellers. Mistakes will always happen, but what matters is how they are fixed.

Thad, the payment systems do work well enough most of the time. In my experience, most of the technical issues have to do with the quality of the internet connection at the end of the customer and the quality of the network the payment gateway provider is on. And of course, with the software implementation at the payment gateway (and the bank/credit card provider).

When a customer makes payment, he generally leaves the seller's website and enters the payment gateway provider's system for the duration of the time he makes payment. Most of the time, if something goes wrong, all the parties involved (customer, payment gateway, credit card company or bank, and the seller) get enough information about it to set things right fast enough.

But at times, the payment leaves the customer's bank account (or credit card) and no information is sent to the payment gateway and/or the seller. This is where things usually start getting ugly. Unless the customer raises an issue, the seller does not get to know about it. And by the time the customer does raise an issue, he is already pissed off, and justifiably so. The seller then has to depend on the payment gateway to sort things out, and fast. Things do get sorted out fast enough most of the time. But here again, at times the payment gateway has to get the required information from the bank/credit card company, causing further delay.

I'm not really a big-time online seller, but issues like the one I described above do happen at least once a week. The payment gateway provider I rely on is vaunted to be South Asia's largest, so I guess it is not a problem with using a good enough solutions provider. In their defense, they do help out by sorting out issues reasonably fast, but since these things are basically software-based, I'd love to be in a situation where such issues do not arise at all.

As far as issues on the delivery-end are concerned, they are a daily headache. But here, if things start taking too long, I can send the customer another set of the item/s they've bought, and continue fighting with the delivery-solution provider about the original issue.

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Friends,

I have posted my experience with Flipkart on a separate thread, please visit http://www.hifivision.com/dealer-fe...experience-highly-recommended.html#post322218

Thanks,

Venkat