Croma - The Most Expensive Mistake of My Life. Review on Croma

I have always been an online shopper. Since years I have been shopping through Amazon & Flipkart and don’t remember a single time I came across any issue with bad product or service. This time I planned to buy Nexus 6P, again online. So when I started comparing prices and offers I stumbled upon cromretail.com. Though their price was equal to what Flipkart/Amazon offered they had an offer running for HDFC Card Holders. So before I order online, I went through their return policy. Return policy is of 15 days and they clearly say that if a customer get a defective product they can raise a request to get it replaced within those 15 days. So, since the terms sounded reasonable I went ahead and ordered a Huawei Nexus 6P 64GB Silver from their site with Express Shipping vide Order No. 235576(Invoice No. SLA050EC0000248) on 1/1/2016.

That’s when the ordeal started. It was delivered on same evening(1/1/2016), happy with the quick delivery. Now when I started using the handset next day I noticed a slight green/yellow tint on display, and worst thing, it was not the whole display, just about 70% of it, rest is bright white. And apart from that I noticed top speaker is louder than the bottom speaker on handset. So I called their support on 7207666000 on 2/1/2016, the lady who Faizabad sounded least bothered to even listen to my complaint, asked me to send pics of the device to their email id customersupport@croma.com. I did it next morning(3/1/2016). I was told I would get a reply within 24 hours. It’s been more than 48 Hours now and I am yet to hear from them.

Next part - after emailing them, since 24 Hours had passed I called them again, again expected answer, I will get reply to mail shortly. So finally I decided to visit Huawei Service Center today, went there with copy of the bill, and here comes the next bummer, there’s no IMEI no. mentioned on the bill provided. I called their local store and I am told that Invoices for Online Orders doesn’t bear IMEI No. Only bills issued in-store have them. So I went to their Store and at Mega Mall, Gurgaon. There I am told that bill can’t be changed/altered, so they wrote IMEI on existing bill with signature/stamp. Now I asked them since the phone is faulty, and they have 15 Days return policy why don’t they take it back in-store and give me replacement/refund. And I was told that online policy doesn’t apply to their stores and they can’t do it, if I get a DOA from service center than only they can replace/refund or else I should raise this issue with their online customer service(which unfortunately is non-existent).

Now, at the end of the ordeal, I am left with such an expensive yet defective handset and don’t know how many rounds will I have to make to service center to get it fixed.

So, moral of the story, don’t fall into their booby trap of offers, better stick to Amazon/Flipkart. I did the mistake and I am repenting now. This is the sole reason E-Commerce is flourishing in India and offline retail is slowly dying. So, guys, save yourself the Harassment and avoid Croma.