Sep 12, 2014 04:57 PM
31271 Views
I have been using a lumia 620 for about two years now. Have been using Nokia ever since I got my first phone in college. But then windows phone sucked big time and was looking to change to another phone. As fate would have it, mid August my windows phone fell down and the display broke. Cost of replacement of the display was estimated at 4500INR. Moto E with better specs than my phone cost just 2500INR more than my phone display, so decided to go for it. Just before ordering, one of my friends pointed out that Redmi 1S would be released in the market 1st week of September. The specs and price was mind blowing at the same cost of Moto E. Decided to wait for it.
It was then announced that the phone Redmi 1S would be priced 1000 rupees cheaper at 5999INR. Awesome. Was very excited and the next challenge was to get this phone in the flash sale. Spoke to about 5 friends who all agreed to try their luck in the flash sale to get me a phone.
Registrations for the phone was announced by Flipkart and was opened at 6pm 26th August. At about 6.03PM on 26th August, the register button was available and I clicked on it. Their banner said the first 2000 Flipkart First subscribers who registered for the sale will be given early access to buy the phone – the phone will be added to their cart automatically and they don’t have to do anything about it.
A word about Flipkart First service: it costs 500INR a year and it offers free in a day shipping and no shipping charges no matter how small the order value(from select sellers of course). Also early access to product launches like this one.
I have a flipkart first trial subscription active in my account and I clicked on the registration button as soon as it appeared, so there were good chances I am among the first 2000. Next part was the confusion – am I eligible for the early access or not? Remember I don’t have a phone for about a week now and am really desperate to get my hands on one. Called flipkart customer service and they say if you are selected you would have received an email. I say I didn’t get any and request them to check their database to check if my name is on the list and the customer service guy says he does not have the list. So I assumed 2000 flipkart first subscribers would have registered before me and in my mind I think how on earth that is even possible! There were comments in certain forums that users have received the email confirmation giving them confirmation to the early access on the 27th of August itself. So I thought let’s try on the flash sale on 2nd September when 38000 handsets will be made available for sale.
On 31st August, I received an email from flipkart congratulating me as I have been given early access to buy the phone one day prior to the flash sale – i.e. 1st September. I was so happy.
Suddenly it became crystal clear as to how cunning Flipkart is. They announced saying 2000 flipkart first subscribers will have early access to the phone and then became tight lipped. People who did not subscribe to this service would have paid and subscribed to it hoping they will get a guaranteed Redmi 1S. I would have done it if I hadn’t the trial subscription already.
The email itself was not very clear with the instructions. It said be logged in few hours before 2pm on 1st September and the phone will be added automatically to the cart. I’m a working guy and how can I keep staring at flipkart website for hours together in office? Also it did not say what would happen if I don’t log in for hours prior to 2pm. Also I didn’t know which page to look at, so I call up customer service. The clown I spoke to had no clue as to what I am talking about and he tells me a buy now button will appear and I have to click on it. I tell this clown that the email said it would be added to my cart automatically and he says, no the buy now button would come. I ask him where and he gives me some vague replies. I hang up on this clown and hope for the best. I will order on 1st September and will have the phone on 2nd September when all of India will be going to the flash sale. I was so excited that I could not sleep that night.
1st September:
I excitedly tell my friends at work that my phone is confirmed and all of them crowd around my PC around 2pm to see the phone get added to the cart. 2pm comes and goes and no sign of the phone in my cart. I panic and call customer service and they ask me to wait a few more minutes and it will get added to my cart. 3pm – no sign of the phone in my cart. Call customer service again, line is continuously busy and I email them. I get a text and email at 4pm saying the phone will be in my cart at 5pm. The deadline to order an item for next day delivery is 7.30pm, so I was okay with this. At 5pm no sign of the phone in my cart. At 7.30 pm, still not added and no intimation about what is happening from Flipkart. Their phone lines are busy and I’m disappointed I wont get the phone the next day as the deadline for next day delivery is over. Finally the phone gets added to the cart at 9.30 pm and I pay for it and friends at work make me buy them ice cream. Here’s the shocker – estimated delivery date is 15th September. I was so disappointed. Anyways I hoped they would ship before the end of the week. The current order status is “payment approved – seller yet to confirm the item”
2nd September:
Flash sales happen for the phone and it gets sold out in four point something seconds. Nice. When would they get their phones I wonder as I was promised early access and the delivery date is 15th September! Now 40000 people are pissed off at Flipkart’s promised delivery date. Rumors were they did not have the stock and yet went ahead with the sales. 6000 rupees a phone multiplied by 40000 people is 24 crores. Assuming even 30% made a prepaid order, Flipkart was sitting on 7.2 crores of user money without even having stock of the phones. Emails to customer service got template responses promising update within 24 hours, 48 hours and what not. I join a forum where others like me are waiting to get their hands on their Redmi 1S and keep discussing the progress(or rather non progress) of our order.
3rd September:
The flip cover I ordered for my phone from ebay and the memory card I ordered from flipkart have arrived. No sign of the phone.
4th and 5th September:
With no news about my phone, I keep reading discussions in various forums about speculations as to why this extraordinary delay in having the product delivered
6th September:
Order changes from “payment approved” to “seller has confirmed the order”. I call customer service that night and explain to them I have had no phone three weeks now and I need the phone urgently. He says the delivery date is 15th September and I should wait.
7th September:
Status changes to “item has been packed”. This was in the afternoon. My excitement grew. I thought they would ship the phone that evening and I would get it the next day. Phone is in Bangalore and I am in Chennai. I go out that evening and come home late past mid night and first thing I do is to check the order status. It didn’t change. The product was not shipped. Bitter disappointment. But I thought today being a Sunday, they will ship tomorrow.
8th September:
There is excitement in the forum as many orders have been shipped. Many more are frustrated that their orders have not yet been approved. Mine is still stuck at the same status – “item packed”. Tonight it will be shipped I hope.
Nearing 12 am, it is still not shipped. Now I lost my cool – how difficult is it to ship an item that has been packed the previous afternoon. I call flipkart’s customer service and get to speak to a real joker. His name is Izad Khan.
I ask this clown why my item has not been shipped yet. He gives me a sarcastic response saying the promised delivery date is 15th September. I tell him other people have had their phones shipped and some of them have got it delivered as well. Why is mine being withheld when I have paid you the same cash as others. This joker then tells me they are priority customers(2000 of them he says) and they are getting it on a priority basis and I am not a priority customer. I tell him don’t assume that I’m not a priority customer and he says he is not assuming and he knows for sure I’m not a priority customer.
I ask him when did the priority customers order their phones? He says 1st September. I ask him when did I order my phone and he says 1st September. So I ask him how come I didn’t get priority in shipment and he tells me I should have selected faster delivery options during the purchase. I’m shocked at this reply. There were no faster shipping options available for this order. Not only for me, but the other 39999 people who ordered as well.
Now I try reasoning with him. I tell him my order has been packed on Sunday and how difficult it is to ship it out? He challenges me as to where I get to see this status. He says his status shows that my order is just approved and not packed. I ask him for his email id so that I can email him a screenshot of the order status on the call. He says you mail to customer service and they will reply. Then who is this clown if not for customer service? I also ask him if I can come to the warehouse and pick it up myself. He says that’s not possible you wait till 15th September.
The icing on the cake. He asks me if I am happy with the resolution he provided! I tell him "you haven't resolved anything".
I write a really angry email to Flipkart and as usual they apologise and say 48 hours everything will be sorted!
9th September:
Many of the users who ordered their phones on 1st and 2nd September have started receiving them. I make my own personal enquiry with some of the people who have received their phones and the pattern is the same. Those who received their phones all ordered through cash on delivery. While those who did not get it(hell mine wasn’t even shipped!) all had made prepaid orders. So flipkart was keen on collecting money from people who did not pay and they did not care about those who already paid. After all they have my money and I can’t cancel without them intervening, right? All the talk of early access and priority access was bull crap. The real priority is for people who are yet to pay. I thought I will do a small test to confirm if this is true. There is another flash sale happening today for the Redmi 1S. I order one more and give the payment option as cash on delivery. A colleague at work also tried for the phone but did not get it and he approaches me. I tell him I take the first phone that arrives and you take the second. He was super excited. At least someone is happy!
I receive a text in the afternoon saying my order made on 1st September has been shipped. Then comes the best part. I get a message in the evening that the order I made today(9th September) has also been shipped. Are you kidding me? Flipkart held on to my cash for 9 days now and they did not bother to ship until now. But the one I ordered in the afternoon was shipped immediately cause it was cash on delivery. What a bunch of thieves.
10th September
Both the orders have reached Chennai from Bangalore in the morning. But they are not delivered. Another disappointing day
11th September
The order I made on the 1st of September(pre paid - addressed to my home address) is received at the hub closest to me at 6.30 AM.Today I will get my phone, I hope. The order I made on 9th September(cash on delivery - addressed to my office address) is received at the hub closest to me at 11.30 am. Good I thought.
At 11.58 there is an sms from Ekart(Flipkart's logistics wing) that my order is out for delivery and I should keep Rs. 5999/- ready to pay the cash on delivery. The prepaid order is still not shipped. My colleague at work is disappointed. He expected both phone to reach together. I ask him to take the COD(cash on delivery) order as it is coming to office and he is all excited about the new phone. His point of view: he wanted the phone badly, could not get one in the flash sale on 9th September. I offered him the second phone that arrives and finally told him take the first phone itself. I could feel his excitement. Probably I was expecting something similar from flipkart and they let me down so badly.
About 4pm, the phone arrives. We check it out, its one awesome phone. My colleague is happy. 11th day after ordering, I am still without a phone where as someone who ordered the day before got it in 50 hours! Probably my original order dated 1st September is very precious for Flipkart. They seem to be detaining it where ever it lands, probably they are worshiping it. I decide my phone must be some new god.
I think of calling Flipkart's customer service to ask them why this partiality? I decide against it, after all when I know there isn't going to be any results - why should I embark on that pointless exercise? Tomorrow my phone would come, I tell myself. Or would they stick to their promised date of 15th September and not deliver before that? Probably I should speak to an astrologer to predict what happens and I immediately get on to flipkart's website to search for astrologers. Sadly they didn't have any. But they did have some books on how to become an astrologer. But the odds are if I order that book, I may still have to hire another astrologer to predict when that book would arrive. Another pointless exercise I thought and move on.
12th September
Finally the day arrives. Receive a text saying the phone is out for delivery about 11 AM. About 4 pm I receive an call from home saying the phone has been delivered. Finally it's all over!
By the way, my colleague's phone seems to be heating up excessively and the battery drains from 100% to 10% in a matter of three hours. Have requested for a replacement and got to see how Flipkart handles that.
You may tell me that flipkart is not wrong here. They promised me delivery by 15th September and delivered before that. But I wont agree. Why?
- I was promised early access to the phone. But people who were promised no such things and bought after me got the the phone much earlier. Priority was given to customers who ordered using cash on delivery.
My own orders prove this fact:
*Order 1 - paid through credit card on 1st September. Shipped on 9th September, delivered on 12th September
Order 2 - ordered through cash on delivery on 9th September, shipped on the same day(9th September) and delivered on 11th September*
So the person who paid earlier through a prepaid order is the idiot.
Can never keep up commitments. Their commitments to sort out problems in 24, 48 hours have no meaning, cause they will never get back to you. Commitment to early access was a joke!
Useless customer service. For the information they gave me, it would have been better if they did not exist at all. They have no clue as to what is happening and will give you the information that you already know. And if you corner them, they will tell you 24 hours, 48 hours and all. Will not take one step to help a customer. They exist to preach their processes to you. Nothing more.
Cross selling useless products like Flipkart First through deceit
Flipkart itself handled my entire order. The seller was WS Retail which is flipkart itself. The courier service was ekart which is again part of flipkart. But the folks at flipkart spoke as if WS Retail is an alien entity and they have no clue as to what they are up to. But can I contact WS Retail direct - no that cannot happen as well.
Flipkart is the exclusive seller of the three best budget phones available in the country # Xiaomi # Motorola # Asus Zen phones. This monopoly lead success seems to have got into their head. User's dependence on this single source for the above three brands makes them think they can have their way and no one would question them.
Flipkart was liable to answer me(and 39999 others as well) as to why the product delivery was delayed. But no one bothered to do so. After all they had my money, but they acted as if they are doing me a favour
End of the day, there was no one in all of flipkart willing to listen to a customer who requested for an early delivery when that was promised to me.
So would I use flipkart again, probably yes. But only for orders that are not urgently required. Cause if you trust them to make an exception and help you out when you are in trouble, well you will be in trouble! No ethics whatsoever. The amount of mental agony I went through to get the phone was way too much. Getting the phone itself is a big deal(the people who didn't succeed in getting a phone in the flash sale would understand). On top of that, such a painful experience.
I have read horror stories about how Flipkart takes money from people asking them to preorder products, but delay delivery indefinitely long after the product is available. People who order after the product is available would get instant deliveries, but those who pre ordered would be left in the dark as to when the delivery would happen. Finally these poor souls would have to re order and cancel the pre order. What a joke! Someone's got to teach Flipkart the meaning of pre order, early access, priority, etc. Do order through them, but only on cash on delivery. That's all Flipkart cares about these days - cash . And never ever pre order even if they give you exciting offers, cause in all probability you would never receive them.
Learn the meaning of customer service Flipkart!
