Jun 02, 2010 05:08 PM
2666 Views
Sites like Indiaplaza.in give online shopping a bad name. Pathetic service, appalling post order respose times, all covered with a deceptive layer of techno-babble. Be very careful what you order for on the site. I was tempted in by their books. They have several titles not available online with other Indian sites.
What they don't tell you is that they source it from vendors overseas and books can take as much as tow months to land up. In one order of 11 books, they shipped all items separately (charging me each time for shipping) and took two months to complete delivery. One order was unilaterally cancelled by them, as the item had gone out of stock by the time their wonderful order processing system had got around to i. It took me a long time to realise that they hadn't refunded the money to me. I had pai with reward points from my credit card, which they cannot credit back. They don't tell you this either.
In two instances, I had completed the transaction, but the transaction was shown as a 'failed' transaction. The points were deducted from my credit card but never refunded. I made the mistake of ordering some alfonso mangos online, as a gift for my parents. The mango box arrived opened and had only 8 rootting and damaged mangos inside. This time, I attempted to call. One full day of ringing the single Bangalore number listed on the website got me the promise of a replacement or refund within 3 working days. It is now a month since that time, and no action has taken place.
The website only allows you to file a complaint through an online form submission system. This gets non replies like "we deeply regret the inconvenience" but no actual action. The issue, however, is promptly updated to 'closed' on the website. 'Closed' in their language means that they have replied to your complaint - usually witha we are sorry type message -- but NOT that they have actually solved it. The website is very secretive about itself. There is no mail id to write in to with complaints. There is no escalation mechanism if a grievance is not redressed properly. There are no contact details.
In short, if you have paid and failed to get what you paid for, God help you. This site compares very unfavourably with peers. For books, I found Landmarkonthenet superb. Both Indiatimes and Rediff shopping have proper grievance redressal systems. These guys have nothing. Even ebay has been a happier experience. Highly avoidable, despite a deceptively attractive website.
Their back-end systems and processes simply suck.
