To Buy or Not to Buy - India Plaza. Review on Indiaplaza

When I saw almost all the negative reviews of India Plaza I wondered if any online shop could be so bad. I had shopped with most of the online shop and the experience was pleasant. I really thought that I should give India Plaza a try to find out if they are as bad as depicted. I also had another reason as I had accumulated huge rewards points on my Citi bank card and the only online shop I could redeem was India Plaza. I started first to buy a Perfume using the reward points.

The checkout was smooth and I had the message `Ready to Ship’ when I logged to my account and viewed the pending orders. I also received a SMS stating the transaction number with the product name and delivery timeline mentioned.

I was surprised when I received the product in Flat two days through DHL. My first transaction with this online shop was good and I thought maybe India Plaza is not a Monster as it was made out to be by all the negative reviews.

Now with confidence I went ahead and ordered another two products using the rewards point. Little did I suspect the ordeal that I would face after these orders. The two products I had ordered were Universal Remote and a HP Printer for my dad. I thought as I had ordered the perfume earlier and got it delivered in two days, the same would happen with these. It was more than two days and then it became a week when I saw that the order is still `Ready to Ship’.

I thought maybe I should remind them and contacted their call center number given on the website and there was no one to answer the phone. I must have tried several times during the day but nobody answered the phone. I thought maybe all them must have run away like the once famous Finance Companies. I raised a ticket in their website for their unprofessional attitude and demanding an explanation. I promptly got an SMS that my query would be answered in couple of day’s time. I should add that the complaint ticket is another big joke where no one answers the query in time.

My lucky day came when after couple of days I was able to reach them through phone and when asked about the product and shipping details I was told that the product was out of stock and they are trying to locate it and I would get an update in two days time. Well, after two days the Universal Remote got shipped and I received the product after 12 days of placing the order. My ordeal was still not over as I had to receive the Printer yet. I raised some tickets and after several follow up I was told that the Printer was out of stock with the dealer and the stock would arrive within a week (I later found out that this is the standard answer they provide). When I spoke to them over phone I told them that they have still listed the printer in the website and how they could say now that the printer is out of stock. These people are clueless and told that they are not aware of this. I finally told them to cancel the order and since I bought the product through reward points I wrote a detailed mail to the bank to credit back the reward points.

Couple of days back exactly after a month I received a SMS that my product has been shipped. I received the product in another couple of days time. The main problem with this online shop is that they solely rely on the dealer/distributor for the shipping of the product. Like ebay if the product is not shipped within the timeline the money should automatically be refunded to the account. Too much of follow-up is required to get the product. If India Plaza continues to function this way it is only a matter of time before it folds up. If you people want to shop with this website you need to have patience and should be prepared to wait for a long time for the products to arrive.