I had ordered some books from Indiaplaza.in about a year back and had nothing to complain about in terms of price or delivery time. Later I read about the horror stories of other customers on
Mouthshut.com
and promptly unsubscribed their newsletter.
Last week while searching for a book online, I again stumbled across Indiaplaza.in and given my past experience and their recent tie-up with
The Hindu, I decided to take a chance. I had almost put through my order when I noticed that they were offering an annual book club membership costing Rs. 500/- that not only offered higher discounts but also a book worth up to Rs. 500/-. That sounded like a good deal given that I buy books regula
rly, and thus applied for a membership. I expected the membership details to be emailed to me within minutes so that I could place the order for the books.
Unfortunately, there was no email from Indiaplaza.in even to confirm my order. This was on the 17th of October and on not hearing from them I called up their customer service on 22nd (no one answered the phone on my first two tries) only to be told in a sad voice that my order is "ready to be shipped"! When asked why would a simple membership take so long to be shipped, the lady kept parroting the same "it is ready to be shipped and you’ll receive it in 7 days". On further insistence for some saner answer, I was told that staff are on leave so they can’t help it!!! Can you believe this? Am I allowed to call them idiots? And in the same breath call myself an idiot too ... for ignoring the advice of fellow customers on
Mouthshut?
Till date, after a full week of placing the order, the status is still ready to be shipped! All I can do now is pray.
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UPDATE:After waiting for another week, I called Indiaplaza.in CustomerCare again and i was told that my Book Club membership was activated though I did not receive any confirmation of the same. On further email requests I was sent the Rs. 500 Gift Coupon code by email which I promptly used to buy two books and paid the balance by Credit Card. A few days later I received emails from them to inform me that neither of the books could be procured by them (though these are common titles and are listed on their website as available) thus they are refunding the whole money
to my Gift Coupon!!!So now they are holding me ransom with not only the Rs. 500 I paid for the Book Club Membership but also the cash that i paid for the books. On requesting cancellation of the membership and refund of the money they told me it cannot be done.
PLEASE DO NOT DEAL WITH INDIAPLAZA.IN if you care for your hard earned money. They are a bunch of scamsters fooling people with spurious offers. God only knows how The Hindu has tied up with them for shopping!!!