Thieves in Suits. Review on Indiatimes

Indiatimes.com

One of the most biggest names in the dot com world which has a strong backing of The times of India group. This is a multi purpose site which covers everything from news to chat to email service to mobile phone ringtone downloads to shopping. That it has survived and is growing by leap and bounds shows that the Times Group has tremendous faith in it.

Indiatimes ? Thieves in Suits

I am member of Indiatimes since 1999. I have no issues against their email service (despite the fact that even after blocking I get tons of junk emails). I have no issues against their chatting or news service. I have big time issues with their shopping service.

Now there are 2 options to shop. You can shop online or call their universal number 9622334455 from any of the major cities and place the order. I never shop from indiatimes (and from what I have just gone through, I never will).

On 10/02/2005, there was a small advertisement in the Bombay Times (a daily supplement which comes with The Times Of India in Bombay) which read that you can place an order for a boquet of flowers, cake and a greeting card to be delivered on 14/02/05(Valentine?s day) for Rs 599.

Although, slightly expensive, I found the deal fair enough, considering the fact that I am suffering from hepatitis ? e, Jaundice and didn?t have the strength to buy a gift for my loved one and give it to her personally. I ordered the stuff, was given an order ID and was told that someone would call me the next day and take the credit card details. Fair enough.

After all this, on Sunday, 13/02/05, I got a call at 20:00 and the person said that he is standing outside the shipping address and wanted to know which floor was the good to be delivered. I told him to come the next day for 2 reasons

1) I, specifically wanted the stuff to be delivered on the 14/02/05 and was even given an assurance that it will be done only on that date and not before that.

2) The place where it was supposed to be delivered is an Office and offices are shut on Sundays.

The person told me that it will be done on the next day. Its 15/02/05 today. The gift, which has now lost its importance, has still not been delivered. 5 phone calls to indiatimes and an email have just someone telling me that ? I have launched a complaint and a reminder on the highest priority and someone will definitely get back to me on this.? When I told the person that forget the fact that you guys have goofed up, it?s a perishable item.

I definitely do not want dead roses and stale cake to be delivered. That person told me to call up 9622334455 at once if that?s the case and they will arrange for a repalacement. Good on that. But the issue is that the stuff has STILL NOT BEEN delivered. They said they cant reverse the charges which means Rs 599 have gone down the drain.

The person who this gift was for is very very very angry at me but she has still forgiven me (god bless her) as I am not keeping in the best of health. She had warned me not to purchase any gifts from indiatimes as it has very bad reviews. I thought, surely they cant goof up on something simple like this, but I was totally wrong. I have written to the consumer guidance society of India and now I am waiting for the response.

Conclusion

Please do not buy anything from this site. If you want to buy something, I suggest go to a store and pick it up yourself. Most of this online sites in India are nothing but big hoax. I have bought stuff from rediff.com, fabmart.com etc and haven?t got any problems but from now on, taking the above case as a learning curve in my life, I will never purchase anything online, specially from indiatimes.