Aug 25, 2010 08:42 PM
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Over the last few days, I have been reading a number of reviews about how portals and courier agencies messed up the Rakhi delivery for many MSians. How I wish these reviews could have come before, so I would have been saved of a similar bad experience!!
My daughter wanted to send a Rakhi to her cousin brother in Mumbai and I had a rakhi ready to be sent by post/courier. But I came across an offer on snapdeal.com. The offer was from itasveer.com -a online photo/gift portal. The offer was to design a photo rakhi, where we could put a photo of brother and sister on the rakhi and get it sent by courier to the address of our choice. The original offer from itasveer was for Rs.135, but snapdeal was giving this offer for Rs.75/- which definitely seemed like value for money!
So, I decided to take the plunge - one, because the concept was unique and exciting and two, the amount involved was small. I have had various online shopping experiences through various portals, and so far my experiences were good. So I paid the amount at snapdeal.com and used the voucher number at itasveer to complete the deal (at 0 cost, since I had paid Rs.75/- to snapdeal).
I spent a lot of time and effort to select a picture of my daughter and her cousin, did some photo editing using my favourite Photoimpression software. Finally, the transaction was completed on 19th evening and I was hoping that the rakhi would be delivered atleast by Sunday. But then I found out that as on Sunday, the rakhi was not delivered! I logged in to itasveer and checked the status - and surprisingly it said shipped!!
I thought there must be some mistake and sent a mail (for which I got no response). But on Monday, with a day to go for Rakshabandhan, I realised that there was something wrong. Logged in to itasveer again and it still said shipped and gave a link to Aramex couriers website - the truth was out there, the status was shipped, but not delivered (only God knows what that means!). The tracking sheet there revealed that the courier reached Mumbai on 20th and was taken out for delivery on 21st, and for 3 days it was hanging in limbo.
I sent a strong mail to itasveer and got a response for its owner (who is btw a MSian) apologising and promising to credit Rs.150 to my account instead! But he gave a surprising story that "delays in couriers do happen, it is not in my control" - that was something really irritating to me! Once you commit to deliver a product, as a customer I don't care whether you send by courier/post or personally deliver it - I want my product to reach on time!! So the rakhi story ended in a fiasco, with the rakhi not delivered, my purse lesser by 75/- and a bitter experience to boot.
Even as on today,7 days after the order was placed, the courier status is still 'out for delivery' - looks like the courier guys have stolen the rakhi or they are planning to deliver next year!! Atleast after I lodged my complaint itasveer could have followed up with the courier agency to ensure delivery, but the owner had already accepted that the courier will not be delivered!
Both snapdeal and itasveer apologised profusely, and snapdeal even promised to return my Rs.75/- but nothing has happened so far. I wonder how many such rakhis would have been undelivered and how many brothers and sisters left disappointed!
With such a poor experience and a shocking explanation for non-delivery, I am definitely not going to use itasveer again, nor will I recommend it to anyone. The portal looked really attractive and had so many interesting features - I was really excited when I registered, but now I am thoroughly disappointed!
So my online rakhi experience ended in a fiasco, thanks to the callousness of itasveer.
