Very Old, Defective, Unsealed Television delivered. Review on Snapdeal

Ordered Toshiba LED Television 32PT200 from snapdeal.com. Seller being Channel Four Agencies / 4A Agency. The product was delivered after some delay, though the product delivered is 32PT200ZE instead. Upon receiving the product, the following was observed:

I) Manufacturing date is October 2012. Needless to say this is an extremely old product(1 year and 2 months old), esp. considering its an electronics item it is to be considered extremely old and totally unacceptable in itself; and raises various questions about the product and seller.

II) Box is not manufacturer sealed. Upon observing inside the box itself, and the contents and packing, packing material, etc., it is absolutely certain that a sealed product has not been delivered. The box has been opened from below, to make it less conspicuous. The large metal clips/staples are missing, and their holes can clearly be seen on both ends of the box(see picture of one end). Another transparent tape has been applied carefully over the original one(which has been cleanly cut), to conceal the fact that it has been opened. So it is certain that a sealed product has not been delivered, which is in itself not acceptable.

III) The sound is defective. It is barely audible even at max volume. And whatever is audible has very poor clarity. Hence the sound system is positively defective.

IV) Picture quality is also defective. Please note that it has been correctly checked not just by us but also by Toshiba Authorized Service.

Every single point listed above is in itself unacceptable. Here we have all of 4!

These issues was reported to SD Customer Care and SD's Twitter presence on the first day itself.

We have had Toshiba Authorised Center check out the set and they have confirmed that both sound and picture are defective. We have a copy of the report and a scanned copy of the same has already been sent to Snapdeal. Photos showing opened seal and manufacturing date have also been sent to Snapdeal. Still, no response has been forthcoming.

Please note that Toshiba says they can only attempt to repair the set but they cannot even guarantee that it can be repaired. They say we need to contact the seller for replacement as per their company policy. Needless to say questionable repairs of brand new(supposedly!) product which is defective right out of the box, is NOT an acceptable solution by any angle whatsoever. Further, the fact that it is such an old product and has been tampered with, is itself not acceptable, as the life and quality of the product is very much in question.

Considering all these points, it is very likely that this TV may have been used as a demo set in a showroom which means it may has already been used for hundred hours before shipping it out to us. I now understand that this is a common tactic used by unscrupulous dealers, both online and offline. Other possibility is that this defective set has been returned by a previous customer and has been repacked and shipped to us.

The fact that this is a very popular model and in high demand(due to its price, performance, specifications and warranty duration), it is very difficult to conceive how a dealer/seller can have 1 year and 2 month old TV in stock, unless it is a defective/demo set.

This is the first time we trusted Snapdeal for a high value online purchase to have this extremely unpleasant experience. We urgently require a new TV not just for entertainment, but also for business; and Snapdeal has ruined the whole experience and it is causing much inconvenience while there has been no response/resolution by their customer care.

We were on the verge of placing orders for laptops, clocks and few other items, but now we have no confidence at all for doing so.

We sincerely and strongly request Snapdeal to take back this ancient, unsealed and defective TV and either deliver a unused, non-defective and manufacturer sealed product of recent manufacturing date ASAP or refund the amount paid. Even if it is done, it is hardly compensation for this kind of experience and inconvenience caused by absence of the product and the time needed to follow this up with Snapdeal's unresponsive customer care.

Unless this issue is resolved very soon, we have no option but to resort to other means of redressal and also further publicize this very unpleasant experience through every media.

Order no.: 1453559018