I’ve done internet shopping 100+ number of times on various malls like indiaplaza, futurebazaar, tradus, letsbuy, ebay and etc.But things like this never happened.
I’ve placed an order(No. 903265025) for jaipan juicer worth 1207/-(now it shows 1102/-) on homeshop18 on Apr23rd, using a 400Rs gift voucher bought from https://mydala.com(valid on a minimum amount of 1200/-). After a week, they sent an e-mail mentioning the shipping details with tracking number. Note that this e-mail didn’t have the information about the courier company(in this case it’s firstflight) which is delivering it.
After waiting for a few days, I again checked the status and I found that the item is being returned to the origin, because the destination place doesn’t come under firstflight’s service area. So now the question I’ve to ask is, why did homeshop18 use firstflight to send the item when it doesn’t deliver in the place that I’m sending this item to?
So now I called the homeshop18 CC and explained everything to the person on the otherside. This guy asked me to hold onto the line as he verifies the details and after a while he disconnectes the call. And yes, he didn’t call back. Wow, a first but good indication of their level of Customer service.
Since he didn’t call back, I called them back and this time some other person picked up the call. And again I had to explain everything from start. When I asked for a re-ship of the item, he refused and asked me to place a new order. I asked them how to place the new order again since I had already paid for the item. He said he will cancel the previous order, refund the amount to my credit card and so I can place a new order. When I mentioned that I used a 400/- gift voucher for the previous order and wanted to use it again since he cancelled the previous order, he said he can only give me 200/- gift voucher and if I want a 400/- voucher I can purchase it again from mydala. But I insisted that I get the voucher from them since it’s because of the problem at their end, I didn’t get the item delivered. After arguing a bit, he reluctantly placed a complaint and asked me to call back after 4-5 days to know the status of money and voucher refund.
On the 6th day, I called them back and this time a lady picks up and I had to explain everything again from the start. I gave her the complaint number and she asks me’now what todo?’! Come on! you saw the complaint and you know what’s to be done, but still you are asking me what todo? When I told her that I want refund along with a new gift voucher she told me to hold on and after talking to her supervisor, she told that I will get the refund within 7 days and a new voucher within 3 days! So far so good. The order status still shows as the item is shipped!
On the 2nd day, one guy calls me and tells me that I will get the refund, but not the voucher and asked me to get the voucher from mydala. Since I was in an important meeting, I discussed no further and he told me that he’ll call me after 1 day.
I waited for 1.5 days and when he didn’t call again, I called again to their customer care number and this time, as usual, a different guy picks up the call. I asked them to either re-ship the item or refund the money along with the voucher. After talking to his manager, he places a request to backend department to re-ship the item. When I asked him to not ship using firstflight as it doesn’t have any service in my area, he said backend dept will decide which courier service is best to use for a particular location. When I asked how can I get the item when there is no service, he said me to go and collect at the nearest office to which the item goes before returning to the origin. Wow! Double WoW! WTF? Why can’t you just tell me that you can’t re-ship the item and get me a refund? When I asked the same, I was told that since he already sent a request e-mail, I have to wait until the backend dept decides whether to ship the item or issue a refund. He asked me to call back on monday about the status. Why don’t YOU call me? Everytime I call them, a random person picks up and I’ve to go through the same process again.
These guys have promised me that I will get the money refund(this - they have said in every single call, although they never initiated a refund at all) in 7 days and the voucher in 3 days. Whatever happened to that? Why do these people want to re-ship using firstflight(why not DTDC) when they already know that firstflight doesn’t have delivery service in my town? Is it because I’ve used a gift voucher(which is offered for a cost by none other than homeshop18 through mydala) and they don’t want to lose that 400/-? Or is it because they are downright pathetic in their service and they have this habit of making false promises? I will only know when I call them back on monday.
But I know one thing for sure, if this is your first time shopping on internet, this will be your last time if you do it on homeshop18. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and place that damn order now, you idiot!
Vxxxxxxxxh
Update
Finally I got my refund on last monday and they issued a new GC too. Inspite of this, I still don’t recommend this site to any person who is new to online shopping. It’s too much of a pain to deal with their Customer Care, in case something goes wrong.