Ref: Order Id 3274379131 for Borosil Gourmet Baby Bowls and Order Id 3432574533 for claycraft bonechina mugs.
First I received a damaged lid in the borosil order. I immediately alerted them about it on phone. They took down the complaint and asked me to send images for the damaged item. I did that from my phone(and unknowingly sent it from an email id that was not registered with them; still I provided the order details, so it could have been easily traced to my account), Anyways I call up after 3-4 days and they say they haven’t received images and I should send it from my email id registered with them. I did that though I felt they should have not waited for me to call and inquire to tell me that. Again I call up after a couple of days and they say they have the images but now they need images of invoice and packing material too. Again I felt they should have initiated the communication if they found my response lacking and not waited for me to ask them the status. Anyways I did what was requested. After a few days I again call and they tell me they cannot arrange a reverse pickup and I should arrange to courier it on my own and I will be reimbursed the courier charges as SD Cash. That was ridiculous - but I still did the spadework of calling up various courier companies - most of whom refused to carry back fragile glass items. Blue dart agreed to do that but at a charge applicable to 10kg items. The charge was higher than cost of the item. I called up snapdeal and informed them whether it was okay to send it back at that cost. They said they would revert but didn’t.
In the meanwhile I received delivery of another item from snapdeal - claycraft fine bone china mugs on the buy 1 get 1 free offer. The items were described as having capacity of 200ml, but in fact held not a drop more than 110ml. Under other circumstances I would have kept back the product, but I was extremely upset at how they were handling my previous reverse pick-up, so on grounds of principle I asked them to take back even these mugs. 100ml mugs were of no use to me in my household.
I complained to them on phone. I get the usual pacification response from customer service that they will arrange pickup. Two days later I get an email saying send us images of the mugs. Hello! These are not damaged - the product capacity cannot be measured in a photo. I call up customer care and explain the ridiculousness of asking for photos of mugs - they can check it at their end if I am lying. She apologizes and says they will revert with details of pick up or if I should arrange to send it.
No reply from them still. Finally now I am calling up everyday - waiting through the 5-10 minute wait on helpline and explaining the above only to get a simiar’we will surely get back to you response’. Today I received an sms asking me for the AWB number to enable them to track the courier of items sent back! I call up to remind I am still awaiting confirmation from them if I should send it at higher courier cost or they will arrange the reverse pickup via their courier partners.
AND THEN THE FINAL STRAW - I am told that they cannot reimburse a higher courier cost -(cost higher than cost of product) and I should figure out a way to send via speed post. Speed post - means hassle of going through the pain of post-office regulations. That too the post office is open during office timings. So I have to miss office to do that. I agreed but I told customer care to confirm to me in writing that if speedpost breaks those items, I will not be held responsible for it - and my refund will still be in full. He could not assure me that. Then I said let me send by courier - to which he said they will not reimburse higher courier cost.
So what am I to do?
Is this professional coordinated ethical corporate behavior? I wonder what I will be told when I call up customer care tomorrow!
I am stuck with 12 mugs of 100ml capacity and 1 and half borosil bowl(one lid broken). Total cost - Rs.1000.
I can let go of Rs.1000 - no problem with that. I’ll think of it as bad investment. But I want to know if I can trust this company to do the right thing. If it does I will continue dealing with them - if not, its goodbye to another online company. I have dealt with snapdeal in the past and never had such a huge communication problem. Also to be fair to them, the other items in the order are good. But can I trust them with their’Trust pay guarantee’ word for high value items in future which do not end up as expected. Time will tell!
I’ll keep you all updated of how things go forward. I have already wasted a whole lot of time and patience over the last two weeks trying to resolve the issue. I am nearing the end of my patience now. Writing this review to forewarn users.
Update - Nov 17th
(see my response to Snapdeal below in comments)