I wanted to order a phone for my father as a surprise while I want to use vouchers from redeeming my credit card points on HDFC regalia card. I decided to go get the phone from Croma website as I have purchased many things in the past from Croma(not online though) I trusted that brand. I’m such an idiot to do that, You’ll know why Read it full.
I sit away from the country while ordering this and planning all surprise. I went ahead in croma website, created an account for myself, selected a phone Vivo Y31, entered all the vouchers and made payment using my credit card. TADA! No email confirmation, No order in the account, nothing but "Thank you for your order" screen.
So many calls and so many emails after that - our typical call center experience.
This all happened on Feb 3rd the customer care couldn’t track my order and processing the refund. They also confirmed that I can reuse the vouchers since the order was not placed(I have emails). Today it’s the 9th of Feb and I haven’t got my refund to my credit card yet. The story didn’t end here.
Today(9th Feb) my sister had to visit a Croma store in Chennai in our desperate effort to use the voucher from Croma+ I still trusted the brand. Immediately after entering the store she asked the person to please check these vouchers on the system and wanted to purchase the phone only if it works yet.(we didn’t want to double use the vouchers and make sure we got our voucher money back). The in store person clearly said it works after pretending to be checking on the system(which we figured out only later).
Phone selected - went for billing - made a GPay payment - entered the coupon TADA! Coupon didn’t work.
After showing the confirmation email from the customer care team, showing all transactions from the customer care, nothing worked. The instore person still pretended that my sister never asked her to check - Give that lady a bharata ratna award!
Now the best part - the reply from the in store team - "The customer care team will say something like this madam, we cannot take responsibility of what they say. Also we cannot contact them to resolve this issue. You’ll get your refund in 2 days" - AM I A JOKE?
It’d be more agreeable had the team said - "Amazon will say something madam, we cannot take responsibility of what they say" - Forget about the call center, BLOODY YOU ARE ALL CROMA! YOU WORK FOR ONE COMPANY!
After a lot of arguments and agony we got the cash refund.
Surprisingly, I had used vouchers from croma in the past. But the difference that time was - CROMA cared for me. I’m sure this time the vouchers are to be thrown in the dust bin. After what we heard from the team looks like the vouchers are scam.
No wonder why People are moving away to Amazon. I still wanted to buy from India’s TATA brand, But the brand put me down deep under.