Full Disclosure: It takes a really really bad experience for me to get online to write feedback, more so, if it is negative feedback.
To quantify - unless the experience is a -1 or 0 or 10 on a scale of 10 where 10 stands for best, i really don’t to get onto the net to write detailed reviews. So, the writing style below is not likely to have any of that, style i.e.
FINAL PERSONAL VERDICT: BAD EXPERIENCE, STAY AWAY FROM THIS SITE
I was randomly browsing for some ethnic wear over the internet, and ran into this site - eSahiba.com. The pictures on the site, with models showcasing the suits were quite impressive. The prices were exorbitant though, even after the heavy 45% discount, which they seemed to have forever. (I should have paid heed to my instincts here - any business that offers such deep discounts can never be a good thing for the buyer - it is fishy).
I went ahead and placed an order for 8 salwar suits. It was a long day and I guess my instincts weren’t that active, I should have ordered one or two as a first time customer.
From this point on, everything went downhill. It was about a week, and there was no communication about what the status of the order was. (Yes, they don’t have order tracking on their site). One fine night, I managed to get in touch with one of their online chat reps. to enquire about the order. The rep. tells me "there is a little problem with the order as one of the suits is defective". I should have been informed about it before I reached out, considering the order was more than a week old. I ask her the same, and she tells me she was "about to send an email". I was asked to find a replacement suit in its place of the same INR. I didn’t like anything which matched the price, and asked for a refund (by this time, I was beginning to understand the sub-standard processes they had going for them, or should I say not going?). They said they would only refund in store credit, so I had to pick something I didn’t really like as I wanted to forgo the "golden opportunity" of having to do business with them yet again, to burn my store credits.
Well, the order finally showed up after some 18 days or so. 2 of the suits have been conveniently replaced with 2 other suits I hadn’t ordered. I called them up to inform the same only to be told that "our teams double check everything, we sent everything you ordered". After about 10 minutes of persuasion, I got the person to agree to send me the pics of what I had originally ordered (mind you, their site doesn’t let you see the pictures of the items you ordered). Once I received them, I sent the pics of what I had received and asked them to arrange for a reverse pickup for the 2 suits that were wrongly sent and the replacement suit (which was below quality) and put back the refund to my card. I told them that if they can’t ensure that 8 suits are delivered correctly after taking nearly 20 days to deliver an order, I would really like to stay away from their site and not take store credit because I have no intention of doing business again with them.
And this is an excerpt from their response, verbatim:
"...
Refund will not be processed back in credit card. Also in case if you don’t like the suits, we don’t accept returns as you told in the case of replacement suit. We’ve sent the replacement suit that you agreed upon and all the details were clearly mentioned on site about the fabric...
And last but not the least, to stay away from our website is your wish. We’ve tried to serve you better but from the beginning only, you were having problem with our processed and we would like to inform you that we or any company cannot work as per your instructions or wish; they have certain laid policies to follow which they do.
..."
The verdict is still on.
Lessons Learnt: Many