This is to bring to everybody’s notice that on the morning of 30-Aug-2016, I purchased Apple MacBook Air MMGF2HN/A A1466 Ultrabook online on Flipkart.com. Not realizing that the order has been successfully placed, I mistakenly placed two more orders for the same.
Following are the order numbers:
OD506938674063547000
OD506938688209857000
OD506938702188622000
On realizing my mistake, I cancelled order #2 and #3. Instantly at 10:19 am I received the SMS that the orders have been cancelled and refund has been initiated. I continued with order #1 which was successfully placed and payment approved.
At 16:45, I received another SMS for order #1 that read "Ready to Ship: Apple MacBook Air Core.has been packed by the seller and is ready to be shipped. You will get tracking details once we ship it”.
At 16:58, I received another SMS for order #1 that read "Cancellation: We have received your cancellation request for the order OD506938674063547000. Since the item has already been shipped by the seller, please do not accept the product if delivery is attempted. Check your email of more details". On seeing this message I was shocked as I had not cancelled this order. Quickly I reached out to the customer care and raised my concern. The customer care rep. told me that since order ids were same so one cancellation led to the cancellation of all orders. I confronted him and gave him all the order ids which obviously were different. He then stated that since the delivery address was same for the orders so one cancellation led to the cancellation of all the orders. I again confronted him and told him that I had myself cancelled order #2 and #3 in the morning, how come order #1 get cancelled automatically after a gap of 6 hours when it was ready for despatch. He told me that I need to place a new order to get the product. I quickly checked the product online and found that the price had increased by around Rs. 20, 000.00. I clearly understood that Flipkart has resorted to cheap tactic of canceling my genuine order because they wanted to charge me on the higher price and make further profits. I reverted back to the rep. and told him that the price has increased now and therefore asked him for the same price as of the earlier order. He quickly denied and told me that I can buy the product again at the latest price only and old price was not applicable. I could do nothing but disconnect the call in utter disappointment.
I had started buying online right from the good old days of Letsbuy.com where customer was placed first and his concerns were attended to. Now after consolidations in the online space, companies like Flipkart are using monopolistic position to drive the customers only to make profits and have shunned ethics and integrity in their dealings.
I have been shopping on Flipkart for many years now but this experience has left a bitter experience.