Before reading my review, please take a moment to check my other reviews. The fact that I almost never use harsh language for any company and try to give them as much benefit of doubt as possible will be quite evident in my other reviews. But not homeshop, they really deserve no mercy.
My Question to the daily TV viewer:
Have you finally fallen victim to hS18’s aggressive sale tactics? Do you feel your resolve wavering and constantly wonder "maybe ..just once.. I should order from them"? Hold that thought right there.
I have come to drag your soul back from the dark world of television shopping. If you want to make good use of your money, please consider making bonfire out of it and dancing around it instead of wasting it on scum like homeshop. Even that will be a better use of your hard earned money than providing even a single penny of support to such a pathetic company. We as buyers need to unite against such shameful excuse of "shopping portals" like homeshop to tell them where they stand in front of a customer. After all we are the ones who give them business and the moment such companies take that basic fact for granted we need to stand up.
Modus Operandi
HS18 relies heavily on its shopping channel to dupe new, unsuspecting buyers to keep up with their sales. In a country like India with over 1.241 billion potential one time customers, HS18 has effectively realized there is no need for returning customers to keep a company running. After all, if that was not the case we wouldn’t have channels like telebrands still running. HS18 is the "desi" version of telebrands, albeit with original products for a change because they need to make more profits to keep all their propaganda running and pay for better models to lure in even more one time customers and fill their pockets. The few loyal customers of HS18 are the ones who have been lucky enough to not run into trouble with the company "yet"; eventually truth shall come out.
Products
Notice how HS18 keeps introducing all these new or not so famous brands and create so much hype about them? Their tv host is practically excited enough to slap you silly for not knowing "HOW BIG" their brand is and how it’s best selling in so and so country while you never even heard of it and net search results aren’t that impressive either. Well, that’s where the profit comes from. Sure they enlist branded goods on their site too, but they majorly focus on selling brands with higher margins. I’ve personally had the misfortune of ordering items of these so called "big brands" on more than one occasion and all I can say is I’m proud of myself for maintaining enough composure to not throw them out on the road out of rage when I realized what cheap quality items they were.
Returns and Refunds
There is no concept of returns on HS18 unlike MOST online sites. Products will be returned in case of manufacturing defects only, provided you can prove it. (ha.ha.ha. I’m sure you already know where this will lead to.) If by some miracle you DO manage to return a product, the refund process is going to make you wish you were dead. Don’t believe me? I purchased items worth 1500 on 12th February; it took me one month and at least 9 separate tickets, over 20 heated phone calls to get the products returned. On top of it they split the refund check in 3 different parts, one for each item. Constant chasing, endless new tickets and phone calls later by first week of June..
YES JUNE 2013 I finally managed to get my third and final refund cheque. I literally felt like I had won a world war; but my happiness was short lived because the bank that handles HS18’s cheques (Yes Bank) rejected the cheque. When I checked with my bank (HDFC) they said problem was not from my or my bank’s end and they had forwarded the cheque to Yes Bank after processing and they aren’t really sure why it was returned so I need to contact HS18. Again several calls and couple of tickets later I was finally given resolution to order something from shop of equal value and HS18 will pay for it.
Today when I called to order the item they told me I need to purchase it first THEN they will send a refund cheque again (which was not what they initially agreed to); by this time I had lost all my cool but I did nothing except calling again and again until I get one sensible executive who can file a proper request. Finally one of the executives managed to order the item for me. Point being, as of today 29th June 2013 I am STILL WAITING for refund/settlement of money I paid in cash to HS18 on 12th February 2013! If that doesn’t send you off running in opposite direction of Hs18, I don’t know what will. This is not about money, I could have very well forgotten about the whole case since it wasn’t a big amount but why should I? Why should I let companies like this steal even a penny of my hard earned money?
Customer Care
If you have read my review (or any review for that matter) on Airtel customer Care, you’ll understand how big an insult it will be for any customer care if I compare them to Airtel. But homeshop’s customer care is exactly just that, they’re brothers with Airtel in terms of bad customer treatment. In fact these days I often wonder if homeshop might even beat Airtel to gain the top spot in "Worst example of customer care in India". I’ve discovered with proof agents of HS18 CC do not shy away from lying, cheating and deceiving their customers. Some examples of things I’ve personally faced that are big NO-NO in any customer centric company.
- Telling you they have logged their complaint while they haven’t done so:
I’ve rechecked this multiple times when I logged a complaint over phone and when I called next day no such complaint was EVER made. It happened with me enough times to make me realize some CC agents do this deliberately to mislead customer complaints.Solution to this: ALWAYS insist on getting the request/complaint id. If you do not get an sms of complaint no. after few minutes of call being disconnected call again and log the complaint again. Or file an online complaint.
- Giving you a response/solution then deviating from it:
So you thought you’re going to be a Smart Alec and file written complaint? Worry not, HS18 can handle the pressure. Their executives will ALWAYS call you on phone and their written response on the complaint (if they reply at all) will either not be what you were told or will omit majority of the details and the things promised to you; basically ensuring that there is no written record of the conversation and later on they deviate from their statements and customer has no way to prove what the actual conversation was. Solution: Insist to the person who has called you all the points agreed on resolution must be posted in your ticket so you can see it. If they refuse, keep chasing them for it until they do it.
- Lack of basic communication Etiquette:
Most CC agents do not understand their role as the "representative" of company and react personally to customer’s mood. If you’re angry at the company, they’ll get angry at you too. They do not understand how to talk to a customer, they talk to you like a stranger on road they can use any kind of tone with. You are upset that your product didn’t reach on time? They don’t care, in fact their annoyance with the costumer shows quite evidently in the kind of tone they use; It’s quite appalling really.
Like I explained above in "refund" section, one executive was able to do what previous executive had told me wasn’t doable. This happens often that every time you call HS18 you get a different person and different response. It appears that many agents are either not well trained or aren’t themselves aware what they can or can not do. They themselves have very low clarity on company policies and almost zero problem resolving approach.
My personal history with HS18
I’ve ordered many big and small items from this company over the time and have been closing following them both on TV and online for years, so it’s not like I’m a one time customer venting off. I could write a lot more about this company but I think everything above sums up more than enough reasons for buyers to be cautious. The only reason I’ve even bothered to write this huge review is to warn others and hopefully they won’t have to endure what I had to (and the ordeal is still ongoing until I get my settlement after that I WILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM HOMESHOP EVER AGAIN.)
It is my sincere appeal to readers that if you can avoid this site altogether that’s the best thing to do but if you really must order something from then please be extremely cautious because their after sales support is a nightmare to say the least. Please forget about this company altogether if you want:
To keep your sanity intact
peace of mind
to buy products that require any kind of after sales interaction
to buy from a company that is trustworthy
value for your money. Any discount they give you will come back to haunt you ten times over if you run into any issues with your purchase.
Do I recommend HS18 to anyone? : absolutely one hundred percent BIG FAT NO.