Shopping on Infibeam is a disgusting experience to say the least. Shop once and you’ll know what people here are talking about. It’s hard to escape the fact that the entire infibeam business model is a fraudulent one.
I mostly shop online for books -which is more for assortment and availability of books rather than convenience of purchase. Unfortunately, some of the books I look for were available on Infibeam even though they were out of print (this was before I learnt they stock second hand books purchased from 3rd party vendors and sell them as new to unsuspecting people like us.)
How does Infibeam cheat customers? This is how they go about it:
In many instances, they deceptively offer the lowest price vis-a-vis other online sites. Naturally, the prospective buyers take the bait and buy.
Infibeam paddles-off a damaged book which was almost always used by someone else. I’ve found notes and pencil marks in a couple of books I bought; others were damaged -pages torn, misaligned print, damaged cover pages, photocopy like printed pages. Copies which would normally discarded by publisher are bought by Infibeam, at heavy discounts no doubt.
Once the book arrives you notice that the copy is damaged and want to return it for another copy. But unlike with other online sites the return policy is worst.
First you have to call customer service and conversing with them is a test of patience. Next you’ll be asked to send a photograph of the damaged parts of the book to be "verified" by Infibeam. Once they’re convinced that you (customer) are telling the truth they ask you to repackage the book and courier it to Infibeam office first, before they can send you a so-called new copy. All of which would take about 2 months if everything goes smoothly. Almost always, the replacement copy is just a less damaged copy of the book.
This is not an experience limited to dozen or so books (it’s more). All of this is more of a norm than the exception.
From some time now, neither I nor my friends mind paying the extra bucks for good service and genuine books. It’s the price for not being cheated.
Like many conman and frauds, once they take your money they make procedural difficult to get it back or for you to have recourse. Since the time and effort cost of getting a good copy is a lot more, the customers just grumble and do nothing after a while. Which is exactly what Infibeam guys want!
These guys are outright cheats.