Despite the best efforts of e-businesses to promote online buying behavior in India, we can easily see why the efforts fail. Simply due to the unreliability of the online shopping experience. Even the best and the reputed brick-and-mortar businesses fail when it comes to online stores. Take the example of LG Electronics. They have this ok looking website https://lgezbuy.com which they promote in most of their advertising. Now, this website has all their products listed with e-brochures, has the’shopping cart’ option, a web-check-out option and a online payment option. The payment is in association with a third party site called CC Avenues.
They handle the payment gateway mechanism for the site. Now, everything works on the site. Well & good. Where it fails is in delivering the actual goods that you buy online. My personal experience with them started on March 1, 2007. I was searching online for a entry model mobile phone for gifting to my cousin. I came across a LG model B2070. Although it was a bit old a model, I liked the features enough to gift it as an entry level phone. So, I thought of buying it directly from the company website and went through the entire process of adding the item to my shopping cart, check-out & payment. Everything worked smoothly, including the payment debit to my bank account.
Then comes the bad experience, which is unpalatable for any shopper. You cannot talk to any real person - any agent or employee. They have some phone numbers flashing on the home page, but they turned out to be the service centre numbers. The guys who answered the phone in Chennai told me that they havent even heard of buying through lgezbuy.com.no idea what I was talking about. There was a Gurgaon contact number given for all sales queries. Just try calling this number and you will be frustrated.
There is no way you are going to get to talk to anyone. If by chance someone picks up the phone, they will put you on hold and that’s it.you can disconnect and forget it. Then I went through the tall claims in the FAQ section. If you read through the FAQs, you will be forgiven for making the mistake of buying anything on the site. Fancy answers - all of them. Sample this statement in the FAQ section: ".Once you have placed an order with us, either branch or one of the Authorized LG Dealers in your city will get in touch with you. He will confirm when it is convenient for you to receive your LG product. Until your LG product is delivered and you are fully satisfied, we will be at your beck and call!" Hahaha.all rot. I placed the order number 227830 on the site and paid Rs 3300/- on March 1. Until this day, I’ve called the Gurgaon’helpline’ almost once in every 2 days. Nobody answers the phone.
I have emailed askus@lgezbuy.com so many times. No response. This is my personal experience. I do not know if anyone else has made the same mistake and gone through the same trouble. This seems to be the first review on the https://lgezbuy.com. Or it may also be that others have been lucky to get their purchases delivered. In any case, such unreliable online stores result in alienating the online shopper. No wonder that people prefer normal brick-and-mortar shopping. I was more comfortable shopping online. But a recent string of spurious sites like lgezbuy are really discouraging.
Update as on April 24th, 2007:
Dear Reader,
This is to update you on the end-result of the above unpleasant experience in shopping with LGEZBuy.com.
The mobile instrument that I had bought on the lgezbuy.com site on March 1, 2007 was finally delivered to the recipient on April 23rd, 2007. After a number of frustrating attempts to follow-up and not getting any response from LG, I had almost given up hope of ever getting what I bought.
Fortunately, the instrument was delivered after a delay of 7 weeks.
I suggest that the best way to buy a mobile instrument or any of the consumer goods that are sold on the lgezbuy site are at your local dealer. You can at least touch n feel and follow up for timely delivery. Do not buy these things online since the Indian companies have not reached the maturity level needed for running an efficient online business.
Regards,