It was my son’s birthday on 27th of June 2010. A week before, I placed an online order for a birthday cake, Black forest weighing 4.4. Pounds, with indiaflorists.com through their online access and paid for it along with delivery charges through credit card.
To my surprise I observed debit for 2 cakes. I contacted their number which was picked up in Kolkata. They apologized and promptly refunded me cost of one cake. I really appreciate their promptness in this regard.
My issue is with the delivery of the cake itself. I had requested for delivery at 11 AM. For this they replied they do not guarantee delivery time but would endeavor to do it within the timeline.
On 27th May, the birthday, as the cake did not reach even until 4PM IST, I started calling Kolkata. To my surprise they demanded another RS.230 as delivery charges. Being upset by then, I insisted "you had collected delivery charges and I would not pay any more". A while later, they called me back in Riyadh and confirmed they would deliver without any additional charges.
Till 7 PM no trace of the cake or delivery. The function was over by 6.30 PM and everybody left. At 7.05PM someone came on a motor cycle, delivered a plain looking SPUNCH cake without even the birthday greetings. Upon enquiry to the delivery man; he confirmed it was picked up from a local bakery in my town. In fact, I assume, the local agency had called someone who was returning home after work and asked him to pick up a cake and deliver. He had no clue about the quality of the cake.
Instead of the 4.4 lbs black-forest cake with birthday greetings, a spunch cake, weighing 1 KG, was delivered. The weight was not the issue. Obviously, we threw it into the trash. I took up the matter with their Kolkata office through mails and phone call and was told that according to the delivery schedule, they had delivered the order. They can do nothing further about it. If you have complaint, please send a piece of cake to examine.
I left it there, thinking I learned a valuable lesson and spoiled my son’s this birthday, at a very high cost.
My advice to people, Pl be careful to deal with reputed online stores because I never had this kind of an experience before in my online transactions.
What I felt agitated is in their lack of empathy in asking my family to give them a piece of the cake after 3 days.