EDIT: I wrote a scathing review last year. But my credit card is tied to payback loyalty and I tried the redemption again a couple of days back(Aug 2015). This time I ordered two items, one for myself and other for my brother who stays in a different city. Both the items were delivered fast without any hassle. Both the items were in perfect condition and were great. What a wonderful surprise! We usually come here and vent out our anger when a company does bad, but rarely we come back and write good things when they show an improvement. Payback has redeemed itself in my eyes. I was skeptic and disliked payback after my earlier experience, but now I am happy with them. Good improvement Payback Team, I hope you continue to serve likewise and make your customers happy.
My earlier review published in Mar 2014 is below
Title: I’ll keep it simple - "Payback is crap!"
I dont know at what inauspicious moment I enrolled myself for the payback rewards for my credit card. I kept piling my reward points to get something fancy. After some time to my shock, some of my points were depleted. Seems the points have a restricted life cycle and should be used before that. Otherwise they just expire. Okay, I thought, my mistake for not reading the fine print disclosures.
2 months back, in order for my points not to lapse, I used the points to order something. I was not at home and my mother took the parcel delivered by Blue Dart. The Blue Dart guy promptly asked her to pay up the octroi and service tax. Thinking that its important parcel for me, she paid up. I realized it only when I came back and inquired about the same to payback. They said octroi and service tax are prepaid and I should refuse delivery. But since my mom had taken the delivery, payback customer support asked me to send the scan copies of the receipts so that they can credit the amount back to me.
This is where the problem started. The email address given to me by payback apparently does not accept image files. Maybe they have some filters. So I asked for another email id. But all I got was the standard robot response. I kept trying and seemed that I finally was able to send the scan copies. After waiting for a week, I asked for status update. All I got was an email from their customer service personnel Shankar Ghosh that they have escalated my issue to the concerned team. Again wait for some 10 odd days. Again status update. Again exact same(verbatim) mail from Shankar Ghosh. And the cycle repeats.
So I give up, I have decided to UN-enroll my credit card from Payback. Told my family and friends and also sent a note to my corporate office. Sent a mail to the bank to do the needful. I dont understand why the banks have tie ups with such God awful partners!