I wanted to buy Readers Digest World Atlas few months back and I decided to search for it online. To my surprise, Readers Digest Online website poped in on top of the Google search results. Since it’s always better to buy such things directly from the Manufacturer, I decided to buy it online from readers digest online https://rd-india.com on 4-Dec-2009.
While I was trying to pay for the Atlas (INR 1500), there payment gateway (ICICI Bank) was down. I then tried calling them on 022-67122622 and the only response I received was that their gateway is down since last few months and if I need to pay for the Atlas, I need to send them my CC details.
Since I had no option but to buy it from them, I emailed them my CC details (most risky). After 72 hours, I received an email from their end stating that they acknowledge my payment and will ship the product within 2-3 weeks. It’s been over 3 months today and I’ve still not received my World Atlas for which payment was taken out of my CC last year.
Every time I called them up, they used to give me a AR No. and asked me to wait for few more weeks. All I did for last 3 months was WAIT. According to them they have shipped the product via Indian Post (Which in itself is a complex organisation). In this current market, one should not be allowed to wait for more than 1 week for a simple delivery of a book, but our friends over here expect us to wait for few weeks resulting into months now. After spending several hours on the phone and emails, they finally decided to ship the product by courier (Professional Couriers) last week. Till date, they haven’t been able to provide me with any Tracking No of any sort. For me, this has been one of the most disappointing buying experience from Readers Digest. I would never recommend buying things via email / online from them.
If at all you need a world Atlas of Readers Digest only, I would recommend Amazon.com or Ebay.com, at least they deliver it on time.