I proceeded to purchase a merchandise on Shopping.Indiatimes.com and had successfully made the payments via my credit card. I was awaiting delivery when I got an email from Indiatimes stating that the order has been cancelled and that refund of the transaction amount would be made in gift vouchers of equivalent value.
Hapless, I called their customer service only to hear an adamant lady suggesting that the order was cancelled due to non-availabilty of the said merchandise and that I need to write my request of refund(by way of transaction reversal on credit card) on an email which will be replied( Note -not resolved!) in 72 hours.
I wrote to the given email address only to have a reply from them that its in the policy to process cancellation refunds less than Rs.2000 by way of gift certificates.
This to me is cheating!
1) Indiatimes is advertising for merchandise which they do not maintain in stock
2) Innocent buyers opt for these merchandise and make a payment
3) Indiatimes promply send the feedback that the order has been cancelled( without citing any reason!) and that they will arrange a refund by way of gift cheques.
4) Now that the buyers money is confiscated, he has no choice but to use the gift cheque for any purchase on Indiatimes which he doesn’t desire( Just to get some value for the lost money!)
I would have happily agreed to take a gift certificate refund had the cancellation been reaquested by me.
Indiatimes should keep an inventory of merchandise available with them and should refrain from advertising those that aren’t in stock.
If for any reason they cancel the order, its their moral responsibility to refund the money in the way the buyer desires who stands to be a loser at the end, losing both the money and the wasted time for the process of ordering and getting a refusal intimation.
I pray that people are careful in their purchases with unethical shopping sites like Indiatimes shopping.