Snapdeal is no doubt a leader in online shopping. I would like to summarize a few points regarding my usage of Snapdeal over the past few months.
Good things first.
1) The web pages are fast loading
2) Search is more precise and narrows down quickly to whatever you are looking for.
3) There is not much wait to reach the customer service when in need
4) Not much cruising through a mesh of numbers to punch in the IVR.
However, there are a few shortcoming with respect to this service that they need to address.
1) Unlike Flipkart which has an elegant pickup while delivery they have a botched up process by having a tie-up with a non-standard recycling organization called Re-Globe. They have a totally disintegrated pickup wherein you need to make an order first and then use the order id into Re-Globe page for placing a pickup request.
Again the precise refund value would be known only after Re-Globe completes receiving the packet and assesses the same. Furthermore Re-Globe does not have an exhaustive exchange offers. Even when requested you would just get a canned response from their customer service as the specified product is not supported(which is visible from the website itself).
I am not sure if someone has successfully used Re-Globe to exchange their used goods.
2) The delivery speed needs to be improved. The amount of time taken for the merchandise to leave Snapdeal warehouse to the shipping company is rather very large compared to Flipkart.
3) The delivery tracking is rather very slow. At times the courier which Snapdeal uses would have completed delivery but Snapdeal delivery would be clinging to the status ’Shipped.’
4) The responses from customer service for even simple queries takes several days to respond.
A latest update. Prepaid deliveries from Snapdeal is sent via third-rated couriers like Firstflight. I have one item where First flight has returned the item back to Snapdeal and even after the refund has been initiated, First flight is busy updating the website with fake statuses like ’Pending Internal Misroute’, ’Pending Branch Misroute’ etc (twenty days after shipment). Neither does Snapdeal does not have a control on the courier company too nor a good coordination with them.
But for the shortcomings, Snapdeal is a good online mall.