Scams in the making......... taking customers for a ride.
This festive season lot of ‘noise’ is being created by eCommerce companies in India, but at a cost to consumers.
In a bid to outdo each other these companies are willing to do anything. They promote themselves showing rock-bottom prices of products on their platform and take bookings but do not deliver. FLIPKART’s “I am sorry post-campaign” is known to us all. So it’s all turning out to be a ‘noise pollution’ by such companies this Diwali.
I paid online and placed an order on SNAPDEAL.COM for a Crompton Greaves Geyser at Rs 7000 on 4th October and kept getting assurances from the company that it would be delivered in 2-3 days but on 15th Oct I was told that my Order was cancelled as they were unable to deliver at that low price and that the amount would be refunded in another 10 days time to my Credit Card account (companies emails attached).
As per your article in ET, SNAPDEAL has close to 25 million users. Even if they use 5% of their users’ money (1.25 Million users) at an average of Rs 5000 they make use of Rs 625 Crores of consumers’ money in a month. At 1% interest rate it is around Rs6.25 Crores a month without even selling anything. This is a sophisticated way of looting the consumers without even their knowledge. The consumers lose out not only on interest but also on an opportunity to buy at lower price during a festive promotional period. Incidentally, I escalated the matter to Mr Kunal Bahl (CEO) and Mr Rohit Bansal (COO)of Snapdeal through their personal email IDs, with no response.
On 10th October, 2014 Amazon.in advertised full page in leading newspapers quoting price of Philips Air Fryer at Rs 8999 while the same day their website was selling it for Rs 10699. When escalated the matter to their Customer Care during an Online Chat (copy attached), I was told that I would have to pay website listed price of Rs 10699, even though they advertised the product for Rs 8999. It is ’amazing’ to see global players like AMAZON also taking Indian consumers for a ride.
In no country the customers are treated like this. Indians are taken for a ride. Times are changing and as consumers / customers we need to show are strength. We have other online/offline options to buy from. Let’s not buy from these platforms. Traditional India is known for social boycotts. Why can’t we boycott those who cheat on us. If we can vote to clean Indian polity why not chose to clean these marketers who misrepresent and take us for a ride.