Use snapdeal only after learning their way of working described below.
Order with full payment for monitor was placed on 13th.
On 14th, it was found that the item is available at 10% lower rate.
Discussed with snapdeal call centre &, as advised, to avail 10% lower rate, order was cancelled & new order placed. Site generated a reference number for this initiated action.
Information on cancellation of order did not reached to seller & monitor was shipped by seller on 16th evening using Gati Courier & reached to me on 19th afternoon.
Meanwhile, no movement on the status of new order was observed till 21st afternoon( 13:52 hrs) .
On 19th evening, Gati courier advised to hold opening of the box because, as informed by snapdeal to courier, the monitor may be required to be returned.
On 20th called snapdeal call centre to discuss the issue. As advised, I modified the old order to return the monitor. Site generated a reference number for this initiated action.
On 21st, call received from snapdeal call centre at 12:30 hrs. As per snapdeal, since material was not defective they can not give refund of the cancelled order. Convinced the lady(giving the time & reference no. of cancellation) that old order was cancelled before dispatch was initiated. After conviction, lady advised that the monitor lying with me will be collected by courier & one more monitor against pending second order will be received by me by 28th.
To my surprise, At 13:52 hrs, I received a mail from snapdeal that against second order your monitor is delivered. Hence, as per snapdeal system, I have received monitors against both the orders which was not the case. Only one monitor was lying with me. I assume that snapdeal is regularizing both the orders & I will get clearance to open up the box shortly.
At 15:00 hrs, call received from snapdeal that they have accepted a return request & initiated a return process. While enquiring about wrong delivery confirmation of my second order, I was advised that the dispatch related issues are handled by some other dept. & hence, register a complain to reach them. I did register a complain. Mail confirming the start of return process was received by me on at around 17:30 hrs. To my surprise, the courier was changed & destination of product was also changed. A good new monitor started from Bhiwandi, Maharashtra was directed to reach Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Reason only snapdeal know.
On 22nd morning, I observed at snapdeal site that the monitor of second order started moving & left Bhiwandi. My complain worked. In the afternoon, new courier collected monitor from my residence. On 23rd 17:23 hrs I received a mail from Snapdeal that our refund request is successful. Rememeber snapdeal takes 4 business days to credit refund in your account after successful return request. My account got credited with refund on 27th.
I received a new monitor against new order on 26th evening after placing a order on 14th.
To summarize: 1) I could use monitor after a delay of one full week only because snapdeal do not have business process to pass on to the customer a best deal.
1) The route cause of problem was, snapdeal system do not inform seller about the status of order in real time & allow dispatch of material of cancelled order. 2) In a answer to my followup(as soon as status of cancelled order showed status as “shipped “), snapdeal advised that they will clear the matter in 48 hours. Snapdeal system could not correct the situation & communicate to seller in 48 hrs. Snapdeal fail to act in manual mode also. 3) Return/reject dept of snapdeal do not talk to dispatch department. They could have completed both the return & dispatch process in the system, inform me to start using the monitor & initiate the refund without physical movement of the monitor. Due to efficient processes, a new monitor was forced to travel from Bhiwandi to Gandhinagar as rejected material. It also delayed my receipt of monitor as well as refund & lost a customer permanently. 4) In the whole process, I generated 4 complaints, 6 mails & received 15 mails from Snapdeal. A single communication to vendor to change the PO number in the retail invoice or to me detailing the whole process of handling both the orders could have saved a lot of hassells to me & courier. A wastage of courier efforts & one good monitor entered in the Return/Reject logistics.
I had a experience on Ebay for a similar situation when Ebay introduced a discount to be born by Ebay. I talked to seller . He cancelled the order & allow my refund. I placed a new order & got item at a discount rate. In this case, Snapdeal neither share seller’s contact number nor inform the change of status of order to seller.
Decide yourself before using SNAPDEAL.