Any friend or family who wishes to deliver my elegy can begin with the words "He didn't go looking for trouble. It found him... often."
As most of you would already know, setting up stuff in a new house is no joke. When you've lived with room mates and semi-furnished houses for as long as I have, you tend to take certain things like sofas, refrigerators and washing machines for granted. My new place had none of these and since I'm not exactly made of money, the furniture and appliances were ranked by necessity and importance.
The stove came first, followed by the fridge, the washing machine and the seating paraphernalia (yes, I don't really encourage visitors). I bought the stove locally and it was delivered without any trouble. I then went fridge shopping at Vijay Sales and blanched a little when I saw the prices. I decided to give Flipkart and their recently launched Home Appliances section a shot.
Flipkart has always delivered my books on time, neatly packaged, discounted and whathaveyou. So you can't really blame me for expecting their other product services to be just as impressive. I found a fridge with the specifications I wanted, in my price range. This, on EMI too! They delivered the box promptly on a Saturday morning. I was told that only the product manufacturer's (Videocon) rep was allowed to open the box and 'install' the fridge. So I waited, assuming he'd be arriving right behind the delivery guys.
On Tuesday afternoon, having seen neither hide nor hair of said personage, I called Flipkart wondering if they'd sent me the Ark of the Covenant by mistake. An earnest employee assured me that they'd get right on it. In the evening, I get a call from the Phantom, a.k.a Videocon's service rep, who says he will show up on Thursday afternoon (Wednesday was Dussehra). I asked him what exactly he was to 'install'. He said that meant he would plug the wire into the socket.
I opened the box myself that night. And survived the ordeal of plugging it in.
The fridgelooked was different from the one I'd ordered. My order was for a 4-star piece, whereas the sticker on this fridge obstinately maintained that it was a 3-star one. I then began an online correspondence series with Flipkart that, one day, no doubt will be part of a book called "My experiments with online shopping". The Flipkart fellows assured me (they'd make terrific counsellors) so many times that they'd escalated the issue that it could have reached the moon for all I know. Then they asked me to send photos of the fridge, the box, the bill, my house, me in various suggestive poses, the neighbourhood, tigers in the wild, and so on and so forth.
Yet, it wasn't solving anything because the Videocon guys wanted to come by and verify the details of the fridge and stubbornly refused to call and verify when I'd be in the house. Eventually, they cottoned on to that fact, swung by and did the needful. The model number mentioned on the box, and the fridge were the same. That left only 2 options:
1. Flipkart was engaging in some slightly false advertising
2. They'd fucked up the order with Videocon
Either way, it was on their head. Eventually, I was given some sob story about Videocon changing the specifications and not informing Flipkart and how they were sorry, yada yada yada. The fridge was not going to change but I was offered compensation of Rs. 600 for the trouble. I told them to come back with a better offer since I was convinced there was something fishy afoot. Some time later, this offer was raised to Rs. 750. The guy assured (Again!) me the amount would be credited into my Flipkart wallet within 24 hours.
That was on Thursday. I'm still waiting*.
"My experiments with online shopping - Volume 2" anyone?
Song for the moment: We used to wait - Arcade Fire
* I emailed Flipkart on Friday night. On Sunday, they call saying there are some 'technical difficulties' with the system, but the money would be processed by Monday. Uhuh.
* Update: Finally, after another strongly worded email, the miracle has happened (22 Nov.)
As most of you would already know, setting up stuff in a new house is no joke. When you've lived with room mates and semi-furnished houses for as long as I have, you tend to take certain things like sofas, refrigerators and washing machines for granted. My new place had none of these and since I'm not exactly made of money, the furniture and appliances were ranked by necessity and importance.
The stove came first, followed by the fridge, the washing machine and the seating paraphernalia (yes, I don't really encourage visitors). I bought the stove locally and it was delivered without any trouble. I then went fridge shopping at Vijay Sales and blanched a little when I saw the prices. I decided to give Flipkart and their recently launched Home Appliances section a shot.
Flipkart has always delivered my books on time, neatly packaged, discounted and whathaveyou. So you can't really blame me for expecting their other product services to be just as impressive. I found a fridge with the specifications I wanted, in my price range. This, on EMI too! They delivered the box promptly on a Saturday morning. I was told that only the product manufacturer's (Videocon) rep was allowed to open the box and 'install' the fridge. So I waited, assuming he'd be arriving right behind the delivery guys.
On Tuesday afternoon, having seen neither hide nor hair of said personage, I called Flipkart wondering if they'd sent me the Ark of the Covenant by mistake. An earnest employee assured me that they'd get right on it. In the evening, I get a call from the Phantom, a.k.a Videocon's service rep, who says he will show up on Thursday afternoon (Wednesday was Dussehra). I asked him what exactly he was to 'install'. He said that meant he would plug the wire into the socket.
I opened the box myself that night. And survived the ordeal of plugging it in.
The fridge
Yet, it wasn't solving anything because the Videocon guys wanted to come by and verify the details of the fridge and stubbornly refused to call and verify when I'd be in the house. Eventually, they cottoned on to that fact, swung by and did the needful. The model number mentioned on the box, and the fridge were the same. That left only 2 options:
1. Flipkart was engaging in some slightly false advertising
2. They'd fucked up the order with Videocon
Either way, it was on their head. Eventually, I was given some sob story about Videocon changing the specifications and not informing Flipkart and how they were sorry, yada yada yada. The fridge was not going to change but I was offered compensation of Rs. 600 for the trouble. I told them to come back with a better offer since I was convinced there was something fishy afoot. Some time later, this offer was raised to Rs. 750. The guy assured (Again!) me the amount would be credited into my Flipkart wallet within 24 hours.
That was on Thursday. I'm still waiting*.
"My experiments with online shopping - Volume 2" anyone?
Song for the moment: We used to wait - Arcade Fire
* I emailed Flipkart on Friday night. On Sunday, they call saying there are some 'technical difficulties' with the system, but the money would be processed by Monday. Uhuh.
* Update: Finally, after another strongly worded email, the miracle has happened (22 Nov.)
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