Flipkart...Could be Indian Amazon ?
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avi
Keymaster
What people don't understand is speedy service isn't the same as good customer service. Good customer services comes in in the case of a problem or inadvent situation. There Amazon pwns any Indian company big time.
RMA, support, warranty etc provided by Amazon is exclusive while Flipkart is not even close from the Indian standpoint, leave alone competing with an international brand's RMA and support.
Flipkart is fast and has decent customer service, but never can it compete with something like Amazon. It is a difference in culture and values. American companies never cheat, laws are very strict, besides, irrespective of laws they go out of their way to help you. Indian companies only care about their losses or profits, and Indian law is a joke anyway.
If Amazon comes to India as a full fledged service, it will either eat Flipkart or buy it out
RMA, support, warranty etc provided by Amazon is exclusive while Flipkart is not even close from the Indian standpoint, leave alone competing with an international brand's RMA and support.
Flipkart is fast and has decent customer service, but never can it compete with something like Amazon. It is a difference in culture and values. American companies never cheat, laws are very strict, besides, irrespective of laws they go out of their way to help you. Indian companies only care about their losses or profits, and Indian law is a joke anyway.
If Amazon comes to India as a full fledged service, it will either eat Flipkart or buy it out
@rite, +1... I have used both Amazon and FK's service in times of problems, and Amazon wins hands down. My problem was solved by Amazon CC in straight 10 minutes. FK took some 3 days, and after continuous follow-ups. Both the problems were of similar nature, but the responsiveness I got from Amazon simply blew me away.
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Add you rightly pointed it out, in US people trust each other, that's the basis of a pleasant experience. In India we have made it a tradition to get maximum profit and not bother about customer experience as we have plenty of people always ready to buy stuff when they are told something is selling for 20% discount, example big bazaar.
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Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk 2
To put a quick perspective on things, I have ordered about 1.2L worth of goods from Flipkart. Sampled practically every category they have.
And I'm going to be a bit judicious in saying that their service is good when the sourcing is under their control. For large ticket items, it's better to go to your local dealer.
Problem 1: Payment gateway is extremely fickle and times out. The effect is that your account gets debited, but money doesn't show up with Flipkart and a reversal takes 10 days. If you have a large order, you might want to forget it. I have had to roll back three of my orders and try two again - didn't bother re-ordering the third time, it was too steep a climb of faith for me.
Problem 2: 'In stock' may or may not be true. I placed an order of 46k for an AC and a fridge for my folks, I thought the service was going to be really good but FK simply could not procure the order - at all, not in time. And somethings just take so long that you give up and cancel the order in frustration. Happened three times to me (including this once).
Problem 3: Flaky pricing - at some point the prices on the website is much lower than retail, and sometimes much higher. Now it's mostly much higher.
Problem 4: non-existent support for IT products - I have a Gigabyte motherboard that took six weeks to arrive. The first one arrived in six days, it had a curving problem (see my build log) and FK took it back, and then the replacement took four weeks to arrive. You better know people at manufacturers', or just buy locally. Save yourself the hassle. Plus most large-ticket items will probably be cheaper at local, or specific IT vendors such as Prime.
For everything under about a grand, FK is pretty good, for anything above I would wonder if they've got a sorted back end.
In the inital days after launch they had a small, but reliable selection. I think the pressure of widening the portfolio without taking on inventory cost has taken a lot of the control out of their hands. I imagine they also squeeze manufacturers quite a bit (nikolian on these forums has mentioned this) and therefore are not the first choice to fulfil demands when a crunch situation happens. I got the same AC locally in Calcutta at the same price as FK, though I had to manage a lot remotely - the main reason for choosing FK is the service (which I experienced when I bought a TV off the site) but they couldn't work out a way to deliver the product.
And I'm going to be a bit judicious in saying that their service is good when the sourcing is under their control. For large ticket items, it's better to go to your local dealer.
Problem 1: Payment gateway is extremely fickle and times out. The effect is that your account gets debited, but money doesn't show up with Flipkart and a reversal takes 10 days. If you have a large order, you might want to forget it. I have had to roll back three of my orders and try two again - didn't bother re-ordering the third time, it was too steep a climb of faith for me.
Problem 2: 'In stock' may or may not be true. I placed an order of 46k for an AC and a fridge for my folks, I thought the service was going to be really good but FK simply could not procure the order - at all, not in time. And somethings just take so long that you give up and cancel the order in frustration. Happened three times to me (including this once).
Problem 3: Flaky pricing - at some point the prices on the website is much lower than retail, and sometimes much higher. Now it's mostly much higher.
Problem 4: non-existent support for IT products - I have a Gigabyte motherboard that took six weeks to arrive. The first one arrived in six days, it had a curving problem (see my build log) and FK took it back, and then the replacement took four weeks to arrive. You better know people at manufacturers', or just buy locally. Save yourself the hassle. Plus most large-ticket items will probably be cheaper at local, or specific IT vendors such as Prime.
For everything under about a grand, FK is pretty good, for anything above I would wonder if they've got a sorted back end.
In the inital days after launch they had a small, but reliable selection. I think the pressure of widening the portfolio without taking on inventory cost has taken a lot of the control out of their hands. I imagine they also squeeze manufacturers quite a bit (nikolian on these forums has mentioned this) and therefore are not the first choice to fulfil demands when a crunch situation happens. I got the same AC locally in Calcutta at the same price as FK, though I had to manage a lot remotely - the main reason for choosing FK is the service (which I experienced when I bought a TV off the site) but they couldn't work out a way to deliver the product.
raksrules
Oracle
If and when Amazon comes as full fledged service to India, i would gladly buy from them even if it is bit more as i know they service is simply excellent. I really wish things like Amazon, Walmart etc do come to India but this stupid government red tape politician vampires won't allow this to happen.
avi
Keymaster
My last three experiences with FK :
1. Usually it takes 3-4 days to have it delivered at my place. They took 10 days this time & it was shipped with same Bluedart.
2. In Bangalore it takes 2 days at max, they took 7 days.
3. Just two days before yesterday, I ordered Nokia battery. Got it today. It was COD.
1. Usually it takes 3-4 days to have it delivered at my place. They took 10 days this time & it was shipped with same Bluedart.
2. In Bangalore it takes 2 days at max, they took 7 days.
3. Just two days before yesterday, I ordered Nokia battery. Got it today. It was COD.
Revolution
Contributor
Metalspree
Galvanizer
Only Amazon / Junglee can be Indian Amazon.
No one should even think of comparing themself to amazon just becuase the layout of the site looks same.
How of these sites honor pricing mistakes and say we dont mind taking a hit at profit but we dont wanna loose customers ?
No one should even think of comparing themself to amazon just becuase the layout of the site looks same.
How of these sites honor pricing mistakes and say we dont mind taking a hit at profit but we dont wanna loose customers ?
raksrules
Oracle
Very true. I am so much spoilt but the awesome service amazon provides. On black Friday I was not able to buy something because obviously it was black Friday and it was some gold box deal and guess what amazon gave me 5$ credit. No Indian company will be ever able to match amazon, not even flip kart.
Though FK has made a nice foray in unchartered territory. eShopping is better and delivery chain is nice. Heck, we can do CoD with cash/card, which is nice. But yea, they have some lame practices, of incorrect pricing, bad stock commitment (worst thing an ePortal can do). It would be interesting to see how they sustain. As it happens once the captive user base increases Indian companies head South in terms of being gentle and customer centric. Remember how nice Hutch and Airtel were 10-11 years ago.
These Flipkart/other shopping sites buy from Distributors in your city and they ship it quickly by showing false order status. yesterday i ordered an headphone from flipkart at 2pm and it is delivered now within 24Hrs. Apparently that's not possible if they are shipping from bengaluru.
N
NotMyRealName
I've personally experienced that even amazon sources a lot of stuff from 3rd parties. And sometimes even products sold by amazon have a cheaper 3rd party option. But this still doesn't affect service or support.
The problem isn't flipkart. It's indian mentality.
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