Here's my experience with Homeshop 18
23rd December 2011: Ordered a set of Altec Lansing MX6021 2.1 Multimedia Speakers
26th December 2011: Received the shipment, but the power cable was cut, so I called up HS18's customer care and informed them and asked for a replacement. I also registered a support ticket via their website. The customer care rep said that they would log the complaint and someone would get back to me in 48 hours.
28th December 2011: 48 hours later, there was no call and no email. Called up customer care again on 28th Dec 2011 and asked them to give me an update. They said someone would get back to me in 48 hours. I requested to speak to a customer care rep's floor manager and informed them that I had already waited 48 hours and if no one got back to me in 24 hours, I would contact my credit card company and try and reverse the transaction.
30th December 2011: Finally got a call at 5:30 PM and they asked me to ship the product back via TNT Couriers, using their customer code so I wouldn't have to pay the for the return shipment.
31st December 2011: Shipped the product back and logged the Airway bill number on the support ticket at Homeshop18
2nd January 2012: TNT's website said that the shipment had been delivered on 2nd Jan 2012.
No call or updates for the next 3 days
5th January 2012: Asked customer care via the support ticket for an update on the replacement product
8th January 2012: No response to date, so I called them. They said that they would check and update the support ticket which they did -
"Dear Sir, We thank you for shopping with us & we appreciate your patiencePlease note we are arranging Replacement delivery at the earliest on top priority & we hope you will provide us 2-3 working days to provide you the dispatch details.Warm regards, Customer Care HomeShop18"
13th January 2012: No response till 13th Jan 2012, so I called customer care again and asked for an update via the support ticket as well. This was their reply -
"Dear Customer, We really appreciate your patience and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. Please note we are investigating the matter with our respective department to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Warm regards,HomeShop18"
16th January 2012: Received an update via the support ticket saying the replacement had been shipped on 15th January 2012 and received the courier tracking number.
17th January 2012: Received the shipment. Opened the carton and found a non-sealed set of speakers. Opened up the speaker box and to my surprise, I found the same speaker set which I had returned. Pioneer Digital, who shipped the original product and the supposed replacement product, had opened up the subwoofer which I had sent back and replaced the power cord locally and sent me the same set of speakers rather than shipping me a brand new piece. On top of that, the subwoofer was damaged and the edges had chipped off. The cover of the bass unit was lying in the speaker box and the bass unit was ripped from the subwoofer and hanging on by the connecting wires. I took a couple of photographs and called up customer care (also updated the support ticket) and informed them.
I also asked for an email ID where I could send the photographs of the damaged subwoofer. They gave me an email ID and also gave me their standard reply of someone getting back to me in 48 hours. I said to them again that if someone did not get back to me in 24 hours, I would call my credit card company and get the transaction reversed. They said that they couldn't guarantee that I would get a call back in 24 hours, but they would try their best to get someone to call me back in 24 hours. I also sent an email with the entire complaint and the photographs enclosed.
18th January 2012: 24 hours later, there was no call back, no update to the support ticket and no reply to the email. I did some research on the web and located the email ID's of some top executives, including the CEO of Homeshop18 and resent the mail to the same email ID. This time however, I copied the email to all the top executives and the CEO. 10 minutes later
, I received a call from Homeshop18 apologizing profusely and asking me to send the product back via TNT couriers again and that they would reship a brand new undamaged piece in 7-10 days. I had waited long enough and I had no guarantee that I would receive a new, undamaged set of speakers and I wasn't willing to wait another 17 days like I did last time, so I told them that I would ship the speakers back, but I'd like a refund and I would pick up the speaker at Flipkart.com. They tried their hardest to get me to change my mind about the refund, but I had very definitely had enough.
The product has been shipped back via TNT couriers on 18th January 2012 and I hope to have a refund in the next 7 days. Will update this post when I do.
Conclusion: It's probably better to pay a little extra and buy from a reliable online store like Flipkart, TheITWares.com, etc... rather than try and to save a few rupees and go through 3 weeks of absolute hell. I will never again have anything to do with Homeshop18 again. Hope this helps anyone who was thinking of buying a reasonably high value item from Homeshop18.
And one more thing, if you ever hear of Pioneer Digital who is one of Homeshop18's vendor's who shipped the product to me, RUN!
