Online shopping has become a rage in India these days. Spending Power with risk taking ability; of buying stuff especially clothes online have increased manifold. I am not different. Having friends who work in various domains of online sphere my level of trust in online portals are comparatively high. From buying movie tickets to grocery I prefer online mechanism; as it is fast, quick, saves time and energy. But conservative side in me has never allowed me to shop women apparel online and I never did it too. Until the day, when I was tied-up with work and stress of attending my best friend marriage convinced me to shop online. I thought let me try it and made a decision to buy stuff online.
Buying clothes online is much more tedious than buying stuff from the market. Every site I visited had some of
the best collection, displayed in a manner that every shopaholic would love to buy all. Smart models wearing, a smart suit is what tricks you. Anyways I finally selected a product from a site called www.yourdesignerwear.com , considering that it is a start-up and it will be good. That is where I made a BLUNDER!
I received the product after 25 days of time, lot of time but still forgivable since I had planned accordingly. With complete excitement when I opened it, I realized that the product was not up to the mark, bas jugaad kar rakha tha. Before a second could pass, I wrote an email with the pictures to www.yourdesignerwear.com and requested them to replace it immediately, for which they replied, get it fixed from your tailor and we will pay for the alteration charges. I was furious to the core but had less time so accepted, went to the tailor and asked him to fix it. Tailor responded that it can’t be done, since the stitching is faulty. I was zapped, since I was left with no time, I wrote them again, asking to replace or refund and sent the product back.
I got a reply from www.yourdesignerwear.com after 2 days, in which they have stated that, they will replace the suit in a day or two. When I realized it was almost 3 weeks and I have not heard from them, I wrote an email again. To which they said it is in process. Process?? Which process takes 3 weeks? I ask them to refund my money and will all mail trails they finally agreed to refund it.
Today April 11, 2012 it is again been more than 2 weeks that I have heard from them. No mails are reverted and no calls are answered.
After so many follow ups, I have lost all the hope to get my money back. I tried contacting their CEO but he doesn’t respond as well. With this incident one thing that I realized is, “Things that appear most beautiful are doctored”.
This has also given me a thought that this is just one case; there would be many more similar experiences; which can lead to loss of faith in online shopping.
So, How to tackle these?
Don’t you think that the time has come to create an Online Consumer Forum? After all we are also “Grahak”
Government should propose a mechanism or a body where all complaints related to quality, misleading, misguiding and charging extra amount should be lodged. And if the number of complaints against “A” increasing the number “X” which is definite number, license of the site should become forged. This will also bring discipline into the online system.
