Snapdeal Faces Major Embarrassment – Consumer Court Slaps Rs 10,000 Fine For Not Delivering iPhone For Rs 68!
In case you ask any random online shopper about the biggest problem of Indian ecommerce sector; then 9 out of 10 times, the answer would be ‘trust factor’. Portals promise something else, deliver something else; and most of the times, the expectations and delivery are massively mismatched.
In the past, we have witnessed cases wherein stones were delivered instead of iPods (happened on Flipkart) and once, Vim bar was delivered instead of Samsung Galaxy phone on Snapdeal.
Snapdeal, which has recently raised $200 million at a valuation of $6.5-7 billion, is now again facing a major embarrassment when it comes to customer satisfaction and delivering what was promised.
A consumer court in Punjab has slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on Snapdeal and ordered them to deliver what they had initially promised: iPhone for Rs 68! Note here, that Snapdeal managed to sell Rs 500 crore worth of mobile phones during last Diwali..
The Case
Nikhil Bansal, a BTech Student at Punjabi University saw a listing of an iPhone 5S 16 GB (Gold) on Snapdeal, which was priced Rs 68. On February 12th, he ordered the phone, and started waiting anxiously for such an awesome, cheap deal.
But as it so often happens on ecommerce portals, the order was cancelled and Nikhil never received that iPhone.
But unlike other shoppers, he refused to be silent.
He approached the district consumer forum in Sangrur district of Punjab, and filed a complaint after Snapdeal refused to ‘honor the deal’. The forum passed the judgment in favor of Nikhil, and Snapdeal was ordered to deliver the iPhone at the same rate in which it was initially promised: Rs 68.
Besides, the forum also ordered Snapdeal to pay Rs 2000 as penalty.
However, Snapdeal appealed in the consumer forum against this decision, and decided to fight the case. But again, they lost, as the forum now ordered them to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 to close the case.
This penalty needs to be deposited in consumer welfare fund.
Is it a right decision?
Indeed it is! Just because online medium is easier to manipulate; and promises are easy to be made, it doesn’t mean that ecommerce portals shall resort to false promise and would refuse to deliver what was promised.
As we had witnessed with Micromax, bad customer experience translates into bad future for any company; and Snapdeal might just have learnt a very important lesson here.
Have you experienced any such false promises made by any ecommerce portal? Did you complain?
Do share your experiences by commenting right here!
Must Read: 8 reasons why the E-Commerce Balloon in India is going to burst…
How to sue Amazon i have same problem like this..
[…] Snapdeal Faces Major Embarrassment – Consumer Court Slaps Rs 10,000 Fine For Not Delivering iPhone… […]
I had also faced the same on eBay for Sony mobile phone
This is FYI only. As I have given up mostly on buying expensive items online. I too have not one but 2 bitter experiences with online purchases. The first one was buying a laptop from Flipkart. I ordered a particular model, was delivered a cheaper model. Flipkart would not acknowledge that the reseller who delivered the product actually committed a fraud. Finally claiming that the ordered model was not available. On returned of the lower spec and priced model COD money (cost of the model ordered) was refunded after a month after much back and forth with Flipkart. Recently ordered a laptop from Amazon.in Results again in delivery of a different model. Ordered a Dell Inspiron, got a Dell Vostro instead. On raising the issue which Amazon.in did not seem interested in involving itself claiming it was the reseller who should be dealt with for this screw us delivery. The reseller also does not provide a invoice. On raising the issue with the reseller without any qualms or regret gives us the option of returning the laptop. We didn’t since we were committed to delivering the same. This too was a COD and we got screwed by a unscrupulous reseller tied in with Amazon.in
https://twitter.com/gautam_aswani/status/687670435018883073 This is what I went through.
Subsequently after inaction for 3 odd weeks, I ended up putting pressure via a Facebook Post that was shared multiple times – https://www.facebook.com/gautam.aswani/posts/10156433841730207
This is in addition to my email communication with them. What a harrowing experience. I never ended up complaining, but it was certainly the next step.