Tips for Online shopping . Review on Ebay

I am back with another review on online purchase. Just for inforamtion sake, I am an ebay member( buyer and seller) since 2006. I made many major purchases including LCD Tvs and Mobile phones . I have purchased from ebay, Flipkart, lets buy, India shopping , rediff, cardekho etc. I have sensed that the tendency to purchase from online stores is increasing drastchandru021y lately, and I feel that I should inform yourl about some fishing that is happening in online purchase, which atleast I feel so.

First of all let me explain the differences between ebay and flipkart. Flipkart ship from their own warehouse, while eBay depends on independent sellers, even We can be an ebay seller without any hassles. If we look into flipkart We can expect same quality for all transactions and on the contrary ebay is composed with different

independent sellers, hence the purchase experiences shall be different, some times we might be delighted some times not.

Advantages of online purchasing

1) We can shop from a wide variety of products from different brands . some times we will be unable to find correct Item

from local market. For example I have noticed that many of my friends are using Large USB memory card in their car stereos

rather than using car memory sticks which is very small in size.

2) Low prices: of course I agree the prices of online shopping will be lesser than normal market. I had purchased

32 inch Panasonic LCD with 3 yr panasonic india warranty for rs 25000, shop price was 33, 500.

3) Door To door delivery : normally we hate the monotonous shopping process. Door delivery of our products is very

convenient in our busy life.

4) We will get imported goods ( without paying tax) in half price. Product quality will be as good as brand new products.

Major Disadvantages of Online shopping

1) for the most part we will be selecting a product just by seeing its Images. Actual size, quality, finishing, color may vary

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2) Online sellers are using different courier companies. In my experience Blue dart is the best one and DTDC is the

worst one. Some courier companies wont provide door to door delivery even though we had paid huge amount as shipping expense,

in such cases it will be nothing but a mess.

3) Items may get Broken/ damaged during Transit. It is our duty to ensure the parcel is not damaged during the time of delivery.

It will be a mess if it is received by our family members. They may not inspect the item properly before accepting.

4) Poor Quality of Item. Once I bought an IPhone 3gs for rs 18000. After receiving it I found that there was scratches in

the back panel and the body of the phone was not original. It was an used one with duplicate body to mimic a new one. I returned

the product and finally refund was approved by ebay.

5) You should always check the sellers feedback profile before making a purchase. I still remember an incident, I had

purchased a Toshiba 32 TV from ebay seller located @ hariyana. Infact seller was not aware about the sales tax formalities

of kerala. The TV has been caught @ valayar check post, on the grounds that the purchaser had tried to transport a product

without any proper documents. Courier company asked me to pay rs 5000 as kerala government tax. We protested and refused

to take the parcel. Finally we got refunded. But the kerala tax athority did not spare the purchaser.

Last month I received a notice from Valayar check post authorities asking me to appear before enquiry commission to

explain my arguments .

6) Never trust their money back guarantee. I had seen that many sites will advertise like 20 days money back policy.

Never take it for granted that they will accept the return of goods, Some times they might and sometimes they wont. It depends

on business ethics of the seller. Another bad experience was I purchased an IBall TV Tuner Card for my lapy. I found that the

product was not delivering good picture quality and so I asked for a replacement. He was requested to visit an Iball service centre

which is 65 kms away from my town. Finally he admitted to replace the item if any problems was found. I sent the product along

with original bill. After receiving the item he said that there is no problem with the product and returned the product. He said that the product

is under warranty and I may move with warranty process. Most painfull part was that I was not able to communicate with him. He

knows hindi only, and I am not fully okay with hindi. He used to speak in hindi and myself in English. I requested Ebay

to consider my case for 20 days money back policy. They started saying different arguments. Finally they admitted that they

are not encouraging money back for product with manufacturer warranty. Finally they admitted to refund the shipping charges

( rs 180). Conclusion was I sold the same product thru ebay to another customer. ( same logic ..) fortunately he was happy

with the product. I got my money back. But ebay didn’t keep their promises. They may say that they will refund the money but, well thay never

does. I think Flipkart is the best one in terms of quality of services rendering. But they lacks variety of products. Ebay has

number of different products. But quality of service is very very poor. Indiashopping and rediff are average. Never faced

any major issues. I am not sure about their attitude. All ican say is if the transaction is smooth there wont be any problem. The question

is what will be their attitude when we makes a complaint. Anyways Ebay wont support a customer if the seller is powerfull. In my opinion if you want quality products you can choose flipkart and if you cant find the item in flipkart or

indiashopping, then you may go for ebay . Well I must sat thay you can buy anything and everything from ebay.