Got relieved after long struggle. Review on Infibeam

Am going to share my experience with infibeam.com. I have made an order for IFB front loading washing machine elena aqua model on 15th September'13. When I ordered I got 6%OFF. So 1498got reduced from the selling price. They also mentioned a freebie-trolley&cover worth 1800. I had to choose EMI option. Tactchandru021y they disabled the 3&6 month Emi option as I can use either 6months free Emi or 6%OFF.

So I choose 9 months Emi for which they charged 1408 as processing fee which almost covered the discount.  I was little skeptical before making the order since other sites has restricted the order since product delivery to my home town(Vellore Dt.) is not serviceable by them but infibeam accepted the order. So I was both happy and concerned. It was mentioned that the expected shipping date was September 23 and expected delivery date October 10. So I thought I have to wait for long time.

Then after one week I sent a mail to infibeam customer support asking when they will ship the product. After some days I got a reply with the aforementioned date as the shipping date. Suddenly I got a call on 14th evening for the product delivery. On 15th evening one person from IFB warehouse vadapalani brought the product and delivered it. I was so happy about it. But within few minutes happiness stopped and struggle started since the person didn't bring freebie. When I asked him he told to contact infibeam. Then from 16th  onward I started calling their customer support.

Every time I call I have to wait in queue. I made a call daily but everytime they just said that we have registered complaint already and forwarded to the concerned department you will get a call within 24hrs is the response I got. Nobody called me, daily I only called them. In Parallel I also sent emails to them. They replied to the email very late with the same response. In between I contacted IFB also but no use they are again asking to contact infibeam.

After getting this struggle only I came to MouthShut_Official to read reviews of infibeam. My worry increased further after seeing lot of negative review against them. In one of the reviews one person has mentioned the email id of infibeam CEO. Then I wrote a mail directly to CEO(vishal@infibeam.net). He didn't reply but on the same day evening I got a call from one person Dinesh(+918588824605 - infibeam Bangalore). He told that IFB has shipped the freebie and I will receive it within 2 days.

I forgot to ask courier tracking number. I didn't get the freebie even after 4 days so I called Dinesh to ask the tracking number but his mobile switched off. Next day I tried and he picked the call I asked the tracking number, he told I will ask IFB and call u back. Then he called and told they shipped through some local courier so no tracking number, you will receive it and if any problem contact me is what he said. Finally I got the freebie on 3rd October. After long struggle I got relieved from them.

Bad things about them:

Customer service is too lazy to respond to emails. We cant always make a call to them so they should reply promptly to emails.

• Order tracking is very bad with them. Some days after the product delivery, am getting mail from infibeam that my order has been shipped(very funny thing). When I went to track it, there is no proper tracking number/address. Still now the order status says "shipped".

One more thing is it is common that people having bad experience with online shopping(even with flipkart) but one thing is when we write our experience in MouthShut_Official they should work closely with MouthShut_Official and follow up with the issue and close it. I have seen most of the sellers doing it in MouthShut_Official. It will at least give some confidence that if we take our issue to MouthShut_Official then it will be resolved but infibeam didn't giving such confidence.

Previously I had few purchases with them and never had any issue that is the reason I ordered this also. Infibeam price is little higher than other sites but I thought that their service is good so price can be compromised a bit. But now they disappointed me totally.

Daily I used to check for infibeam's magic box deal bcoz magic box price will be very less than other sites.

Purchase of books was a good experience with infibeam.

Now am having a mixed opinion about infibeam but because of my last experience I will think more before making another order with them.

Online purchase is always a big risk. That too if you are ordering for a big product like washing machine then it is very difficult/impossible to return/exchange. So my advice is if you are getting the product for a lesser price than in nearby shop then go for it only if you can get better customer support. Customer support is very important. If faced with any issue, exchange/refund should be processed within two or three days. Such kind of support I could see with flipkart. So they have a better reputation among people. So infibeam if you want to succeed and survive in the market then strengthen your customer service.

Still am giving two starts since the product delivered was brand new and original.

Hope my review will be helpful before making purchase with infibeam or in general online.--  --