I made my 1st purchase mid last year, a MI smart speaker. I had interacted with a courteous individual Mr Dinesh and later ordered on partial COD. Product costed around Rs 2000 and turned out to be fine.
Immediately following this pleasant experience, I ordered a more expensive Sony earbuds 1000xm4 ANC at a price of around Rs 5900. The ANC feature was not working and the return was a smooth experience primarily because the person in charge of customer support earnestly listened and provided a different product, Sony 1000xm4 headphones (DEC 2022) after I decided to pay an additional approx Rs 8000.
Thereafter, I was using this a few times every month for major workshops and did not encounter any issues. In fact, by then I thought I am dealing with a reliable company and purchased a Samsung smartwatch around 3 months back by paying Rs 7000.
Suddenly, a month back the xm4 headset was failing to charge even after keeping it on long charge of 7 to 8 hrs and overnight. I tried all troubleshooting steps as in the manual faithfully but nothing worked.
So, when I contacted Onbeli a month back, it was suggested by Mr Sagar (Mr Dinesh had left the company) that I should attempt to recharge for atleast a week and then report back. I did exactly as told and also learnt from Sony service center in Bangalore (they examined the product) that the motherboard has to be replaced which will cost Rs 6000 and even neckband may have issues that will cost further.
As I was sparingly using the product until that point, I felt really cheated and reached out to Onbeli while remaining open for an amicable solution, Again, Mr Sagar and his accomplice Tirupathi curtly answered and said that there is nothing to worry about and he will get it resolved but needs time as his father has met with an accident.
I waited patiently for another week to 10 days and received no response whatsoever other than one excuse after another. I also filed a complaint in this period with national consumer forum against Sony (product has warranty until Dec 2023) as well as Onbeli.
Sony thereafter reached out and wanted details including serial no of the product purchased. I was not sure if it was a good idea to go with Sony directly but Sagar bluntly indicated Sony will take care of it - otherwise I should send the product out to him and he will take care of it and asked that I decide one way or the other without wasting his time. I asked him how long it will take if I sent it to Hyderabad - His unapologetic and arrogant 'I don't care' evasive tone was simply "I am not sure, depends on parts availability". After a lot of prodding, he said it may take upto a month. I then realised it was not worth risking sending it to Hyderabad to someone showing absolutely no accountability and told him I will decide after noting what Sony had to say.
Upon Sony's review, they said Onbeli is not an authorised distributor and as it's a refurbished product I should deal with this matter with ONBELI only.
At my wit's end, I got in touch with Sagar again. He asked that I give him a few days and that he will get back to me. Again waited and nothing happened - when I reached out to him earlier this evening, he says he can't do anything as Sony has serial no of the product and centers in Hyderabad refuse to service. When I reminded him that I provided Sony with the details after getting his inputs, he just said "call me tomorrow as I am not keeping well".
So, after having gone through this painful experience, the key take away is not to purchase any high value product from this sham company. If the product works, note you are just plain lucky and not because they cared to give it that way. I clearly note this company does not have a proper customer service team or quality check processes in place.
So, it clearly appears that only a few corrupt individuals are running the website in an attempt to defraud customers by selling spurious products.
So, unless you are from Hyderabad, my recommendation is to stay away from any of their high value items and rather save your hard earned money to buy new items of high value directly from original and authorised sources.