Apr 17, 2006 07:27 PM
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(Updated Apr 17, 2006 07:33 PM)
Shopping is a one way to sooth your mind and body…”
I am sure; all the ladies here would agree that shopping is a great way to remove your frustration and depression. If you are feeling low, just walk into any of the malls and just go on a shopping spree and when you come out you would feel so relived.
Though online shopping has been existing since last decade or so but it has never picked up and I always used to think why the hell people don’t buy online. Now, this question I should ask myself why I didn’t ever buy any product online.
Buying…Blindfolded…
I had this uneasy feeling whenever I had to reveal my credit card details or unless and until I don’t see the product, I am not confident of buying the product. Now, online shopping is like making you blind folded in a shopping mall and telling you just by hearing the product price you have to make your choice of buying the product and I am sure everyone here would feel the same that it is really ridiculous to just hear or see the price and buy the product.
online bug…
I spend nearly 14hours of my day online and I have done everything online right from banking to buying books from Amazon but have never done any kind of shopping from any of our Indian counterparts because didn’t have that confidence that I would get the right product.
Smart me..
I was talking to a friend online, when I realized that my headset was going to go for a toss any moment as a smart individual instead of relying on my local dealer this one Smart man went ahead and checked into to rediff.com. Had heard a lot about rediff.com and as it is a big brand, they would never dare to cheat anyone. I was browsing through the website and found the prices rock bottom and absolutely amazing. I got a nice headset for Rs. 150/- and the actual price was Rs 450/-, man I was like no one gives 60% discount. It was the most amazing discount one could ever heard off. The payment option, which was uneasy, was also solved off, as they had Cash on Delivery (COD) facility which worked fine for me. They had mentioned that it would take minimum 7days for the product to reach me. May be those days lady luck was next to me or sitting in my lap that I got the delivery in 36hours and I was smiling ear to ear. Of course don’t ask me what was lady luck doing ??
Dumb…
How can a smart man like me become dumb so soon, don’t worry after the product displayed and the price shown on the website would make any Smart man, make dumb moves. I wanted to buy a nice watch for my dad and was going through the watch section and was amazed at the prices at which the watches were sold. Now, I had finally got down to one watch which had market price of Rs 3,000, I was getting it at Rs 500 and that too another watch free of cost along with it. So this Smart a** , booked the watch online and he became really very very smart by paying through internet banking. Now this is probably Jim Carrey took over me and said Mr Smarty how come you became so dumb. So, I was waiting for the lady luck to again sit on my lap , but this time she was so pissed that she was not to be seen atleast 1000miles and I could see only a dark ugly unlucky devil sitting next to me and wanting to sit on my lap. That means I was sure the 2days luck is out and 20day luck is in. So, after repeated mails no response, thanks to MS and one of the members Subhu gave me the number of rediff.com. After calling them repeatedly and after giving me ridiculous excuse the watch did arrive after painstaking 25days. So, you can say that I just became a bit dumb.
Now, what is the watch I got you guys must be wondering, don’t need to wonder I got an excellent watch which was not even worth 20Rs. This watch you could have got outside any railway station for Rs20. That means, again I have been cheated now not with time but the product itself.
Dumber…
After booking the watch online, before expecting the wait time and the miserable product which is going to delivered to me, my dumber mind gave me an idea of going through some more stuff. Now, how does one buy clothes online, without trying or feeling the cloth I can never buy. But an unbelievable offer of a Jeans, T-shirt , Sunglasses & a Cap for 350Rs tempted me to see what bad can they offer for such a low cost.. In spite of all the fear in my mind, I purchased the package of Jeans, t-shirt, sunglasses & cap. But this time lady luck was not sitting on my lap, but this time she was going to kiss me, because I got the delivery of the packet in a days time. Man that is strange and variable difference in delivery time. Now, the luck remained only till the product came, when I opened it the biggest shock of my life was coming to reality. The Cap was the Indian cricket blue cap, the jeans was a faded pathetic cotton jeans which in chor bazaar or in a slum market you would get it for 25Rs , T-shirt was one pathetic green color and don’t even talk about the sunglasses. I could never believe my eyes, that rediff.com could cheat someone so openly.
Now, this leaves to the moral and ethical value of these shopping websites. Why cant they be true to themselves and not cheat people. These are some of the only reason why people in India still stay away from shopping online. Apart from buying books , online shopping can never be a good experience because their would always be the problem with quality.
I guess, companies like Rediff should be sued for cheating the consumer but alas, we are in India and we can’t do such a thing as we all know that even if go to consumer court its going to take ages and in this busy world who has the time really to do that.
As a warning please stay away from Rediff.com, it is just a place for all those fashion street kind shopkeepers to sell their product, worst it is the place for shopkeepers to sell their second sales product.
''Raste ka maal Sasste mein ''
©Asyis 2006
