Nov 29, 2003 03:59 PM
1673 Views
(Updated Dec 12, 2003 10:30 AM)
Hi,
This being my first review for Mouth Shut, I thought I should write on a topic I felt strongly about...and lo and behold...the first thing that popped into my mind was rediff shopping. Since I didn't find a category to put my review in, I'm writing here, but I'll shift it sure enough as soon as there's a new category for that. And anyways since I'm writing in here I might as well comment on their other services.
First my experiences with rediff shopping:
Incident 1:
I once ordered a birthday gift for my mother on rediff shopping. I had ordered a hardback version which cost some Rs.400 more than the paperback one. Rediff promptly delivered a book to my mom on the expected date, but it was the paperback version. I emailed them asking them to refund the excess Rs.400 I had paid, but there was no reply. I wrote repeatedly but nobody cared to reply. Finally when I threatened to take legal action (I found out from my credit card company that I could do that),I got a reply but they said they couldn't refund my money and asked me to return the book and they would send me a new hardcover one. By the time all this happened and they wrote back, it had been more than a month since the gift had been delivered. I didn't think it was nice to take back a birthday gift I had sent someone and also didn't think I could trust rediff to promptly send me the new book so I just left it at that. And told myself I would consider that Rs.400 as a donation to rediff.
Incident 2:
My friend ordered an expensive birthday gift for me. She had asked for it to be delivered on a certain date but it did not reach me even a week or two after that. So she wrote to rediff asking about it, and there was no reply. She wrote repeatedly, but there was no reply at all. Finally one person wrote saying we're processing the order and it will be delivered soon. Again a looooong wait. Friend writes to them again and again. One fine day, about a month and a half after my birthday has elapsed, there's a reply that says 'Sorry but the item you ordered is out of stock so we are cancelling the order and refunding your money'.
If they had kept their website updated on what items are not in stock wouldn't it have been easier for people to order? Or couldn't they at least informed my friend once she placed the order that the item is not in stock so she'd better make alternate arrangements to send me a gift? At least then she would have had adequate time to find another gift for me. She ordered the gift about a month before my birthday and this 'out of stock' news reaches her more than a month after my birthday.
She wrote back to rediff saying she'd never recommend anyone to buy anything from rediff shopping again and I was looking for a forum like mouthshut to voice my views. Am thankful for this opportunity because only if consumers are heard will poor service ever change.
Now for rediff mail... I don't have much to say about that, because it hasn't caused me any trouble as such. But I wish they would add a 'search mail' feature so we can search for emails. Sometimes when I'm looking for a particular email I've to go through the entire email database before finding it.
Otherwise I think rediff is doing a decent job. All their other services like news, ringtones, wallpapers, etc are pretty good. The website layout is also good. So they should either improve their service for shopping or get rid of that feature as they're only earning a bad reputation with their poor service in that category.
