This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Sushubh

Sushubh

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Here’s How A Guy Made Flipkart Deposit Money In His Bank Account Because He Was Too Lazy

A Little Background:
I did this act of laziness and craziness in my college days. I was in final year of my engineering and final semester. This period should be declared as Lazy Period of Life.I had INR 3000 cash with me and I had to deposit them in my account. The bank was far from the hostel and opposite direction of Canteen/Market. I procrastinated for 2–3 days and did not go to the bank. Finally, I found this Idea.
Act Of Laziness:
I searched on Flipkart a product from clothing/footwear worth 3000. I found shoes worth 3099 and I ordered them to my hostel room on COD. Now the product came to me in the morning and I filed its return just after receiving and Flipkart accepted the return. The delivery boy came in the evening and collected the product. The refund in case of COD is processed by NEFT and Flipkart asks the detail of Bank account number, IFSC etc. I entered my bank account details while processing the return. I got my refund next day by NEFT in my bank account.Bingo! Cash deposited in the bank account without going there.
Click to expand...

Another guy.

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PS: Flipkart shared this link on their account.
 
Actual loser here is the seller. These marketplaces don't bother to verify whether the return claim is genuine or not. They just accept returns without asking any question. If one visits Indian online seller forums and blogs, they can find the extent of this kind of abuse happening everyday. Majority of the good sellers are fed up of this and leaving marketplaces.

India does not have strict laws and these marketplaces are too big to fight in court, for small sellers. Here is an example of abusing return policy and seller suffering - Local artisans scared to sell online? Quick look at Benarasi Saree project | IndianOnlineSeller.com.

I have seen people buying top of the line smartphones, showing them off during some functions and returning it after couple of days. The poor seller suffers here as he can not resell it to another customer and manufacturer will not accept it either. If the guys try to do same for some local store guy, they would be trashed.

Unless COD and easy return policies are stopped, Indian Ecommerce sector will not survive in long run. Sad state of affairs.
 
IMO, In longer run this will start getting reflected in prices and policies.

Sellers and Marketplaces will start charging restocking fee and will increase the prices to factor in the losses due to such practices.
 
Why would I buy online if the experience is similar to offline? There has to be a way to differentiate between the abusers and users who have genuine reasons to return a product.
 
IMO, convenience would still be there and so will be the price advantage specially in larger cities as real estate is limited an rents are sky rocketing.

Like in our area, it is simply not worth it to open a shop (unless it is a medical shop where margins are really high) as rent is very high and foot fall is limited. Retailers simply can not compete with the prices of online offerings and shops have been closing every other day.

Restocking fee ensures that you return only when you really have to.
 

I got my Pebble day before. Pebble is set to announce a new product tomorrow. I would love to have the option to return a purchase product with restocking fees within 15 days of delivery for cases like these. Right now, my options are to either fake an issue with the product and ask for a return (smartwatches are not on the list iirc) or sell it in the market at a discounted price.

PS: Assuming the new model turns out to be something that I am interested in or they reduce the price of existing models. Second one is unlikely considering the Pebble was only launched a few days ago in India.
 
I don't know how guys abuse services for fun or frauds, it pinches when you have worked hard on setting up a store online and these buggers start playing.

I've seen guys ordering jackets worth 5k, using it over the weekend and then return, ordering a phone, playing with it for a day, then return, what kind of education these people have.

And most painful is when the product is used/abused and returned and seller looses his selling fee + Shipping fee
and product comes back which can't be reshipped, as any sign of use will attract bigger penalty and more bad reviews.

What I can think is, in future there would be counselors, or return process centers, where you would need to prove your point before you would be eligible for a cash refund, I know at this stage this sound weird but if you want to have a fleet of happy sellers this would become inevitable one day.

Like we have delivery and pick-up boys, like we have store verification teams, like we have seller training team, I am sure one day Indian E-commerce industry would need to fight back against online fraud on front foot by introducing a return verification team, this idea can be worked out based on stats and smart thinking which already innovate the E-commerce in everyday life.

Even in my residence area, shopkeepers are frustrated, Small Shop rent is around 60k, and another 60k as operating cost, makes them choke and they run way making losses, while same seller can do well online but fraud like the example in OP makes them run away from joinging the e-commerce way of earning a living.
 
Personally I still feel bad for returning a full functional Redmi Note to Amazon because I did not notice that the phone did not come with an internal battery.
 
^^ you mean should have been with Sealed/Non-Removable Battery ?
 
I assumed that the phone came with internal battery. So I just took out the phone and tried to charge it. It did not charge or turned on for obvious reason. I put the phone back. Packed it up. Filed a refund request.

Since Amazon was only allowing one unit per customer. I ordered my second unit from Flipkart. I had the same experience of course. And then... I kind of... realized... my stupidity. I opened the internal packaging to see that the battery was hidden below the middle layer. Felt stupid.
 
LOL, that's a experience, how come a techie like you didn't realized that how come phone is so light.
cause without battery its very light weight 🙂


anyway which phone you are using these days ?
 
I am using the 6P right now. My last 2 phones came with internal battery so it was more like assumed factor. Redmi Note is still a pretty light phone with battery inside!
 

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