After my successful review of Pepperfry because they took action based on that, here is another one on my recent Infibeam experience.  To be fair, I have purchased earlier from them unlike Pepperfry where it was my first order.

On 10 January, I had ordered a book on Infibeam.  The book was unavailable on other sites like Flipkart etc. and after doing search on Infibeam site, it seemed used books were available through foreign sellers.  It seems Infibeam had tie up with foreign sellers who will ship it to Infibeam and then it will be shipped to me.  But I took the chance thinking that the liability is on Infibeam to deliver it as promised so I don’t hold the risk if the foreign supplier does not ship it or sends wrong product.  Nor did they mention anything on the order screen about any possible issues due to the foreign link.

Immediately after placing the order, I realized some other sellers of the same book were selling audio version of the book and to double confirm, I emailed to Infibeam asking whether indeed it was a book and not audio version of it.  My email and the operative part of their reply are below:

My email on 10th Jan:

I would like to confirm that my order is for a paperback book, and not an audio CD/DVD version of the book.

Their reply on 11th Jan:

With respect to your email for the above mentioned order, please note that the product orderd by you is a book. I am providing you the details for the same.

After that I was travelling for a few days so couldn’t follow it up.  On 24th Jan, I sent them more details about the book with link to Amazon where same ISBN was listed with publisher being Simon & Schuster Audio and Edition as Abridged.  That was as good a warning that it was an audio and not paperback book, so I emailed them again the same day hoping they can cancel the order if it is not shipped already.

There was no response to that email nor to my follow up reminder email on 28th Jan.

On 30th Jan, I received the 2 audio cassettes in a very nice package!  The total cost of this ‘experiment’ was Rs 939.  I sent them pictures of the product the same day asking for full refund for product as well as cost of return shipping.

Now the response I get is the most interesting.  I receive this email from Infibeam the same day.

Thank you for writing to us.

Please be informed that currently we’re facing static disturbance in the phone lines from the service provider’s end, which is what is affecting customer service experience for all. While we’re working on this to bring the lines up again, there are huge number of e-mails, we’ve been receiving. There may be a little delay in responding to your e-mails, but we’ll surely get back to you.

Regards,
Infibeam Customer Service

Don’t we know that when we want to purchase something online or at offline store, whatever hitches are there are sorted out on the spot.  If the credit card is not sensed by the machine, it works on the next swipe.  If the payment does not get approved on first try, it does indeed succeeds on next try.  Hey!  When you are paying money all the troubles are sorted out pronto!

But when you want to report some problem to customer service like returning things back, no no…  What an evil has been committed on planet Earth.  Because of that the gods will put static in telephone lines, the computer systems will start to malfunction, the company’s servers will lose network connectivity.  And for the customer it will seem if the company has just wounded up and vanished.  As if it never existed in the first place!

Above: gods are angry because someone reported a wrong to customer service!

Don’t believe me?  After above email, I did not hear from Infibeam except this email on 10th Feb, a full 11 days after my email:

Thank you for writing to us. We are happy to assist you with your query.

This email is with regards to the order ID: 12414295, we have received the complaint and the images in your email and have raised the same to the concerned department. We will respond as early as possible with the resolution. I apologize for the inconvenience you had to face because of this.

I believe this information will be helpful to you.

Also, I did receive an automated email on 6th Feb to leave feedback for my recent purchase.  Well, how about a full refund, that’s my feedback!

And on 12th Feb, one of their person from customer service called up and then promised to do get it followed up and do something.  I am waiting!  In the meantime this post can do some work on educating other customers.