My experiences buying on ebay.in

I had bought quite a number of items form ebay.in and have successfully received them, but for my last purchase on ebay.in which I did not receive and which gave me an experience in dealing with online purchases. My experiences might help you in dealing with the sellers who would wash off their hands once they get their money.

I happened to buy a Philips HQ6990 3 Head shaver from ebay seller (gadgetsadda2011) on 21st October 2011, after paying through PaisaPay online and seller was required to ship the item by 26-Oct-11 at the latest. Seller shipped the item the item on 22-Oct-11 using a local courier company DTDC with the airway bill number z48482828. The time taken by the seller was quick; the seller was required to ensure the item reaches you by 29-Oct-11 by ebay estimation. There was a note from ebay.in “Please confirm the receipt of this item through My PaisaPay once it has been delivered to you. Your payments are protected by PaisaPay. You can request a refund of your payment if the seller does not deliver the item by 29-Oct-11.”

So my waiting period started thinking the parcel will reach me fast and safe, as the parcel was expected at any time of the day I had instructed my Mom to receive the parcel from DTDC delivery boy if I was not there. As many days passed by I was still waiting for the parcel asking for my Mom if the DTDC courier delivery boy, but there was no information about the parcel. On 30-October-11 I received an email from ebay.in “Action required: You need to confirm whether you received the item or not through My PaisaPay. Important: If you do not take any action by 03-Nov-11, we will presume that you have received the item.” This is where I went wrong, I did not report to ebay.in or PaisePay. It’s a typical Indian mentality which kicked in thinking “Bidu swalpa late aagi barbahodu” and I kept on waiting and let by the deadline date 3rd Nov pass by, the ebay system automatically assumed it as I received the item and made the payment to the seller.

In the mean time I was also tracking my parcel on the DTDC website which had an update that item has been taken for Delivery. Hoping that it might arrive in a day or two I decided to wait for another two days. Two more days passed by and when the DTDC tracking portal said that item has been delivered to my home; I got alarmed, The DTDC Delivery boy never delivered the item and here on their website they have updated that it has been signed and delivered to the address. I immediately shot an email to the seller(gadgetsadda2011) the owner name is Vicky kukreja from Delhi, informing him that I haven’t received the item which he has sent. As a reply he sent me to contact the local DTDC courier support.
His email on 30-Oct-11

Dear Naveen


Please call on
9241221646
9980452368
office name shankar
nagar dtdc
call and tell ur name and address and ur courier number.
Ask him
abt ur packet.
Today is sunday may b close in ur state.
If any prob call me
on
9015588398
thanks & regards,
Vicky kukreja
gadgetsadda.com
ebay.in

As suggested by him when I called the numbers one number did not exist and the person on the other number did not know about the item and asked to called DTDC helpdesk. Then the frustration started by dealing with unprofessional courier service who. Every time I called and raised the complaint about the missing parcel the only reply was we are looking into details and we will call back to you with in 1 hour.

Call backs never happened from there side and I must have called around 10 to 15 times to get the update about my case and each time I got the same answer “we are trying to contact the delivery boy to get details”. After 3 days or so on 5th Nov, DTDC helpdesk informed that package has been lost and I have to contact the seller to get refund and they cannot help any further.

Now my fight started with the seller gadgetsadda2011(Vicky), By this time he had received the payment money from PaisePay as I did not report within 3rd November 2011. Vicky stopped responding to my emails and his phone mentioned in the email 9015588398 did not work. My last email to him was

“Hi Vicky

This is the 4th Email I am sending and you are not responding to my email. Neither you are reachable on your mobile phone. DTDC has lost the item in transit and I want the Item to be reshipped from your side. As you are not responding I have no other option but to leave negative feedback for you. Contact me asap ”

Then received a phone call from Vicky stating that he is not in Delhi and he was in Haridwar and he would look into the matter once he comes back to Delhi, Also he gave me a number of one Mr. Rohit who is from DTDC courier in Delhi and asked me to call up and check. When I called up Mr. Rohit he informed that he will look into the details and call back. He called back after couple of hours and informed that website says that parcel has been delivered, so funny I told him that your website has been incorrectly updated and someone from DTDC has stolen the parcel. He told in that case I will procure the Delivery report from the local courier from Bangalore and email the scan report and took my email address. After days passed by he never sent the report, if he had sent and if the signature was forged certainly I could have lodge a police complaint for signature forgery. As fighting with the courier guys was not headache I was concentrating with the ebay seller.

Many repeated calls to Vicky from gadgetsadda2011 went by and from 5th of Nov he kept on telling that I have contacted DTDC for refund and I will reship a new item. My argument with him was that the shipping issue was his problem with the courier company and I should not be made to wait. Seller was in consistent with his commitments he repeatedly changed his statements by saying “ask ebay for refund if you want” or “wait for 24 hrs I will ship a new item”. I opened a claim case with ebay.in(eBay Guarantee Claim # 65957 (KMM56960844V42673L0KM)), For any honest ebay store true to his salt will know that his ebay store is at stake. So pat came a reply from his side.

Below find the Case details.

Purchase: DIWALI OFFER Philips HQ6990 3 Head Rechargeable Shavers Pop Up Trimmer (#250914970606) sold to neoakanav on 21-Oct-2011.

Case status: Open - the seller has not responded yet

Please review the response from the seller below and choose an option indicating how you'd like to proceed.

neoakanav 14-Nov-2011 at 15:52:32 IST


I have been chasing you wasting on phone calls, and you do not seem to be interested in resolving my
issue. Either reship a New working item via Registered parcel. or Refund. It has been frustratinng
to deal with you and I will make sure I will not deal with you in future.
sir


please try to understand my prob.

i alrdy send u a shever,,

when i gt back my shaver

then i

send u another

 neoakanav 08-Nov-2011 at 22:58:39 IST

As per your commitment on 8th November 2011, I am waiting for 24 hours. Kindly inform me as you reship the item once again so that I can close this claim request.

Thanks

Naveen



gadgetsadda2011 08-Nov-2011 at 18:58:38 IST
The item has been shipped.
Shipping Company: DTDC
Shipping Date:
Tracking Number: z48482828
Additional Details: SIR I TALK TO THE DTDC COMPANY
PLZ WAIT 48HR
neoakanav 04-Nov-2011 at 22:36:23 IST


Item Not Received: DIWALI OFFER Philips HQ6990 3 Head Rechargeable Shavers Pop Up Trimmer (#250914970606)

Payment Method: Credit Card

Payment Date: 21-Oct-2011

As he did not keep his promise and my repeated phone calls to him from 7th November he changed his commitment as asked for another 50% of the cost of the item as he has also lost the money by dealing with the DTDC courier company. I clearly said that it is his problem to deal with the courier company and insisted him to ship a new item and categorically said that I will not be paying 50% of item cost. As I had enough of fighting with the seller, Today on 14th November 2011 I gave him Negative feedback which was pending from my side for my buying. Believe me the very next minute of me sending the feedback I got a call from Vicky(gadgetsadda2011) stating that he will be shipping a new item by Speed Post and I had to bear the courier charges only. Anybody who is a serious seller on ebay knows about the Negative feedbacks for their stores in turn it’s a negative feedback for ebay.in that provide their space to such sellers.

Here Vicky(gadgetsadda2011) may not be the directly defaulting, even he might be victim of the bad service from his courier company DTDC. By directly dealing with the DTDC courier company, I came to know that this courier company and many other courier companies like Professional courier have a very bad reputation in service.

Local Delivery boys stealing the parcel by forging the receiver signature, delivering broken items, Opening the parcel and stealing few expensive items before delivery are the norm and well know from these courier companies who operate in India. If you make a Google search for “DTDC courier complaints+Bangalore” you will find thousands of result, check this link and you will find the complaints http://www.consumercourt.in/other-services/18401-complaint-against-lost-consignment-dtdc-courier-services.html.

When I informed this to my friends one of my friend informed that this is what we get if we use cheap couriers and he uses FedEx, UPS or DHL. NRI from US return are so used for good quality of service for the price it’s hard for them to understand. A layman in our country cannot afford to ship a shaver or a puncher kit from FedEx or UPS. We have to deal with the existing system or stop using them and use alternate inexpensive but safe system in India. This entry in my blog is to make all my friends and readers aware about the existing courier service or rather lack of service in our country and how ebay.in buying can go wrong due to the existing system.

As of 14th November 2011 I am still waiting for Vicky(gadgetsadda2011) to ship a new item but this time using “India Post- Speed post” & I will have to pay for postage charges extra.
Below are few things that I plan to do if this does not work out.

1. Contact ebay.in again for refund.

2. If speed post works out. When I buy next on ebay.in in insist the ebay seller to ship it by India post-speed post.

3. Put a RTI and get info as to who forged my signature and received the parcel, so that if needed I can file a forgery complaint.

If you find this post information and if you think my experience help you in online buying on ebay.in Kindly comment on the page.

Thank you for visiting and visit again for more updates.
Update on 25\6\2012: After giving negative rating for Vicky and his eshop Vicky shipped me a sealed brand new piece of the shaver. I faith and hope on online shopping restored. After this I have shopped 2 or 3 items on ebay and with all of the I had very good experience.

Cheers
Naveen