Why Amazon is better than Flipkart any day (Amazon has become even worse than Flipkart nowadays)
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Update : Never expected that Amazon would go to the dogs so soon.
I have bought many mobiles from Flipkart over a period of years. There have been at least 5 instances when the price of the mobile came down (once as high as 1000 bucks) within two or three days of delivery. Not a single time have they compensated it so far in the form of a GV or wallet money. Every time those parrots keep repeating the same old thing… Prices depend on the seller and we cannot do anything about it, blah, blah, blah… Even though the seller has been WSRetail in all these instances. Since I’m not used to persuasive or coercive talking, I just listen to this sh!t and cut the call.
Had this been Amazon, things would happen exactly the opposite way. If Both Amazon and Flipkart continue with what they are doing, I’m sure Flipkart will be watered down by Amazon very soon.
Mark my words, Flipkart: “Your days are numbered!” 
YOU! 
@raghupro wrote:
@cm4444 wrote:
Bought a mobile from Amazon last week at 11,999. Price came down to 10,999 within 24 hrs of delivery of my order. But they refused to entertain any requests from my side.
@Magus
K4 note? Why not just tell them that you need a replacement for xyz reason? Amazon is mostly providing a refund than replacement of late.
There is only replacement no refund on Amazon
@cybertechie wrote:
I agree with you that Amazon is miles ahead than FK. FK has been under tremendous pressure off late from investors to cut costs to improve bottom lines. Unfortunately, the measures they took to cut the costs has been customer/seller unfriendly. For instance, 30 days replacement policy has been reduced to 10 days. Seller commission increased by multi folds. They have also started to outsource call center operations to unreliable companies. The other day someone mentioned that FK call center outsourced staff’s are paid 6-8k as wages in Bangalore
Even telcos pays better to their call center staffs. Amazon on the other hand has solid return policy and most of their support staff are in house with excellent wages..
I believe investors have clearly told FK that they won’t be pouring in any more funds. FK days are numbered and investors are probably waiting for a bakra who could buy FK.
it is really disappointing that a startup i once loved/admired the most has gone to the dogs. I was one of the earliest customers of FK. Their support staff back then used to be polished, well spoken and very professional . I mean the kind of service FK provided during initial days reminded me of Singalore airlines staff. I have only placed 2 orders with FK in the past 1 year. On the other hand, my Amazon order history reads 39 orders in last 6 months. That says it all
Whenever i see your post, i read in awe. Love ur posts. 
the company who the guts to start the loot in ecommerce (the first big billion day), is coming to such a end. Sad to see.
@faisalgamer wrote:
the company who the guts to start the loot in ecommerce (the first big billion day), is coming to such a end. Sad to see.
It would indeed be sad for the entire ecommerce industry in India. If a behemoth like FK shuts down, Investors will completely loose confidence in Indian Ecommerce system. We will never see good discounts. Even the likes of Amazon will cut down discounts, increase prices if competition is erased. Year 2017 will see a huge change in Ecommerce industry.
While on a holiday to Gold Coast, I bought some sunglasses which I eventually did not wear ever.
I went back to the Zara store after 25 days of purchase and they refunded me the amount in cash!
No hassles, whatsoever.
Similar experience in Eastern Europe.
But I think those are really customer centric markets, unlike India. 
+ GST refunds for tourists at Airport is awesome saving!
@19 Female Gurgaon wrote:
While on a holiday to Gold Coast, I bought some sunglasses which I eventually did not wear ever.
I went back to the Zara store after 25 days of purchase and they refunded me the amount in cash!No hassles, whatsoever.
Similar experience in Eastern Europe.But I think they are those are really customer centric markets, unlike India.
+ GST refunds for tourists at Airport is awesome saving!
Anybody will you make refund to your dp.
@cybertechie wrote:
I agree with you that Amazon is miles ahead than FK. FK has been under tremendous pressure off late from investors to cut costs to improve bottom lines. Unfortunately, the measures they took to cut the costs has been customer/seller unfriendly. For instance, 30 days replacement policy has been reduced to 10 days. Seller commission increased by multi folds. They have also started to outsource call center operations to unreliable companies. The other day someone mentioned that FK call center outsourced staff’s are paid 6-8k as wages in Bangalore
I believe investors have clearly told FK that they won’t be pouring in any more funds. FK days are numbered and investors are probably waiting for a bakra who could buy FK.
it is really disappointing that a startup i once loved/admired the most has gone to the dogs. I was one of the earliest customers of FK. Their support staff back then used to be polished, well spoken and very professional . I mean the kind of service FK provided during initial days reminded me of Singalore airlines staff. I have only placed 2 orders with FK in the past 1 year. On the other hand, my Amazon order history reads 39 orders in last 6 months. That says it all
Investors are waiting it out for the so called unicorns and mature startups to set their game right and start generating positive cash flows. Gone are the days when these companies used to burn money at a very rapid rate for customer acquisition.
I have read several opinions online about how it makes sense for Alibaba to invest significantly in Flipkart and then merge Paytm, Snapdeal and Flipkart to battle it out against Amazon. Alibaba already has significant control over Paytm and Snapdeal anyways and I think this will be a very possible move eventually.
India being the second most populated nation globally and the fastest to add more users online year over year it makes sense for Alibaba to jump right in. Apart from the aggregation of existing players I don’t see any other way for either Flipkart or Snapdeal or Paytm to counter the expertise and competition that Amazon brings on to the table.
Not to forget Paytm owns at payments market and Flipkart USED to rock customer service, Snapdeal is just kind of a necessary aggregation. The combined expertise of these three e-commerce portals with immense experience of Alibaba stand a really good chance against Amazon in India.
@19 Female Gurgaon wrote:
While on a holiday to Gold Coast, I bought some sunglasses which I eventually did not wear ever.
I went back to the Zara store after 25 days of purchase and they refunded me the amount in cash!No hassles, whatsoever.
Similar experience in Eastern Europe.But I think they are those are really customer centric markets, unlike India.
+ GST refunds for tourists at Airport is awesome saving!
It’s just a matter of time before the Indian market matures to being customer centric. It’s already happening in most sectors in minor ways.
Chinese are much smarter than Americans when it comes to money. Alibaba will never buy FK at present valuation. FK’s valuation is inflated. it makes more sense for Alibaba to launch independently and use the warehouse/delivery from SD.
@cybertechie wrote:
Chinese are much smarter than Americans when it comes to money. Alibaba will never buy FK at present valuation. FK’s valuation is inflated. it makes more sense for Alibaba to launch independently and use the warehouse/delivery from SD.
Flipkart is not overvalued at all now, after the second cut of valuation announced by more investors the current valuation is just around $9 billion. It’s in no way a huge valuation compared to $157 billion valuation Alibaba has with $15 billion annual revenue.
And alibaba might look for a major stake in FK and not a complete buyout. Even if a complete buyout has to be made they can easily opt for cash + equity.
Is this the beginning of the end for Big e-Commerce?
Ratul Ghosh
Founder @ShopWest.IN, Head Strategy @eBay, Strategy @Philips, @HCL, @TAS
e-Commerce in India has come a long way, from an unheard of, untrusted fad to a mainstream tide that lifted all boats. The top-3 e-Commerce companies were suddenly bigger than the top-10 offline retailers. Flipkart was more valuable than most other physical retailers combined, and then we got our poster-tech-billionaires, unicorns and basically everything but a Bharat Ratna. Amazon rolled in with outsized multiple billion dollar cheques, e-Commerce companies started hiring from the Valley and Ivy League, market forecasts were always beaten and it didn’t look like there was any other way but up.
Now the news is more mixed. There’s some hiring deferred, some lay-offs, some offices closed, some old horses leaving, some new expensive horses leaving, quotes around ‘not chasing GMV’ anymore, DIPP guidelines to curtail price-cutting and quasi-retail, valuation cuts, funding squeezes and so on. The grapevine says GMV has plateaued or dropped for many Indian players. Globally Tiger sold stake in Amazon (on that note, even Bezos sold).
So where are we?
I think it’s hard to comment on the shape of a graph while it’s been drawn. If it flattens, it can mean a dip is coming. It can however also mean that there’s a point of inflection coming up. Maybe now the graph will rise again, after ‘adjustment’ for the ‘bought’ GMV and buyers – that’s an easy enough logic to believe. Or maybe it will drop – now that’s tough to believe if you look at hoe underpenetrated retail in general and e-Commerce in particular is in India. Or maybe it will rise, but not as fast as before.
I feel it’s the latter.
But, and there’s always a but, it’ll be different. The DIPP guidelines make it difficult for a marketplace to ‘intervene’ in prices, so that’s a directive in favor of free marketplaces – those that don’t charge a hundred sellers to spend on one selected seller (and that’s why I feel the choice of reducing seller fee is better than increasing it, but more on that later; and which is why Alibaba, which has experience running the free Tmall, and Snapdeal – because they have a zero-fee platform called Shopo, are better placed, but again, more on that later). Customers may make make their buying decisions more on convenience and availability than on price, which was one of the fundamental pillars of eCommerce before the VCs came in. eCommerce itself may move more towards hard-to-find and not-found-elsewhere tail of Pareto than just a lower price on the latest iPhone, and geographical coverage for delivery and returns may mean a lot more, including language coverage, than before. The business of eCommerce could have also changed from wild purchased growth to managing boring business basics. In short the game has changed.
[This post was originally published on July 4th, 2016 on ET Retail]
Amazon too have stopped entertaining such requests now. Mostly they will issue a Rs100-200 GV if you persuade too much. No way they refund the difference if it’s >1000.
@Tanuj Batra wrote:
Amazon too have stopped entertaining such requests now. Mostly they will issue a Rs100-200 GV if you persuade too much. No way they refund the difference if it’s >1000.
Really? Not even within a 2-3 day period? A disappointing move.
@Magus wrote:
@Tanuj Batra wrote:
Amazon too have stopped entertaining such requests now. Mostly they will issue a Rs100-200 GV if you persuade too much. No way they refund the difference if it’s >1000.
Really? Not even within a 2-3 day period? A disappointing move.
Not even if the price reduces next day.
To get good offers from Amazon always, we need Flipkart to be there.
@shindecs21851 wrote:
i had some credits in flipkart expiring within 15 days (from the days of payumoney or new refereal tricks
)
and had to consume it anyhow … every product i chose …had better deals on amazon ..or free shipping advantage or quality/choice advantage … finally used credits on some led bulbs , perfumes and bedsheets…. which i could have got cheaper on amazon…
willl never buy flipkart gift vouchers unless its loot or good cashback
i am also in a similar condition 
but here is a positive for flipart, bought an honor holly and 800rs reduced the next day, they refunded the difference in wallet 
a negative for amazon… was checking this helmet from morning http://www.amazon.in/Vega-Cliff-Full-Helmet-Bla...
as it was in lightening deals at 8pm , wanted to buy it. it was at 694 and suddenly at 8pm it changed to 704 and withing few minutes 100% people claimed it 
@cm4444 wrote:
Bought a mobile from Amazon last week at 11,999. Price came down to 10,999 within 24 hrs of delivery of my order. But they refused to entertain any requests from my side.
@Magus
y dont u retrun mobile and make new buy ?
I prefer amazon to flipkart. To quote an example of today – I got an order with shampoo and hand-wash bottle and a few other groceries . Amazon messed up and the bottle of shampoo was open leading to the whole carton being messed up. Immediately was a refund issued without even asking for pics regarding the same. Infact I had to go forward and ask them not to refund for the hand-wash bottle as leakage won’t have an impact on a sealed bottle.
Flipkart would have refunded? Maybe but the hassle of the long process I would have had to take would not have been worth. Maybe I would have not followed up with them knowing I would have to spend 2 3 hours in total on phone to get my 300 odd bucks back.
Flipkart has a policy to refund any difference in price within the exchange period. I always got it, no questions asked.
@adnan_d92 wrote:
Flipkart has a policy to refund any difference in price within the exchange period. I always got it, no questions asked.
i tried and failed to get the balance amount, what is to be said?,
@adnan_d92 wrote:
Flipkart has a policy to refund any difference in price within the exchange period. I always got it, no questions asked.
They didn’t honour it even once for me. Is there any explicit statement by Flipkart in this regard which I can cite?
My last purchase in Flipkart for month back iI prefer amazon
@Magus wrote:I’m not aware if there are such statements. Just sharing my experience and what the cc told me.
@adnan_d92 wrote:
Flipkart has a policy to refund any difference in price within the exchange period. I always got it, no questions asked.
They didn’t honour it even once for me. Is there any explicit statement by Flipkart in this regard which I can cite?
@adnan_d92 wrote:
I’m not aware if there are such statements. Just sharing my experience and what the cc told me.
Check chat. 
@adnan_d92 wrote:
Flipkart has a policy to refund any difference in price within the exchange period. I always got it, no questions asked.
hehe no
Once i purchased a tablet like an year ago and within 4 days the price reduced by 5k
When i contacted them, they always kept saying that these prices are dynamic and they dont have any control over the prices
Although the seller is WSRetail ,they were like i purchased something from a third party seller
Finally after conversations with CC guys and even officials of higher ranks finally asked them to take the device back which they happily did.
May be if the price difference is like 500 or 1000, there are chances that they will issue a GV as compensation thats it
For some reason, i am not* liking amazon either these days
These cc guys are always ready to issue a compensation rather than providing good service
@getready wrote:
hehe no
Once i purchased a tablet like an year ago and within 4 days the price reduced by 5k
When i contacted them, they always kept saying that these prices are dynamic and they dont have any control over the prices
Although the seller is WSRetail ,they were like i purchased something from a third party seller
Finally after conversations with CC guys and even officials of higher ranks finally asked them to take the device back which they happily did.
May be if the price difference is like 500 or 1000, there are chances that they will issue a GV as compensation thats it
Ah! The standard phrase those parrots repeat!
Even I told them they could never make such an excuse with WSRetail but they were not ready for a reasonable talk. 
They took the tablet back instead of matching the price or even offering a consolation GV?!
Bloody @$$h0l3s gave everyone a GV worth Rs.200 when they could not honour orders for a PD at Re.1/- (Though I never supported it as it was absolutely stupid and was not a beneficiary either.)
That says a lot about how much they have changed for worse. Seems they are not at all interested in retaining even their loyal customers. I’m beginning to feel disgusted about their treatment of customers.
@Magus wrote:They like only their rules, customers not matters for them.@getready wrote:
hehe no
Once i purchased a tablet like an year ago and within 4 days the price reduced by 5k
When i contacted them, they always kept saying that these prices are dynamic and they dont have any control over the prices
Although the seller is WSRetail ,they were like i purchased something from a third party seller
Finally after conversations with CC guys and even officials of higher ranks finally asked them to take the device back which they happily did.
May be if the price difference is like 500 or 1000, there are chances that they will issue a GV as compensation thats it
Ah! The standard phrase those parrots repeat!
Even I told them they could never make such an excuse with WSRetail but they were not ready for a reasonable talk.They took the tablet back instead of matching the price or even offering a consolation GV?!
Bloody @$$h0l3s gave everyone a GV worth Rs.200 when they could not honour orders for a PD at Re.1/- (Though I never supported it as it was absolutely stupid and was not a beneficiary either.)
That says a lot about how much they have changed for worse. Seems they are not at all interested in retaining even their loyal customers. I’m beginning to feel disgusted about their treatment of customers.
If someone Want to counter Flipkart in any circumstances, read their rule book carefully
I purchased canvas Xpress 2 from flipkart in new launch nearly year ago. From the first day the problem was in the phone about battery life only 2 hours. I contacted flipkart for the 30 days replacement warranty. But everyday taking with flipkart for 15 days they didn’t replace my phone. Then they told me to install a app and they will operate the phone from their office and after operating for 1 min max they said phone is working fine and refused to even replace. Finally I went to micromax cc and they sent the phone to the company and after 1.5 month I got my phone back .
@19 Female Gurgaon wrote:
While on a holiday to Gold Coast, I bought some sunglasses which I eventually did not wear ever.
I went back to the Zara store after 25 days of purchase and they refunded me the amount in cash!No hassles, whatsoever.
Similar experience in Eastern Europe.But I think those are really customer centric markets, unlike India.
+ GST refunds for tourists at Airport is awesome saving!
Tum kya Ambani ki beti ho? Ya phir shayad beta.
 for Rs. at ){kind=link}
+1
CC @chetanc12