'Flipkart sent me junk instead of a Nikon D800 camera' 'Flipkart sent me junk instead of a Nikon D800 camera'

Image courtesy: therodinhoods.com

... complains a blogger, whose posts on Facebook, Twitter and other online mediums are creating a flutter on E-commerce portals' delivery model

News | by CIOL Correspondent

BANGALORE, INDIA: There are several reasons why Indian consumers are still apprehensive about ordering high-value goods online - read, E-commerce portals.

Certainly, risk factors like physical damage, non-delivery, delayed processing of request, replacement of goods and chances of being cheated weigh heavily on their minds. And it is not worth spending so much on a product, if the outcome is going to be one of the above.

Over the last couple of days, an informal consumer complaint has been floating around on social media websites, including Facebook and Twitter, apart from blogspots.

It talks about how the famous E-commerce portal, Flipkart, allegedly delivered junk in lieu of a Nikon D800 camera on therodinhoods.com - a forum for knowledge-sharing among entrepreneurs.

The blogpost by one Alok Khemka narrates how he ordered a camera on the portal last Thursday, but ended up receiving some junk in the camera box on Saturday. "While i am still fighting with them over this issue, I would like to put forth a discussion wherein I strongly feel that Flipkart's own systems are not in order and they are making the customer a scapegoat to hide this," (sic), it accuses.

"When i countered Flipkart customer care, they said that at times, some other orders reach the wrong customer. I am terribly confused, when did flipkart start selling junk products, is this a new product line," it goes on, "After 5 mins, the person finally understood that there is a serious gap and asked for some time." (sic)

Upon supposedly reaching his wits' end after taking it up with Flipkart customer care and the courier agency concerned without much results, Khemka writes that he started posting the image of the junk in the camera box and his experience on FB, Twitter, blogs and FB DPEG page.

Apparently, the portal's social media team rang him up sometime after he spread the word on Facebook and Twitter, requesting him to be patient.

Khemka has posed two questions to the E-commerce portal, on whether it is trying to cover up some gap in its own system by shifting the blame to customers and as to why it is not keen on selling high-value products, which supposedly were removed from the website.