Online Customer Cheating

This is for those who are into online shopping..

A warning..

I am not saying NO to online shopping..Surely not..

But there are real dangers in online shopping.. 

I will narrate a personal experience here, so that it will be a lesson for every one..

I already learned my lesson from my experience..

As I said above, I am not going to say that online shopping is bad..

In-fact, there are quite a good number of online sites like flipkart, infibeam..

I have done a lot of online shopping from these sites, I do not have any bad experience from them, atleast till now..

And perhaps this prompted me to go for further online shopping, looking for other online sites as well..

The intention of this blog post is to narrate my experience of doing an online purchase from a particular site.

I am not going to name the site - as of now.

Let me call it 'fraud_1' site.

Myself and my sister were looking to buy a mobile phone for my father. He had a CDMA set which had developed some problems, so we wanted to go for a new set.

With the good experiences we had with online shopping in flipkart, infibeam, we decided to got for online shopping.

A search in those sites on a CDMA phone did not yield a satisfactory result. That's when we decided to check other online sites.

And we came to 'fraud_1' site.

Found a Blackberry 8830 CDMA mobile.

Cost was Rs.3999.We went for Cash On Delivery option.

So with the 100 rupee shipping charge, the phone cost was Rs.4100.

An online purchase order was submitted.

After few days I got an sms on 12-April-2012, asking me to contact them regarding my order, because they were unable to contact me (which itself should be a blatant lie, because I am always reachable on my mobile).

I was given 2 numbers and asked to contact between 10AM & 7PM. Whenever I tried to call them, these numbers were either busy  or switched-off!!

When the delivery was getting delayed, I send a reminder in 'contact us' link of 'fraud_1' .

Eventually after I received it, I was in for a big disappointment when I opened the box and checked the phone.

It was a phone which was tagged to Verizon network. So effectively this phone cannot be used in India, unless you unlock it !!

I looked to reach out to 'fraud_1''s customer care through 'contact us' link, asking for help.

I got utterly irritated by their so-called customer care. No one contacted me.

So I decided to take things into my own hand and taking assistance from online material on how to unlock the phone, after a full night and day's effort, managed to make the phone to accept GSM SIM cards.

I am still not able to crack the CDMA part and I may have to go some where and pay for it !!

HERE, I want to warn whoever is thinking of doing an online purchase to be very careful.

Especially those who are looking to buy gadgets, BE CAREFUL.

The so-called customer care of 'fraud_1' - they don't even call you or reply to you, if you raise a concern with them for help. That's my experience.

The minimum they should have done, once an incident like this is reported back to them about a purchase from their site, is to either call the customer or contact through mail and atleast try to understand what's the problem.

Not responding at all is NOT A SOLUTION, I am afraid, it's a PROBLEM.

Especially, if you are into customer service.

Online Indian sites like  'fraud_1' should not be selling a MOBILE PHONE which is tagged to an American carrier - in this case Verizon - in India.

I think this is a phone purchased by 'fraud_1' in the grey market and made available for online customers.

Their website does not give any info to suggest that this phone is a locked one and is useless in India, unless you unlock the phone.

It's a mistake on my part as well that I did not do enough research about the phone before thinking of buying it. I should also have searched a bit to check for the reputation of 'fraud_1'.

After this incident when I searched net, I found  lot of materials where-in lot of customers complained about 'fraud_1'.

So before going for online shopping - talking from experience here - make sure to check the reputation of the site.

As for me personally, I will look at various options to make sure that no one else get into the 'fraud_1' trap !!

Awareness is required, and this blog post is one way in which I thought of getting to my fellow countrymen..

Please don't get cheated by fraud online sites like 'fraud_1'..!!

As I said earlier, I am not going to personally name the 'fraud_1' site.

Let me repeat :

Make sure to search and verify the reputation of the site before doing an online purchase.

Mamata Magic 4 Tragic People of WB

Party : Trinamool Congress

Leader : Mamata Banerjee

Core asset : Thrown-out the 34 year rule of Left-front in WB.

(Probably, there was no other alternative and people were very desperate to get out of the left rule.
And Mamata and her party TMC benefited).

Strength : Gimmickry.

Current Role : Chief Minister of West Bengal (WB).

(Probably, after 'enjoying' her 'rule' for the past few months, people of WB might have already decided
that this should be her only tenure as the CM of WB.Can't blame them).

In the history of India, we may not be able to find another example of a person who came to a position of authority with so much good-will, but squandered it all away soooo quickly.

Girls got raped in WB : Mamta angrily says it's all rubbish and only a conspiracy to malign her government.

When a woman police officer investigates and found that cases of rape were indeed true, she is transferred.

Mamta's minister exhorts his partymen to socially boycott opposition party members.So in-effect, he is asking his partymen to encourage untouchability towards a significant portion of the population of WB.

Mamta herself keeps skipping important meetings called by the Prime Minister of India, even though she is an important member of UPA and CM of an important state.

A professor is arrested for forwarding a mail containing a cartoon on Mamta.

She orders that libraries in WB should only display those newspapers she dictates.

All in all....

The question is :

What is wrong with the new Chief Minister of West Bengal ??

Looks like she is finding it hard to transform herself from a street fighter against the Left-front government to be the CM of WB.

When she was in the opposition, each and every thing that happened, according to her, was the government conspiracy.

Now, she is the government..So she cannot allege government conspiracy..

She should not think that the people of WB are fools.
Ok, they made a fool of themselves believing Mamata and elected her, but at the next available opportunity they will definitely throw her out of power, if things go like this.

Uttar Pradesh - Any thing different this time ?

So..
then..
yes..
We have a new dawn in Lucknow.. 'DAWN not DON'..Hopefully..

A new 'son' rise..
A new beginning..
A refreshing positive change..
A young, dynamic,caring  Chief Minister..youngest CM of UP..
Only 38 years old..(But Rahul retired at 38. Well, not Rahul Gandhi, Rahul Dravid. But yeah, that's cricket, this is politics. 38 means toooooo young in poli. Milk drinking kid.
Ask Rahul Gandhi. But the thing with Mr.Gandhi is that instead of milk, he is eating humble pie, right now..Anyways, that's out of scope of this.)

UP is going to be the next 'God's own Country' !
Still can't figure out how Kerala came to be called as 'God's own Country'.But yes, I know, it's a tourism ad campaign purely to fool foreign tourists :)
Seen many tourists who got influenced by the campaign - only to come to Kerala and forced to put hands on nose seeing some of the foul smelling by-lanes...

That's ok.Leave Kerala..UP is the topic here.. :/
All is well..Young CM, refreshing change, end to goondaraj etc..
Happy days ahead..!! Thrilling days..!!

BUT wait..

Of the 47 ministers sworn-in along with the new, young CM, 28 has criminal charges against them!!
One of them, one Bhayya, has 8 serious criminal cases including murder charges against him!!!! Give him the home ministry, please..Let his control the UP police!!
Good, great going..SP motto is 'end of goondaraj'..Believe them..
They will end goondas with goondas..

It's some sort of a variant of 'for the people, by the people..'
'for the goondas, by the goondas..'

The day the elections results were coming out and when it was apparent that SP is going to form the government, SP workers, went on the rampage in many places of UP.. Beating up villagers who did not vote for them, journalists and BSP workers..
All really good signs for UP..

Probably as usual, after a year of SP rule, people will be DESPERATELY waiting for 4 more years..
To get an option to throw out this government.. Mayawati will come back then..More elephant statues and Mayawati statues..
I mean, this is a cyclic process..

People were eagerly waiting to throw out Mayawati..
With no other available alternative, they brought back SP hoping that the new, young SP leader Akhilesh Yadav will be different..
Well, before the elections he was trying to project himself as different..
After the elections, it seems like 'old wine in new bottle'..

Atleast, that's what it looks like..

If I am proved wrong, and if UP prospers under Akhilesh, then really great..
Else, ya, 'as usual'...that's it..

Probably Akhilesh Yadav's hands are tied..
And these compromises are part of it..
Any way, wishing him all the best as the youngest ever Chief Minister of the biggest state of India.