Fake Waybill / Tracking Number - Snapdeal's Trick

Trust is one of most important factors in any business. It's importance only grows in e-commerce business where a customer buys a product without really touching it or trying it. In India, customers pay for non-COD transactions, days in advance of shipping or delivery. Any act from business that creates mistrust between business and customer is only going to put off customers and kill the business. I was target of once such act from Snapdeal.com recently. Snapdeal claims that shipment was returned back to Snapdeal by Bluedart surface service within 36 hours of originally shipping due to I being unavailable when delivery was attempted. I never received any call from Bluedart for delivery. I thought I should write about it to find out if anybody has been target of such trick from Snapdeal.

Short story

• I ordered an exercise bike on August 26th on snapdeal.com to be shipped by September 2nd. 
• I raised a ticket with snapdeal when it was not shipped by 2nd. I was told that it will be shipped in three days or they will refund my amount. 
• It was not shipped till 5th September 5:00 pm. I noticed at 11 pm that status of order is changed to shipped and tracking number from bluedart was available. 
• Shipment wasn't trackable on bluedart website even till September 7th, 8:00 am. That is when I raised another request. I was informed by email in less than two hours that my shipment is returned by courier service because no one was available on my end when delivery was attempted. I raised various questions to snapdeal (mentioned later in blog) which was promised to be answered by Monday (September 9th) . 
• My questions have not been answered yet. My order was canceled on September 8th. 
• My credit card account was refunded with amount on September 9th.

Important points 

• I never received any call from Bluedart regarding delivery. 
• This order was shipped using Bluedart surface as it was heavy good weighing around 25 kg. Order was delivered from Delhi to Bangalore. According to Bluedart website, it should take 4 days. But according to snapdeal, "shipment - attempt to delivery - return" happened within 36 hours. 
• Shipment was never trackable on bluedart website. 
• Snapdeal has not attempted to answer a single question that I have raised. 

Questions raised to snapdeal and not answered yet

• From which city was product shipped?
• At exactly what time was product shipped? According to my knowledge it is late night on September 5, 2013. I will take this as date and time, unless you give me proof from courier.
• Waybill Number from Bluedart and screenshot of receipt from Bluedart confirming this.
• Whom did Bluedart call and at what time before confirming non-delivery?
• At what time Snapdeal received information from Bluedart regarding shipment being returned? Please send proof of this from Bluedart (electronic or paperwork). 

Long Story

1. I ordered Viva Fitness KH 704 RB Programmable Magnetic Recumbent Bike from Snapdeal on August 26th 2013. Order No. 1213229730. It was suppose to be ship by September 2nd. Shipping address is of Bangalore.
2. Order was not shipped till September 2nd 2013. So, I raised a ticket (Request number 3082059) with them. I was told on September 3rd by email that they are unable to procure this item. They will ship my order in 3 days or cancel the order and refund money.
   
   
   
   
   
3. On September 5th, order was not shipped till 5 pm. It finally showed shipped on website at around 11 pm. It was sent by Bluedart courier Service, with tracking number - 50220143691. But I could not track the courier on blue dart website. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. I kept trying to check the bluedart courier website to track the shipment. On September 7th, 8:15 am (less than 36 hours after shipping), I raised another ticket with Snapdeal ( Request number 3134851) as I was unable to track shipment. I was responded back that my shipment has been returned to them "because no one was available when the delivery was attempted from their end." 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. I have raised earlier mentioned questions with snapdeal on call and by email but have not received any response. I was promised that I will get response by Monday September 9th. 
6. On September 7th (same day), 2:00 pm, I got email from snapdeal that my order has been canceled and I will be refunded back the amount.
   
   
   
   
   
7. On September 8th, I got survey from snapdeal for request number 3134851. I suspect they closed the ticket. In funny mail, they mentioned the last response from their team which was actually email that I sent to them. :)
   
   
   
   
   
8. On September 9th, I raised another ticket requesting to answer my question. They responded that Bluedart website has removed data regarding this waybill number from their website. Quite funny haan!! I once again asked them to get all the answers to my previous questions. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. On September 9th, Snapdeal refunded amount to my account. I must admit much refund was faster than I would have ever expected. 
10. On September 10th, I ordered another exercise bike from another website. :)

Another possibility 

As per the cancellation email, seller for this item is Walchemist Life Care Pvt. Ltd. who also have ecommerce website - healthee.in. When I ordered this item from snapdeal, same item was being sold on healthee.in for approximately Rs 15,500. I decided to shell out extra as I was more confident on snapdeal than healthee. But after couple of days of ordering on snapdeal, price on healthee.in raised to Rs 17,325. Snapdeal website still has same price of Rs 16823 on their website. Probably, seller Walchemist Life Care don't want to sell through / to Snapdeal for the lower price anymore. 

More Cases of fake waybill number from Snapdeal

• http://gearheads.in/showthread.php?17993-SnapDeal-Whats-the-deal/page2 (post by fernando and Mudhalaipatti )
• http://www.grahakseva.com/complaints/116754/snapdeal-is-misleading-the-people-by-giving-discounts-and-later-on-cancelling-it
• http://freekaamaal.com/discuss/Thread-beware-of-snapdeal (post by atherM)
• http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Snapdeal-com-review-ruqqlponrr (comment by nalinitagore)
• http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/snapdealcom-cheating-c826790.html
• http://consumer.admanya.com/review_snapdeal_com_online_shopping_e_com-5151.html
• https://twitter.com/amitrocksu/status/375600635967586306

Update - September 11th 2013

After publishing this post yesterday, I received a call from Snapdeal today at around 11 am. CSR was apologetic and empathetic. She accepted that mistake was from their end. From information available to her, she said that vendor has shipped but most probably courier service didn't accept the shipment. This is different from their previous stand that I was not  available when delivery was attempted. (I don't accept this story either). She said that she will talk to their logistic team and get back to me latest by tomorrow morning (September 12th). I have demanded a written reply from them confirming that order was never shipped.

Update - September 12th 2013

I did not get any email or call from Snapdeal. Got following reply on twitter. Snapdeal could not keep another promise.

Adarsh Munjal (@TheBigBhookad) started a hashtag - #SnapdealSucks on twitter. He was able to get his order shipped at 4 pm. Snapdeal missed two of their deadline - yesterday evening and today morning 10 am.

Update - September 13th 2013

As expected, Snapdeal didn't follow up with me on this. They didn't even have courtesy to reply me on this. 

Monica from snapdeal promised a reply to me by 11th September. I hope I am the last person to whom they didn't keep the commitment. Snapdeal also has changed the order status to returned which is a complete lie. It should be either in canceled status or never shipped. 

Also, price of the machine has been raised by Rs 1200. So, this proves my point that I put in section- Another Possibility above.

While I was fighting with Snapdeal, Healthkart shipped my order in less than 3 days. The would have shipped another 6 hours earlier if I would have been at home. :)

Since Snapdeal is showing such indifferent behavior towards it customer and rude to an extent of not replying, I am not going to try to communicate with them any further. Snapdeal, It was sad shopping at your site.