Look before you Leap

I am sure that quite a few of you may have had some unpleasant experience while doing online shopping. Let me share my own.

This incident is related to a very popular ecommerce website. After hearing a lot of positive responses from my friends, I decided to make a purchase myself. Normally I avoid shopping on internet as I feel uncomfortable doing so. However in this case, I was attracted by a decent offer, that is on a particular game[for the PS2] which I had always desired.

So I placed an order for it. It was mentioned that I would receive the product in 5 business days. I waited for a week, becoming a little impatient before I finally received an unexpected email. In the mail it was mentioned that my order had been cancelled as they could not find that game anywhere. To say I was shocked after reading this would be an understatement. I sent them an email asking for an explanation. They replied that they do not keep any stock with themselves in the office, and after an order is placed they go and purchase it from their vendors. However in my case, none of the vendors had the item. To which I asked- Why didnt you put an Out of Stock message in that case? I got this reply-'When you placed the order, we had the product. But when we went to the vendor to get it, it went out of stock.'

I found that a laughable excuse for a company as reputed as theirs. Is there no record maintained for the availability of the product? In any case my amount was refunded. There was nothing to be done either.

Some time later, I decided to place an order for the same item again[I admit it, I am a desperate gamer]. This time the message was-'Item in stock. Delivered in 3 business days.' This time I got the item within 4 days itself[thanks largely to the highly efficient Bluedart courier service- It also replied to my email in 10 minutes]. I was overjoyed on getting the item at last. Finally after so many turn-arounds I could play my game in peace. But- yes you guessed right, my joy was shortlived. On opening the packet, I was shocked to see a different game than the one I had ordered. Let me explain with an analogy- 'Suppose I had ordered FIFA 2011. They sent me FIFA 2007 instead.'

It may have been a genuine mistake. Or it is also possible that they never had the actual game in the first place, and sent me that older game which I did not want. But the bottomline is- Why on earth did they make such a blunder? This was completely unexpected from a service as reputed as theirs. I guess the moral of the story is that even Big companies make Big mistakes.

I mailed them about the incident. My tone clearly displayed my disappointment. They have replied saying that they are sorry for the inconvenience. And I am waiting to see what happens next. Will they replace the item, or refund my money or do neither?

Next time you order something online be careful. Things may not go as planned. The advantage of purchasing an item from an actual shop is that you know what you are going to get. Thats all I have to say. If you have any interesting experience of your own, do post it here, or give me the link of the same.