Battle with Flipkart and ESET – Day 4 (THE END!)

Read these before you read further:

Battle with Flipkart and ESET

Battle with Flipkart and ESET (day 2)

Battle with Flipkart and ESET–Day 3 (Flipkart ties itself in knots)

 

I received an email from Flipkart yesterday night (November 6, 2012):

This was ridiculous. Why? You can see the reason in my reply:

There was no reply for a day.

Later in the evening, I got a call from Flipkart admitting that it was their mistake to have put the offer and to have kept it till October 31. They offered to take back the product and give a full refund. I said that was ok, but how are they going to compensate for the time I had wasted installing the product and the data downloads for the anti-virus updates. How are they going to compensate that?

He said I could keep the anti-virus and Flipkart would offer 10 per cent of the product price for it. I refused.

The executive spoke with a higher official and hiked the amount to Rs 100. I was getting bored. Moreover, Flipkart had admitted that it was their mistake, not ESET’s.

I got an email from Flipkart confirming the same.

So, I now keep the product and have got Rs 100 as compensation.

Battle with Flipkart and ESET–Day 3 (Flipkart ties itself in knots)

 

Before reading this, see Battle with Flipkart and ESET

and

Battle with Flipkart and ESET – Day 2

I got a phone call from Flipkart apologising for the inconvenience, but the executive said Flipkart would not be able to do anything as the offer was from ESET.

Flipkart offered two options:

1. I can keep the product, and Flipkart will credit Rs 100 to my account for the inconvenience caused, or

2. I can return the product and Flipkart will credit the entire amount to my account.

I opted for the second and decided to uninstall ESET.

But there was a surprise: When I checked my email later, I found the Flipkart had sent an email saying the second year subscription would get automatically activated after 12 days.

I found that the email had come one hour before the phone call.

If this was the case, (which means the problem had been solved) why was Flipkart offering to refund the amount? I sent an email about it:

 

Flipkart’s reply was funny. Instead of acknowledging that the problem had been solved, and that there was no need for return of the product and refund, the insisted on picking up the product and offering a refund:

I wrote back asking why they were doing this.

Now, Flipkart has sent the usual reply asking for a day’s time.

So the wait continues…

Come back tomorrow for more updates on this issue.

Battle with Flipkart and ESET (day 2)

Even after 24 hours, there has been no progress, with both Flipkart and ESET India deciding to keep quiet on the issue.

It is sad that Flipkart is slipping badly on customer service. With sites like Tradus.com and homeshop18.com offering stiff competition, Flipkart may have shut shop if it continues to handle customers this way.

Battle with Flipkart and ESET

del.icio.us Tags: Flipkart,ESET,ESET antivirus,ESET Smart Security,offer,Twitter,Facebook

This shows how you can be taken for a ride by ecommerce sites like Flipkart and anti-virus / Internet security firm ESET.

Flipkart had an offer for ESET Smart Security. It offered one extra year of subscription to ESET if the product was purchased before October 31.

I bought the product on October 31, and Flipkart shipped it on the same day. But when the product got activated only for one year instead of two, I contacted ESET. Their response was that the product must have been ‘activated’ by October 31. But as you can see, Flipkart did not say anything about ‘activation’.

As you can see, even the shipment email mentions the ‘offer’.

This is ESET’s response to my email:

I have now replied to ESET and have also contacted Flipkart. I have also tweeted them ( at @flipkart and @eset_india ) I am now awaiting the response.

Let’s see…ESET may activate it for one more year or Flipkart may refund the amount. What they do will be the subject of another blog post.

I am writing this so that you can be careful while buying products – either online or offline.