indianroots
E-Commerce has got a big boost from the government and everybody is gung-ho about the billion dollar investment pouring in for E-Commerce in India. But are the consumers happy? Is it a ‘bubble’ like the ‘Dot Com’ business that will eventually burst? Is it a business plan, which is doctored to lure in huge investments from Private Equity Funds and then go bust?
There are lot of evils that puts the Indian E-Commerce business in peril. It has become the haven for peddlers of fake luxury brands. Every time I log in to my E-Mail account, I receive spam mails that are peddling me Hermes Belts for Rupees 1500, Tory Burch clutches for Rupees 3000 and so on and so forth. Abercrombie & Fitch is peddled by every Online Retailer for anywhere between Rs. 750 to Rs. 1500. Rediff Shopping is selling Hermes Calfskin Belt for Rs. 7000. Can you believe it to be ‘original’? There is nobody to control this ‘Dirty Business’ and there are many uniformed customers who waste their hard-earned money on these fakes thinking they are original. PE Funds from US and Europe that are investing in Indian E-Commerce business are surely doing damage by helping the fly-by-night operators that are damaging the homegrown brands of their own country.
Apparel Retail and that too the ‘Online Retail’ of designer brands is the biggest E-Commerce sham that is plaguing the industry. Deliveries are delayed; you order ‘red’ but you get ‘yellow’; you oder denim and you are delivered cotton chinos and then you start the never-ending chase for your refund or the product you ordered. NDTV Group’s Online Business – Indianroots.com that ran high-profile advertisements stating they sell ‘Sabyasachi’ and ‘Anita Dongre’ but has numerous customers who had harrowing experience, mostly NRI’s. NDTV is a great Brand and has goodwill but the group’s E-Commerce venture – Indianroots.com has marred NDTV’s image today. Here is a fellow blogger’s experience with the Online Retailer:
Hi,
You may want to read this blog post here…
http://www.adorableonyourvanity.com/2014/04/retailer-review-online-shopping-with-indian-roots/
I thought my experience was just mine, but still thought I’d make a blog post on it. Turns out many people have been going through the shit they are running. Orders are never shipped until you stalk them day and night and are often incomplete with no sign of customer service whatsoever. They don’t seem to refund for the items they conveniently forget to ship. Prices are ridiculously escalated for those abroad. All this from a reputed brand house called NDTV, for christ’s sake.
But what happened later was even more amusing. I got an email from Sumanta Sengupta – head of online marketing of Indianroots…
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umanta Sengupta <SumantaS@ndtv.com> |
Jul 28 |
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to Shivani |
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Hi Shivani,
I am Sumanta from the Indianroots team. I came across your blog while checking our social reputation. I see that there are a lot of people who have reported their issues on your blog. We were deeply concerned by the conversations on the page.
We would like to reach out to all our customers and resolve their issues, and for that we would need their order numbers, emails etc. I believe few of these issues have been resolved as well
Just wanted to check with you, if it was possible for us to engage these users and resolve their queries. Awaiting your response on the same
Thanks,
Sumanta
India’s finest ethnic wear delivered worldwide. Shop at http://indianroots.com, an NDTV venture
I just thought to myself what a joke? Now does this person think of me as having nothing better to do than the job he is actually getting paid to do? I ignore and a few days later I get this response again.
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Sumanta Sengupta <SumantaS@ndtv.com> |
1:32 AM (18 hours ago) |
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to Shivani |
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Hi Shivani,
We look forward to you to give us an opportunity to set things right for the customers.
Sumanta
UMMM lolwut? So I respond this to him…
Hi sumanta,
With due respect I’m not your employee to do anything for you! In fact, I’m also a former hassled customer of yours. Moreover, I’m not interested in giving out anyone’s email addresses as that will be a breach of privacy from my end. I don’t think you are concerned with your customers but only the bad reviews you have received. If you were, then such issues wouldn’t be there in the first place! Instead of making me work for you, how about you go through your files and resolve issues of the customers who have complained to you regarding missing items and incomplete orders? While you are at it, please work on your efficiency and transparency, as well?
Please don’t write to me again. You are a for profit company selling clothes not a volunteer run organization for the girl child that I’d jump in to help!
Heights of unprofessionalism. Obviously this is one lazy, good for nothing establishment out to con people. Imagine people who’d been conned into buying ridiculously overpriced Sabyasaachis and Anita Dongre’s? Never again!
I would appreciate if you could link back to my original article, but tht is not important, I am more concerned with spreading the news.
Here is my bad experience with Tarun Tahiliani. exclusively.in
I reported but nothing was done. The picture on their site was way different from what I got
http://www.kiransawhney.com/2014/08/tarun-tahiliani-review.html
I have always had a great experience with IndianRoots. I am an NRI and I buy from them quite a bit – not the big brand names but mostly handloom, cotton clothing, boutique clothing or ethnic embroidery type of stuff e.g. kantha stoles etc. Their customer service has always been excellent and their shipping timely. Once they even emailed me to say that the item I ordered is slightly different from the one sent to them by the boutique in question along with a pic of said item and asked if I still wanted it. So they are decent people – although I was expecting them not to be 🙂
On the other hand, I have had bad experiences with Jaypore where they have shipped my items to another customer multiple times ie switched packages. They did refund the money but I lost out on limited edition ethnic clothing which I am a great admirer of and was really looking forward to getting. You cannot mess up orders when you are selling limited edition hand made stuff, so I swore off them for good. Which is unfortunate since they have really good collections.
That’s been my experience.
Oh and yes the e-commerce guys – pretty much all the big ones – do tend to mark up their prices quite a bit for NRI’s – that is true.
One thing Jack even I can relate to. The products sold on the sites are really fake. Have you seen ebay.MAC lipstick for INR 300 really. And do not start about discounts on products. Medplus beauty sells nearly all expired products with shelf life of nearly 2 or 3 months.Fashionara and fashionandyou sells cheap quality clothes and expired products at thrice the price. Even Bad quality products are easily available on snapdeal,amazon and flipkart nowdays. These sites do not care for quality nor delivery time. They only care for commissions.
TITLE OF THIS THOUGHT:
“”Barkha ki neelaami karrdo””
Ekkis (21) Topon ki Salaami Barkha ke naam,
Prannoy ki daadhi (beard), Radia ke naam.
How sweet naa 🙂
These 2 little INDIAN “creature (their species)” ROOTS on SALE.
Aapki “after long time”, again @ FashScan,
Aapki apni,
Jisski AATMA kabhi SALE nahi ho sakti,
Aapki God Shareef.
Kya aapke andar ki God, Shareef hai???
🙂 🙂 🙂
Aye Colossial,
Kaisa rey tu Baba
🙂
KambaaKhat tu mujhe bhool gaya
🙁
Hi God_Shareef,
main theek hu. Aur main tumhe nahi bhooli.
Anyway I even forget to add Nykaa to this list. This company is run a a Yale and Dhirubhai Ambani school student.Even they fool the customers.You never get free products which are mentoned in the codes in the packages. The lady who runs the company does not knows the difference between sarcasm and insult.She is the baby Page 3 from Mumbai party circuit.
about nykaa “You never get free products which are mentoned in the codes in the packages ” is true,
even fashionara once sent me some cheap looking second hand kurta,now I have learned to buy only biba or W or melange kurtas/kurtis from these E-Commerce sites
Vrushali,
What you can expect from Ms.Advita Nayyar who runs Nykaa.All sites cheat customers.
And Jack whatever happened to Pernia Quereshi’s Pernia’s Pop Up Store? This was launched with a bang as an online fashion store with some leading designerwear?
Quereshi potty karrne gaya/gayi hai, Sinha ke ghar.
Actually she/he had TEA OVERDOSE.
By the way fashScan is the one who looted Quereshi’s Chai ka Bagaan in total Bhupen Hazarika style naa…
Ek kalli do pattiyaan, naazuk naazuk ungliyaan,
Tod raha hai kaun ye….
Sinha ke ghar makhiyaan…
mmmmm… i mean Jack exposed these wanabes first.
Rampur se Muzaffar Ali tak….
Uuuuhf.
Quite a tough journey, hope not ends in jail.
Chalo.
Khair hamein kya…
We toh love coffee naaa…
Yummy yummy.
Aapki chatto chatori God Shareef.
Kya aapke andar ki God, Shareef hai???
P.S.
Jack ka baat (that scoop) aaj poora country mein chai bann karr mehak raha hai.
Ek Sinha ki Kasam 🙂
Has anyone from Canada or USA being charged a Bond fee from UPS shipping Indian Roots item from India . My orders were broken into multiple small orders and now with each order I am being charged $10 as a Bond Fee ( This is UPS internal fee to have the item released from customs and in NO way a Customs fee ) . I have been trying to explain to some highly non receptive customer care people online and all they have for me is that is a Customs charge .Completely oblivious to what I have to say , I present you the link of UPS – http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html?srch_pos=1&srch_phr=bond+fees . This clearly gives a breakup of what a Bond Fee is and IT IS NOT CUSTOMS CHARGE . It is not my fault that the order is now broken into perhaps 10 smaller orders and that on each pack I will have to shell $10 to UPS as a gift . I asked the customer service people if they can put all the items in one pack , it is a simple request , but all they have to SAY SORRY and SORRY and SORRY .. My worst shopping experience , never again . I will be lodging a complaint to the Canadian Govt and to the Australian Govt ( as I am an Australian Citizen) so that both the countries flag Indianroots and better practices prevail and other members of the Indian community dont fall prey to unreasonable costs.I do a lot of online shopping and Chinese websites far exceed in their better practices than IndianRoots. A customer shops because of trust and I had thought that I can trust NDTV’s venture . It is nothing more than making a mockery and a fool of every buyer .
I wanted to order a few items from indianroots but after reading the reviews decided to play safe and opt for COD. I checked with the customer support if I could open the pack and confirm my order is proper before paying and she refused. I think it’s high time, they allow COD and let customer pay after being satisfied with the product only then will they get their reputation back. I would have never asked Amazon if I could open the pack before paying because I have read, heard and experienced positive experience on returns. I ultimately decided not to buy from indianroots despite the attractive pricing.
Damn the worst experience i ever had 🙁 Indian roots is a fraud !
One of the worst fraud sites is Nykaa. They pay these vloggers on Youtube to promote their products with false claims and when you order yourself, you get a product that is nowhere close to the hype created. Moreover, their customer service is pathetic and God save you if you want a refund or exchange for any fake or damaged product received from them in your order. They will never refund or exchange, and you probably will not be able to get hold of their customer card because their lines are perpetually busy and they do not bother to reply to emails. I have received “Made in China” fake Maybelline product and my money is gone now. I respect Amazon India for paying heed to customer complaints and providing excellent service.