[Resolved]  Indiatimes Shopping (Shopping. Indiatimes.com) — Loss Due to High-Handed and Monopolistic Dealing By Indiatimes Shopping

Dear Sir/Madam,

Ref: Indiatimes Order No.[protected], Sub Order No. 1999888

I write this mail with the trust and confidence that this forum will penalize Indiatimes Shopping for the issue posed to me and the mental agony I was subject to. The whole issue stems from the fact that Lufthansa's air miles redemption partner, Indiatimes Shopping dealt my order with a high-handed and monopolistic approach. As a result of this, I have lost 27, 941 miles, wasted a lot of my valuable time and taken a lot of mental stress.

To quickly summarize the whole issue

1. I placed an order with Indiatimes Shopping for a Blaupunkt Kingston MP47 Car Stereo on 1st April 2009 by redeeming 36, 000 Lufthansa miles, which got debited from my Miles and More account online.
2. As per Indiatimes Shopping website, the product would be delivered in 5 working days. However, I did not receive any call or email from Indiatimes on my order inspite of 5 working days having passed.
3. So, I called Indiatimes customer care to check on my order and they informed me that the payment is being verified. Till date, I did not understand what does Indiatimes need to verify when the necessary miles (36, 000) for the product was debited from my account online on 1st April 2009.
4. Since then, with lot of patience I kept calling Indiatimes customer care every now and then to check on the order until I was told on 17th April 2009 that the payment got verified.
5. Now that the payment was verified, I called Indiatimes again to check when I would receive my product. I was again given a false commitment that the product would be delivered in 5 working days from 17th April 2009, which again did not happen.
6. I had to follow up with Indiatimes again as the commitment was not kept.
7. Subsequently around 27th April, Indiatimes customer service personnel called me and informed that the product is being despatched.
8. However, around 28th/29th April, another Indiatimes customer service personnel calls me and informs that the particular product is not in stock and hence I will have to cancel the order. I did not agree to this because they had already taken a month to process and finally ask me to cancel, which was not acceptable. By this time I was starting to lose my patience.
9. Finally on 30th April 2009, I receive a shipment from Indiatimes and I was relieved that this nightmare is finally over.
10. The relief was only short-lived until when I opened the package and to my shock, they had sent a Blaupunkt Milano MP 26 model, which does not have a frontal USB port. Moreover, this particular piece was an old stock and the package was in tatters.
11. I immediately called and blasted Indiatimes. All they had to say was, return the product and cancel the order. On my insistence that I will not cancel the product and I need the specific model published in the shopping website i.e. Blaupunkt Kingston MP 47, they asked me to write in a complaint mail.
12. So I spent hours (just like what I'm doing writing this mail) narrating the issue.
13. Subsequent to my complaint mail, I received calls from Indiatimes customer service personnel coercing me to cancel the order, which I did not agree to. I told them that it was their fault to have listed a product which was not in stock and the worst part informing the customer about the same after a month.
14. While the excuse from Indiatimes was that the product is not in stock, the said product was never removed from the website. When I asked Indiatimes about the fact that the product is still listed, I was given a very casual answer that it is managed by some other team and it would be removed shortly. Till date, it has not been removed. Isn't this UNFAIR PRACTICE? You can check their website at http://shopping.indiatimes.com/ism/faces/tiles/search.jsp?q=blaupunkt&categoryID=962179&catalogueID=20...⇄
15. I was driven so much to my wits end that I asked Indiatimes to beg, borrow or steal and send me the published product.
16. Subsequently, I calmed down and in order to resolve the issue amicably, I gave Indiatimes the option to provide me an alternate Sony product but even this request was not honoured.
17. I was finally coerced/forced to cancel the product as I had no other option and I did not want to take the wrong Blaupunkt Milano MP 26.
18. As per Indiatimes procedure, I returned the product and the same was received by them in good condition on 17th June 2009.
19. The 36, 000 miles were credited back to my Miles and More account on 19th June 2009.
20. While I was planning to take this issue against Indiatimes with the consumer courts / forums in India, I was clueless how to redeem the re-credited miles because there is no other option than going back and redeeming at Indiatimes, which I'm skeptical to do after this bad experience.
21. In the interim, Miles and More has debited 27, 941 miles on 1st July 2009 with narration "Unused award miles".

I'm also attaching the entire mail communication with Indiatimes and related documents on this issue for your perusal.

I'm sure you would acknowledge without doubt, the fact that Indiatimes has dealt with me with a high-handed and monopolistic approach. In the whole bargain, I have lost 27, 941 miles and my valuable time in addition to the mental stress I have been subject to.

I have written separately to Lufthansa to re-credit the 27, 941 miles.

As compensation for the treatment meted out to me by Indiatimes Shopping, I request this forum to direct Indiatimes Shopping to send me a brand new Blaupunkt Kingston MP47 with the free tweeters as listed in the website and Rs. 100, 000/- for my valuable time and the mental agony/stress that I was subject to.



Regards,

Sheik