Case 1.
Order[protected] placed on 9th Oct 2018.
Seller’s price was Rs. 9999, Instant Bank Discount (IBD) was 10%, Rs. 999.9, hence Debit Card was charged Rs. 8999.10 ( = Rs. 9999.00 – Rs. 999.90).
Transaction reference SBIPG PU[protected]AMAZON MUMBAI.
Order failed to deliver. Tracking ID[protected] contained false information from transporter. This was reported to amazon immediately via mail to [protected]@amazon.in on 11th Oct 2018, 01:26 a.m. IST. The order got returned due to delivery failure of Amazon. Cancellation and refund triggered by Amazon, not by me (the customer).
Refund issued on 12th Oct 2018, the break up was as follows:
Refund subtotal Rs. 8999.10, Bank Discount deduction Rs. 999.90, Refund for this return Rs. 7999.20.
Transaction reference SBIPG[protected]AMAZON MUMBAI.
Amount received in Bank (the same debit card was credited) = Rs. 7999.20.
The flawed logic here was that it was an Instant discount from bank, bringing the price down from Rs. 9999.00 to Rs. 8999.10, there was no Cash back or “Amazon Pay Balance” at the point of sale.
At the point of Return (due to delivery failure of Amazon), Rs. 999.90 got parked in Amazon Pay balance. This brought down the refund amount credited to bank from Rs. 8999.10 to Rs. 7999.20.
The terms of offer did not mention “Cash back”, it mentioned “Instant Bank Discount” (IBD) at point of sale.
The IBD amount got converted to “Cash back” at point of return (and the customer did not return, the terms cannot apply here). This is either a mistake from Amazon, or, deliberate malpractice.
Case 2.
Meanwhile, on the same day, 9th Oct 2018, I placed another order[protected].
This too failed the same way and got returned to seller.
The full amount Rs. 2799 was refunded in this case.
Case 3.
To keep things simple, I thought of making use of that wrongfully parked amount of Rs. 999.9 in another order.
So, I placed another order[protected], for same item as was in the previous order (failed) mentioned under case 2, even though the price of the item had gone up from Rs. 2799 to Rs. 2999.
I had placed this order using Rs. 999.90 from Amazon Pay balance and rest Rs. 1999.10 from debit card.
This order too failed, and refund was made in the “original” payment mode, that is, Rs. 1999.10 to Bank and Rs. 999.90 to Amazon Pay Balance again. Technically and legally, this is correct.
Experiencing three failures back to back, however, I would not like to risk ordering something again in Amazon.
So, now, the illegal and wrong treatment from Amazon with respect to refund of order[protected] detailed under Case 1 becomes relevant again. The trouble with lost trust is that I cannot place another order that is very likely to fail again.
I tried making peace. But Amazon has not.
Since 9th October 2018 till date, over a dozen of mails have been exchanged. I received promises that were not kept, false explanations of situation that do not instill trust, inconsistent indications as to how Amazon is going to resolve the issue, and many such things, none of much use.
Amazon should credit the same card, or transfer to Bank account maintained. Forcing customer to place yet another order by wrongfully holding customer's money is not a fair practice.
Amazon India customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
Expected Delivery Date - Oct 13, 2018
Still not received as on Oct 10, 2018. Customer care has no update.
It was rescheduled multiple times by customer care on its own.
Every time i call to inquire, i am asked to wait 24-48 hrs.