Shopping. Indiatimes.com — Defective Product Sent and not replaced

Hello All,
I am bound to write this review against shopping.indiatimes.com due to their fraud and pathetic service. I have ordered 3 items against the order number [protected] on 22 May 2012 from their website. Out of which I got 2 items on 31 May 2012 which consists of Micromax Q5C mobile and a Sandisk 32 GB Memory Card.

When I received the packet and opened it I found that the mobile box seal is opened. I still neglected it and open the box and took the mobile out from box and put my sim card in it. Then I took out the battery from the box and found that it was swelled and could not be able to fix in the mobile because of its thickness. I immediately checked the box and found that the box was having a manufacturing date of July 2010. That means this guys simply did the fraud with me. They took the money for a new handset and sent me an old handset which is almost 2 years old and only due to this the battery was swelled in the box.

Regarding this I immediately called the vendor through which I got the invoice and handset. He told me to make a complaint on indiatimes customer care. I then called their customer care and here is the records of calls made on that day and thereafter:

31/05/12-16:53:56 #[protected] 8:33
04/06/12-10:35:43 #[protected] 0:17
04/06/12-10:36:16 #[protected] 5:22
04/06/12-10:42:10 #[protected] 10:24
08/06/12-10:14:52 #[protected] 14:08
12/06/12-11:23:40 #[protected] 11:04
13/06/12-12:30:04 #[protected] 24:22
14/06/12-16:02:14 #[protected] 5:10
16/06/12-19:50:04 #[protected] 0:04
18/06/12-09:57:17 #[protected] 10:02
25/06/12-11:30:55 #[protected] 2:03
25/06/12-11:33:17 #[protected] 3:46
29/06/12-16:29:00 #[protected] 06:33
29/06/12-16:37:00 #[protected] 2:23
29/06/12-16:53:00 #[protected] 12:29
29/06/12-17:00:00 #[protected] 13:36

This simply shows that I have made 16 STD calls in last month and each time I have been told that I would get a call from their side in 24-48 hours but still after a month their 24-48 hours is not finished and I am simply still waiting for their call.

On 18 June 2012 When I called them they told me that they are arranging reverse pickup of the product and provided me the details for aramex courier and also told me to call them to fetch the product from my side. Then I have to call to the courier company on 22 June 2012 and then they picked up the product from me on 23 June 2012. I have been told to put the address of the vendor. I did the same. I myself packed the box and spent money on packing too.

I was shocked on 29 when I saw that the vendor denied to receive the product. I called their customer care and I was told that the address is wrong which on shipment tracking website it is clearly mentioned that the vendor denied to receive the product. I called the vendor and he told me to sent the product to indiatimes.com and told me that he will not receive any product.

As per my records anyone can see that I made various calls to their customer care and in one of the call one guy Abhijeet told me that they are not going to change the proiduct. He told me that they sent me the product directly from manufacturer and now the responsibility of the warranty is of manufacturer not their’s. I want to mention that I also called Micromax customer care and they told me that there is no warranty of swelling battery.

This simply notifies that my 2844/- Rs. has just gone away. I ordered a mobile as I really need one. But after a month I am not able to use the mobile.

In this last month I was mentally harassed by them and also harassed with my money which I spent in purchasing the mobile and then spent to make calls to them.

I strongly recommend to not to buy any product from their website and as I am a software freelancer, I also will run a social media campaign against this company. I also sent my story to various news channels and news papers so that each and every person would know that they should not purchase anything from these fraud company.

Times Group is a big group and this kind of support was never expected from their side but I think when a company got bigger the value of customer is decreased for them.

Please spread this story as much as you can so that each and every person could know about this. I also would like to request the forum to guide me so that I can file a case against this comapny for such a harassment against me.

Thanks

Ashish