Sulekha — Cheated by Sulekha

I wish to report my recent transaction with Sulekha which is the worst online transaction experience for me so far and makes me feel cheated at the end of it.
On the evening of 31st I decided to order the Blackberry Playbook (32 GB) from Sulekha. This product was under temporary promotion (50% off on market Price) and was selling at most sites and retail outlets at about Rs 16000. I decided to order it on Sulekha since they were offering an additional discount of 1500 on their quoted price of 16500. Hence a final price of 15000. I thus stood to save another Rs 1000 by ordering at Sulekha.
A few days after the order, Sulekha’s site showed an expected delivery date of 7th Jan which soon changed to 9th & then 13th Jan. During these 2 weeks I spoke to the customer care on several occasions to expedite the delivery and they always convinced me it will soon reach me without ever citing any stock issues.
On 13th Jan, the expected delivery date on their site changed to 9th Jan again! This is when I called up the customer care to check what was the issue. The customer care executive then told me that I may either have to wait longer or cancel my order since they don’t have stock and they have no idea how and when the additional stock could come. I insisted on speaking to a Sr Executive, but my call was never transferred. My conversation ended without the customer care executive confirming at any pt of time that my order was cancelled. Later in the night, when I checked my status online at the site, I was shocked to realize that Sulekha had canceled my order without even bothering to inform me via email or phone call! The official communication came only next day via email around 3pm. During the following exchange of emails & phone calls , Sulekha has not been able to answer my following questions:
1) why was the confirmed order taken on their site if they did not have stock to support it?
At no pt during the transaction they indicated this was a tentative order which may not be fulfilled. Had they done so, I would have chosen a more reliable option.

2) why did they take 2 weeks to realize they cannot support the order.

3) this order was on a product that was running a limited period 50% discount in market. They took 2 weeks to inform their inability to support this order. By this time the product was not available at this price in market. Had I not ordered it on sulekha or if I was informed in advance, I could have bought it directly from market. How will sulekha compensate for the opportunity I missed to buy this product on discount?


There has been a gross negligence on part of Sulekha in the way this has been managed. The last thing they should have done was lure consumers into ordering at their site by offering additional discount when they didn’t have stocks to support! It is highly inappropriate on part of Sulekha to first accept orders way above the inventory it held, then to cancel the order after 2 weeks without informing me and then expect that just refunding the money is enough! Refunding the money I paid for the product is minimal and Sulekha isnt doing me a favor by doing so.
As I explained the refund does not get me the product in market at same price given the offer was 2 weeks old. Simply providing the refund is not sufficient in this case. I would expect some kind of compensation from sulekha. .


If the expectation at Sulekha’s end is it can take consumers for a ride and at the end of it wash their hands off by saying we will refund your money, then I have serious reservations against this approach. There has to be a compensation beyond just refund for the time & effort I have wasted along+ the monetary loss I stand to suffer from buying this product/alternative at higher price now in market.

And fact remains, even after a week from cancellation of this transaction, Sulekha hasn’t even provided the refund!

Anupam Chaudhury (anupam.[protected]@gmail.com)