[Resolved]  Croma — CROMA RETAIL WEBSITE SELLING DISCONTINUED ITEM

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra

I wanted to by a DVD Player with fm/am Radio so I went to Croma Store Oberoi Mall, Goregaon Mumbai on 4th Nov to check out the model which I had seen on their online site -" Croma Portable Dvd Player EY3010", However, I was told that the model has been discontinued however it may be available online. I placed order same evening and was asked to be collected within 48 hours from the store as home delivery was not available at my pin code which is hardly 3 km from the Store. Anyway on 5th Nov 2014 I called up customer service to confirm if I can collect my order and they confirmed yes anytime from the store. On 6th AM I went to store to collect my DVD player the customer support team informed me that the item is not available in the store. I contacted CS on their 24X7 no.[protected] and they said you can talk to the Manger of the store to help you. Manager told me the that items has been discontinued for long time and he can't do anything you can cancel the order. I was thrown between the store Manager and Customer service (Call center) several time to resolve the issue. Then call centre told me it is available in Phonix Market city mall and Store Manager call them up but the item was not available, then it was available in Pune but the same story. Then they told me those are defective pieces. I asked store Manger to give me in writing that this particular model is not available in their store, which he refused. They were reluctant to give refund in cash as the purchase made was online but when complain made to the Customer service on call centre they asked the store manager to resolve the issue. I told them that I will go to consumer forum/court. After almost 4 hours in the store finally they gave me refund. My concerns: 1. Croma had not update record on their site (As per Manager item discontinued 4 months back) 2. Online Payment accepted and customer issued invoice but customers account was not updated 3. There are no inventory management in any store. (as it was showing to their central system that it is available in various store in Mumbai, Pune - but it was not) 4. Suffering of purchaser - spending his precious time to get refund. If I had not insisted on refund immediately it would have taken long time. Although I got my refund but still feel cheated and this was small amount what if there was very high value item? Why such company's are allowed to sell product online when they don't have the items in store.